Internet music (also known as online music, blog music or digital music) refers to musical styles, subcultures, and distribution practices that originated from or were significantly shaped by the Internet, as well as encompassing a wide range of genres and music scenes that have developed primarily online, often outside traditional music industry structures. In the early 21st century, many online music styles emerged as microgenres frequently tied to specific internet aesthetics.

The earliest roots of the movement can be traced back to the late 1980s and early 1990s amongst the tracker music community. The style would later proliferate through the popularity of the online blogosphere during the 2000s, online-based music scenes became instrumental in the initial proliferation of internet-native microgenres and movements such as the hypnagogic pop, shitgaze, blog rock, bloghouse, blog rap, chillwave and vaporwave. Additionally, online forums and blog sites such as Blogspot, Last.fm, 4chan, Tumblr and Reddit alongside early social media platforms MySpace and mixtape-sharing site DatPiff helped provide early forms of independent online musical distribution, later followed by SoundCloud, YouTube, Spotify and TikTok.

Internet music traces back to the late 1980s to early 1990s, beginning with the rise of tracker music, a form of digital audio files made on music trackers and shared online through early internet communities like Usenet.^[1][2] Tracker scenes helped establish norms around open sharing and online collaboration that would later shape broader internet music trends. Many tracker musicians gained international prominence within MOD software users and some of them went on to work for high-profile video game studios, or began to appear on large record labels.^[3][4][5][6] The Usenet newsgroup "alt.music" would focus on music submitted through the platform.

In 1996, David Bowie released the single "Telling Lies", which was made exclusively available as an Internet download on his site BowieNet. The song was the earliest lyrical reference to the Internet in pop music, and its promotion campaign marked a landmark in online music distribution.^[7] Bowie had been an early adopter of the Internet, reportedly using email as early as the late 1980s.^[8][9]

Todd Rundgren would also be credited as an early pioneer of Internet music delivery.

During the late 1990s, American rappers such as Canibus and Trick Daddy would set up sites and promote their music on the internet, with Canibus referencing the internet on his songs.

By the early 2000s, the growing prominence of the internet saw the emergence of music proliferated through the early online blogosphere, characterized by genres and scenes such as bloghouse, blog rock, and blog rap. The post-noise underground also known as the Blogspot scene would develop around this period alongside hypnagogic pop and shitgaze.^[10][11][12]

These styles were heavily circulated through the Millennial blogosphere and music forums, with sites like MySpace playing a critical role in promoting artists and shaping early internet-based scenes. At the time, "MySpace metalcore" and "Tumblr pop-punk" became underground scenes which emerged purely from bands distributing their music on those sites.

Mixtape-sharing platforms like DatPiff also became hubs for early internet rap scenes including the blog rap movement.

The 2010s marked a new wave of internet-native microgenres and online aesthetic-based scenes. On platforms such as Tumblr, styles like seapunk emerged similarly to chillwave, initially as a meme, but later developing a recognizable musical style. This period saw a proliferation of niche genres like vaporwave and witch house each tied closely to specific visual aesthetics and online communities.

Internet-borne microgenres such as egg punk also began to circulate online.

In the early 2020s, hyperpop was popularized as an influential leading genre in the online music space.

In 2024, Rolling Stone described the online underground rap scene as "extremely online," which included acts such as Nettspend, Osamason, ian, Xaviersobased, Yeat, Summrs, Rich Amiri, Tana, Autumn!, and Lazer Dim 700.^[13][14] These artists often found success online through TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.^[15][16]

Hypnagogic pop is a style of psychedelic music coined by journalist David Keenan in an August 2009 issue of the Wire to label the developing trend, which he characterized as "pop music refracted through the memory of a memory."^[17] It was used interchangeably with internet microgenres like "chillwave" or "glo-fi" and gained critical attention through artists such as Ariel Pink and James Ferraro.^[18]