Apple Music officially launches in Korea

Apple on Thursday flipped the switch on Apple Music streaming services in Korea, offering customers in the Asian market access to the customary three-month free trial through iTunes and the dedicated Music app on iOS.

The announcement came via Apple Music's official Twitter account and the company's regional website, both of which contain links to sign up for a three-month trial.

For customers in Korea, individual memberships come in at $7.99 per month or $11.99 for families of up to six people. Due to licensing negotiations with local music industry organizations, as well as other economic factors, pricing is slightly lower than other markets like the U.S.

Today's launch comes one day after Apple Music rolled out in Israel and more than one month after rumors claimed the service would soon launch in South Korea. At the time, a Korean music federation announced it had struck a deal with Apple to pay out royalties to artists, suggesting an official debut was in the offing.

Apple Music was announced more than one year ago at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in 2015. The service launched last June in more than 100 markets and has since gained more than over 15 million paying subscribers.

At this year's WWDC, Apple announced an upcoming app redesign set to roll out this fall for iOS, Mac, Windows and Apple TV that promises a streamlined interface and quick access to frequently used features.

10 Comments

christopher126 4366 comments · 16 Years

About 8 years ago

Anyone remember the naysayers about how poorly Apple would do in Japan and Korea? Huh.i'd like Ai to have two buttons upon logging in...First "Anyone w/ a college degree or has read a book in the last two years!" and the other entry button to be for "Everyone Else!" or maybe simply, "Positive People," and "Negative People." Regards,

applesauce007 1702 comments · 17 Years

That's the way to grow earnings from services up to 30% of total.

Go Apple !

revenant 610 comments · 15 Years

What we want over here is an Apple Store. Most of my students at the university have an iPhone, many have iPads and there are a few Macs. Younger people love apple products (though they may like it for many reasons, if something is considered popular and equated with wealth- Koreans want it.).

ksec 1502 comments · 18 Years

Is $7.99 acceptable in Korea? Seems rather expensive to me.

gmgravytrain 884 comments · 8 Years

christopher126 said:

Anyone remember the naysayers about how poorly Apple would do in Japan and Korea? Huh.i'd like Ai to have two buttons upon logging in...First "Anyone w/ a college degree or has read a book in the last two years!" and the other entry button to be for "Everyone Else!" or maybe simply, "Positive People," and "Negative People." Regards,

Sure, right about when the iPhone was being introduced. No one was going to buy an iPhone because Japan was filled with people using those high-end featurephones that supposedly did everything the iPhone couldn't do. Thanks to Softbank Japan, Apple shut up those anti-Apple doubters over the course of a few years. It's par for the course to believe every Apple product or venture is going to be a massive failure because... well, just because. So it's inevitable there are going to be those doubters about AppleMusic being a failure because Apple doesn't deserve a free chance of success like other companies get.

Where are all those Sony featurephones now? They're still around but only have a small market share far less than the iPhone.