
Spotify finally appeared in the South Korean market. Now in Korea, you can find more than 60 million tracks, more than 4 billion playlists, and Spotify’s ‘Customized Curation’ service. It’s a much later launch than other platforms, but it’s not difficult to find K-pop on Spotify. The first K-pop playlist was created in 2014, and it has become a global platform for K-pop for 6 years, from BTS to Blackpink, and has become the basis for growth.
However, it seems that securing the music, which was the key, is still insufficient. For example, Spotify currently does not provide music from Kakao M, the nation’s largest music distributor. It is heard that Kakao M’s share of music distribution reached 37.5% as of last year. It means we can’t hear the songs of famous singers like IU. In particular, it may be difficult to provide Spotify’s unique ‘Customized Service’ that recommends songs. Therefore, as securing music content is Spotify’s competitive edge, whether or not to sign a music contract in the future is expected to be a matter of interest.
From now, South Korean users can experience premium services free of charge for seven days on mobile without entering separate credit card information when subscribing and can use them for three months free of charge with credit card information when subscribing until June 30 this year.