Loen strengthens Melon's marketing platform

Loen Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Shin Won-soo speaks during a press conference at the COEX ntercontinental Hotel in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Loen Entertainment

By Yoon Sung-won

Loen Entertainment, operator of the nation’s top music streaming service Melon, said Monday it will strengthen its entertainment marketing platform service, tapping into its long-accumulated customer database.

“As the largest paid music service platform operator in Korea, we have sought growth based on innovative technologies and services that connect stakeholders in the music industry,” Loen Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Shin Won-soo said during a press conference in Seoul, Monday.

“We expect the new platform service will help entertainment firms seek new business opportunities while allowing individual artists opportunities to promote themselves and communicate with their fans.”

Established in 2004, Melon dominates the domestic music streaming market with about 28 million users, with Genie Music by the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier KT following by a large gap. Loen, which used to be an affiliate of SK Telecom, maintains collaborative marketing activities with the telecom operator to attract more customers.

The company said it will provide the data on its users’ consumption patterns, which it has collected since 2004, to music artists and entertainment firms through the marketing platform service. Loen also said it will provide a personalized music custodian service to its users.

“Melon has been like an online music store during the last 10 years. And now we seek to improve it as a new, integrated marketing platform for the music industry,” Loen Entertainment Melon Business Unit Executive Vice President Lee Je-wook said.

As a marketing tool, the platform includes a fan community service called “Melon AZTalk” and a music artists’ merchandise shopping mall named “Melon Shopping.” It also has the Partner Center that provides support to entertainment firms in running marketing activities through the platform, the company said.

“Entertainment firms will be able to attract more users through the new marketing platform that provides detailed profiling data on customers,” Lee said. “Indie artists, who have had difficulties in promoting themselves to the public, can now reach them through our vast user base.”

Loen added that it will add new service such as concert ticketing “Melon Ticket” to the music streaming service while upgrading the Partner Center and the Melon application to reflect expanding demand for more personalization.

Meanwhile, the Melon services are not available to users overseas due to international licensing issues of music content, the company said.