Two Years Into Spotify’s Launch in South Korea, the K-Wave Is Here To Stay
You’ve probably heard of a little genre called K-Pop, the energetic and highly danceable phenomenon that migrated from South Korea to the world. K-Pop’s success—Korea is the seventh-largest music market on the planet—has not only resulted in a global export of music from the country, but in other pop culture sensations, too. Squid Game and Parasite, anyone?
In the latest episode of Spotify: Discover This, our host Lea Palmieri is joined by Korean Canadian singer-songwriter Junny for a deep dive into the K-Music scene beyond K-Pop. The pair speaks to some of the biggest names in K-Hip-hop, including Tiger JK, Yoon Mirae, Dynamicduo, Jay Park, pH–1, and SINCE. From there, they move into K-R&B, K-Rock, and Original Sound Tracks (OSTs). Also appearing: webtoons, a musical foray into the metaverse, and even Trot. We’ve released the episode in both English and Korean.
The episode arrives just as Spotify marks our second anniversary in Korea; it also features an interview with Spotify Korea Managing Director David Park.
“Spotify is still in its early stage in Korea, which not only is the birthplace of K-Pop, but also the hub of rich cultural contents with global impact,” says David. “We’ll continue to pave the way by connecting more Korean artists, music, creators, contents, and culture with more listeners worldwide.”
And Spotify has had plenty to celebrate from Korea over the past two years. From K-Pop On! Track and our Korean hip-hop playlist KrOWN, as well as the addition of podcasts, there’s a bit of K-Culture for everyone. Take a look.
Listen to the K-Wave episode of Spotify: Discover This in Korean here.
