South Korea Ranks 4th in Global Music Exports; Domestic Album Sales Show Decline

South Korea secured the fourth position globally in music export capacity, behind the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Luminate, an American music and entertainment analytics firm, officially listed South Korea in fourth place on its 2024 “Luminate Export Power Score” ranking. The “Export Power Score” is a comprehensive metric that evaluates countries based on the number of top streaming artists per nation, the count of countries importing music, the scale of streaming in those importers, and the number of artists with overseas listeners. Countries with a large number of artists expanding internationally, achieving strong results abroad, and holding a high share of the global music market receive higher scores. Japan is identified as South Korea’s main importer of music. With the world’s second-largest music market, Japan accounted for the largest portion of South Korea’s music exports in 2024, followed by Taiwan and Indonesia. In terms of rankings, Germany and France followed South Korea, occupying fifth and sixth places respectively, while Puerto Rico, Australia, Sweden, and Brazil ranked seventh through tenth. K-pop’s influence in global markets continues to grow. According to Luminate’s 2024 year-end report, seven out of the top 10 best-selling CDs in the United States were K-pop albums. Non-K-pop releases included only three albums: Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” (1st place), “1989 Taylor’s Version” (7th place), and Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” (10th place). These seven K-pop albums sold a total of 1,942,000 CDs in the United States. However, concerning signals have emerged in South Korea’s domestic music market, which is the birthplace of K-pop. According to Circle Chart, operated by the Korean Music Content Association, South Korea’s domestic album sales in 2024 amounted to 93.3 million units, a 23.4% decrease from 115.7 million units in the previous year. This marked the end of nine consecutive years of growth, the first time such a decline has occurred since 2014. Album exports followed a similar trend. According to statistics from South Korea’s Customs Service, K-pop album exports in 2024 totaled $291.8 million, representing only a 0.55% increase from $290.36 million the previous year. This reflects a slowdown after explosive growth immediately following the pandemic. Considering that K-pop album exports were worth $74.6 million in 2019, while the absolute value has increased, the rate of growth has significantly slowed. In 2024, Japan ($89.8 million), the United States ($60.29 million), and China ($59.79 million) accounted for 72.8% of K-pop album exports. Despite the decline in domestic album sales, the ongoing increase in South Korea music’s global influence highlights the unique structure of the K-pop industry.