Global streaming of K-pop music has surged by 42% this year compared to the previous year, fueled by the worldwide popularity of K-pop. According to a weekly report from Luminate, a US music market analysis firm, as of October 5th, cumulative on-demand audio and video streaming for the top 100 K-pop artists and groups in the world has reached 9.04 billion streams, marking a 42.2% increase compared to the same period last year.
Japan emerged as the country with the highest K-pop listeners, with 9.7 billion streams, followed by the United States (9.2 billion), Indonesia (7.4 billion), South Korea (7.3 billion), India (6.2 billion), the Philippines (4.2 billion), and Mexico (3.5 billion).
The analysis also revealed that K-pop’s popularity among Generation Z (born in the mid-1990s to the 2000s) females in Japan is significant, with 39% of Japanese Gen Z females listening to K-pop, making them 105% more likely to listen to K-pop than the average Japanese person.
The top K-pop groups, including BTS, TWICE, BLACKPINK, Stray Kids, and NU’EST, showed varying regional streaming patterns. While these groups had a substantial Asian fanbase, their dependency on different regions differed. For instance, NU’EST had 67.6% of streams from Asia, with North America accounting for 14.4%, Latin America for 9.0%, and Europe for 7.2%. BTS, on the other hand, saw 34.9% of their streams coming from the Americas, with Stray Kids having 37.2% of their streams from the Americas.
Luminate noted that the regional composition of streaming varies by artist, highlighting the importance of understanding the geographical distribution of streaming for each artist.
Source: yna.co.kr
