Loud & Clear 2024, in South Korea
● With over 3,600 South Korean artists were added to editorial playlists, South Korean artists were discovered by first time listeners close to 2.2 billion times on Spotify in 2023 alone
● Royalties generated by Korean artists from Spotify amounted to over KRW 180 billion, marking a threefold increase from 2019 and a 780% rise since 2017
● Top 10 countries that streamed Korean artists the most in 2023 were US, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Thailand, South Korea, and Canada
SEOUL – May 20, 2024: Spotify – the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service – unveiled significant insights into Korean and global streaming data through its Loud & Clear 2024 report.
Launched in 2021, Loud & Clear is Spotify’s yearly report into music streaming, providing a valuable resource for artists and fans around the world about the big news in streaming economics. Spotify remains the only streaming service that publishes this level of data about how much artists are generating each year. The Loud & Clear website includes information on payouts, royalty systems and processes, artist streaming revenue and more.
Record-breaking revenue for Korean artists on Spotify
According to Spotify, Korean artists were discovered by first time listeners close to 2.2 billion times on Spotify, with over 3,600 South Korean artists added to editorial playlists – all in the year 2023 alone.
Notably, royalties generated by Korean artists from Spotify amounted to over KRW 180 billion (USD 138 million), marking a threefold increase from 2019 and a staggering 780% rise since 2017.
The top 10 countries streaming South Korean artists were the United States, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Thailand, South Korea, and Canada.
Expanding opportunities for artists globally
Spotify’s global streaming economics data underscored the platform’s pivotal role in supporting artists worldwide. In 2023, Spotify set the record for the highest annual payment to the music industry from any single retailer, which is over USD 9 billion (KRW 12.2 trillion). That figure has nearly tripled over the past six years, indicating that Spotify has paid over USD 48 billion (KRW 65.1 trillion) to the music industry since its founding.
The company also revealed that Indies generated a record-high of nearly USD 4.5 billion (KRW 6.1 trillion) on Spotify last year. This represents a fourfold increase from 2017 and accounts for half of the total revenue generated by Spotify in 2023. Moreover, Spotify unveiled that it has paid out nearly USD 4 billion (KRW 5.4 trillion) to publishers, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies for songwriters over the last two years.
Furthermore, Spotify disclosed that over half of the artists who generated at least USD 10,000 (over KRW 13 million) on Spotify are from countries where English is not the first language. Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, and Korean lead the pack for performance in languages other than English.
“Spotify has been a significant and consistent driver of transformation in the global music industry, as demonstrated by its Loud & Clear report. We believe that artists around the world deserve clarity when it comes to the economics of music streaming,” said Spotify Korea Head of Music, Jungjoo Park. “Although it’s only been a little over three years since our launch in South Korea, meaning we are still at an early stage, our Loud & Clear data reflect our commitment to local artists and the music industry. We have, and will continue to, actively work towards expanding the reach of Korean music to a global audience by championing local artists, here on ground and also worldwide.”
About Spotify Technology S.A.
Spotify transformed music listening forever when it launched in 2008. Discover, manage and share over 100 million tracks and 6 million podcasts titles, for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features for music including improved sound quality and an on-demand, offline, and ad-free music listening experience. Today, Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 615m users, including 239m subscribers in over 180 markets.
