South Korea are in their music renaissance
Since Psy exploded onto the earth with Gangnam Style South Korean music has had a global stage and it’s artists and listeners alike are blooming.
It was found recently that 1 in 5 people in South Korea are now subscribed to a music streaming service. Their spot in music has cemented in the past decade with an entire world-busting genre, K-Pop, exporting from the country to worldwide fans.
In fact one of the biggest bands in the world right now are the epitome of South Korean’s unique pop style and boy/girl groups. BTS are a daily trend on Twitter, one of the most discussed bands to play festivals in the West and have a giant global following.
From both sides South Korean music is massive and they are experiencing what seems to be their own renaissance of globalised culture. The internet has helped this in large part; both by making their musical output so easily available globally and by making services that nourish their public’s appetite for music on-demand.
Estimates suggest that just over 10 million people are currently paying subscriptions to music streaming services in South Korea. That’s a large percentage of their 51 million population – around one-fifth.
Warner Music Korea CEO, Clayton Jin told Music Ally that music streaming is maintaining it’s strong growth. He said: “More and more great artists from diverse music genres and styles are coming to market with dreams of becoming global stars and I think this plethora of talent is the key driving factor of the growth in recorded music revenue.”