Spotify Reportedly Launching In Korea This Year

According to a report by Sports Chosun, the music streaming service Spotify will become officially available in Korea in 2020.

Spotify, which was created in Sweden in 2008, has over 200 million users and is known as the largest music streaming service in the world. In 2015, the service began its global expansion and launched in 79 countries. While Spotify features playlists of the latest K-pop music, it hasn’t yet been officially available in Korea.

On top of the ability to listen to music that previously wasn’t available on Korean streaming services, Korean music fans are also excited about the fact that Spotify offers free use. In the past, if people wanted to use Spotify in Korea, they’d have to use methods such as accessing it via a VPN.

Sports Chosun reports that there may be a big change to the music market in Korea following the launch of Spotify. The current market sees Melon, Genie Music, FLO, Bugs, Naver Music, and Soribada competing over the 1 trillion won (approximately $845 million) market. It appears the competition is about to get more fierce with the addition of Spotify.

Last March, there were rumors of Spotify’s plans to launch in Korea, however the company denied such plans due to obstacles they were facing over copyright distribution. It’s reported that these issues have recently been resolved to a certain degree, and so preparations for the launch in Korea are now underway.

Sports Chosun notes that the launching of Spotify in Korea could also allow Korean artists to more easily introduce their music to foreign fans. It’s expected that the K-pop category on the service will be growing in scale as more Korean artists use it to break into the overseas market.

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