Spotify to launch in South Korea in 2021
Music streaming giant Spotify said on Friday it will launch its service in South Korea in the first half of 2021.
The launch will give South Korean listeners access to its over 60 million tracks and over 4 billion playlists, the company said.
South Korean artists will be able to reach their local fans as well as the streaming service's 320 million listeners globally, Spotify added.
Citing data from non-profit music organization IFPI, Spotify said South Korea was one of the fastest-growing major music markets and the sixth-largest globally. The company aims to accelerate the growth of South Korea's music streaming ecosystem, it said.
According to Spotify, the company debuted its first K-Pop playlist in 2014. The genre has been streamed more than 180 billion minutes and listeners have added K-Pop tracks to over 120 million playlists on Spotify, the company said. The amount of K-Pop played in the service has increased by 2,000% in the past six years, it added.
Spotify's K-Pop genre hub is available in 64 countries, including Russia, India, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, the company said.
According to South Korean media reports, Spotify opened its South Korean brand office in January this year. In August, it opened a Korean Instagram account and began supporting the Korean language in its mobile app.
Spotify will compete with local music streaming services such as Melon and Genie Music, which are run by Kakao and KT, respectively, for market share in South Korea.
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