It is confirmed that Apple is preparing its ‘Apple Music’ service in South Korea.
Apple currently possesses about 30 million songs, and it is predicted that it will rise as a dark horse in South Korea’s digital music service market that has grown to $852 million (1 trillion KRW).
According to music industry, it is confirmed that Apple Headquarters and officials from Apple Korea recently contacted Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is a competent ministry of South Korea’s music industry, and copyright trust organization one after the other.
One official from music copyright trust organization revealed that Apple officials recently met with major officials from South Korea’s music copyright association and are pushing for contracts so that they can provide Apple service in Korea. That official also said that Apple wants contract that allows Apple to provide streaming-type ‘Apple Music’ service as well as downloads.
According to Korea Creative Content Agency’s report, value of Korea’s digital music service market was estimated to be $1.35 billion (1.59 trillion KRW), and about 46% of it is monthly flat rate streaming market.
Apple announced its streaming radio service ‘Apple Music’ at Apple Developer Event on the 8th of June and started this service targeting 100 countries on the 30th of same month. However South Korea was not part of its target for Apple Music at that time because it could not sign contracts with corresponding industries to receive approval to use Korean songs. As it is pushing for signing contracts with music trust organizations this time, it is also preparing to enter into Korean market.
Apple Music is a streaming service. It has a function that allows users to choose a song and also has voice recognition search and personalized service that selects preferred music. It costs $9.99 per month to use this service, but Apple also offers a family package that allows up to 6 people to use this service at $14.99 per month.
Its biggest strength is its abundant collection of songs, where there are more than 30 million songs. Although Apple is a latecomer in streaming method, its number of Apple Music users can easily exceed number of Spotify users, which is currently the top streaming service business, if 10% of iTunes users join Apple Music. iOS Smart equipment users such as iPhone, iWatch, iPad, and others will also help in increasing number of Apple Music users. Due to these reasons, it seems that Apple will try to expand its influence in Korean music service by targeting iOS Smart equipment users.
However there are many obstacles that Apple needs to overcome if it wants to install its service in Korea. It immediately needs to secure songs that a lot of Korean users listen to and sign on contracts with businesses that possess songs such as Loen, KT Music, SM, YG, and JYP as well as 4 music trust organizations that will allow Apple to use their songs.
There is no way that Loen, KT Music, or others that hold rights to songs will welcome another competitor. In fact Google barely signed on contracts with 4 Korean music organizations last year about servicing its Google Music in Korea. However it is still not able to service Google Music in Korea, and this means that it was not able to sign contracts that allows it to use songs with major businesses that have rights to songs.
“If Apple Music uses its strong brand name ‘Apple’ and enters into Korean music market, then it will bring much more influence than Google. However it will not be easy to sign contracts about major songs with its competitors that hold rights to these songs.” said one employee in music industry.
Senior Reporter Lee, Kyungmin | kmlee@etnews.com