Genie Music to launch 5G music platform

Genie Music CEO Kim Hoon-bae speaks during a press conference at Nuritkum Square in western Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of KT

By Baek Byung-yeul

Genie Music, KT's music streaming service provider, will launch a new music platform based on fifth-generation (5G) networks to capitalize on the rapidly-growing mobile music market, the company said Wednesday.

The affiliate of Korea's No.2 mobile carrier said its music 5G platform will feature not only music streaming service but also visual content.

“Visual content will be a core element in the future of music streaming services,” Genie Music CEO Kim Hoon-bae said during a press conference at Nuritkum Square in western Seoul.

Genie Music is the country's second largest music streaming platform following Kakao M's Melon. The company announced last month that it will take over Mnet.com, the fourth largest digital music platform owned by entertainment mogul CJ E&M. When the merger is completed Oct. 10, CJ E&M will be Genie Music's second-largest shareholder.

With the merger, the company said it will have a 35 percent market share in the streaming market here. Kim said Genie Music aims to secure 5 million subscribers by 2022 to become the No. 1 music streaming platform here. Genie Music currently has about 2.5 million subscribers and Mnet.com has around 600,000 while about 4.5 million subscribe to Melon.

For the 5G network-based platform, Kim said the company will concentrate on providing visual content.

“According to market researcher Wise App, the aggregate amount of time Koreans spent on video streaming in April was 25.8 billion minutes, which is triple the figure from March, 2016. Visual music content is also rapidly growing, so we are aiming to lead the music streaming market by focusing more on visual content,” Kim said.

To demonstrate its technology, Genie Music showcased a hologram of late singer and composer Yoo Jae-ha. The hologram version of Yoo sang his song “Past Days” together with local vocal band Sweet Sorrow.

“Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Yoo and we saw there are still many people missing his music. So we decided to recreate Yoo using KT's hologram technology,” Kim said.

“With the technology we have, we tried to connect the past and the present. We are planning to provide more hologram content exclusively available on Genie Music by the second half of next year.”

Kim also said the company will launch an in-vehicle infotainment service by the first half of next year.

“The current in-vehicle infotainment service is just mirrors a smartphone to the car display. With Genie's in-vehicle service, drivers can not only receive the traffic conditions and navigate using the map, but also they are able to get music recommendations based on where they are heading to,” Kim said. “For instance, if you are heading to an amusement park, Genie will play some exciting music for you.”

Kim added Genie Music is working on supplying its in-vehicle infotainment services to six car makers including Jaguar Land Rover.