South Korea music streaming platform users / usage rates: 2018 - 2026

Note: sources use different methods

1. 2025 annual average monthly users and 2024 MAU

Method note: 2025 South Korean Android + iOS smartphone-user sample; smartphone-maker apps excluded.

2024 South Korea Music Streaming App MAU Snapshots

Platform	2025 avg. monthly users
YouTube Music	9.80M
Melon	6.34M
Spotify	3.85M
Genie Music	2.57M
FLO	1.73M
SoundCloud	1.17M
Naver VIBE	0.81M

Platform	2024 Jan	2024 Dec
YouTube Music	7.07M	7.48M
Melon	7.10M	6.93M
Genie Music	3.17M	2.82M
FLO	2.25M	2.09M
Spotify	0.70M	1.24M

2.South Korea Music Streaming App MAU Snapshots

Platform	2018 Dec	2019 Jan	2020 Oct	2021 Sep	2022 Jan	2023 Aug	2024 Oct
YouTube Music	—	—	1.65M	3.34M	4.08M	6.04M	7.55M
Melon	4.20M	4.41M	5.98M	8.69M	7.69M	6.77M	7.07M
Genie Music	2.12M	2.19M	3.04M	5.06M	3.98M	3.22M	2.92M
FLO	1.38M	1.70M	2.04M	3.13M	2.71M	2.09M	2.18M
Naver VIBE	0.14M	0.18M	—	0.88M	0.95M	0.91M	0.61M
Bugs	0.53M	0.46M	—	—	—	0.37M	0.36M
Spotify	—	—	—	0.21M	—	0.47M	1.28M
Naver Music	0.92M	0.89M	—	—	—	—	—

3. January & February 2026 MAU

Metric: Monthly active users (MAU)

Method note: App-statistics estimate from MobileIndex / IGAWorks.

Platform	Jan. 2026 MAU	Feb. 2026 MAU
YouTube Music	8,095,911	7,876,419
Melon	6,958,879	6,879,129
Genie Music	2,914,147	2,796,564
Spotify	1,994,540	2,036,959
FLO	—	1,857,772
VIBE	—	451,205
Bugs	—	278,087

4. 2025 Music Industry White Paper survey

Method note: Survey of 2,155 music-content users in. This is a survey-based usage/preference rate, not MAU.

1	YouTube Music	37.6%
2	Melon	31.7%
3	Genie Music	9.0%
4	FLO	5.6%
5	Spotify	5.2%

5. YouTube app MAU in South Korea

Normal YouTube app only - not YouTube Music

Period	Users
2025 average - Avg. MAU - Source	48.13M
January 2026 - MAU - Source	49,282,920

6. YouTube app MAU in South Korea

Normal YouTube app only - not YouTube Music - Different sources for metrics !

Year / period	Users	Metric / scope	Source
2013	10 Million +	Monthly visitors in Korea; web/site-style visitor metric, not app MAU	Maeil Business Newspaper
Jul. 2018	30.26M	YouTube app users; Android smartphone sample	WiseApp / Platum
Dec. 2018	25,543,487	YouTube MAU; Nielsen KoreanClick	Korea Times
2025 average	48.13M	Average MAU, normal YouTube app	MobileIndex annual app ranking
Jan. 2026	49,282,920	MAU, normal YouTube app	MobileIndex / Newstap

Method note: These figures should not be treated as one perfectly continuous time series. The 2013 number is a monthly visitor figure, while the later figures are app/mobile MAU estimates from different providers.

7. Info on YouTube Music, Melon, Genie Music, and Spotify in South Korea.

Platform	Korea launch / status
Melon	Launched by SK Telecom in November 2004 as a wired/wireless digital music portal. It later moved through Loen/Kakao and is now part of Kakao Entertainment. (SK Telecom)
Genie Music	KT launched the Genie digital music service in late 2011. The company/service later became branded around Genie Music, with KT Music changing its company name to Genie Music in 2017. (Korea Herald)
FLO	FLO comes from SK Telecom’s earlier Music Mate line, but the public FLO service was launched/rebranded on December 11, 2018 as SK Telecom’s new personalized music platform. (Newswire)
YouTube Music	YouTube Music/Premium became available in Korea through the May 2018 paid YouTube Premium rollout; Korea was treated as paid-membership only, not a normal free music-tier market. Standalone YouTube Music Premium launched in Korea on September 2, 2020. (blog.youtube)
Spotify	Launched in South Korea on February 2, 2021 as a paid service. Spotify later added its free ad-supported tier in Korea in October 2024. (Spotify)