Lofi is a genre.
Lofi music is a genre that has been gaining popularity in recent years. It has become one of the most streamed genres on Spotify and SoundCloud, and is also being used by many artists as background music on their videos.
Lofi music is a genre of electronic music with a focus on low-quality sounds and often minimalistic arrangements, reminiscent of lo-fi recordings from the 1980s and 1990s. The term was coined in the late 1990s to describe recordings released on cassette tape: typically amateurish, home-made efforts, sometimes with deliberately poor sound quality. The term was adopted in the 2000s by artists such as Kid606 and Safety Scissors who produced lo-fi recordings with digital audio editing software (such as Pro Tools or Cakewalk Sonar), although some artists still record onto cassette tapes.
Music of this genre can be found on spotify and soundcloud.
SoundCloud
The rise of lofi hip-hop on SoundCloud was believed to have begun with the user ChilledCow, who created a 24/7 livestream called "chill beats to relax/study to" which has been active since August 2014. Other channels hosted similar streams, including College Music (formerly Chillhop Music) and Indie Chillout Zone. These channels feature lofi hip-hop mixes that combine audio from different artists into one continuous stream. In addition to lofi hip-hop mixes, these channels play songs by individual artists.
The use of SoundCloud by lofi artists has been credited with its revival in popularity as a streaming platform; many artists have gained large followings on SoundCloud and continue to release their music there exclusively or before other platforms. Spotify
In 2017, Spotify launched its own 24/7 live stream called "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to". It was promoted with a satirical video about the life of a college student featuring the character.
Some artist are gaining massive popularity with thier lofi music.
Before streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music came along, there was a place for niche music. The creators of LPs, cassettes and CDs were often very passionate about their work — in the case of some artists, there's a reason they're still making music after decades. It wasn't just that they had something to say; sometimes it was because they had something to say in the style they preferred.
Lofi music is the term used for those kinds of records — jazzy, gentle and generally recorded with little to no tech-savvy support. Today, with the advent of streaming services, it's become more popular than ever. While not every lofi artist has been able to take advantage of streaming services, those that have found success are doing well.
It is not just jazzy its more than that.
Lofi music — a.k.a. ambient music — has gained popularity as an alternative to the over-produced techno, hip-hop and other sounds that have come to dominate the world of dance and electronic music in recent years. The genre is characterized by warm, stripped-down soundscapes, often with watery effects or muted vocals. The name's not quite accurate: Techno Lofi was a real thing once, but when it died out, so did the concept. Today's lofi scene is more about the artist than about the genre itself, a way for musicians to experiment with different sounds without being pigeonholed into a particular style.
There are a lot of artists who fit this description and less of them now than there were a few years ago. But while some prefer chillwave's laid-back guitar licks and murmured vocals, others like to go full-throttle with their fuzzed-out basslines and propulsive beats. There are even some people who make "lofi" music that's actually pretty heavy (though you'd never know it from listening to their songs).
There are different type of playlist for different mood and study session.
No genre has more playlists than lofi, with more than 30 million available, and no genre appears in more of them. It’s the most popular genre for gaming playlists, and one of the most popular for studying, relaxation, sleep and party playlists.
Almost every playlist that contains a track also contains another song by the same artist, and almost every playlist containing an artist also contains a track by that artist. Most artists are on many playlists — there are 1.6 million artists on at least one playlist — but only a small number appear on any single one.
The average playlist has 848 tracks that each receive an average of 912,000 streams per month. If those streams were equally distributed between all tracks then they would each receive roughly 7.5 per minute, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The most popular playlist is “lofi hip hop beats – chillhop music” at 31 million followers. It’s been active since 2016 and has over 25 thousand tracks and 50 billion streams
There are podcasts too for music of this genre.
Lofi music also extends into podcasts where people share their favorite songs or talk about different topics in the genre which can range from interviews with producers to new album releases and more. These podcasts often have thousands upon thousands of downloads per episode since they are easy to listen
Another cool thing about lo-fi hip hop is that there are many YouTube channels dedicated to sharing these kinds of beats! Some of my favorites include ChilledCow's live stream on Youtube (which has over 1 million subscribers) and LofiHipHopRadio 24/7 Chill Gaming / Study Beats! The music featured on these channels are usually made by independent artists who upload their songs onto SoundCloud or Bandcamp or even Spotify!