There are 3,168 indie musician groups (7,545 individual indie musicians) in Korea as of February, according to a report by Xindie Lounge on Friday.

Xindie Lounge is organization that helps promote indie music and is operated by the Record Label Industry Association of Korea.

Musicians who have held at least two in-person shows were included in the survey.

Most of the indie musicians, 2,806 groups, were based in Seoul.

“The number of indie musicians continues to grow but they face difficulties in producing music and performing due to the decreasing number of venues for shows and rising labor costs. They are working part-time jobs to make ends meet which gives them less time to focus on music,” said Yoon Dong-hwan, chair of LIAK.

“They are in desperate need of financial aid from the government and funding," he said.