Tencent-owned music streaming service Joox is one of Spotify’s key rivals in south east Asia, and that’s a region where K-Pop is enormously popular. Credit the company for being quick off the mark, then, following the recent news that Spotify has lost a big chunk of its K-Pop catalogue due to a breakdown in licensing negotiations with Kakao M.
Joox has put out a press release essentially to remind everyone that it still has all the K-Pop artists who’ve been abruptly removed from Spotify, listing the likes of Monsta X, Seventeen and Epik High just to hammer the point home. It also notes that K-Pop titans BTS and Blackpink were two of its top three most-streamed bands in 2020, although those are two of the artists still available on Spotify.
It’s a timely brag, then, but more interesting is the fact that Joox has been getting involved in livestreamed K-Pop concerts – awards shows included – and has launched an original series called ‘Idol Station’ that it says “allows K-Pop fanatics to chat and get to know their beloved oppas better online”.
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