Through the years market of streaming services in Korea was changing, and evolving. 2020 might be a year that will be remembered as the beginning of a new era of Korean music charts.

In recent months people working for companies like Melon, Genie, Bugs, and Soribada were confirming that the number of subscribers has declined. They've blamed COVID-19 pandemic and global streaming services that provided long 2-3 months free trials which made South Koreans thinking a lot about paying all the time for something that they can get without any money from the foreign companies.

Employes of major music streaming services never revealed the real, well-hidden cause of those declining numbers. That's obvious, they didn't want to make a free advertisement for "new kids on the block" - FLO and VIBE, two streaming services that raised to occasion and have already grown so much that they've secured 3rd and 4th spots on the market.

Sometimes we talk about our favorite idol groups charting well and competing on multiple charts, but with all this talk we forget that those charts are also competing between themselves and FLO, and VIBE already caused a massive shift in Korean streaming service business.

FLO is a streaming service created by South Korean Telecom. It was created in December 2018 with cooperation with such big partners as JYP, SM, and BigHit. At first, FLO offered three months free beta version. Since March they're offering special discounts for... MelOn users - which clearly shows that they're trying to attract the biggest number of KPOP fans with agenda similar to:
"you will pay less for streaming service so you will have more money for physical albums, lightsticks, and other merchandise."

VIBE was created by Naver, the same company that many years before created Naver Music which caused at least a few controversies when it was bugged and failed with proper actualizations that in consequence prevented multiple idol groups from achieving all-kill. With all complaints from fans and industry workers, Instiz decided to kick Naver out of iChart list. The same thing happened with MNet and for some time fans were delighted. 
VIBE raised faster than anyone would imagine and Naver already suspended users access to Naver Music forcing them to change to the new app/platform.

VIBE surpassed both Bugs and Soribada, and it couldn't be any more ignored by Instiz. Just a few days ago VIBE was added to iChart, as the newest chart that will have an impact on which artists will succeed to achieve "The Golden Grail" of music charts - certified Perfect All-Kill.

Now let's wait and see if those transitions in the streaming services market will "play" well for KPOP idols or in the end it will bring more success to artists releasing OST songs.