Rolling Stone

The Rolling Stone Breakthrough 25 chart highlights rising artists, offering a preview of the biggest stars of tomorrow. It ranks the artists who are seeing the greatest “unit growth” - i.e. the greatest gains each month in audio streams, the most reflective metrics of today's music landscape. It does not include passive listening, such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. Because the chart focuses on newer music, eligible artists must have been released their debut single or album within the past five years and have reached a certain threshold of consumption (popularity) at the start of the measuring period. Each month, Rolling Stone publishes an official version of the Breakthrough 25 chart, covering the four-week period ending with the previous Thursday. To read more about our methodology, including our weighting practices, visit our General Methodology.