A week in to TikTok’s #10yrswithBTS campaign with K-Pop stars BTS, it has already notched up more than 400m video views. The post TikTok’s BTS anniversary challenge gets 400m views in a week appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s no secret that HYBE is looking to expand its business further beyond South Korea, and indeed beyond K-Pop. The post Report claims HYBE is raising $380m for US acquisitions appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

There is trouble brewing for two of the most prominent companies in the K-Pop industry, despite their growth and global expansion. The post Contracts and insider-trading charges spell trouble for K-Pop firms appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

BTS may be on hiatus, but that doesn’t mean the marketing activity around the K-Pop stars stops. The post TikTok goes big on #10yrsWithBTS anniversary celebration appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

SM Entertainment has published its latest financial results. They’re the first since it fended off an attempt by rival HYBE to take control. The post SM Entertainment revenues grew 20.3% in first quarter of 2023 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

K-Pop firm HYBE has unveiled its latest artist, Midnatt, releasing the official music video for their debut release in six languages. The post HYBE’s virtual artist Midnatt releases debut in six languages appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

BTS may be on hiatus but that hasn’t prevented the company behind them, Hybe, from achieving record first-quarter financial results. The post Hybe reports another strong quarter as K-Pop growth continues appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

The dust is settling from K-Pop firm Hybe’s attempt to become the largest shareholder in rival SM Entertainment. The post Hybe to sell SM Entertainment shares while Kakao plans global expansion appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Hybe and its fellow K-Pop companies combined still only account for “less than 2% of the revenue shares of the worldwide music industry” The post Hybe chairman warns of challenges facing the K-Pop industry appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

A sudden peace has broken out in the battle for control of K-Pop music company SM Entertainment, as Hybe abandoned its efforts to buy 40%. The post Hybe abandons its efforts to buy a 40% stake in SM Entertainment appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Twice are one of the K-Pop groups plotting a path to global stardom in the wake of BTS and Blackpink’s worldwide success. The post K-Pop stars Twice have launched their own Roblox experience appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Things are moving fast in South Korean tech company Kakao’s efforts to buy a stake in K-Pop firm SM Entertainment. The post Kakao wants to buy a bigger stake in K-Pop firm SM Entertainment appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

It’s annual-awards time for global music body the IFPI, which is staggering its rankings for artists, tracks and albums over several days. The post Taylor Swift regains top spot from BTS in IFPI global artist chart appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

South Korean music company Hybe enjoyed another bumper year in 2022, with its revenues growing 41.6% to 1.78tn won. The post K-Pop giant Hybe’s revenues grew 41.6% to $1.36bn in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

We wrote about tech firm Kakao buying a stake in Korean music company SM Entertainment earlier this week, but now it’s been joined by Hybe. The post Now Hybe moves to take a stake in K-Pop firm SM Entertainment appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Fresh from selling a 4.2% stake to mobile games firm Com2uS in November, South Korean music company SM Entertainment now has another investor. The post More K-Pop consolidation as Kakao buys into SM Entertainment appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Soundtrack Your Brand, one of the main companies providing music to shops, restaurants and other businesses, has offered some data points. The post K-Pop streams for businesses grew by more than 200% in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Korean creative industry body KOCCA’s report on the first half of 2022 held good news for South Korea’s music industry. The post South Korea music revenues grew by 31.7% in first half of 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Chinese service NetEase Cloud Music prides itself on having plenty of young listeners who are keen to discover international music as well as homegrown tracks. The post NetEase Cloud Music salutes success of K-Pop group (G)I-DLE appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Today our focus is on K-Pop: the music and artists of South Korea whose horizons were truly global in the music industry of 2022. The post 9 notable moments for K-Pop music in 2022 appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Last week’s release of Spotify Wrapped 2022 generated the usual mountain of social-media buzz – but also some controversy. The post Spotify caught in the middle of BTS and Blackpink fandom-feud appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

This article from Last.fm is Partner Content. Most eruptions in pop music happen over a long period of time rather than immediately. ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ was Elvis’s first US number 1, but his sixth single (albeit his first on RCA Victor). Even The Beatles had been plugging away for several years before Beatlemania happened.  The story […]

K-Pop giant Hybe has published its financial results for the third quarter of 2022. The post Hybe revenues grow and Com2uS buys stake in SM Entertainment appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Despite premature reports of the demise of K-Pop titans BTS, the group returned for a stadium concert in their homeland this weekend The post BTS Busan livestream attracted more than 49m viewers appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

With exclusive licensing deals off the table in China, streaming services are moving to expand catalogues with non-exclusive agreements. The post NetEase Cloud Music swells K-Pop catalogue with YG deal appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Korean group Blackpink are returning soon with new music, and they’ll be building anticipation for it with a concert in the PUBG Mobile game. The post K-Pop stars Blackpink to play a virtual concert in PUBG Mobile appeared first on Music Ally. Source: Music ally

Spotify’s catalogue of K-Pop music is returning to its former glory, after the company managed to end its high-profile dispute with South Korean firm Kakao Entertainment. The new agreement is global, including South Korea, with the separation of the two having been one of the sticking points that led to Kakao’s catalogue being removed from […]

Tencent-owned music streaming service Joox is one of Spotify’s key rivals in south east Asia, and that’s a region where K-Pop is enormously popular. Credit the company for being quick off the mark, then, following the recent news that Spotify has lost a big chunk of its K-Pop catalogue due to a breakdown in licensing negotiations with […]

Spotify is excited about having finally launched in South Korea, but the company will be rather less excited about losing a significant chunk of its K-Pop catalogue globally. After licensing negotiations broke down with one of South Korea’s biggest distributors, Kakao M, the latter’s music has been removed from the streaming service. The fact that […]

K-Pop giant Big Hit Entertainment had an excellent 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Its financial results, published yesterday, revealed that the company behind BTS’s revenues grew by 36% last year to KRW 796.3bn (around $716.7m). The breakdown is very interesting too. Concert revenues dropped off a cliff, unsurprisingly: down 98% to KRW 3.4bn. However, album sales […]

As we’ve found out when reporting on any story comparing BTS and Blackpink, different K-Pop fandoms can be… competitive. So it’s anyone’s guess what they’ll make of the news that BTS’s parent company Big Hit Entertainment is planning to invest 70bn won (around $63m) in rival YG Entertainment, which includes Blackpink, Bigbang and Psy among […]

K-Pop firm SM Entertainment has unveiled its latest group, and Aespa promises to be a fascinating project. The group will include both human and virtual (avatar) singers, who’ve been introduced to fans one by one to build anticipation. Yesterday saw a teaser interview posted with human member Karina and her virtual version ‘æ-Karina’. SM Entertainment’s founder […]

Korean music company SM Entertainment has announced a partnership with Marvel Entertainment, with K-Pop group SuperM first to benefit – just in time for the release last Friday of their debut album ‘Super One’. There’s a range of dual-branded merchandise available from the SuperM online store: t-shirts, hats, luggage stickers, and special packages with the album and various […]

One of the K-Pop groups that have been smashing down global barriers recently is Blackpink, who you can expect to see splashed over many digital platforms in the coming week ahead of their new album’s release on 2 October. Two examples today: Blackpink have launched an ‘enhanced album’ playlist on Spotify, complete with some videos of Jisoo, […]

K-Pop stars BTS are already one of the big success stories of lockdown livestreams: their ‘Bang Bang Con’ concert in June pulled in 756,000 paying customers. Now they’re following it up with an even more ambitious event. ‘Map of the Soul ON:E’ will take place on the weekend of 10-11 October, with two broadcasts. However, […]

In March, BTS launched a new video series online called ‘Learn Korean with BTS’ – 30 three-minute lessons teaching their global fanbase how to speak the band’s native language. Now this has evolved into a physical package developed by the educational arm of Big Hit Entertainment, the band’s management company. The new product includes four textbooks and a […]

K-pop is the genre that ate the world whole. Acts like BTS, Blackpink, Twice and TVXQ are not just some of the biggest acts within the genre – they are some of the biggest acts in the world. There is a lot that other artists can learn from how K-pop markets itself, how its acts […]

Is there any country in the world where BTS aren’t big? They’re certainly big in Cape Verde: their ‘Black Swan’ track has gone to number one in the country’s iTunes chart. Why are we writing about this? Well, this was the 103rd country where the track had topped the iTunes rankings, breaking Adele’s record of […]

This one is going to get the K-Pop stans roused up. In April 2019, BTS broke the record for one-day video views on YouTube, with the 78m views of their ‘Boy With Luv’ video trumping the previous record-holder, ‘Kill This Love’ by fellow K-Pop group Blackpink. Now the record has been broken again… by Blackpink! […]

Lead: K-pop is eating the world whole and is changing what marketing – especially superfan-centric marketing – can do. We speak to those working in and around the K-pop world to learn how the genre markets itself, where its acts engage with their fans to build incredible levels of loyalty, why trans-media marketing underscores everything they do […]

Music Ally knows card game ‘Uno!’ best for being second only to Monopoly in the chart of ‘games most likely to cause almighty family rows at Christmas’. What we don’t know it for, until now, are digital marketing campaigns with world-famous K-Pop groups. But yes: BTS are taking over the mobile game version of ‘Uno!’ […]

The second morning at this year’s NY:LON Connect conference focused on ‘emerging international and influential markets’. Three territories in particular: South Korea, China, and Russia / Eastern Europe. The track began with a keynote from Sun Lee, YouTube’s head of music content partnerships and subscriptions for Korea and Greater China. Lee was interviewed by Billboard […]

This year we’ve picked 42 (also the answer to life, the universe and everything as fans of Douglas Adams will know) of the trends and moments we found most significant in 2019. What are they? *takes deep breath* industry growth; the European Copyright Directive and Music Modernization Act; Spotify’s two-sided marketplace; Apple Music’s bundled future; […]

It takes a brave person to get involved in arguments between the world’s keenest superfans over whether one artist is better or bigger than another. So doff your caps but retreat a safe distance from music-database Viberate, which has sent out some figures claiming that Blackpink are ‘the biggest K-Pop group’ ahead of BTS. Blackpink […]

On Friday, we covered Spotify starting to slowly open up its Canvas feature to more acts and posting a related blog that gives tips on how those using it can get the most out of its assorted features. One of the tips was “try creating a theme or narrative that crosses an entire album” such as […]

At the time of writing, it’s 19 hours since Big Hit Entertainment’s official Twitter profile for BTS made this announcement: “#BTS TikTok Channel Open!”. 19 hours later, BTS’ TikTok account is being followed by 2.2 million people. Their two posts so far have 2.9m and 1.9m likes respectively. BTS are the latest prominent artist to join TikTok with […]

Korean music firm Big Hit Entertainment held its latest media briefing yesterday, and dropped some impressive numbers to show how its business is surging in 2019. The company’s revenues in the first half of 2019 were more than 200bn Won (around $166m) – already more than Big Hit’s revenues for the whole of 2018. And […]

Well, it’s actually SM Entertainment, Capitol Records AND Caroline who are working together on a new K-Pop supergroup. It’s called SuperM, and will feature members drawn from existing Korean bands SHINee, EXO and NCT 127, as well as Chinese band WayV. And, following the recent Stateside success of BTS and Blackpink, SuperM is very much aimed […]

Today’s the day that BTS fans get to play the band’s new, official mobile game, BTS World. It’s being released by publisher Netmarble as a free download for Android and iOS from this evening (26 June). As we reported previously, the game puts players in the role of BTS’ manager at the start of their career, […]

Music Ally reported last week on the success of K-Pop group Blackpink, specifically on YouTube, where they topped its weekly artists chart with 342m views for their music. Now they’ve been unseated… by another K-Pop group. Yes, BTS are sitting proudly atop this week’s YouTube artists chart, with 307m views for their music in the week […]

K-Pop! It’s big on YouTube, Spotify and all manner of other global digital platforms, thanks to the likes of BTS, Blackpink and other artists following in their footsteps. Now blogging platform Tumblr is getting in on the action by launching its own dedicated K-Pop hub. It’ll be curating posts from fans already publishing on Tumblr, as […]

We’ve reported a few times recently on the way Indian and Latin American artists are dominating the upper reaches of YouTube’s global artists chart. Last week, though, they were trumped by a pop band from South Korea. No, not that one. Blackpink were the top artist on YouTube for the week of 5-11 April with a mightily-impressive […]

2019 is going to be a very big year for K-Pop stars BTS, spurred by their new mini-album ‘Map of the Soul: Persona’. Milestones are already tumbling. The band’s ‘Boy With Luv’ video smashed YouTube’s single-day viewing record, notching up 78m views in its first 24 hours last week. That takes the record from another K-Pop band, […]

Deezer is launching a new hub for Korean pop music on its streaming service. The new K-Pop channel will feature programmed playlists (including some from guest artists like iKON and Stray Kids). “K-Pop is one of the world’s fastest growing genres and is resonating with more and more fans. Deezer’s streams of the genre have already increased […]

You may have noticed that K-Pop band BTS are just a little bit popular around the world. That’s now translating into financial success for the company behind them, Big Hit Entertainment. The firm reported a 132% growth in its annual revenues to 214bn won (around $190m) in 2018, with an operating profit of 64.1bn won […]

Chances are, when asked who the first K-Pop artist with 20 million YouTube subscribers was, many people would guess BTS. But no: their BangtanTV channel currently has 16.2 million subscribers, while the first Korean star to break through on YouTube, Psy, has 12.7 million. So take a bow girl-band Blackpink, whose channel has just crossed the […]

The crossover between video-game Fortnite and music artists is beginning to pick up pace. We’ve seen Marshmello’s Fortnite concert and Weezer’s in-game island, but now K-Pop star Jung Chan-woo is getting the treatment. Chan-woo is a member of popular band iKON, and he’ll now be getting his own ‘skin’ (a playable character/outfit) plus ‘emote’ (dance […]

Twitter is shouting proudly about the popularity of Korean pop music within its community: “With a new global record of 5.3 billion tweets last year” according to a blog post yesterday. Naturally, this is about K-Pop’s popularity outside South Korea continuing to grow, but Twitter is keen to stress the efforts it has been making […]