YouTube Music's MAU hit 7.88 million in February, topping Melon's 6.88 million, as Korean music platform usage fell 5% in 2025, a sixth straight year of decline.
There was a time when "No. 1 on the Melon chart" was a symbol of success in Korea's popular music market. Just a few years ago, the ranking of homegrown music platforms served as the measure of a hit song. Now, neither the public nor the entertainment industry treats Melon rankings as the absolute indicator of success they once were. While K-pop is expanding its influence in the global market, the standing of domestic music platforms is rapidly faltering. Experts believe that as music consumption channels have splintered across YouTube Music, Spotify, Shorts and global charts, domestic platforms have lost their market dominance. According to the "2025 Music Industry White Paper" published by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) on Monday, the size of Korea's music market in 2024 is estimated at about 13.5 trillion won. That marks 8.6% growth from the previous year. Analysts say K-pop's global popularity and the expansion of concerts, albums and video content drove the growth of the industry as a whole. By contrast, domestic music platforms continue to struggle. According to KOCCA's music industry report, domestic music streaming usage in 2025 fell 5% from the previous year based on the top 400. It marks a sixth consecutive year of decline since 2019. Market leadership has already tilted toward global platforms. According to data analytics solution Mobile Index, as of February this year YouTube Music's monthly active users (MAU) reached 7.88 million, surpassing Melon (6.88 million) by about 1 million. YouTube Music, whose users numbered around 3.34 million in March 2021, first overtook Melon in December 2023 and has since cemented its position as Korea's largest music platform. Over the same period, Spotify's MAU also grew nearly tenfold, from the 200,000 range to the 2 million range. Melon has been stagnant at around 7 million users for years, while other homegrown platforms such as KT Genie Music (043610), FLO, VIBE and Bugs have been unable to escape the trend of declining users. Spotify, the world's No. 1 music platform, is rapidly catching up with Korea's third-tier operators on the strength of its ad-supported free plan and a partnership with Naver Plus Membership. KOCCA diagnosed that the strengthening market dominance and lock-in effect of global platforms such as YouTube Music are leading to declining usage of domestic platforms. A decline in users leads directly to deteriorating profitability. Jeon So-yeon, leader of the popular group (G)I-DLE, recently mentioned her No. 1 Melon chart song "I Do Really Hate Being Sick" on her YouTube channel, saying, "Even if you hit No. 1 on the music charts, not much money comes in." She also said the music revenue from her 2018 release "LATATA," when it stayed around 20th place, seemed to have been more than her current No. 1 song. This shows that declining usage of domestic music platforms is also affecting artists' payouts. Cracks are also appearing in the earnings of platform operators. SK Square (402340) last year sold its management rights in Dreamus Company (060570), the operator of FLO, for 55 billion won. Dreamus Company succeeded in turning a profit as of 2025, but its music service segment is still posting losses. Bugs has also seen its revenue fall from 56.8 billion won to 44.9 billion won over the past three years and turned to a loss last year. Genie Music maintains annual revenue in the low 300 billion won range and operating profit of around 15 billion won, but its high proportion of related-party transactions with shareholders such as KT (030200), LG Uplus (032640) and CJ (001040) has drawn assessments that its independent growth potential is limited. The offensive by global platforms is being waged on both price and ecosystem. YouTube Music has drawn in users with a bundle strategy in which subscribing to YouTube Premium effectively comes with the music service. Spotify has lowered the barrier to entry through its ad-supported free plan "Spotify Free" and its tie-in with Naver Plus Membership. Domestic music platforms charge between 8,000 won and 12,000 won per month for unlimited streaming subscriptions. YouTube Premium costs 14,900 won per month, including ad-free video playback and YouTube Music, while the Premium Lite plan, which excludes YouTube Music, costs 7,900 won per month. Based on the difference between the two plans, the effective price of YouTube Music is calculated at around 7,000 won. The tendency of domestic users to consume from a single platform also works in favor of global platforms. According to the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI), 64.5% of domestic music streaming service users use only one music platform. This means YouTube Premium users have little incentive to separately add a subscription to a domestic music platform. In the same study, 47.5% of YouTube Music users responded that they had stopped subscribing to a domestic music service because of YouTube Music. The advantage of global platforms is also clear in the content experience. YouTube Music provides both music tracks and music videos on a single platform, and Spotify is also expanding its music video service. Domestic platforms remain stuck in a service structure centered on audio listening. In KOCCA's survey, online video services accounted for the largest share as a channel for obtaining music-related information, while music sites ranked only third. Analysts say that as music consumption expands from "listening" to "an experience of watching and sharing," global platforms with video ecosystems are gaining the upper hand in attracting users. "These days, users don't simply listen to music; they consume it in connection with videos, short-form content and fandom activities," an industry official said. "Particularly for K-pop consumers who value the audiovisual experience, the video and recommendation ecosystems of YouTube Music and Spotify serve as a powerful comparative advantage."
