Editor’s Notice: EDM.com proudly publishes 4 installments of annual year-end protection: Business Leaders, Performances & DJ Units, Music Producers and Tracks.
DJing and music manufacturing are totally different. However the distinction between the 2 is sort of a wallflower: it hides in plain sight, and it’s vastly misunderstood.
Publishing a “Prime DJ” checklist would undermine the originality, creativity and unbridled creativeness of the artists who dedicate their lives to music manufacturing. To honor their profound dedication to the artwork, the EDM.com workers yearly acknowledges 10 of the 12 months’s finest.
In no explicit order, uncover one of the best digital music producers of 2025 under.
Skrillex
After almost a decade of ready since Skrillex‘s debut album Recess, followers have been lastly handled to the discharge of “the album” in 2025. His disciplined Quest for Hearth and Don’t Get Too Shut albums of 2023 have been drops of water on a desert tongue, and people followers by no means stopped aching for the return of that classic, feral Skrillex growl.
He delivered that and far more on F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3, which was universally acclaimed and earned him Grammy nominations for Finest Dance/Digital Album and Finest Dance/Digital Recording, bringing his complete to a jaw-dropping 20.
The continual, hyper-detailed album discovered Skrillex working with complete artistic command, shaping the sound of bass music with the identical authority that positioned him amongst digital music’s prevailing icons. Throughout its mixtape format, fast pacing, genre-crossing transitions and unusually deep roster of collaborators, he demonstrated how a lot intentionality he nonetheless brings to sound design, association and environment.
Along with hit me the place it hurts x, his current OWSLA EP, the formidable 34-track venture stands as a reminder that Skrillex’s instincts as a producer nonetheless set the temperature for a whole technology of digital artists.
Phrases by Cameron Sunkel, Nick Yopko and Jason Heffler.
Credit score: Kelly Knisel for EDM.comREZZ
2025 noticed REZZ come into her personal as she produced her formidable album, As The Pendulum Swings, the sound of an artist who discovered her approach house via a labyrinth of her personal making. Generally you have to swing again to maneuver ahead, and she or he by no means sounded extra comfy in her personal twisted pores and skin.
The album’s titular pendulum grew to become a metaphor for the cyclical nature of her profession. The Canadian beatsmith who despatched shivers to our toes with 2016’s breakout “Edge” has grown into one of many scene’s most beloved artists, solely to launch an album almost a decade later that teeters on the identical ledge and dares us to lean ahead.
That includes creative collaborations with Dillon Francis, ok?d and her spouse fknsyd, her fifth album reminds us why she first grew to become digital music’s reigning queen of hypnotic darkness. Nevertheless, by producing with extra of an experimental strategy than ever, she proved that darkness isn’t the absence of sunshine, however moderately the presence of fact stripped of its comfy disguises.
Via eerie bangers and contrarian sound-design that tethers itself to your mind stem, As The Pendulum Swings bolstered the concept REZZ’s biggest energy lies not in her capacity to make us dance, however in her capability to make us confront what we’re dancing away from.
Phrases by Jason Heffler.
Credit score: Alex PerezChris Lake
It’s inconceivable to speak about 2025’s finest music with out mentioning Chris Lake. The ageless home music virtuoso spent the whole 12 months working at full energy, reshaping the style from the within out.
He kicked off the 12 months with a first-of-its-kind efficiency inside Coachella’s campgrounds, the place he introduced Chemistry, his long-awaited debut album. The 15-track LP landed via his personal Black Guide Data with options from Bonobo, Amber Mark and his spouse Aatig, amongst others, topping dance charts and cracking Spotify’s Prime 10 Albums globally.
Lake’s work continued to evolve home music and set the gold customary for its manufacturing, balancing underground credibility with mainstream magnetism via irresistible grooves, infectious vocals and basslines you’ll be able to really feel in your chest cavity. Chemistry embodied that candy spot, an album that lastly showcased the total scope of what he can do when he produces for a long-form format.
Glowing tracks like “Savana,” “Ease My Thoughts” and “Attain For You” felt like their very own little tales inside a meticulous physique of labor, every crafted with a degree of element and musicality that few producers can match. The manufacturing heard throughout Chemistry is recent whereas its mixing and mastering nonetheless felt unmistakably Lake, particularly its booming basslines.
In the meantime, high-impact collaborations with Skrillex, Disclosure, Sammy Virji and a revived Anti Up venture alongside Chris Lorenzo stored his singles in fixed rotation earlier than a Grammy nomination for his remix of The Chemical Brothers’ basic “Impress” capped off probably the most dominant 12 months of his profession. Lake has at all times been a constant tastemaker, however in 2025, he proved there’s no artist fairly like him steering the place home music goes subsequent.
Phrases by Becca Kaplan, Ansh Talim and Rachel Freeman.
Credit score: Mike KimNinajirachi
Algorithms and companies sadly dictate the music style of the plenty today, however in 2025 Ninajirachi informed the subversive story of a private relationship with a pc, which many people can relate to.
Whereas the Australian producer was already making waves within the larger digital scene, August’s spectacular debut album, I Love My Laptop, took her to the following degree with its nostalgic songwriting and glitched-out manufacturing. We willingly strapped into Nina’s hyperactive mainframe of bubblegum bass, distorted synths and existential Discord DMs, and we’re higher off for it.
The album doesn’t wag its finger at display dependancy or pine for analog authenticity. As an alternative, it acknowledges the straightforward fact that for many people, the pc is the positioning of real connection, creativity and sure, love. The manufacturing matches this sincerity with textures each abrasive and intimate, like nuzzling as much as a heat laptop computer fan.
Frenetic, gleaming tracks like “iPod Contact” and “Delete” pulse with the manic power of somebody who has spent an all-nighter alternating between Ableton and Crimson Bull, whereas “Battery Demise” captures the vertigo of creating emotions via pixels alone.
In the long run, I Love My Laptop did what all nice idea albums should: it made you complicit. The brilliance lies in the way it implicates everybody who streams it. Go forward, fake you’re above it. Your display time information tells a distinct story.
Phrases by Jason Heffler and Nick Yopko.
Credit score: Picture courtesy of PressZeds Lifeless
2025 was the 12 months Zeds Lifeless reminded the world why they continue to be certainly one of digital music’s most creative and culturally magnetic acts. After eight years of refinement, they emerged with Return to the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness, a panoramic album that immediately cemented itself as one of many 12 months’s defining digital releases.
It’s a lovely factor seeing Zeds Lifeless, greater than 16 years into their profession, producing arguably their finest work. And it was each bit definitely worth the wait. In a panorama the place albums typically really feel stitched collectively for streaming, the album stands out as a deeply intentional, concept-driven report. Its framework, a tv flickering via totally different eras, completely fits Zeds Lifeless’s legendary sampling instincts, permitting their crate-digging obsessions to play out like a widescreen Tarantino movie with dusty breaks, sharp edits, soulful vocal snippets and an unmistakable sense of fashion.
Pulling effortlessly from breaks, drum & bass, dubstep and downtempo, their third album is the mark of veteran producers working at peak imaginative and prescient. Followers and business insiders have been already predicting awards the second it dropped, and its omission from this 12 months’s Grammy nominations stays certainly one of the 12 months’s greatest snubs.
Phrases by Mikala Lugen and Shakiel Mahjouri.
Credit score: Picture courtesy of PressBoys Noize
An enviornment tour with 9 Inch Nails, a brand new experimental report label, a Coachella lineup announcement, music produced for the brand new TRON movie. Whereas Boys Noize isn’t somebody you’ll typically hear on the radio or talked about by followers of TikTok-famous “artists,” he’s wrapping up a 12 months that transcended the digital world completely.
Boys Noize related with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of the legendary rock group 9 Inch Nails, with whom he launched a number of initiatives. He co-produced music with the long-lasting composers that’s featured within the big-budget blockbuster movie TRON: Ares and joined them because the opener for his or her world tour, “Peel It Again.” He’s additionally set to maintain the new streak stepping into 2026, when he’ll reunite with the band at Coachella underneath the banner of a brand new supergroup, 9 Inch Noize.
The influential producer additionally launched ONES and ZEROS, his formidable new report label, which is poised to turn out to be an digital tastemaker. In the meantime, he launched a slew of revolutionary information together with “Dominator,” an official rework of Human Useful resource’s 1991 rave basic; “ZEET NOISE,” a observe with Skrillex that appeared on the dubstep icon’s Grammy-nominated FUS album; and “Loopy For It,” a collaboration with the chart-topping Afro-house group Keinemusik.
Phrases by Nick Yopko.
Credit score: Shane McCauleySubtronics
Regardless of establishing himself as a bona fide celebrity lately, Subtronics continued to push dubstep’s boundaries with outrageous creativity all through 2025.
His two-part Fibonacci album bolstered his dominance and cemented him as a contemporary dance trailblazer, delivering an inimitable mix of dubstep, drum & bass, home and extra sub-genres via a cohesive assortment that few producers would even try. Tracks like “Stratosphere” drew inspiration from the mind-bending mathematical idea behind the Fibonacci sequence whereas bangers like “Itchy Scratchy” showcased his knack for turning viral web moments into competition anthems, pairing humor with next-level sound design.
Even at enviornment scale, Subtronics’ productions retained an obsessive consideration to element, proof that his rise to prominence hasn’t dulled his artistic edge. With an insatiable urge for food for risk-taking that yields extremely distinctive music, he emerged as a benchmark for a way far digital music manufacturing can go in 2025. Most chased tendencies, however he chased pure expression, proving as soon as once more that the style might be philosophical, emotional and wildly imaginative suddenly.
Phrases by Harrison Goldstein.
Credit score: Brian Rapaport for EDM.comAlison Wonderland
Most artists declare reinvention after a breakup or a foul haircut. Alison Wonderland did it whereas turning into a mom for the second time, which requires the form of artistic stamina that has turn out to be muscle reminiscence for her.
2025 noticed her launch her fourth album, GHOST WORLD. The lady who has amassed over 1.1 billion streams and shattered Coachella’s glass ceiling (highest-billed feminine DJ within the competition’s historical past, for those who forgot) returned to her lure roots, however proved that legacy standing means nothing for those who’re too curious to remain comfy.
She went haywire on each the manufacturing and vocals, particularly in “PSYCHO,” going full Exorcist for a deranged banger alongside QUIX, MEMBA and Erick the Architect of Flatbush Zombies. The album additionally options Whyte Fang, her personal alter ego dragged again from the crypt for the event, and there’s additionally a cameo from her two-year-old son, whose voice feels prefer it’s documenting his mom’s transformation because it occurs.
The celebrity producer and singer-songwriter described the artistic course of as constructing a refuge for these wandering the earth, looking for house each artistically and personally. Take into account it mission achieved.
Phrases by Jason Heffler.
Credit score: RukesCrankdat
Dozens of random remixes. Simply two official releases. One very confused child boomer headbanging in a restaurant. That was Crankdat‘s 2025, and it made him certainly one of dubstep’s most important voices.
No one requested him to dubstep-ify Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1974 rock basic “Free Chook,” or 50 Cent’s “Sweet Store,” or numerous others that stay frustratingly unreleased. Every remix felt like a dare: might nostalgia survive this style arsonist?
It might, and it thrived. Crankdat understood what competition crowds from Tomorrowland to Misplaced Lands craved in 2025. They needed heavy bass, sure, but additionally that electrical jolt of recognition when a beloved hook or meme will get weaponized in a rave setting.
His Ableton grew to become a treasure trove of bootlegs and edits that you just couldn’t escape for those who went to a competition this 12 months. The identical goes for “Whiplash” and “TYPE SH*T,” which have been his solely two authentic releases however collectively acquired help from Zeds Lifeless, ILLENIUM, DJ Snake, Marshmello, Excision and plenty of different influential DJs.
What fueled Crankdat’s breakout 12 months, nevertheless, wasn’t solely his technical talent. It was additionally his willingness to deal with music like a toy field, proving that reverence and irreverence might coexist throughout the wobbles. And in doing so, he reminded us that typically one of the best artwork comes merely from asking, “What if this totally shouldn’t work?”
Phrases by Jason Heffler.
Credit score: Picture courtesy of PressKnock2
Knock2 bulldozed via 2025 with nolimit, a debut album that lived as much as its identify after which some. Launched through 88rising, the 17-track venture fused Y2K electro, hip-hop grit and filthy lure music right into a singular and inimitable identification, backed by collaborators like RL Grime.
The EDM.com Class of 2023 artist toured the globe together with his spectacular “Stack” stage manufacturing, lighting up a few of the greatest festivals worldwide together with Electrical Forest, Bonnaroo, Exterior Lands and Lollapalooza. He then capped the 12 months alongside ISOxo with the launch of their very own music competition, Niteharts, the place he threw down a large headlining b2b set alongside digital music icon Zedd.
Throw in an ISOKNOCK efficiency at EDC Las Vegas, a high-profile residency at LIV Miami and tens of hundreds of thousands of streams, and you’ve got a cultural pressure.
Phrases by Ansh Talim.
Credit score: Taylor Regulski
