HYBE’s superfan platform Weverse has launched a new in-app music streaming service called ‘Listening Party’.
The new service lets artists and fans host “online parties” within the app where they can listen to curated playlists together, and chat in real time.
The new service integrates Spotify as its primary streaming partner.
Weverse President Joon Choi has confirmed in an interview with MBW, to follow later, that users will need both a Premium Spotify subscription and a Weverse account to access the Listening Party service.
While all Weverse users can join these virtual listening events, hosting capabilities are exclusively available to subscribers of Weverse’s Digital Membership program, a monthly subscription service launched last December.
Weverse‘s Digital Membership subscription offers extra features – for an additional fee – like Listening Party hosting as well as real-time translation in 13 languages, plus offline saving options, AI-powered video quality enhancement, and other exclusive benefits.
According to HYBE’s CFO, Kyung-Jun Lee, speaking on the company’s Q4 earnings call, while the Digital Membership service is “in the beginning stage,” its profits “are expected to increase gradually,” with revenue recognition starting from January 2025 following a month’s free trial for users.
The company’s “artist-indirect” segment, which includes merchandising, licensing, and the Weverse superfan platform, saw revenues jump 14.5% YoY to KRW 809.29 billion ($593.56 million) in 2024.
Weverse says that Listening Party will “offer a new way of communication” for fans, artists, and labels through music.
The platform notes that “fans can come together to voice their support while simultaneously providing tangible benefits to their favorite artists through active streaming”.
For artists, the new in-app ‘Listening Party’ streaming service offers a new avenue for engaging with superfans, while labels can use the feature for promotional campaigns when releasing new music.
“The main priority of Weverse is to offer the ultimate fan experience,”
Joon Choi, Weverse
Joon Choi, President of Weverse, emphasized the company’s strategic vision behind the launch: “The main priority of Weverse is to offer the ultimate fan experience,” said Choi.
“By introducing services like Listening Party, Weverse is dedicated to fostering ongoing participation between artists and fans while simultaneously offering artists a chance to tap into the increased opportunity in direct-to-fan engagement.”
The launch of the new in-app streaming service arrived three months after Weverse published its 2024 Global Fandom Trend Report, which showed a 30% year-over-year increase in artist communities on the platform to 162.
Weverse counted 9.4 million monthly active users as of the end of 2024 (see below).
Weverse also hit the milestone of 150 million cumulative global downloads in 2024, while artists shared about 206,000 posts on the platform. Fans created 370 million posts and sent 4.88 million digital Fan Letters.
Weverse Live, the platform’s real-time video feature, streamed 5,787 broadcasts totaling 4,779 hours of content with 11.25 million viewers and 426 million total views.
The platform has attracted high-profile international artists in recent months, including Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion, and Conan Gray.
Joon Choi recently participated in SXSW Session, entitled The Future of Music: Building a Superfan-Centric Business to discuss superfans in the music business.
“Once fandoms grow beyond a certain level, their needs expand beyond general social media, and dedicated platforms like Weverse are necessary to retain the fans,” said Choi.
“Weverse is a tailor-made platform for superfans, integrating e-commerce, streaming and community features that are necessary to meet the growing needs of superfans.”
He added: “Artists and fans know that Weverse is where the most loyal, core fans are. Because of this, it creates a unique environment where they can interact in a more meaningful way.”Music Business Worldwide
