Music service sites
KT genie,
Olleh Music, Bugs, and
Mnethave eradicated the automatic streaming of their suggested songs in efforts to prevent 'digital sajaegi' [mass buying] which has been recently brought up by agencies to prevent the manipulation of digital music charts.
In accordance with
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's measure to prevent digital
sajaegi, kt Genie, Olleh Music, Bugs, and Mnet will remove the automatic playing function of suggested songs. Agencies would pay to be featured on the automatically streaming suggested songs on music sites to promote their new artists' releases. Many music sites have the function to listen to popular charts. However, even when the suggested songs aren't part of the charts, customers pay to stream the song as they listen to the charts. This act has also been coined as 'combination selling'.
Also, after the automatic playing function is eradicated, the music sites will be suggesting 4-6 songs instead of the previous setup of just 1 song. Since artists are now starting a trend of pre-releases as well as many digital releases, this way, the music sites can promote various new songs, and if users want, they can also discover many new songs.
This implementation is effective starting on September 2 on their sites as well as mobile apps, taking a small step in the prevention of the manipulation of digital music charts.
