[UX Review] Spotify vs. popular Korean music services (Melon, FLO, Genie) Part 1

In my last post, I talked about how Spotify recently launched in Korea as well as in many other countries around the world.

Currently, the key players in Korea's digital music services market are Melon, YouTube, FLO, and Genie, most of which are Korean services. Besides YouTube, no other global music service, even Apple Music, has been very successful in Korea.

Until now, the competition has been mostly among domestic services, and their design and main features have become more uniquely Korean and similar to one another over time.

So today, I want to compare the basic structure, flow, and main features of Spotify to those of Melon, FLO, and Genie. My ambitious goal is to predict the likelihood of Spotify's success in Korea. A more realistic goal is to understand how the music-listening and app-using experience on Spotify compares to that of popular Korean music services for Korean users.

I'll discuss first impressions and similarities in this post and deep dive into main differences in my next post. Let's get started!

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS

During the last two days, I had a chance to look at and play with each of the apps.

Even at first glance, there is a big difference in the overall app design. Spotify keeps everything to the minimum. Its design is simple and minimalistic.

The Korean apps, Melon, FLO, and Genie, are packed with text, images, and videos. They have everything a user could possibly need on their main pages — a list of new album releases, hit music videos, the top 10 music chart, you name it.

Spotify, Melon, FLO, and Genie from left to right

This difference is also evident in the bottom navigation bar.

Melon has five buttons — Home, Chart, Station, Search, and Library.

FLO has four — Home, Browse, Search, and Library.

Genie also has five buttons — Home, For You, Search, Library, and Menu.

But there are only three buttons on Spotify's navigation bar — Home, Search, and Library.

I've had a chance to use many Korean and American websites and apps, and one of the main differences that have stood out to me is the information density. Unlike in the U.S. and other Western countries, Korean websites and apps tend to be lengthy and densely packed.

Take a look at the two most popular search engines in Korea, Daum and Naver, below.

Compared to Google, which is maximally simple and minimalistic, these sites are more complex, busy, and information-dense. In the earlier days, they used to even more jam-packed.

Daum and Naver in the early days

With global companies like Google leading the charge towards more intuitive and simplistic design, the website and app design trends in Korea are also moving in that direction. And this is also the case for other Asian countries, including China.

So to circle back, Korean digital music services have much higher information density compared to American/European services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music.

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THINGS IN COMMON

Before deep diving into the differences, there are important similarities between Spotify and Melon, FLO, and Genie that I want to point out.

1. Personalized music recommendation

Spotify, Melon, FLO, and Genie all offer personalized music recommendations in the form of curated "daily mixes." Using user data, including the user's music-listening history and the frequency of the listens, the companies understand the user's music preference and recommends songs that closely match their preference.

2. Music chart

They also offer music charts that rank the most popular songs, updated every hour or so. This feature allows users to easily browse through and listen to top hits.

3. Playlist recommendations by genre, mood, situation

Spotify, Melon, FLO, and Genie also provide playlist recommendations

by genre ex) Pop, Hio Hop, R&B, Dance/Electronic

by mood ex) happy, fun, calm, sad, mood refresher

by situation ex) workout, cafe, nighttime, drive

With these playlist recommendations, the users can easily and quickly listen to songs that fit their unique needs and wants.

4. Library

The overall structure of the library is similar across the four apps. In the user's library, there is a list of liked songs, artists, albums, and playlists that the user has liked or followed. There are also the user's own playlists that he or she has created in the past.

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NEXT TIME

I don't want this post to be too lengthy so I'm going to stop myself here. In my next post, I'll discuss interesting differences between Spotify and Melon, FLO, and Genie.

More to come soon!

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