Streams with muted sound will no longer count on Melon

On August 25 KST, Korean music platform Melon announced that streams with muted sound will no longer count toward chart scores beginning on October 1 at 12 AM KST. 

The change will affect charts such as the 'Top 100', 'Hot 100', as well as Melon's daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly charts. 

Earlier this week, Circle Chart also announced its plans to install a system for screening muted streams within this year. 

However, some K-netizens were skeptical that the measure would truly affect the "mass streaming" practices of large K-Pop fandoms. They commented, "Just use headphones", "All you have to do is plug in corded headphones", "I'm already using an app to bypass this on other streaming services lol", "The fans have their ways, no matter how hard you try to stop them", "A lot of other streaming services already have this system, so why is Melon so late getting it kekekeke", and more.