This is the second in a two-part series examining Korea’s digital music industry. – Ed.

If it’s hard to name more than a few Korean artists who are currently active and not idol stars, K-pop ballad singers or TV discoveries, it’s not because they don’t exist.

“There are only two genres in today’s Korean music,” said Shin Dae-chul, head of the Barun Music Cooperative, at a forum in Seoul. 

“Idol music, non-idol music. The rest is meaningless. ... (The current digital music system) has naturally pushed out consumers in their 40s and 50s, and musicians as well. They can’t work in this system.”

Musical artists agree with this.

“It’s definitely not a market that’s structured to be favorable for artists,” said the vocalist of an indie rock band, speaking to The Korea Herald on condition of anonymity. 

The singer said her band, as well as other bands she has spoken to, has had bad experiences with distributors and platforms that were taking artists for granted. 

“It would be really difficult to get someone on the phone to change incorrect information about us on the site, or to remove our songs altogether.” 

For a while, she said that her band even considered not distributing their songs in Korea at all. “We don’t even make that much off streaming,” she said, noting that music streaming platforms take 40 percent of the streaming revenue. 

“We said, we don’t need it, take the songs down.” 

But there are not many other options for indie artists to make an income, she said.

She and industry insiders like Lee Youn-hyuk, head of secretariat at the Record Label Industry Association of Korea, said the way digital music is consumed in Korea is a root cause of why only certain artists can succeed in the digital music environment.

“Most people consume music by listening to the top 100 songs on the charts, although that’s difficult to prove quantitatively because every music streaming service is different,” Lee told The Korea Herald in a telephone interview. 

“Since most people don’t look for songs outside of the top 100, the charts become very conservative. The same songs are consumed over and over again, making it hard for new songs to break in.”

As of Thursday, five of the top 10 songs on the real-time charts from Melon, the largest digital music servic provider, are from one album -- IU’s “Chat-Shire,” which was released Oct. 23. 

Two other songs are from idol stars -- Taeyeon’s “I,” released Oct. 7, and f(x)’s “4 Walls,” released Oct. 27. 

One song is from a drama soundtrack, and the remaining two are from Lim Chang-jung and Zion.T, both of whom are known for their megahits with each new album. 

The reason for this pattern of consumption has a lot to do with price. Digital music platforms in Korea all offer unlimited streaming packages at about 6,000 won ($5.25) a month. It is only another 2,000 won to 3,000 won to add unlimited mobile downloads for music. At this price point, consumers do not feel the need to carefully curate their listening choices. 

“Labels will often talk about switching between distributors in order to gain an edge with platforms, either through playlist recommendations or special mentions,” said Lee. 

“But even that’s only for artists and labels that have a bit of pull. For new faces, it’s a nonstarter.”

While acknowledging the difficulties presented by the current digital market situation, both the anonymous vocalist and Lee noted the artists could also do more on their end to improve the situation. 

“We write and produce all of our own music, meaning that we sign our own contracts for distribution,” said the vocalist. 

“That’s the only reason we know all these problems with distribution rights. Most artists don’t know about this kind of stuff.”

Lee added that artists in Korea need to study up. 

“A lot of indie artists abroad do the promotional work themselves. They hire someone to do that for them only when they’ve reached a point in their music where both they and their label can make income together,” Lee said.

“You can’t eliminate market economics from music, especially pop music.”

“Artists have to know how their music will reach and be consumed by listeners. If they can’t figure it out themselves, they need to know how to find good partners that can help them,” he added.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)