The world’s largest music streaming platform Spotify on Friday announced that it would officially launch its service in South Korea in the first half of 2021. “We are excited about our upcoming launch in South Korea, a market recognized as an epicenter for music, culture and tech innovation,” Alex Norstrom, chief freemium business officer of Spotify, said in a statement. According to Spotify, South Korea -- the sixth-largest music market globally -- is an important market

The music video of "Dynamite," K-pop superstar BTS' 2020 megahit song, has racked up 700 million views on YouTube, its agency said Friday. The video surpassed the mark at around 9:41 p.m. Thursday, just four months after its release, according to Big Hit Entertainment. BTS now has six music videos that have more than 700 million views on the global video-sharing website, including "DNA," "Boy with Luv," "Fake Love," "MIC Drop (Steve Aoki Remix)&quo

The number of South Korean moviegoers nose-dived more than 80 percent on-year in November as the third wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the country, data showed Thursday. A total of 3.59 million people went to theaters last month, down 80.7 percent from 18.6 million tallied a year ago, according to the monthly data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). From a month earlier, the November tally fell 22.4 percent from 4.63 million. The revenue plunged 79.3 percent on-year to 32.1 billion

The highly anticipated Netflix original series “Sweet Home” will kick off its first season Friday, bringing the celebrated webtoon to life. “Sweet Home” is about teenager Hyun-soo, played by Song Kang, who moves into a new apartment after losing his family. In the apartment, monsters that reflect human desires appear, which Hyun-soo and his neighbors have to fight off as they solve the mystery behind the apartment. The original webtoon that was serialized on portal site

K-pop girl group TWICE ranked No. 72 on the Billboard main albums chart this week, renewing its highest record on the US music publisher's ranking. "Eyes Wide Open," the group's second full-length album, took 72nd place on the Billboard 200 chart refreshed Tuesday (US time), seven weeks after its release in October. It is the second time that the nine-member group's album has landed on the chart since its ninth EP, "More & More," entered the chart at No. 200 in June. T

K-pop superstar BTS has hit the top five on a Billboard radio airplay chart for the first time with its mega-hit single "Dynamite." The band's first English-language song rose one notch to rank fifth this week on the Pop Songs radio chart updated Tuesday (US time), according to Billboard. The chart is one of the main radio airplay charts of Billboard, measuring total weekly plays of the top 40 songs on around 160 mainstream radio stations. It is the first time that BTS has made it t

Though the COVID-19 pandemic limits us from going to New Year celebration concerts, local cinema franchise Megabox will screen the recordings of the New Year celebration concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, according to its announcement Tuesday. The 90-minute recording of the Berlin Philarmonicker, one of the most prestigious orchestras in the world, holding its New Year’s Eve concert under the baton of chief conductor Kirill Petrenko, will be

Veteran actor Youn Yuh-jung and her movie “Minari,” directed by Lee Isaac Chung, appear set for smooth sailing to the 2021 Academy Awards. Local movie distributor Pan Cinema announced Monday that Youn won an award for best supporting actress from the Boston Society of Film Critics for her role in “Minari.” Composer Emile Mosseri also won an award for best original score for his music in Lee’s movie. Since the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Ja

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra releases season programs from January to April, coping with pandemic times

At year-end peak season, performing arts scene braces for worst wave of virus

The Korea National Ballet’s firing of a member earlier this year for traveling abroad during the home-quarantine period has come to the center of a legal dispute, as the state labor committee viewed it to be an “unfair dismissal.” According to the performing arts scene on Monday, the National Labor Relations Commission officially acknowledged that the national ballet troupe’s dismissal of Na in March was unfair. The labor committee viewed that Na had the responsibili

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) said Monday that cinema ticket sales this year are expected to drop 73.3 percent on-year to 510 billion won ($467.54 million), influenced by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Local movie theaters’ sales tumbled by 71.2 percent to 498 billion won for the January to November period, from 1.72 trillion won during the same period last year. It is unlikely that sales will pick up in December, KOFIC said, as the COVID-19 crisis is worsening here with 7,0

The South Korean movie industry did not have much to say about director Kim Ki-duk’s death on Friday in Latvia from COVID-19 complications. None of the local movie associations released an official statement about the matter, and only a few of Kim’s acquaintances from the local film industry sent short social media messages mourning his loss. “You left lonely. We had makgeolli in Insadong and it became the last time we met. Goodbye, Ki-duk,” Won Dong-yeon, CEO of Rea

Kim, Chung Kyung-wha will go onstage in Seongnam on Dec. 20, leaving two-thirds of seats empty

South Korean movie director Kim Ki-duk died of complications from COVID-19 in Latvia on Friday.  News reports from Russia said the director died in the hospital from complications associated with COVID-19. Kim Ki-duk's family confirmed to multiple Korean media that the news was correct and that they had received a call on the day.  According to the sources, Kim arrived in Latvia in the middle of last month. He reportedly lived there with the help of film industry figures in L