Spotify launches in South Korea

Playlists will be key in attracting domestic subscribers and helping Spotify take on already established streaming rivals, as well as weaning music fans from ever popular physical formats, said the company’s global music co-director, Jeremy erlich.

“We know we’re coming in as a new player in town and all the success we’ve had in the world doesn’t really mean a huge amount once we get on the pitch,” Erlich says. Billboard. “We have to win at the national level and we have to support the local culture and local artists.”

When it launches, Spotify will put most of its domestic efforts on the global K-pop phenomenon – and with good reason. Over the past six years, Spotify listeners have streamed more than 180 billion minutes of K-pop, with K-pop’s viewing share increasing by more than 2,000% over the same period, the company says.

Spotify’s customer base now stands at 320 million monthly active users and 144 million subscribers worldwide, according to its third quarter 2020 financial results, the company is banking on Korea’s largest music export for gain popularity as K-pop reaches new audiences.

“We don’t want to focus just on K-pop, although that’s the most visible part of [Korean music] culture, ”says Erlich. “We really want to help artists at all levels of the ecosystem.”

Despite its late entry into the market, South Korea is seen as a key territory for Spotify and brings the total number of markets in which it is active to 93. Last July, the music streamer added Russia, as well as 12 Central European countries and India. in 2019.

Cracking Asia’s No.2 music market (after Japan) won’t be easy for Spotify, however, and will see the platform competing for listeners with the leading South Korean streaming service Melon, as well as ‘other established national players such as Naver Music, genie, m-net and Bugs. YouTube and Apple Music are also active in the burgeoning music market, which grew 8.2% in 2019 to $ 619 million, according to IFPI figures. More than half of that comes from streaming, which now accounts for 53% ($ 329 million) of all recorded music sales in South Korea, while the long-dominant physical formats still account for 36% ($ 223 million). dollars) of purchases, in part due to high demand for K-pop collectibles.

To carve out its share of the pie, Spotify has installed a “small but powerful” team of local publishers and artist and label relations staff in the South Korean capital of Seoul, led by the Managing Director. David park, who previously worked as a creative strategist and content manager for YouTube in Asia. Further support will come from Spotify’s Asia office in Singapore and its global team in the United States, where Erlich is based.

The price will be set at 10,900 South Korean Won (around $ 9.74) plus VAT per month for premium subscribers and 16,350 South Korean Won ($ 14.62) plus VAT for its duo plan. When it first launched, Spotify did not offer South Koreans the freemium ad-supported model it traditionally uses to tempt new subscribers.

“We want to be a big and important player in the market,” says Erlich, declining to discuss license negotiations. He says the company waited a long time to launch in South Korea because “we wanted to do it the right way”. South Korea, he says, “is obviously a mature market. There are actors in place, and we respect them, the local culture and the local dynamics, so we took our time.

Erlich is convinced that Spotify offers “something different” to its established rivals and when local users and musicians have a chance to use its artist discovery tools for themselves, they will see “how we can help them. music to grow, both in Korea and outside Korea. “
“For those [artists] who are globally focused, having the full power of the Spotify network behind them will only help grow their audience, ”says Erlich.

He points to the current popularity of K-pop artists such as BTS and BLACKPINK on Spotify’s global charts as proof of how the platform can help grow artists’ careers well beyond their home market. And he thinks that many more Korean acts, spanning multiple genres and not just K-pop, should benefit from Spotify’s entry into South Korea.

“We can already see how important Korean music is to the world on Spotify,” Erlich says. “When you add domestic consumption to these numbers, I think you’re going to see the visibility of Korean culture around the world increase.”