The rapper logged over 4.5 billion minutes of listening time globally
Tyler, The Creator has been announced as Apple Music’s Artist of the Year, recognizing the hip-hop visionary’s outstanding impact on both music and culture in 2025.
The rapper’s output through the end of 2025 reinforced his position as one of the most gifted creatives of his era. Across Apple Music, Tyler had his best year ever in terms of worldwide plays, listeners, and hours listened, with fans globally logging more than 4.5 billion minutes of listening time between November 2024 and October 2025.
Tyler began the year with his most ambitious and successful tour in support of his most personal album to date — the just-released Chromakopia. That extraordinary feat in world-building and character exploration became his most successful album ever on Apple Music by first-day and first-week plays. But he wasn’t done creating. He wrote, recorded, and released another album mid-tour: Don’t Tap the Glass, a brief yet satisfying blast of urgent, stripped-down rap that’s wildly different from its predecessor, and shot to No. 1 on Apple Music’s overall charts in more than 55 countries the day it was released.
These singularly vivid and wildly divergent visions of hip-hop come from a generational artist at his most fearless — all within the span of a year that included headlining slots at Governors Ball, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, and Osheaga. The year will also see the 11th edition of L.A.’s own Camp Flog Gnaw — the festival Tyler built himself.
“Tyler continues to prove that anything is possible. His creativity has been incredible all year,” states Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director and lead anchor for Apple Music 1. “His creative risk-taking is only matched by the care he takes to present it, and he inspires his peers and fans now, just as he will continue to inspire generations to come.”
“To everyone who listens to my music, thank you,” adds Tyler. “I appreciate you so much. This year, for my career, was the biggest so far. To be this year’s Apple Music Artist of the Year, it’s sick. I appreciate the love. I appreciate the recognition. It means a lot to me, especially for the music and things that I make. Please keep supporting folks who are a bit out of the box for how they do things; it means a lot to us.”
To cap it off, Tyler’s vision and cultural imprint extend far beyond music. He will soon make his feature-film debut in Marty Supreme, the Josh Safdie-directed period drama starring Timothée Chalamet, and he closes out 2025 with five new Grammy nominations for both albums.
As Apple Music’s Artist of the Year, Tyler will receive a physical award that represents the extraordinary craftsmanship integral to creating music. Each Apple Music Award features Apple’s custom silicon wafer suspended between a polished sheet of glass and a machined and anodized aluminum body. In a symbolic gesture, the same chip powering the devices that put over 100 million songs at listeners’ fingertips also sits at the very heart of the Apple Music Awards.
