Take two tape labels out of the Frekvenci archive's 2025 and the year loses 373 of its 1,599 listed releases, nearly a quarter of it. This is the latest complete year on file, 7% smaller than 2024 and the smallest full year since 2015. A caution comes with it: databases keep filling in a year long after it ends, and our snapshot is dated 18 October 2026, so these numbers will move.
Two labels, 373 records
DMT Tapes FL released 258 records in 2025, 16% of the year, and FL Tapes DMT, whose name mirrors it, 115 more. We have not confirmed whether they are one operation or two. Without them, the year would have had 1,226 releases, below even 2015's 1,317. The label's own pace explains the swing. It released 196 records in 2018, 97 in 2020, 29 in 2022 and 92 in 2024, so 258 is its busiest year on these pages by a wide margin: 16% of the archive's year, double the 8% it supplied at the 2018 high. Its share of the archive is therefore a better guide to 2025 than any family count. The DMT Tapes FL: label profile and where to start page has the label's full story.
The rest of the table is far smaller: RetroSynth Records with 21, Dreamcorp. Records Inc. and WORLD END COLLAPSE with 16 each, Hushtones and NewRetroWave with 13, and Arctic Contact, FOTOSHOPPE CO. and Freshwater Media with 11. RetroSynth and NewRetroWave, two of the larger synthwave labels, are still here, but with 21 and 13 against the 40 and 25 they had in 2018 and 2019.
A four-to-one family
The vaporwave family has 1,110 releases and the synthwave family 267, about four to one. Signalwave (480), named for the "broken transmission" branch of Bandcamp Daily's vaporwave family tree,[3] is the most-used tag, ahead of barber beats (376), with plain synthwave third on 238. Each is a count of tags in a database, not a ranking of quality or listeners. See the What is signalwave? Vaporwave made from old TV and radio broadcasts for the style.
| Family | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Vaporwave | 1,001 | 1,110 |
| Synthwave | 419 | 267 |
| Popwave | 142 | 114 |
| Darksynth | 98 | 75 |
| Dreamwave | 58 | 32 |
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Year | Releases |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 441 |
| 2016 | 639 |
| 2017 | 819 |
| 2018 | 895 |
| 2019 | 842 |
| 2020 | 963 |
| 2021 | 763 |
| 2022 | 581 |
| 2023 | 472 |
| 2024 | 419 |
| 2025 | 267 |
The synthwave family fell 36% in a year, and dreamwave fell 45% (58 to 32). Part of that may be real and part may be catalogue lag, which hits the newest bars hardest.
Who is new, and who is not
The year has 773 artists on 294 labels. 298 of the artists are new to the archive, 39% of the year and the lowest share of any year on these pages. 220 are self-released. By format: 835 LPs, 364 EPs, 237 singles and 25 mixes.
The busiest artist is undersaken with 45 releases, then 1000th Episode (19, all 19 of its listed total), Blank Entourage from Australia (17), Neosir from Spain (16), and The Pilots and Bad Sex from the United States (15 each). Bad Sex has 15 listed releases overall, all from this year, like several names near the top. Familiar names are here too: Futurecop!, who is also in the 2014 list, has Wind, Town & Flowers on NewRetroWave, and Jessie Frye's Otherworld is on the same label.
Country is known for 61%. The United States has 496 releases, then Serbia (46), Australia (45), Canada (45) and the United Kingdom (42). Most of the Serbian count is one artist, undersaken.
One prominent release
Perturbator's Age of Aquarius came out on 10 October 2025 on Music of the Void, and Regen Magazine, reviewing it in February 2026, lists its genre as "Darkwave / Metal / Synthwave".[1] The archive lists 14 Perturbator releases in all. Four years before, a Metal Hammer headline had declared "Synthwave is dead" over an interview with the same artist.[2] The record is one release among 1,599, and the year's weight sat in tape labels and vaporwave-family tags. Counts can say how much, not why. For this artist's circle, see If you like Perturbator: artists to try next.
Ten albums to try
- CthulhuSeeker · 2025 · Materia Collective · LPA synthwave-tagged LP on Materia Collective, with a title that names its game.
- Night Ritualz · 2025 · Metropolis · LPA darkwave-tagged LP on Metropolis, the older gothic-leaning genre.
- c a l d o r 32x · 2025 · Paco Moreno Productions · LPA signalwave LP on Paco Moreno Productions.
For the darker end, try the Dark station (94.6 FM); the What is darksynth? The heavy, horror-lit side of synthwave explains what that tag covers.
Sources
- Review: Perturbator, Age of Aquarius · Regen Magazine, 28 Feb 2026
- Synthwave is dead: how Perturbator embraced the dark side · Dannii Leivers, Metal Hammer (Louder), 17 Jun 2021
- Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour · Bandcamp Daily, 21 Nov 2016