Genie Music

Not to be confused with Genie Records.

Genie Music (Korean: 지니뮤직), a subsidiary of KT Corporation, is a South Korean company that specializes in the production and distribution of music content. Its music streaming service is the second most used in South Korea with 2.5 million subscribers as of June 2018.^[4][5]

Genie Music Corporation

Native name	주식회사 지니뮤직
Company type	Public joint-stock company
Traded as	KRX: 043610
Industry	contents (music)
Predecessor	Blue Cord Technology Co., Ltd. (as a division)
Founded	February 7, 1991
Headquarters	6th - 8th floors L7 Hotels Gangnam Tower, 415 Teheran-ro, Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul , South Korea
Area served	worldwide
Key people	Kim Hoon-bae (CEO)[1]
Products	music albums, online services
Services	production, distribution
Owner	KT StudioGenie: 35.97%[2][3] CJ ENM: 15.35% LG U+: 12.70%
Parent	KT Corporation
Website	GENIEMUSIC.co.kr/

History

The company's history can be traced from the music contents division of Blue Cord Technology, established in 1991. The same division then owned Muz (now Olleh Music), one of the major music portals in the country. The division was also strengthened by the acquisition of Doremi Media (one of South Korea's well-known music publishers) in 2000.

In 2007, Blue Cord was acquired by KT Freetel, and upon merging with the former, made the music division a separate company named KTF Music. In 2009, the company was renamed as KT Music due to the merger of KTF and its parent KT Corporation.

It acquired KMP Holdings in 2012.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Following the investment of LG Uplus, the company changed its name to Genie Music in March 2017.^[14][15]

In October 2018, Genie Music and CJ ENM's CJ Digital Music merged, with Genie Music being the surviving entity and CJ ENM being the former's second largest shareholder with 15.35%.^[2]

Assets

• Genie (online music service)
• Shop&Genie Archived 2015-11-24 at the Wayback Machine (music service for stores and other businesses)

Distribution Network

Present

Domestic

• 143 Entertainment
• Biscuit Entertainment
• GBK Entertainment
• KQ Entertainment
• MODHAUS
• Vine Entertainment
• Star Empire Entertainment
• Signal Entertainment Group^[16]
• Stone Music Entertainment (digital format only; 2018–present)
  • WakeOne
  • Hi-Lite Records
  • AOMG (with Kakao Entertainment)
  • Amoeba Culture
  • Off The Record Entertainment
  • LM Entertainment
• Happy Face Entertainment (with Kakao Entertainment)
  • HF Music Company
  • Dreamcatcher Company
  • D1CE Company
• Music Factory Entertainment
  • MTN ENTERTAINMENT (with Kakao Entertainment)

Foreign

• • King Records 'You be Cool' division (AKB48)
• ShowBT Entertainment Philippines Corp (2020–present)
  • SB19

Former

Domestic

• Astory Entertainment (2017–2019, now with NHN Bugs)
• J. Tune Camp (defunct)
• Jellyfish Entertainment (2017–2022, now with Kakao Entertainment)
• JYP Entertainment (until 2018, now with Dreamus Company)
• Lion Media
• MBK Entertainment (2013–2014; now with Kakao Entertainment)
• NH Media
• SM Entertainment (until 2018, now with Dreamus Company)
• Source Music (2010–2016; now with Kakao Entertainment and later on YG Plus)
• Stardom Entertainment (defunct)
• Starkim Entertainment
• Swing Entertainment (until 2023; merged into WakeOne)
• WM Entertainment (2017–2021, now with Sony Music)
• YG Entertainment (until 2019, all releases now distributed by subsidiary YG Plus)
• YMC Entertainment

Foreign

• Avex Group (until 2018, now with Dreamus Company)
• J Storm (until 2018, now with Dreamus Company)

References

1. Genie Music appoints Kim Hoon-bae as new CEO Archived 2017-06-23 at the Wayback Machine (Park Soo-hyeong, ZDNet Korea, 2017-6-23)
2. Genie Music poses threat to Melon by acquiring CJ Digital Music Archived 2018-10-23 at the Wayback Machine (Jun Ji-hye, The Korea Times, 2018-10-09)
3. Ha-neul, Kim (July 15, 2022). "[특징주] 지니뮤직, '우영우' 훈풍에 주가 움직인다 'KT스튜디오지니 자회사'" [[Features] Genie Music, 'Woo Young-Woo' stock price moves on warm wind 'KT StudioGenie subsidiary']. NBN TV (in Korean). Archived from the original on July 15, 2022. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
4. Sohn Ji-young (April 17, 2018). "Kakao's Melon app dominates Korea's music streaming service market". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
5. Son Ji-hyoung (June 24, 2018). "[Kosdaq Star] Genie Music garners investor attention on anticipated M&A". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on November 10, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
6. "KT Music History". Archived from the original on 2016-12-28. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
7. "Blue Cord Technology History". Archived from the original on 2017-08-27. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
8. "Doremi Media History". Archived from the original on 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
9. KTF acquires Blue Cord Archived 2017-08-27 at the Wayback Machine (Nam Seung-bong, Ulsan Daily Newspaper, 2007-11-14)
10. Blue Cord changes name to KTF Music Archived 2017-08-27 at the Wayback Machine (Lee Soo-eun, NextDaily, 2008-3-28)
11. Blue Cord renames as KTF Music Archived 2017-08-27 at the Wayback Machine (Dorothy H.W. Sim, DigitalTimes, 2008-3-28)
12. KT acquires KMP Holdings "for music competitiveness" Archived 2018-06-14 at the Wayback Machine (Jung Yoon-hee, ZDNet Korea, 2012-11-2)
13. Effects of KT Music's acquisition of KMP Holdings on the "Big Three" Archived 2017-08-27 at the Wayback Machine (Choi Jung-soo, The Asia Economy Daily, 2013-3-8)
14. LG Uplus invests in KT Music... "Strengthening the competitiveness of music platform" Archived 2017-08-09 at the Wayback Machine (Shin Min-kwan, The Chosun Ilbo, 2017-3-15)
15. Song Su-hyun (March 15, 2017). "KT, LG Uplus join hands on home IoT, AI services". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
16. "Daum 원하시는 페이지를 찾을 수가 없습니다". Archived from the original on 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2018-08-06.

External links

• Official website (in Korean)