Jakarta, 2017 – The popularity of the genre of Asian, Korean Pop (K-Pop) has increasingly skyrocketed since the launch of the K-Pop Hub in Spotify two years ago. Since its launch in 2015, more than 6.6 billion K-Pop songs have been played worldwide through the Spotify music streaming service where users spend more than 14.4 billion minutes listening to their favorite Korean songs. BTS, EXO, and Blackpink are three top musicians with the largest audience in Indonesia.
Spotify K-Pop Hub
The Spotify K-Pop Hub covering everything from K-Pop songs to Original Soundtrack (OST) from K-Dramas and was originally introduced in Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong) based on the popularity of the genre in Asia. The launch has further boosted the number of streams and share of Korean music, including hit singles like Puss by AOA Jimin, It G Ma by Keith Ape, Hello Bitches by CL, and I by Taeyeon.
The hub was then launched in the United States and Canada in September 2015, followed by Brazil, Mexico and all Latin America in January 2016. Australia & New Zealand were added in March, with France, Denmark, England, Ireland, Sweden, Thailand and Turkey by 2017.
According to the information released by the Spotify Indonesia officials, streaming numbers of K-Pop songs have increased by 63% year on year. Since its release, the K-Pop Hub currently has over 4.8 million followers which top track lists are owned and operated by K-Pop playlists in K-Pop Hubs including K-Pop Daebak, Korean OSTs, and K-Party Dance Mix.
K-Pop Development
First attracted worldwide attention with the popularity of PSY‘s ‘Gangnam Style’ in 2012, K-Pop has developed into a more diverse subculture and became popular globally. Encouraged by many fans on the social media—one of the causes of why it’s skyrocketed caused by Korean TV drama popularity—Korean culture is now slowly starting to enter the United States, Latin America, Europe and other parts of the world.
In order to capitalize on their growing popularity globally, many K-Pop artists are currently recording songs in multiple languages to gain wider recognition. Certain bands have even formed subunits to target different audiences. For example, EXO (represented by SM Entertainment) songs which are devoted to the Korean and Mandarin-speaking fans. Same with NCT which has three subunits: NCT U, NCT 127, and NCT Dream. Each subunit is focused on reaching different age groups and demographics.
Since the world was last thrown with the presence of PSY, this genre began to rarely get to the top of the global music charts to date. However, for the first time in September 2017, K-Pop debuted on Top 10 Billboard 200 album charts thanks to BTS ‘Love Yourself: Her’ single, which marks the entry of K-Pop into the worldwide music market.
“We believe that music is universal and transcends culture,” said Elly Chae, Director of Communications, Big Hit Entertainment. “BTS has been trying to prove it since its debut in 2013, and international music platforms like Spotify have helped the band expand their reach to meet new audiences outside Korea and the K-Pop genre.We hope Spotify can continue to play an important role in helping musicians K-Pop to enter the mainstream market of the United States and other countries in the coming years,” she added.
“We have always strived to be a forum search for musicians and music lovers,” said Eve Tan, Shows & Editorial, Team Lead of Spotify Asia. “Since the launch of the Hub K-Pop, we have seen an increasing number of fan-made playlists as well as My Music streams for this genre.This shows more and more playlists being saved and users coming back with increasing music listening patterns.”
Tan adds, “K-Pop or Hallyu Wave is Asia’s success story. For a genre with very distinct languages and cultures, it’s amazing to see how K-Pop makes its mark on the world stage, allowing Spotify fans around the world to enjoy and be inspired by Korean music is something we love so much,” close Tan.
K-Pop Experiences Worldwide
Based on Spotify’s internal data, each country shows a different listening pattern in terms of streaming Korean music. Spotify users in Mexico tend to play popular songs from Korean boy bands; while listeners in Brazil enjoy ‘K-Pop party tracks‘ playlist more. In Singapore, many listen to Korean OSTs as often as they watch Korean dramas. In Indonesia, Korean songs are usually heard at 20:00 to 21:00 pm.
What’s your favorite K-Pop songs? Tell us using the hashtag #SpotifyDaebak or click here to tweet it out!
Top 5 Most Listened K-Pop Songs in Indonesia (in no particular order):
Top 5 Korean Musician in Indonesia (in no particular order):
StarArena 스타아레나 