Music streaming giant Spotify is set to launch its service in South Korea in the first half of next year, after expanding into Russia and several other Eastern European territories earlier this year.
The company announced on Friday (18 December) that the launch will give South Korean listeners access to its over 60 million tracks and over 4 billion playlists, enabling Korean artists to reach to Spotify’s 320 million listeners worldwide.
“Spotify has been a partner to the Korean music industry for many years now. We are proud to have been a part of the K-pop global story, showcasing the genre on our platform and enabling its discovery all over the world, from Asia to the US, South America, Europe and the Middle East.
“We’re looking forward to working with our valued local partners to uncover more Korean artists, and to connect them with fans in South Korea and all over the world,” said chief premium business officer Alex Norstrom.
According to Spotify, listeners have streamed more than 180 billion minutes of the K-pop genre and added K-pop tracks to over 120 million Spotify playlists since it debuted its first K-pop playlist in 2014.
The amount of K-pop music played in the service has increased by more than 2,000 per cent in the past six years, it added.
Spotify stated that the K-pop genre hub has been localised in over 64 countries, including Russia, India, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.
