A decade later, 2016 is trending again: the effect of trends on music royalties

Since the beginning of 2026, social media has been running on a very specific idea: "2026 is the new 2016". Driven by a collective sentiment of nostalgia, people on the internet are repurposing content from that specific year, including photo dumps, movies, memes, clothes, and…music.

The results? As of January 2026, songs and artists that have dominated the charts in 2016 - such as Drake's album Views or DJ Snake and Justin Bieber’s Let Me Love You - are experiencing record daily streams and climbing global Spotify and Billboard charts.

This is not the first time we have seen songs released years, or even decades, ago find renewed interest long after their original release. This happened often as a result of social media trends, like this time, or other factors such as movies, documentaries about the artists, and Netflix series.

From a music catalogue perspective, one concept stays consistent: trends drive consumption, and consumption drives royalties (e.g. earnings for the songwriters, producers, record labels, and publishers behind these songs). 

In this article, we will answer four main questions:

• How is the “2026 is the new 2016” trend impacting royalties for songs released in 2016?
• What are other cultural moments that have influenced royalties in the past?
• Why is “old” music receiving increasing attention from financial investors?
• Which catalogues on ANote Music feature songs from 2016?

Let’s discover it together.

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The “2026 is the new 2016” trend in numbers

Nostalgia might feel intangible, but online platforms give us the possibility of quantifying it in real time. According to TikTok data as further cited by the BBC, searches for “2016” on TikTok jumped more than 452% in the first week of January, and more than 1.6 million videos celebrating the year’s look and feel have been uploaded.

If you think those volumes are confined to short-form video platforms, you may be underestimating the impact of this trend. Talking about music, at the time of writing, Spotify playlists such as “2016 vibes” count over 1 million saves, and “Top Hits of 2016” counts over 300,000 saves. 

The effect of one of the most influential social media platforms promoting and repurposing songs from that era has driven renewed traction for several tracks that dominated the charts in 2016, across daily streaming, radio airplay, and global charts performance.

A few examples? As of February 2, 2026:

• “One Dance” by Drake (included in Views, released in 2016) is No. 34 on Spotify’s Top 50 Global, and the album is No.31 in Billboard 200, recording some of its strongest daily streams performance in the past 7 years.
• “Let Me Love You” by DJ Snake and Justin Bieber (released in August 2016) is currently charting at No. 42 on Spotify’s Top 50 Global, with around 1.9 million daily Spotify streams.

Not only:

• 2016 hits like “What Do You Mean” by Justin Bieber, “Black Beatles” by Rae Sraemmurd, or “Lean On” by Major Lazer, MØ and DJ Snake are trending “sounds” on TikTok

As a songwriter, producer, record label or publisher behind those titles, this renewed consumption can potentially translate into higher master and publishing royalties for the back catalogue of these artists, without any intended investment in marketing or promotion. 

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What are other cultural moments that have influenced royalties in the past?

This is not the first time that social media trends bring back to life songs from decades ago without a direct artist’s or record label/publisher’s involvement. Previous examples include: 

• In October 2020, as a result of a viral TikTok trend, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” (1977) captured its largest streaming week ever and the album “Rumours” returned to Billboard 200 Top 10, 42 years after release. 
• In summer 2025, as a result of the song experiencing virality on TikTok, Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” (1998) entered Spotify’s Global Top 50 and climbed to No. 18 by 31 January 2026, almost three decades after release.

Social media trends are a powerful driver, but they are not the only ones. Movies and online series can be just as impactful. A very straightforward example is Netflix’s Stranger Things: 

• In 2022, the series relaunched Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” 37 years after release of the song, which according to data from Spotify experienced a jump in streaming performance of over 9,000%, charting for the first time No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and  first No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the UK artist.
• In 2022, the Netflix series relaunched also Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” (1986), which reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time 36 years after its release.

Other examples are for instance, the movie Saltburn that re-launched the song “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor (2001), or the movie Bohemian Rhapsody that relaunched Queen’s homonymous song “Bohemian Rhapsody”. 

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Why is “old” music receiving increasing attention from financial investors?

The “2026 is the new 2016” trend, as well as the other cases we have mentioned, can be interpreted within a broader tendency in music consumption: “old” music consistently represents a larger share of what listeners stream today.

According to Luminate’s 2025 year-end reporting, 57% of U.S. on-demand audio streams came from tracks released more than five years ago.

In other words, even if we might be tempted to think the opposite, historical catalogues are already being consumed at scale many years after their release. A few examples?

• Destiny’s Child: no official studio albums released since 2005, still counting 15 million Spotify monthly listeners;
• Bill Withers: no original studio album releases since 1985, still counting 19 million Spotify monthly listeners;

This helps explain the growing interest from both music industry players and financial market professionals in historical music catalogues, especially those with a long track record of royalty performance and relatively stable income over time.

Among the most cited transactions over the past years: 

• In 2021, Bruce Springsteen reportedly sold his catalogue for an estimated $500 million, including classics such as “Born in the U.S.A.” and “Born to Run”.
• Katy Perry sold a selection of music rights to her back catalogue to Litmus Music for a reported $225 million, covering music released between 2008 and 2020.

Curious to know more about music royalties and why they are attracting investors’ attention? Read more about it in our dedicated article “Music royalties explained: What they are and why they matter to investors”. 

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Which catalogues on ANote Music feature songs from 2016?

And since we are talking about songs released in 2016, and ANote Music is a marketplace where investors can invest in royalties from music catalogues (i.e., collections of rights to receive royalties from group of songs), here is a selection of 2016 titles included in some of the catalogues currently available on our marketplace:

• Gia Koka Catalogue includes songwriter share of publishing rights royalties from “Not Going Home” by CMC$ and DVBBS, released in November 2016 and currently counting 160 million Spotify streams. 
• Dante Klein Producer Catalogue includes producer share of master rights royalties from “Let Me Hold You (Turn Me On)” by Cheat Codes and Dante Klein, a 2016 track with around 460 million Spotify streams.
• Peter Hanna Violin Selection Catalogue: includes a selection of songs co-written by Peter Hanna for Lindsey Stirling, including titles from the album “Brave Enough”, released in 2016.
• Steve James Producer Catalogue: includes producer share of master rights royalties from “In the Name of Love” by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha, released 29 July 2016, and counting over 1.6 billion Spotify streams. 

For more information about ANote Music, read our dedicated article “How ANote Music works: a complete guide for investors” and sign-up for free on our platform to navigate the catalogues and opportunities available.

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Performance and returns are not guaranteed and may fluctuate over time.