KT Music takes on Apple, Google

KT Music, a Korean online music service company and affiliate of mobile carrier KT, has been making efforts to refine its services amid the tough competition in the sector.

In its latest move, the company announced Monday that it has beefed up its music service, dubbed Genie, in a bid to grab the upper hand and lure more customers.

At a media event for the launch of the new Genie service, the head of the company expressed his confidence in competing with rivals in the market for online music services.

“KT Music is looking forward to competition with global music services providers, including Google and Apple, as it will accelerate the growth of the entire music market,” said Kim Sung-ook, chief executive of KT Music, at the KT headquarters in Seoul.

He, however, cast doubts on the success of global competitors in the Korean market, mentioning some obstacles such as different market conditions and a more complicated system for copyrights than foreign markets.

Both Google and Apple have recently launched their own streaming music services called Google Play Music and Apple Music, respectively, and are said to be eying the Korean market.

Standing at the core of the new Genie service is its new subscription fee system in which users are charged for listening to music.

Under this system, users will be charged 10 won (less than 1 U.S. cent) per song after they finish listening.

The monthly base subscription fee, which is set low at 100 won, will remove the barrier for potential customers who used to hesitate to subscribe to the Genie music service, according to the Seoul-based firm.

Many online music-streaming services require users to pay monthly fees, of around 6,000 won up front or more, for unlimited streaming and download -- a business model which falls short of catering to the different needs of customers.

“The new service was developed following questions such as, ‘Are all users satisfied with the subscription systems with high monthly base fees?’” said the CEO, adding that the music services should change to keep pace with the fast changing IT devices.

In order to safeguard users from being charged excessive fees, the new Genie service alerts users when the play count reaches 100.

Aiming to offer users a seamless music streaming service, Genie allows users to listen to music through all devices including IPTV and wearables. Users can play on-demand songs and music videos on IPTVs from where they left off on their mobile devices.

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@herealdcorp.com)