There’s a changing of the music-streaming guard in South Korea, with Spotify possibly having just overtaken local player Melon, previously the biggest audio streaming service there. Or possibly not.
We’ll explain. Chosun Biz reported on figures from research firm WiseApp Retail suggesting that Spotify now has 6.2 million monthly active users (MAUs) in South Korea, beating Melon’s 5.9 million.
Now the doubt. The report also noted that a different research. firm, Mobile Index, thinks Melon has 7.1 million MAUs while Spotify has just 2.4 million. That’s a huge disparity to the WiseApp estimates though.
In any case, neither DSP is the top dog in South Korea once video platforms are factored in. YouTube Music has 9.5 million MAUs according to WiseApp, and 8.5 million according to Mobile Index.
The wider trend: South Korean DSPs are falling in user numbers; Spotify is growing rapidly; and YouTube is shrinking but for a specific reason: recent regulatory action that forced it to unbundle music from its ‘Premium’ subscription. That was expected to boost rivals, but it seems Spotify is the beneficiary more than the Korean DSPs.
Whether Spotify has overtaken Melon or not, the latter still has cultural clout: its charts are still an important part of South Korea’s music industry: from awards and media coverage to the recently-announced plans for a ‘Global K-Chart’ for K-Pop.
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