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Grammy week is here, so I’m locking my final predictions before the votes are revealed.

In the first official episode of 2026, I break down my Grammy ballot across 12 categories, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. I also compare my picks against hundreds of listener submissions from my Grammy poll to see where the internet agrees with me and where it doesn’t.

This episode is all about how the Recording Academy actually votes, where narratives matter, and which categories are primed for upsets.

In this episode:

• Final Grammy predictions across the Big Four
• Why Album of the Year is a three-artist race
• The category I’m least confident about
• Listener poll results vs my actual picks
• Dark horses the Academy could surprise us with
• 
  

The next episode will be a full Grammy recap reacting to the winners, performances, and biggest moments of the night. Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast to be notified when the next episode drops!

01:46 Predictions for Record of the Year

03:53 Album of the Year Contenders

07:55 Song of the Year Insights

18:19 Best New Artist Predictions

19:24 The Rise of Olivia Dean and Leon Thomas

20:37 Predictions for Best Pop Solo Performance

22:37 Best Pop Duo/Group Performance Insights

24:33 Best Pop Vocal Album Showdown

27:01 Best Dance Pop Recording Predictions

28:04 Best Dance Electronic Album Insights

29:17 Best Remixed Recording Analysis

30:38 Best Traditional Pop Album Discussion

31:46 Best Music Video Predictions

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In this episode of Live From Mars, I sit down with John Stein, Head of Editorial at Spotify, to break down Spotify Wrapped 2025 and what the year in music actually sounded like.

We go behind the scenes of how Spotify Wrapped is made, how editorial teams balance streaming data with human curation, and how playlists like Discover Weekly and Fresh Finds help artists break and grow over time. John shares his 12-year journey at Spotify, how editorial has evolved, and how decisions made inside Spotify impact millions of listeners every day.

We also unpack the biggest music trends of 2025, including introspective pop, album-first listening habits, country rock crossovers, masked metal artists, and why songs released in previous years continued to dominate the charts. We talk about slow-burn artists, touring as a growth engine, and how older catalog songs keep finding new life on streaming.

Plus, we look ahead to 2026 music predictions, the rise of more organic sounding music in response to AI, and which albums and artists might still be talked about a decade from now.

If you’ve ever wondered how Spotify decides what you hear, why Wrapped became such a massive cultural moment, or how music discovery actually works in 2025, this conversation pulls back the curtain.

📲 Follow Alex Mars

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#SpotifyWrapped #SpotifyWrapped2025 #YearInMusic #MusicTrends2025 #SpotifyPodcast #MusicPodcast #LiveFromMars #MusicDiscovery #DiscoverWeekly #FreshFinds #StreamingMusic #PopMusic #MusicIndustry #AlbumListening #MusicTrends #MusicYouTube #PodcastInterview

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This week on Live From Mars, I’m joined by my good friend (and resident guy-who-screams-songs-in-the-car) Nick Palmai to finally give Miley Cyrus’ Something Beautiful the deep dive it deserved. We’re talking about why this album became my favorite of 2025, why it got such a mixed reception, and how a messy rollout and delayed visual release may have kept people from fully getting what Miley built here.

What we cover in this episode

• Why Something Beautiful is one of the most underrated pop albums of 2025
• Our IRL story: meeting at the Something Beautiful premiere and watching the film before the album dropped
• The rollout choices that helped and hurt the album (and why “End of the World” deserved way more)
• Why the project feels so cinematic, loud, and experimental compared to Endless Summer Vacation
• Best Worst Fave: our picks for the best song, weakest track, and personal favorites (yes, “Golden Burning Sun” stans rise)

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you’re following the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and if you feel like being nice today, drop a 5-star review.

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