Pison Contents, a domestic Korean music distributor has finally forged a deal with Spotify to provide K-pop music. Its subsidiary Music Spray will start global distribution of K-pop through Spotify from April 2013next month.
Spotify currently has more than 30 million users in the United States and Europe, but until now the service, launched in 2008, has not been available in Korea, which is heavily dominated by domestic firms such as Melon, and Soribada. The two account for over 60% market share in Korea.
iTunes’ Music Store is also not available in Korea and experts point to the much cheaper cost of digital music circulated in Korea compared with overseas. An MP3 file at Melon or Soribada is priced at almost a 10th the cost from iTunes.
Music Spray also distributes Korean digital music to iTunes and Amazon as their official business partner.
Music producers pay a membership fee to create an “artist account” at the Music Spray site and enables distribution across Korean and global music sites at the same time. The earnings are automatically paid to music creators.
Pison says the service has paved way for lesser-known indie musicians in Korea to promote their music abroad.
