The sheer amount of amazing music that comes out every year is truly overwhelming, and almost impossible to keep up with. Even if you're paying close attention, you will inevitably miss something incredible because we all have cultural blind spots. This playlist — about 11 hours in total — covers a wide range of the year's best and most notable music, from chart pop and hip-hop to indie rock, punk, country, metal, EDM, and beyond. If you've been feeling a bit out of the loop, it's the perfect primer, but there's enough variety here that pretty much anyone is bound to run into a lot of stuff they either haven't heard or perhaps had dismissed in some way. Go into this with an open mind, and you are guaranteed to find something new that you will love.
Here's the playlist on Rdio...
And here it is on Spotify...
These playlists were limited somewhat by what is available on Rdio and Spotify. A handful of songs appear on the Spotify playlist but were not a part of Rdio's catalog. Material from hip-hop mixtapes could not be included because they are not official releases. A lot of great music from around the world could not be featured because it has not been formally released and licensed in the United States, which explains why there isn't much in the way of K-Pop despite it being a pretty big year for the genre.
This covers a lot of ground, but there's obviously a huge number of artists who didn't make the cut. If there's something you feel should have been included, please share it in the comments!