The PlayRight top 100 turns one: time for an initial assessment
October 5 2026
In September 2025, PlayRight launched its own top 100: two weekly charts dedicated entirely to Belgian music productions – one for Flanders and one for French-speaking Belgium. The starting point: in a streaming world with an almost unlimited catalogue, it is exceptionally difficult for local artists to stand out.
Belgium’s music scene is remarkably broad and diverse, yet this wealth of creativity is barely reflected on the platforms where audiences discover a big part of their music these days: streaming services. Sam Jaspers, a colleague who helped create the PlayRight top 100 and manages it every week, described these platforms as “an endless ocean of tracks”. The top 100 charts aim to serve as a guide through that ocean: a way to make Belgian music, in all its forms, more visible and to give artists that extra push.
The Belgian paradox
The figures after one year of the PlayRight top 100 confirm just how vibrant and versatile our music scene is. During its first year, the Flemish chart featured 753 different tracks by 458 artists. In French-speaking Belgium, the chart included 655 tracks by 426 artists. Pop, hip-hop, dance, schlager, jazz, chanson and alternative music all appear side by side.
The charts also demonstrate the strength of music in local languages. In Flanders, 43% of the top 100 productions are Dutch-language releases, while 48% of productions in French-speaking Belgium are in French.
At the same time, however, the figures reveal an uncomfortable reality. Belgian artists are significantly underrepresented on Spotify: just 6.2% of tracks streamed in Belgium’s Spotify top 200 are by local artists. This is considerably lower than in France, where the share is 62%, and in the Netherlands, where domestic artists account for 39%.
Another figure may be even more striking: there is a huge gap between Belgium and the Netherlands in the number of tracks that surpassed one million Spotify streams in 2025. Belgium had fewer than 200, compared with more than 2,000 in the Netherlands.
PlayRight supports Belgian artists
The PlayRight top 100 does more than showcase talent. It also contributes to a broader debate about the place of Belgian music in the digital landscape. While public radio broadcasters are subject to quotas and clear obligations regarding local music, streaming platforms largely decide for themselves how music is recommended and discovered.
That is why PlayRight advocates for commitments on discoverability. Not by telling listeners what they should listen to, but by expecting platforms to ensure that their recommendation and search tools make Belgian music easier to find. Local artists must be given a fair chance to gain visibility in a catalogue that might otherwise be dominated solely by international interests, algorithms, and marketing budgets.
Political attention is needed to make progress. PlayRight is discussing the issue with the offices of the relevant Belgian ministers and is also raising it at European level. The aim is to establish a framework that encourages and (where necessary), requires streaming platforms to better support cultural diversity and national repertoire.
La musique belge reste noyée par les plateformes – Le Soir