The worldwide success of Okay-pop wouldn’t be potential with no robust home music market. Sooner than in different nations, highly effective home music streaming providers have been in a position to set up themselves in South Korea, working intently with Okay-pop corporations and even being financially managed by them. Nevertheless, as we noticed partly 2 of this collection, international streaming providers – led by YouTube Music and Spotify – have managed to determine themselves within the South Korean market in recent times. To conclude this weblog collection on the economics of Okay-pop, we due to this fact need to take a better take a look at the 5 most necessary music streaming providers in South Korea.

The Economics of Okay-pop – half 12: Music Streaming Providers in South Korea

MelOn

The longtime market chief within the South Korean music streaming market was MelOn, a reputation derived from Melody On. MelOn was launched on 16 November 2004 by the Korean cell community operator SK Telecom as an all-you-can-eat MP3 obtain portal for KRW 3,000 to five,000 per thirty days. MelOn was an immediate success and, only one month after its launch, was already attracting a mean of 10,000 customers per day.^[1]

In 2005, SK Telecom acquired a 43.3 per cent stake in YBM Seoul Information for the equal of US $12.6 million.^[2] Seoul Information was based in 1978 by Min Yeong-bin as a file label and artist administration company, working as a subsidiary of Sisa English, a producer of language studying cassettes, and was renamed YBM Seoul Information in 2000.^[3] In 2008, YBM Seoul Information was renamed LOEN Leisure.^[4] A 12 months later, the music distribution platform MelOn was additionally built-in into LOEN.^[5]

This label and company conglomerate, which was additionally listed on the Seoul Inventory Alternate, caught the eye of one in every of Asia’s largest non-public fairness companies, Affinity Fairness Companions, which acquired a 52.56 per cent stake in LOEN in July 2013 by its Hong Kong subsidiary Star Make investments, thereby decreasing SK Telecom’s stake in LOEN to fifteen per cent.^[6] In December of that very same 12 months, Star Make investments additionally acquired the 8.83 per cent stake that RealNetworks held in LOEN, thereby growing Star Make investments’s stake in LOEN to greater than 60 per cent.^[7] With monetary backing from Star Make investments, LOEN was in a position to purchase a 70 per cent stake within the Okay-pop group Starship Leisure in December 2013.^[8]

The massive coup, nevertheless, was the takeover of LOEN by Kakao Company in January 2016 for the equal of US $1.64 billion.^[9] Consequently, LOEN grew to become a part of one in every of South Korea’s largest web and leisure teams. Kakao has its roots within the web messenger KakaoTalk, which was launched in 2006 by Kim Bum-soo.^[10] This grew into a bunch that now contains, amongst others, an internet fee service (Kakao Pay), an web financial institution (Kakao Financial institution), a video games developer (Kakao Video games) and a taxi service (Kakao Mobility).^[11]

One in all Kakao’s largest enterprise divisions was LOEN, which was renamed Kakao M in 2018, with “M” standing for MelOn, music and media^[12] and thus referred to the three divisions of the corporate: (1) the MelOn music streaming service, (2) the Music Content material Firm, comprising the labels acquired by LOEN through the years, the ticketing platform MelOn Ticket and the Okay-pop company 1theK, and (3) the Video Content material Firm.^[13] Nevertheless, in March 2021, the corporate construction was modified as soon as once more when Kakao M merged with the digital content material platform Kakao Web page, which permits customers to create their very own movies, audio recordsdata and fictional texts.^[14] A part of the merger additionally concerned the combination of MelOn into the brand new firm, Kakao Leisure, which now combines music manufacturing and rights administration with MelOn’s music distribution. On the time of the merger, MelOn had 33 million lively customers and 5 million paying subscribers.^[15] As we now have already seen, this made MelOn the biggest music streaming service in South Korea.

Nevertheless, this modified with elevated competitors from overseas. Shortly after Spotify’s market entry on 1 February 2021, the primary showdown befell. Spotify eliminated all Okay-pop tracks from Kakao Leisure’s (then nonetheless referred to as Kakao M) catalogue from its platform worldwide, as the 2 events have been unable to achieve an settlement on a licensing deal. The boycott was, nevertheless, short-lived, as Kakao and Spotify reached a licensing deal as early as March 2021, bringing the Okay-pop repertoire again to Spotify.^[16]

One may dismiss the battle as a storm in a teacup have been it not for the truth that it highlights the weak place of Korean streaming providers in relation to the worldwide market leaders. MelOn and its rivals owe their success primarily to Okay-pop, however they have been unable to compete with the worldwide repertoire important for a profitable music streaming service for a very long time.

Genie Music

Genie Music, with 2.57 million lively customers per thirty days, is South Korea’s second-largest home music streaming service. Genie has its roots within the music division of Bluecord Know-how, a Korean tech agency based as early as 1991 that has additionally diversified into the leisure and media sectors.^[17] Initially, Genie Music’s predecessor was concerned in music manufacturing and file distribution in South Korea. In 2000, it additionally acquired a serious music publishing firm by the takeover of Doremi Media Co. Within the mid-2000s, Muz.co.kr – the nation’s main music obtain platform – was launched,^[18] which was to turn into the nucleus of the Genie Music streaming service.

In 2007, KT Freetel Co., one in every of South Korea’s largest telecommunications corporations, acquired a 35.28 per cent stake in Bluecord Know-how and spun off the music division as an impartial firm beneath the title KTF Music. In 2009, KT Company and KTF merged to type KT Music.^[19]

In 2012, KT Music acquired KMP Holdings, Korea’s largest music distributor, which marketed the productions of Okay-pop giants SM Leisure, YG Leisure and JYP Leisure.^[20] This led to the combination of digital music operations with bodily music gross sales, which triggered a pointy surge in development due to the booming Okay-pop business.

In March 2017, LG U+, South Korea’s third-largest telecommunications firm, acquired a 15 per cent stake in KT Music, which was subsequently renamed Genie Music.^[21] By means of this strategic partnership, the Genie Music app has been bundled with additional cell and broadband providers. Moreover, Genie Music has been efficiently built-in into the infotainment methods of the South Korean automobile producers Kia and Hyundai,^[22] which additional expanded the person base.

In October 2018, Genie Music merged with CJ Digital Music, a subsidiary of the South Korean leisure and media conglomerate CJ ENM, which thereby acquired a 15.35 per cent stake within the new firm.^[23] In April 2025, following an inner restructuring, it was renamed KT Genie Music Company. KT Genie Music Company is a publicly listed music group that owns quite a few music catalogues, is lively in music manufacturing and distribution, and operates a serious music streaming service.^[24] Nevertheless, regardless of partnerships with Tidal, Anghami, Tencent Music, Huawei Music and TikTok, Genie Music failed to realize a foothold internationally.^[25] Additional, the Okay-pop enterprise remained Genie Music’s principal income, which restricted its development potential and resulted in a decline in market share in South Korea.

FLO

The music streaming service FLO, which is owned by the Seoul-based Dreamus Firm, is dealing with related issues. Dreamus Firm has its roots in ReignCom, which was based in 1999 by Yang Deok-joon and 6 different former Samsung engineers to fabricate a transportable CD participant able to storing MP3 music recordsdata.[26] The primary gadgets have been launched in November 2000 and proved such a success that the Korean tech start-up additionally attracted consideration from overseas. ReignCom due to this fact entered right into a partnership with SonicBlue, an organization primarily based in Santa Clara, California, which had beforehand launched the Rio MP3 participant on the US market beneath the title Diamond Multimedia. ReignCom then started manufacturing transportable CD gamers with built-in MP3 gamers for the American market as properly, which have been bought beneath the Rio model.[27]

Nevertheless, SonicBlue went into administration in 2002, leaving ReignCom with no distribution accomplice within the US as a result of the Finest Purchase chain refused to promote a South Korean no-name product with out the Rio model. In June 2002, following protracted negotiations, Finest Purchase lastly agreed to inventory ReignCom merchandise within the US, supplied the corporate might develop an MP3 participant geared up with a high-capacity flash reminiscence stick by September of that 12 months. Yang Deok-joon and his group rose to the problem and, in August 2002, offered Finest Purchase executives with a tool able to storing no less than 30 songs. This was a technical breakthrough, and ReignCom emerged as the primary challenger to Apple’s iPod, securing a 20 per cent market share within the US.[28] In South Korea, ReignCom was already the market chief in MP3 gamers and was in a position to checklist on the Seoul Inventory Alternate in 2003.[29]

Nevertheless, the optimism at ReignCom quickly evaporated. Losses had already been reported for the 2005 and 2006 monetary years, which had a detrimental affect on the share worth. On this already troublesome financial local weather, the information of Apple’s launch of the iPhone in the summertime of 2007 got here as a crushing blow. Actually in a single day, the marketplace for MP3 gamers had turn into out of date. The iPhone started to cannibalise the MP3 participant market. For 2009, ReignCom reported an working lack of KRW 23.9 billion (US$21 million). In response, ReignCom’s total administration group was changed and the corporate was restructured as iRiver Ltd. as a way to embark on a strategic recent begin.[30]

Nevertheless, this didn’t succeed. The brand new e-book readers and e-dictionaries bought poorly, and a smartphone and a pill – supposed as rivals to Apple’s equivalents – by no means made it to market.[31] Consequently, iRiver’s share worth plummeted by nearly 65 per cent between 2010 and 2012.[32] This stoop made traders nervous, and rumours of a takeover quickly started to accentuate. In June 2014, the second lastly arrived. SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest telecommunications group, bought a block of shares value KRW 29.5 billion from iRiver’s largest shareholder, Vogo-Rio Funding Holdings, and have become the principle shareholder with a stake of round 40 per cent.[33] Following its takeover by SK Telecom, iRiver underwent a elementary restructuring. The main target shifted from music {hardware} to music content material. Consequently, in January 2015, Music Mate – a music streaming service initially supposed as a radio streaming service for cell gadgets – was launched.[34] That modified in July 2017 when SM Leisure, one of many largest Okay-pop conglomerates, grew to become iRiver’s second-largest shareholder.[35] SM Leisure recognised the potential of the streaming platform, and so forth 31 January 2018, a deal was struck between SK Telecom on the one hand and the three Okay-pop corporations – SM Leisure, JYP Leisure and Large Hit Leisure – on the opposite, to create a B2B and B2C music service platform by which the three corporations might distribute their music content material.[36] To this finish, Music Mate was utterly revamped and launched on 11 December 2018 beneath the brand new model title FLO.[37]

Subsequently, iRiver was reorganised into Dreamus Firm, which now comprised two enterprise models: the music streaming service FLO and iRiver’s high-end audio participant division.[38] The following restructuring befell in 2021, after SK Telecom had transferred all its non-telecoms investments to SK Sq. Funding. This additionally affected Dreamus Firm, with its streaming service FLO, which now grew to become a part of SK Sq..[39] It was to turn into obvious that this was merely an interim step and that, following sustained losses within the audio participant division, Dreamus bought this division to Miwang Firm for KRW 5 billion in December 2024,[40] to place itself as a pure music service platform for Okay-pop. This marked the symbolic conclusion to an extended historical past during which a market chief in MP3 gamers, beneath the management of a telecommunications group, had advanced right into a music streaming service focusing totally on Okay-pop.

Bugs Music and Naver VIBE

Alongside MelOn, Genie Music and FLO, the music streaming providers Bugs Music and Naver VIBE additionally play a major position within the South Korean streaming market. Bugs Music is the nation’s oldest music streaming service and was based in Seoul in November 1999 by Park Sung-hoon beneath the title Tremendous Sound Bugs.[41] To avoid the copyright points related to a music obtain platform, Bugs was arrange as a music streaming platform, however with out coming into into any licensing agreements with the rights holders.[42]

With 16 million registered customers, Bugs rapidly grew to turn into the nation’s largest music platform and secured KRW 1.5 billion in enterprise capital to fund its enlargement.[43] Nevertheless, South Korean music labels prevented this enlargement from going forward. In February 2003, 32 labels filed a lawsuit in opposition to Bugs Music for copyright infringement.[44]

In August 2004, Bugs Music tried to calm the state of affairs by signing a licensing take care of the Korean IFPI (Recording Business Affiliation of Korea, RIAK), which allowed the streaming service to stream 58,000 songs by way of the platform. Nevertheless, this was solely a fraction of the 270,000 recordsdata that Bugs Music had made accessible for streaming, which additionally originated from smaller indie labels. The South Korean music majors – Warner Music Korea, Sony Music Korea, SM Leisure, Yedang Leisure and YBM Seoul Information – opposed the settlement and maintained their authorized motion in opposition to Bugs Music and its founder.[45]

In January 2005, the showdown befell at a district courtroom in Seoul. The main labels prevailed, and the courtroom discovered Bugs Music and its founder responsible of mass copyright infringement. Park Sung-hoon was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay damages of KRW 20 million (US$19,900).[46] In the long run, Park Sung-hoon bought off evenly, however in March 2005 he was pressured to step down as managing director of Bugs and promote his 60 per cent stake within the firm to a South Korean label consortium led by Yedang Information.[47]

In December 2008, Bugs Music was acquired by Neowiz Web Corp., a subsidiary of South Korea’s largest video games developer, Neowiz Company, with a view to merging it with the music obtain platform JukeOn – which had been in operation since April 2004 – and persevering with to function it beneath the Bugs model.[48] Underneath Neowiz’s management, Bugs Music rose to turn into South Korea’s second-largest music streaming supplier and attracted the curiosity of NHN Company, which had been based in 1999 as a video games developer beneath the title Hangame and merged in July 2000 with Naver, South Korea’s largest search engine – South Korea’s Google.[49] In August 2015, NHN Corp. acquired Neowiz Web, together with Bugs Music, with a view to persevering with the brand new division as NHN Bugs.[50]

With the backing of its new proprietor, Bugs was in a position to press forward with its enlargement. In August 2016, it acquired a 53.9 per cent stake within the South Korean music streaming service Groovers and, a month later, secured 70 per cent of the shares within the administration company HOW Leisure, which had Okay-pop star Hwang Chi-yeol beneath contract, amongst others.[51] Consequently, Bugs Music shifted its focus from the B2C to the B2B music enterprise and misplaced market share within the South Korean streaming market within the years that adopted.

Nevertheless, competitors additionally got here from throughout the group itself. Since 2009, Naver.com had been working the music service Naver Music, which had initially been launched as a obtain portal. In 2017, Naver Music entered right into a strategic partnership with YG Plus, a subsidiary of the Okay-pop group YG Leisure, to distribute Okay-pop songs.[52] Nevertheless, Naver Music was by no means in a position to meet up with the market chief, MelOn, and so in 2020 the mum or dad firm merged its music service with VIBE, an AI-based music streaming service.[53] That marked the top of Naver’s music obtain enterprise, and from then on the web group centered completely on music streaming.[54]

As we now have already seen, Naver.com is a part of NHN Holdings, that means that two music streaming providers now function beneath the NHN umbrella: Naver VIBE and Bugs Music. Nevertheless, each streaming platforms play solely a minor position within the South Korean music streaming market. This most likely additionally explains Naver.com’s announcement in November 2025 that it could be incorporating Spotify’s Premium service into the Naver Plus Membership programme, as a way to grant subscribers entry to Spotify’s huge music catalogue.[55] This marks the beginning of a partnership by which Spotify might additional strengthen its place within the Korean market, while on the identical time posing a problem to NHN/Naver’s music streaming providers.

An evaluation of South Korean music streaming providers reveals, on the one hand, their shut hyperlinks to the telecommunications and web sectors and, on the opposite, their interdependence with Okay-pop conglomerates. The rise of MelOn, Genie Music and FLO to turn into the nation’s main music streaming providers is due, firstly, to the bundling of those providers with cell phone contracts supplied by main telecoms equivalent to SK Telecom and KT Freetel Firm, and secondly, to their collaboration with Okay-pop corporations. MelOn even owns a Okay-pop company itself – Starship Leisure – and is a subsidiary of Kakao Company, which in flip is firmly rooted within the Okay-pop enterprise. Genie Music has shut ties to the so-called ‘Large Three’ of the Okay-pop business: SM, YP and JYP Leisure. SM Leisure additionally holds a stake within the music streaming service FLO. Lastly, it’s value mentioning the streaming service Naver VIBE, which was launched in cooperation with a subsidiary of the Okay-pop firm YP Leisure.

This shut hyperlink to the Okay-pop business is each a blessing and a burden for South Korean music streaming providers. They’ve been in a position to develop quickly due to the worldwide Okay-pop growth, however are additionally depending on the success of this music style. South Korean streaming platforms have failed to realize a sustainable foothold internationally and now face stiff competitors from international rivals equivalent to YouTube and Spotify, which have managed to seize market share in South Korea in a really brief house of time. YouTube has even risen to turn into the nation’s main music streaming service. As makes an attempt to fend off this competitors have thus far failed, South Korean music streaming platforms are actually in search of to collaborate with their international rivals, though this carries the danger of being dominated by them.

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Endnotes

[1] Yang, Hyung-wook. 2004. SK’s MP3 music portal exhibits indicators of being a smash hit. Monetary Information, 14 December. https://n.information.naver.com/article/014/0000153995. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[2] Billboard. 2005. Korean Telco Takes Management Of Seoul Information. 27 Might. https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/korean-telco-takes-control-of-seoul-records-1411719/. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[3] YBM. 2013. 1978: Founding of Seoul Information. YMB Homepage, 28 December. http://www.ybm.co.kr/sisa/photograph.aspx?seq=14&Web page=1. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[4] Naver. 2018. Kakao M Co., Ltd. Naver Organisation Dictionary, 22 October 2018. https://net.archive.org/net/20210520050332/https://phrases.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=651823&cell=&cid=43167&categoryId=43167. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[5] Ibid.

[6] Han, Woo-ram. 2026. Affinity Fairness Companions hit the jackpot with Kakao-Loen deal. Mail Financial Day by day, 13 January. https://n.information.naver.com/article/009/0003663386?sid=004. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[7] Lee, Jae-young. 2013. Affinity acquires a stake in Loen Leisure owned by Actual Networks. The Bell, 17  November. https://www.thebell.co.kr/free/content material/ArticleView.asp?key=201311070100009740000585&svccode=00&web page=1&kind=thebell_check_time. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[8] Lee, Solar-min. 2013. Loen acquires massive stake in Starship. Korea JoonAng Day by day, 19 December. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/information/article/article.aspx?assist=2982315. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[9] Lee, Se-young. 2016. Kakao to purchase South Korea’s prime music streaming operator for $1.6 billion. Reuters, 11 January. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kakao-m-a-loen-ent-idUSKCN0UP01620160112/. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[10] Kim, Nam Kyu. 2010. iWylab launches ‘KakaoTalk’, a messenger app for iPhone. Financial system At this time, 18 March. http://www.eto.co.kr/information/outview.asp?Code=20100318145504490&ts=233011. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[11] Kakao. n.d. About. https://www.kakaocorp.com/web page/about/subsidiaryCompany. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[12] Power Financial system. 2017. Loen will change its title to KakaoM. 26 December. https://www.ekn.kr/net/view.php?key=332761. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[13] Han, Susan. 2018. Kakao M, previously Loen Leisure, reveals new company id + appoints new CEO. Allkpop, 23 March. https://www.allkpop.com/article/2018/03/kakao-m-formerly-loen-entertainment-reveals-new-corporate-identity-appoints-new-ceo. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[14] Joara, Hankyung. 2021. Kakao Enterprises formally launched with ‘One trillion in gross sales’. The Korea Financial Day by day, 4 March. https://www.hankyung.com/article/202103048042g. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[15] Kakao Leisure. 2021. Kakao Leisure merges with Korea’s No. 1 music streaming platform Melon because it eyes international development. Press launch, 1 September. https://newsroom.kakaoent.com/information/kakao-entertainment-merges-with-koreas-no-1-music-streaming-platform-melon-as-it-eyes-global-growth/. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[16] Stassen, Murray. 2021. Spotify reinstates Okay-Pop tracks from Kakao Leisure as corporations attain international licensing deal. Music Enterprise Worldwide, 11 March. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-reinstates-k-pop-tracks-from-kakao-entertainment-as-companies-reach-global-licensing-deal/. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[17] Grokipedia. n.d. Genie Music. https://grokipedia.com/web page/Genie_Music. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Grokipedia. n.d. iRiver. https://grokipedia.com/web page/IRiver. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[27] Moon Ihlwan. 2004. Korea’s ReignCom: Shifting Up The MP3 Charts. Businessweek, 26 January. https://net.archive.org/net/20071015174000/http://businessweek.com/journal/content material/04_04/b3867071.htm. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[28] Ibid.

[29] Korea JoonAng Day by day. 2003. 3 companies set for IPOs this week. 8 December. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2003/12/08/business/3-firms-set-for-IPOs-this-week/2069035.html. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[30] Search engine optimisation, Ji-eun. 2012. After the smartphone, MP3 makers wrestle to outlive. Korea JoonAng Day by day, 29 March. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2012/03/29/business/After-the-smartphone-MP3-makers-struggle-to-survive/2950714.html. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[31] Bäumer, Simon. 2011. Iriver plant zwei neue Androidgeräte: Ein Pill und ein Smartphone. PCMasters, 14 July. https://www.pcmasters.de/information/13373968-iriver-plant-zwei-neue-androidgeraete-ein-tablet-und-ein-smartphone.html#:~:textual content=Daspercent20geleaktepercent20Bildpercent20zeigtpercent20daspercent20geplantepercent20Androidsmartphonepercent2C,undpercent20aufpercent20einempercent203percent2C5percent20Zollpercent20Touchscreenpercent20basieren. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[32] Search engine optimisation, Ji-eun. 2012. After the smartphone

[33] Kang, Yoon-seung. 2014. SK Telecom to amass Iriver for 29.5 bln gained. Yonhap Information, 25 June. https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20140625005100320. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[34] NamuWiki. o.D. FLO. https://en.namu.wiki/w/FLO. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[35] Kwon, Yong-min. 2017. SM Enters iRiver as 2nd Largest Shareholder in “World Content material Market”. Seoul Financial Day by day, 17 July. https://www.sedaily.com/NewsView/1OIIDB8KM5/GD0501. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[36] Kim, D. 2018. SM, JYP, And Large Hit To Launch Joint Music Enterprise. Soompi, 31 January. https://www.soompi.com/article/1117157wpp/sm-jyp-big-hit-launch-joint-music-enterprise. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[37] Hankyung.com. 2021. ‘Previous iRiver’ deficit exonerated by SKT. The Korea Financial Day by day, 18 Might. https://www.hankyung.com/article/2021051866611. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[38] Choi, Hyun-seok. 2019. iRiver modified its title to ‘Dreamers Firm’. Naver Information, 28 March. https://n.information.naver.com/article/001/0010726293. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[39] The Korea Herald. 2021. SK Telecom names new CEO following non-telecom spinoff. 1 November. https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2716859. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[40] Lee, Jinhwi. 2024. DreamUsCompany, sells ‘iriver’ enterprise for five billion gained. High Day by day, 30 December. https://en.topdaily.kr/articles/4090. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[41] Park, Hyun-jung. 2003. Park Sung-hoon, President of Bucks Music, “leaps to turn into the most effective portal in Korea in 2-3 years”. Naver Information, 24 April. https://n.information.naver.com/mnews/article/029/0000025349?sid=105. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[42] Ibid.

[43] Ibid.

[44] Billboard. 2005. Korean Labels Win Bugs Battle. 15 March. https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/korean-labels-win-bugs-battle-1415784/. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[45] Lee Kyong-hee. 2004. Music income swirling down digital drain. Korea JoonAng Day by day, 1 October. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2004/10/01/options/Music-profits-swirling-down-digital-drain/2475425.html. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[46] Billboard. Korean Labels Win Bugs Battle.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Neowiz. n.d. Historical past. https://www.nwhcorp.com/holdings/en. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[49] NHN Corp. n.d. We’re NHN, a World IT Firm Pioneering into The World Taking part in Discipline. https://www.nhn.com/en-US/firm?tab=about. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[50] Ibid.

[51] Yoon Sung-won. 2016. Bugs increasing to leisure company biz. The Korea Instances, 31 August. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/enterprise/tech-science/20160831/bugs-expanding-to-entertainment-agency-biz. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[52] YG Plus. 2017. YG PLUS-NAVER collectively implements music enterprise venture. Press launch, 18 October. https://yg-life.com/archives/94413?lang=en. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[53] Sportsseoul.com. 2020. Consuming Naver music sources, from buy to subscription… Finish of Naver Music. 3 October. https://www.sportsseoul.com/information/learn/963447. Translated with DeepL. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[54] Since December 2014, Naver.com has been working the music streaming service Line Music by its Japanese subsidiary, Line Company. See: Russell, Jon. 2015. Messaging App Agency Line Is Testing A $2 Per Month Music Streaming Service. TechCrunch, 21 Might. https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/21/line-music/. Accessed 26 Jun 2026

[55] Korea YoonAng Day by day. 2025. Naver launches new music streaming program in partnership with Spotify. 28 November. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/information/2025-11-28/enterprise/business/Naver-launches-new-music-streaming-program-in-partnership-with-Spotify/2465879. Accessed 26 Jun 2026