By Yoon Sung-won
Samsung Electronics and Soribada plan to launch a new music streaming service for relatively cheap prices, sources said Thursday.
The new service will be provided on Galaxy smartphones and will start from September.
Tentatively called “Streaming Radio,” the service will allow users to listen to music as if on a radio, once they choose a certain genre or musical artist.
“We hope this new music app will make Samsung smartphones more appealing to customers,” a Samsung source said.
They plan to charge 2,000 won per month for the service.
This is much less than the average 6,000 won monthly payment for other existing services.
Once commercialized, the new music streaming service will be the second business project to be conducted between the two companies, following a music application launched last year.
Soribada joined hands with Samsung Electronics to supply music sources to Samsung Music, which was established in September.
Samsung Music is part of Samsung’s content marketplace, “Samsung Hub,” which comes free with the purchase of recent smartphone models, including the Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note3 and the Galaxy S5.
Soribada has lagged behind in competition with the music source service arms of major companies, and has remained the lowest ranked in the market.
The decision to cooperate with Samsung Electronics, the world’s top smartphone maker, was part of Soribada’s efforts to exit that situation through a diversification of distribution channels.
With the new streaming service launched, Soribada is expected to see its market share expand thanks to its competitive price.
So far, Loen Entertainment’s MelOn has dominated the local music source service market with a 56 percent market share. CJ E&M’s Mnet and Neowiz Internet’s Bugs Music ranked second and third with 18.5 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
Soribada was in fifth place with 3.3 percent, following KT Music’s Olleh Music with 9.3 percent.
With news of the deal with the nation’s biggest conglomerate, Soribada shares closed up at 3,535 won, hitting daily limit high.