
(Muse Group) And just like that, summer is almost over. Every summer has its defining songs, and 2025 is no different. Muse Group, the company behind Ultimate Guitar and MuseScore, analyzed what musicians played the most this season. The data covers the top new songs released this year, the fastest-growing tracks, long-time favorites, and the most popular summer genres.
Remembering the legends: Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath and The Beach Boys songs saw the fastest growth on Ultimate Guitar. This summer, the music community lost two legends. Ozzy Osbourne passed away in July and The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson in June. Musicians on Ultimate Guitar paid tribute in the best way possible, which was by playing their songs.
Tabs for Ozzy Osbourne's final live-performed song, "Mama I'm Coming Home," had almost 16 times more views than at the start of summer, making it the fastest-growing track on Ultimate Guitar. It was followed by another iconic track, "Changes," forever associated with Ozzy's voice. The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," one of the band's most renowned songs, saw its views grow eight times over the summer.
Tabs for "Sparks" by Coldplay jumped five times in views following their tour. Social media is full of concert videos of Chris Martin performing an acoustic, more emotional version of the song, which fans have linked to his recent breakup.
Fastest growing tabs of summer 2025 on Ultimate Guitar:
Ozzy Osbourne - Mama I'm Coming Home - 30,151 to 477,616 views, up 16 times
Black Sabbath - Changes - 9,664 to 150,376 views, up 15.5 times
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows - 43,730 to 353,962 views, up 8 times
Coldplay - Sparks - 291,343 to 1,539,264 views, up 5 times
Black Sabbath - War Pigs - 50,825 to 153,244 views, up 3 times
The Beatles and Billie Eilish are the artists of the summer: The Beatles might seem like the all-time musicians' favorite, and this summer they indeed topped the list with 8 million views. However, in last year's summer ranking they were overtaken by Taylor Swift, who spent all of 2024 on her highly successful Eras Tour. This time she placed third, right after Radiohead. Two other most popular artists of the summer are Coldplay and Oasis, both of whom are touring this year, which often sparks a fresh wave of interest in an artist's catalog.
For MuseScore, it's Billie summer. Musicians have generated over 600K views on her scores since June, a year after the "Hit Me Hard And Soft" album release. Next comes Coldplay, for the same reason they increased popularity on Ultimate Guitar.
The second half of the list is all about timeless favorites, with Chopin, Hans Zimmer, and Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi always in demand among pianists.
Top 5 artists of summer 2025 on Ultimate Guitar
The Beatles - 8,267,116 views
Radiohead - 6,754,972 views
Taylor Swift - 6,402,510 views
Coldplay - 5,958,926 views
Oasis - 5,618,637 views
Top 5 artists of summer 2025 on MuseScore
Billie Eilish - 668,090 views
Coldplay - 884,250 views
Frederic Chopin - 1,687,292 views
Hans Zimmer - 1,413,971 views
Joe Hisaishi - 1,593,105 views
If you look at the most played songs of summer 2025 overall, not just new releases, the top is still all about the songs everyone knows by heart. On Ultimate Guitar, "Creep" by Radiohead, which stays in the top-three for the second summer in a row, leads, followed by "Iris" and "Hotel California". Coldplay's "Sparks" saw a big jump this year, while the beginner-friendly ukulele hymn "Riptide" by Vance Joy secured its place in the top long ago.
On MuseScore, the most played scores this summer were Pachelbel's "Canon," Joe Hisaishi's "Merry-Go-Round of Life," Yiruma's "River Flows In You," Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No.14" and Hans Zimmer's "Pirates of the Caribbean." Even with new music coming out every week, these songs keep their place summer after summer.
Rock led the genres, but in different directions: Rock was the top summer genre on both Ultimate Guitar and MuseScore, though in different forms. On Ultimate Guitar, alternative rock led with almost 60M views, followed by pop rock, pop, folk pop, and hard rock.
On MuseScore, pop rock took first place, with pop and alternative pop close behind. Cinematic classical and adult contemporary, a mellow pop/rock format popular on adult-oriented radio, rounded out the list.
Genres of the summer 2025 on Ultimate Guitar
Alternative rock - 59,511,875 views
Pop rock - 35,855,519 views
Pop - 20,151,572 views
Folk pop - 15,162,606 views
Hard rock - 13,983,397 views
Genres of the summer 2025 on MuseScore
Pop rock - 13,962,930 views
Pop - 13,429,280 views
Alternative pop - 10,476,256 views
Cinematic classical - 9,634,764 views
Adult contemporary - 8,853,075 views
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