The center of gravity in Korea's music streaming market is rapidly shifting to overseas platforms. Just five years ago, overseas platforms held only about a 20% share, but now the combined monthly active users (MAU) of YouTube Music and Spotify is approaching 10 million. That is almost on par with the combined size (about 12.75 million) of the five major domestic services—Melon, GENIE MUSIC, FLO, VIBE and Bugs.
According to app statistics analysis platform Mobile Index on the 14th, 9월 YouTube Music's MAU was 8,108,439, a 2.4-fold increase from September 2021 (3.34 million). During the same period, Spotify surged from 210,000 to 1.69 million, nearly an eightfold jump. In contrast, Melon fell 21% from 8.69 million to 6.81 million, and GENIE MUSIC dropped 40% from 5.06 million to 3.04 million. FLO declined 35% from 3.13 million to 2.02 million, while Naver's VIBE decreased by more than 40% from 880,000 to 520,000. Bugs has been stagnant in the 330,000 range for years.
The user gap is also clear in aggregate indicators. In September 2021, the combined MAU of the top five domestic apps reached 18.7 million, but as of September 2025 it shrank to about 12.75 million. Over the same period, YouTube Music and Spotify jumped from 3.5 million to 9.8 million.
This shift has become even more pronounced this year. YouTube Music rose for nine consecutive months, from 7.31 million in January to 8.1 million in September. It has not fallen even once since 7.39 million in March, effectively establishing itself as the only app in Korea showing "steady growth." Spotify's growth also steepened after it introduced an ad-supported free plan in October last year. It increased from 1.27 million in January to 1.5 million in June and 1.69 million in September.
Meanwhile, domestic platforms continue to see declines in users. Melon briefly rebounded from 6.87 million in January to 7.36 million in May, but fell again after June to 6.81 million in September, the lowest in five years. GENIE MUSIC inched up from 2.76 million to 3.04 million, but is still down more than 2 million from 2021. FLO rebounded from 2.05 million to 2.14 million, then slipped back to 2.02 million. VIBE saw users plunge sharply since the second half of 2023, dropping to 520,000 in September this year.
The key drivers of the market shift are "price competitiveness" and "content scalability." YouTube Music provides an effective feeling of "using it for free" by bundling ad removal, offline downloads and background playback for YouTube Premium subscribers. Spotify lowered the barrier to entry by running a "free membership" that lets users play music for free for certain periods in exchange for listening to ads. Both services minimize inconveniences in ad-supported free tiers and naturally induce paid conversion. They are also rapidly expanding an ecosystem centered on "music and video," spanning not only general tracks but also cover songs, live videos and podcasts.
The Fair Trade Commission moved to sanction "YouTube tying" late last year, but industry sentiment largely says "it's already too late." As a corrective measure, Google plans to launch a "Lite plan (monthly 8,500 won)" without YouTube Music, but most expect it will be hard to change the market landscape. Spotify, too, is maintaining its offensive by broadening its user base through the effects of its ad-supported free plan.
A music streaming industry official said, "YouTube Music already has a complete ecosystem that combines video, community and subscriptions, so tweaking plans or features won't cause users to leave," adding, "As Spotify's ad-supported free user base solidifies, reasons to return to domestic apps are gradually disappearing."