It seems that major music service companies such as Melon and KT Music are in full competition to dominate the artificial intelligence (AI) sound service market. Main competitors are SK Telecom and KT and LG U-Plus.


According to the industry on March 15, Melon and SK Telecom are making the fastest movement in relation to artificial intelligence service.

Melon, a subsidiary of Kakaotalk operator LOEN Entertainment, has been selected as a ``who`` ``artificial intelligence sound source service by SK Telecom in September of last year when the company released a voice recognition AI speaker ‘Who’.

‘Who’ is able to provide music • radio broadcasts according to user voice commands, and read weather, news, and schedules. ‘Who’ can be also used for food delivery such as pizza and chicken. Among them, the AI sound service is a service that allows users to play music if the user asks to listen to the desired music without searching for the music.


Sales of ‘Who’ is steadily increasing. ``Who`` was reported to have been sold more than 60,000 units in cumulative number and about 10,000 units per month. The industry expects that if the app is kept being sold steadily, sales will exceed 200,000 units per year.

Besides, LOEN Entertainment has recently developed a task force (TF) internally to provide its own AI service in addition to the SK Telecom’s ‘Who’. The company explained that it plans to allow users to listen to their favorite songs directly from the playlist, which is a collection of music they prefer.

A representative of LOEN Entertainment said, ‘The main content in voice AI service is music. We will work with other companies in addition to SK Telecom to provide AI music services.’


LG U plus has confirmed to acquire a 15% stake in KT Music, a subsidiary of its competitor KT, for KRW 26.7 billion. As a result, LG U plus will become the second largest shareholder of KT Music.

KT has launched ‘GiGA Genie’, which combines an AI personal assistant service and an IPTV set-top box. If ``Who`` focused on voice recognition (listening), GiGA Genie focused on visual-based AI service through TV interlocking and camera built-in with voice recognition AI speaker. KT Music``s music streaming service ‘Genie Music’ is interlocked with the user and plays the user preferred song once the users tell their song title.

LG U plus users will be able to use music service of KT Music in the future. Also, it is expected that KT music source service will be installed on AI speaker which is currently under development by LG U plus.


A representative of LG U plus said, ‘We have not discussed AI music service partnership in this share investment’. But he also added, ‘We are planning to release AI speakers that will be differentiated from other companies in the second half of the year. And AI speaker user will be able to use the music service of KT music.

On the other hand, market research company, Gartner predicts that the global market for AI speakers will reach USD 2.1 billion in 2020, or about KRW 2.46 trillion. In addition to SK Telecom, KT``s GiGA Genie, LG U plus AI speaker, Naver Line``s AI speaker ``Wave`` are also expected to be released.

By Kim Soo Yeon newsnews@


[ copyright ⓒ The Digitaltimes ]