2005–2013: Spitfire Entirely self-taught, Robinson began producing at the age of 12. While posting his early music on online forums, he met future collaborator
Madeon, who was using the aliases "Daemon" and "Wayne Mont". From 2005 to 2010, under the alias "Ekowraith", he released "hands up" music via YAWA Recordings. Robinson then began producing music that he called "
complextro", adding classically inspired melodies and complicated fills to his music. Starting to release music under his own name in 2010, Robinson released a variety of original singles on Glamara Records and Big Fish Recordings. One of his most notable releases was "Say My Name", which reached number one on
Beatport, launching Robinson into the mainstream dance music world. Eighteen at the time, Robinson started achieving international notice, catching the eye of
dubstep producer
Skrillex. In 2011, he signed a one-EP deal with
Owsla, a then-new label operated by
Skrillex, to release the eleven-track
Spitfire. As the first release on OWSLA, it topped
iTunes Dance chart and Beatport's overall chart, crashing the latter's servers upon release. Robinson released the single, "
Language", on April 10, 2012, through
Big Beat Records in North America, and
Ministry of Sound everywhere else. The song was relatively different in its production than the "complextro" sound that Robinson had become known for, favoring a more melodic sound and a dream-like piano lead. The song rose to the number one overall chart position on Beatport as well as the iTunes Dance chart. Throughout the rest of 2012, Robinson embarked on his "Language Tour", supported by artists
Mat Zo and
the M Machine. Robinson co-wrote
Zedd's US top 10 hit "
Clarity", as well as singing backing vocals. The track was originally going to be released as a collaboration between the two artists called "Poseidon" alongside a joint tour, but Robinson backed down and withdrew his name because he did not want to release a pop single while he was "trying to do something that wasn't shooting for the radio" with his debut album. On December 17, 2012, a collaborative single with
Mat Zo entitled "
Easy" was pre-released exclusively on Beatport by Ministry of Sound, and spent two entire weeks as the number one overall song on the Beatport Top 100 chart. The full official release occurred in spring 2013 and was accompanied by an anime music video.
2014–2019: Worlds and Virtual Self tour Robinson's debut studio album
Worlds was released through
Astralwerks and
Virgin EMI on August 12, 2014. The album focused more on melodies to invoke a sense of nostalgia, juxtaposing the percussive bass driven tracks he had released previously. Robinson collaborated with multiple vocalists and musical groups including
Urban Cone,
Lemaitre,
Breanne Düren, and
Amy Millan. He made his official vocal debut on the single "
Sad Machine". The
Vocaloid software voice,
Avanna, was also used as a vocalist for this single. Robinson then embarked on the Worlds Live tour, a new live show that involved him singing, playing synthesizers, and triggering samples, supported by artists
Giraffage and Lemaitre. The tour headlined popular music festivals, including
Ultra Music Festival,
Electric Daisy Carnival, and
Coachella. A remix album of
Worlds titled
Worlds Remixed was released on October 2, 2015. It included remixes by electronic artists
Odesza,
San Holo,
Mat Zo, Electric Mantis,
Galimatias, Last Island, Chrome Sparks, Deon Custom, Rob Mayth, Point Point,
Sleepy Tom, and
Slumberjack. On January 31, 2016, Robinson announced on his
Twitter account that he was producing new material after being "stuck" for a year and a half. On August 11, he released "
Shelter", a collaboration with fellow musician and friend Hugo Leclercq, better known by his stage name
Madeon. An animated music video was released for "Shelter" on October 18, animated by
A-1 Pictures and jointly produced by Robinson, A-1 Pictures, and
Crunchyroll. Robinson and Leclercq then embarked on a nearly year-long joint international tour dubbed the "
Shelter Live Tour", where the two performed live shows onstage together, with supporting acts from
Danger,
Robotaki, and
San Holo. On October 25, 2017, Robinson released a new single titled "Eon Break" under the alias Virtual Self, announced via his Twitter page. A music video was also released on Robinson's YouTube channel, containing abstract three-dimensional art and cryptic messages seemingly focusing on the words "angel", "virtual", "void", and "utopia". His follow up single was released on November 8, 2017, which is titled "
Ghost Voices". An accompanying music video for the track was released on February 28, 2018, via Robinson's YouTube channel. In January 2019, it was announced that "Ghost Voices" was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, marking Robinson's first nomination. In a statement to
Billboard Dance, Robinson says he discovered the nomination through Twitter "of all places". At the time, he hadn't even realized "Ghost Voices" was submitted for consideration. Virtual Self released a
self-titled EP on November 29, 2017. Virtual Self shows continued in 2018, with appearances at multiple festivals including
Ultra Music Festival,
Electric Daisy Carnival, and
Bonnaroo, followed by three Europe shows and a two-month North American "UTOPiA SySTEM" tour. Robinson also released "Angel Voices" on July 20, 2018, a happy-hardcore infused remix of "Ghost Voices". On March 4, 2019, Robinson announced Multiverse Music Festival, a one-day festival in
Oakland, California, featuring a self-curated lineup and co-presented by
Goldenvoice, slated for June 15 in
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. The name of the festival was changed to Second Sky Music Festival four days later due to complaints from local promoters that had organized a fest in Oakland with a similar name the previous year. A second day was added during presale due to tickets for the original date selling out rapidly, sharing all but one act from the first day's lineup. Robinson stated in an interview with Pollstar that "The main reason I wanted to do an artist-curated festival is I have this fantasy of there being a place where all of my favorite music can coexist." Shortly after announcing Second Sky's lineup, Robinson announced another Virtual Self show, a series of six DJ sets under his own name, and later, two more Virtual Self appearances. In June 2019, Robinson started The Robinson Malawi Fund after his brother Mark beat cancer. The organization donated $154,000 for patients with Burkitt Lymphoma in Malawi using money raised by the Second Sky Music Festival and matched donations from Robinson.
2020–2023: Nurture On January 28, 2020, Robinson's social media announced his second album,
Nurture, and the release of the first single, "
Get Your Wish", with a music video, for January 29, 2020, along with a 52-second teaser. The song features vocals that are artificially pitched up to sound childlike, an effect found in numerous songs in the full album. On March 10, 2020, Robinson released the second single on his album, titled "
Something Comforting". A music video was released on March 25, 2020. In an interview, Robinson states that the song began at the peak of his creative drought and depression in 2015 and 2016, and that this was the first song he knew he liked and wanted to keep on the album. On May 9, 2020, Robinson teamed up with the
Recording Academy, and donated $115,000 to
MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund using money raised by his online Secret Sky Music Festival. During the event, he unveiled a new song from his upcoming album, "Look at the Sky". The song was later announced to be the fourth single from
Nurture. On July 14, 2020, one day before his twenty-eighth birthday, Robinson announced that
Nurture was on hold, but the album's rollout would resume the following day. The next day, the
Anamanaguchi remix of "Get Your Wish" was released, and a week later, he released his own remix under the name DJ Not Porter Robinson. On August 12, 2020, the sixth anniversary of the release of his
Worlds album, Robinson uploaded a live edit of his song "Shepherdess", which was played during his
Worlds Live shows. Additionally, he announced that on the tenth anniversary of the album's release, the song "Hollowheart" will be released. The song was supposed to be on the
Worlds album but was submitted too late. On August 26, 2020, Robinson released "Mirror", the third single from
Nurture. A music video was uploaded to YouTube on September 9, 2020. On December 18, 2020, Robinson announced that
Nurture was fully completed, and that the album would release in "a few months". Roughly a month later, he announced that his fourth single, "
Look at the Sky" would be released on January 27, 2021. That day, Robinson announced that
Nurture would be released on April 23, 2021. Two weeks later, a music video for "Look at the Sky" debuted on Robinson's YouTube channel. On February 26, 2021, Robinson announced on his Twitter that the fifth single for the 14-song album, "
Musician", would be released on March 3. Attached to his tweet was an audio and visual preview of the song and its music video. In a press release, Robinson explained what the song meant to him, "It was one of the last songs that I wrote for the album, and it's honestly a celebration of the album itself". An
anime styled music video was released soon after. On March 17, 2021, a deluxe version of
Nurture was detailed to be releasing exclusively in Japan, featuring a bonus song with the Japanese band
Wednesday Campanella. On April 22, 2021, one day before the release of
Nurture, Robinson released the sixth and final single from the album, "
Unfold" with
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. On April 23, 2021,
Nurture was released. The album would be placed on year-end lists such as
Billboards "Best Albums of 2021". On April 24, 2021, during his own virtual music festival Secret Sky, Robinson premiered the
Nurture live show. On May 10, 2021, Robinson announced the tour for the
Nurture live show, supporting
Nurture. Robinson continued to be active after the release of
Nurture. On September 8, 2021, Robinson announced a new side project called Air2Earth, a live-only project focusing on "sample-driven, tranquil
proghouse and airy disco." The following year, on July 14, 2022, Robinson released a new single titled "
Everything Goes On", in collaboration with video game
League of Legends. "Everything Goes On" marks Robinson's first release since
Nurture and was released alongside a music video as a part of the Star Guardian 2022 event in
League of Legends. Robinson's songs "Look at the Sky" and "Something Comforting" were added to the arcade game
Dance Dance Revolution A3 as playable songs on November 4, 2022, marking his debut in the
Dance Dance Revolution series, which Robinson has cited as a major influence in his career. On February 13, 2023, the songs "Musician" and "Eon Break" were also added into
Dance Dance Revolution A3. On February 17, 2023, Robinson's collaborative track with Skrillex and
Bibi Bourelly, "Still Here (With the Ones That I Came With)", released on Skrillex's second studio album,
Quest for Fire. On March 7, 2023, Robinson released a
Vocaloid 6 voicebank named
Po-uta which imitates his pitched-up vocals from
Nurture. Robinson also released "Humansongs" as a showcase demo for Po-uta.
2024–present: Smile! :D On February 29, 2024, Robinson released a video teaser for a new project, where a fictional video essayist from 2028 details how Robinson would go on to delete his entire discography from the internet and then disappear on March 1, 2024. After the countdown, it was revealed that Robinson's next album was finished. On March 20, Robinson released the album's lead single, "
Cheerleader" alongside a music video. On April 22, Robinson teased the second single, "
Knock Yourself Out XD" on social media. It released alongside a music video on April 24. On April 23, Robinson announced that the album would be titled
Smile! :D and that it would be released on July 26. Two days later, on April 25, he announced a world tour after the release of
Smile! :D beginning August 2024, marking Robinson's first world tour. The world tour featured special guests, with
Ericdoa on all North American shows,
Galileo Galilei on the Tokyo and Osaka shows,
Ninajirachi on all Australian shows, and
Underscores on all European shows. On June 5, 2024, Robinson released the third single of the album, "Russian Roulette". Robinson sees the song as a path to addressing the ideas of "oblivion, of career suicide, of disappearing", and finding a balance with his obligations. A lyric video for the song was published on June 13, 2024. On July 19, Robinson released the fourth single of the album, "Kitsune Maison Freestyle". Before the release, Robinson announced a pop up event on July 18, where he gave away clothes for free to fans in Los Angeles.
Smile! :D was released on July 26, 2024. According to Robinson, the album is "reckoning with the downsides of fame". A music video for the song "Easier to Love You" from
Smile! :D was released on August 1, 2024. On August 12, 2024, the tenth anniversary of the release of
Worlds, Robinson released his song "Hollowheart" and announced a new tenth anniversary release of the album, as well as a live album based on his performance at his Second Sky Music Festival in 2019. On February 13, 2025, Robinson appeared on
triple J's
Like a Version segment, where Robinson with his live band performed "Cheerleader" and a cover of
Fontaines D.C.'s "
Favourite". On May 1, 2025, "Cheerleader" and "Knock Yourself Out XD" were added to
Dance Dance Revolution World as playable songs. On July 25, 2025,
Michael Clifford released the song "Kill Me for Always", which Robinson features on. On April 10, 2026, Robinson made a surprise appearance during
Ninajirachi's performance at
Coachella to debut a new collaboration between the two. == Artistry ==