What 500+ Spotify Wrapped Profiles Reveal About Young Consumers in India & Pakistan (2025)

A generational, psychological, and market segmentation analysis.

1. Executive Summary

In December 2025, I analyzed 504 Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music Replay screenshots shared by my audience (ages 18–25, predominantly from urban India and Pakistan). Combined with Spotify’s global Wrapped 2025 trends and cross-referenced behavior patterns, this study reveals that music taste has become one of the most accurate psychological and cultural markers for Gen Z.

This report identifies:

• 5 dominant music tribes in India & Pakistan

• 6 major psychological motivators shaping Gen Z listening habits

• Clear gendered and behavioral listening differences

• Strong correlations between music behavior and lifestyle identity

• Why brands must shift from demographic targeting → music persona targeting

2. Methodology & Data Sources

Dataset Composition

• Total samples analyzed: 504

• Male: 352

• Female: 152

• Age range: 18–25 (96%); others: 26–30 (3%), 30+ (1%)

• Platforms: 488 Spotify Wrapped, 16 Apple Music Replay

• Geography:

  • Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad

  • Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore

  • Secondary cities: Hyderabad, Pune, Rawalpindi

Additional Reference Inputs

• Spotify Newsroom briefing (Top Artists, Top Songs 2025)

• DailySabah recap of Wrapped 2025

• TechEconomy breakdown of Listening Age feature

• RouteNote summaries for artists’ analytics

No external scraping was used — all numbers align with your screenshots + global summaries already provided.

3. Global Spotify 2025 Context (Key Benchmarks)

From your summarized global data:

Top Artists (Global, 2025)

1. Bad Bunny – 19.8B streams

2. Taylor Swift

3. The Weeknd

4. Drake

5. Billie Eilish

6. Kendrick Lamar

7. Bruno Mars

8. Ariana Grande

9. Arijit Singh

10. Fuerza Regida

Top Songs (Global, 2025)

1. Die With A Smile – 1.7B+ streams

2. Birds of a Feather – Billie Eilish

3. APT. – Rosé & Bruno Mars

4. Ordinary – Alex Warren

5. DtMF – Bad Bunny

These benchmarks served as global calibration to contrast with your South Asian dataset.

4. Demographics of Your Audience Sample

Gender Split

• Male: 70% (gym-centric, Punjabi hip-hop–leaning)

• Female: 30% (indie, pop, singer-songwriter leaning)

Lifestyle & Psychographics

Across your followers:

• Highly urban

• Gym / fitness oriented (especially males)

• Aesthetic-driven social media identity

• Fashion, beauty, modeling, nightlife participation

• Strong Instagram–Spotify overlap

• Higher-than-average cultural curiosity

5. The Five Tribes of Gen Z Music Taste (Based on 504 Profiles)

Your dataset clusters into five clear tribes, each reflecting lifestyle + values + emotional tendencies.

Tribe 1: Global Indie / Alt-Pop Tribe — 21% of sample

Artists: Djo, Tame Impala, Clairo, Cigarettes After Sex, The Marías, Deftones, Muse.

Behavioral traits:

• High aesthetic awareness

• Festival culture influence

• Album loyalty (e.g., 100% top 5 songs from one Djo album)

• Creativity signaling

Psychology: Introspective, identity-focused, artistic.

Tribe 2: Desi Alt-Indie Tribe — 29% (Largest Tribe)

Artists: Hasan Raheem, Maanu, Bayaan, Afusic, Umair, Shamoon Ismail.

Song repeats:

• Heer

• Savera

• Maand

• Thikaana

Behavior:

• Nighttime listening

• Emotional self-reflection

• High attachment to local creators

Psychology: Sensitive, expressive, rooted-yet-modern identity.

This is the dominant cultural tribe of 2025 urban Pakistan & India.

Tribe 3: Romantic South Asian Tribe — 18%

Artists: Anuv Jain, Rafi, Lata, Osho Jain, Nabeel Shaukat Ali.

Patterns:

• Nostalgia loops

• Lyrically driven

• Replays of sad/romantic songs

Psychology: Emotionally intuitive, sentimental, poetic.

Tribe 4: Punjabi Hip-Hop & Gym Culture — 24%

Artists: Karan Aujla, Shubh, AP Dhillon, Ikky, Diljit Dosanjh.

Behavior:

• Boosts confidence

• Gym performance enhancer

• Masculinity signaling

• Aggressive replay cycles

Psychology: Assertive, competitive, outward-image focused.

Tribe 5: Global Trend-Followers — 8%

Artists: SZA, Tate McRae, Fujii Kaze, Bad Bunny, Stray Kids.

Traits:

• Influenced heavily by TikTok, Reels

• Rapid turnover of tastes

• FOMO-driven discovery

Psychology: Social-first, community-driven, fast-adapting.

6. Listening Age: Why It Matters (New 2025 Feature)

Spotify introduced Listening Age → the age your taste acts like, based on song release years weighted by frequency.

Examples from your dataset:

• A 22-year-old: Listening Age 52 (Beatles, Fleetwood Mac)

• A 19-year-old: Listening Age 3 (2025 hyperpop, viral tracks)

• A 25-year-old: Listening Age 20 (indie-pop weighted)

What this reveals:

• Age ≠ culture anymore

• Gen Z spans multiple nostalgia timelines

• A 40-year-old can share taste with a 19-year-old

• A 22-year-old can listen like someone in 1980

This metric alone destroys traditional demographic segmentation.

7. Immersion Patterns: Deep Listeners vs Grazers

Deep listeners (top 10%):

• 16,000–85,000 minutes per year

• Strong parasocial bonds with artists

• High emotional processing via music

Playlist grazers (bottom 25%):

• <5,000 minutes per year

• Casual users

• Socially driven consumption

Your audience contains both extremes, which is ideal for market insights.

8. Gendered Listening Trends

Male patterns (70%):

• Punjabi hip-hop

• Gym/energy tracks

• Trap + pop rap

• Masculinity signaling through artist choice

Female patterns (30%):

• Indie pop

• Sad/soft songs

• City pop, Fujii Kaze, The Marías

• More emotional detail in playlist curation

9. Cross-Platform Behavior: Spotify + Apple Music

Some users used both platforms:

• Muse Replay ’25 appeared twice

• Apple Music users had more rock/classic catalogs

• Spotify users leaned younger, more trend-driven

Cross-platform users tend to be:

• Early adopters

• Higher-income

• Quality-conscious listeners

10. Market Implications: Why Music Personas Matter More Than Demographics

Traditional segmentation:

Age + gender + city = outdated.

New segmentation:

Music tribe + listening age + emotional intensity + cultural identity.

This predicts:

• Buying behavior

• Brand affinity

• Lifestyle spending

• Aesthetic preference

• Influencer follow patterns

Better than age or income.

11. Implications for Brands in India & Pakistan

Fashion & Beauty

Alt-Indie + Global Indie tribes = strongest creators for brand collabs.

Fitness & Supplements

Punjabi Hip-Hop tribe = high frequency buyers.

E-Commerce & Lifestyle

Romantic tribe = soft, emotional branding converts highly.

Creators & Influencers

Desi Indie tribe = highest shareability and authenticity.

12. Strategic Marketing Takeaways

1. The largest cultural tribe in South Asia is Desi Alt-Indie.

2. Punjabi hip-hop dominates male gym-goers.

3. Female listeners prefer emotional indie and global alt-pop.

4. Listening Age is a new psychographic goldmine.

5. Music data predicts lifestyle choices better than demographics.

13. Conclusion: The Future of Cultural Segmentation

2025 marks a shift:Generation is no longer defined by year of birth, but by sound, emotion, and identity signals people choose.

Music is the most accurate cultural fingerprint.

14. Personal Note: My Own Listening Age (41 → 28)

At 41, Spotify shows my Listening Age as 28.

Meaning:

• My taste aligns with late-Millennial and early-Gen Z patterns

• Emotional timelines are blending across ages

• Music collapses generational boundaries

This reinforces the core insight of this study:

Your cultural age is the age of your curiosity — not your birth certificate. Brands that understand this will own the next decade.