As Google’s YouTube Music continues to dominate the Korean music market, Korean music streamers are looking for ways to survive.
The amount of monthly active users (MAU) of Korean music streaming companies has been declining while YouTube Music has been growing at a high rate. As a result, Korean companies are trying to expand their user bases by launching various types of content and services.
According to Mobile Index, a mobile big data analysis platform, the MAU of YouTube Music app (Android and iOS) in August was 6,037,715. This is a 30 percent increase from the same period last year (4,657,458 MAU). On the other hand, Melon, which remains the No. 1 music streaming service in Korea, reported a MAU of 6,772,905 in August, down about 7 percent year on year. Genie Music, Flo, NAVER Vibe, and Bugs also saw declines in the numbers of their MAU.
The influence of YouTube Music is expected to continue to grow. In particular, Google is including YouTube Music in its paid subscription service, YouTube Premium. Analysts say that many users are using YouTube Music (8,690 won per month) for free when paying for the YouTube Premium Service.
Accordingly, tension is being ratcheted up in the Korean music platform industry and music platform companies are trying to find ways out by not only promoting discounts but enhancing various content and services on their platform. They are trying to attract users by enhancing music recommendations and introducing production services using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.