Spotify sets its sights on South Korea with a localised service in 2021
South Korea is the globes 6th largest modern music market according to IFPI
Streaming giant Spotify has just announced the launch of a South Korean localized service arriving within the next 6 months. The vision is to further connect local acts such as Blackpink and BTS with the streaming platform's 320 million users while also reconnecting them to their local fan base, as well as giving South Korean listeners access to over 4 billion playlists and 60 million releases. Since adding the K-Pop playlist to the service in 2014, the listening of the genre has exponentially increased by 2000% with 180 billion minutes streamed and 120 million playlists that K-Pop artists have been added to.
The announcement came with a statement from the company's Chief Freemium Business Officer of Spotify Alex Norström:
“South Korea is key for Spotify in its mission of giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it. Spotify wants to help accelerate the growth of Korea’s entire music streaming ecosystem, benefitting artists, labels, distributors and fans.”
As one of the world's most rapidly growing music markets, South Korea becomes only the 64th region to have a local service created for it. IFPI lists South Korea as the sixth biggest music market in the world. It's no surprise then that Spotify aims to play a defining role in the rising music market, with a goal of accelerating it's already rapid growth via their streaming network. South Korean artists and fans alike should be excited for what's to come.
Norström continued:
The K-Pop Daebak playlist is currently available on Spotify here.
