Spotify is reportedly close to launching its service in the South Korean market.
According to a report published in The Korea Herald yesterday (March 24), the company has set up an office in Seoul at a WeWork building in the Daechi-dong area.
Citing sources, the report adds that Peter Gradelius (Associate General Counsel / Head of Corporate Legal at Spotify) has been “registered as the Korean chief”.
South Korea would become Spotify’s 80th active market, and a launch in the country would follow various rumours about the company’s potential roll out there.
In early February, news site Sports Chosun reported that Spotify would be available in the country this year.
The Korea Herald’s sources added that locking down licensing deals with Korean ‘labels and copyright collectives’ remains a key challenge.
On February 24, Spotify revealed that there had been more than 41 billion K-Pop streams on the platform up to that date and that K-Pop’s share of listening on the platform increased by more than 1,800% between January 2014 and January 2020.
Since 2014, K-Pop music has been streamed for more than 134bn minutes on Spotify, according to the company.
South Korea’s streaming market is estimated to be worth $800 million ( trillion won) this year, reports The Korea Herald.
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