Line Music (stylized as LINE MUSIC) is a

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...

-based

music streaming service A music streaming service is a type of online streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to s ...

Line Corporation was a Japanese internet company. It was a subsidiary of Z Holdings, a joint venture between SoftBank Group and Naver Corporation. It was established in 2000 as the Japanese subsidiary of South Korean NHN Corporation's online game community si ...

(now

LY Corporation , trading as LYC, is a Japanese internet company owned by A Holdings, a joint venture between SoftBank Group of Japan, and Naver Corporation of South Korea, founded in 2023 by the merger of Z Holdings, and four subsidiaries including Line Co ...

) that combines existing Line Messenger app with the entertainment system that users not only can stream the music on-demand, but users can share the music directly to Line Messenger. The chairman for the Line Music division is Lim-Suk Jun. The Line Music app is an alternative version of Naver VIBE in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. It is considered as the biggest listening app in the country.

History

Announcement

In December 2014, Line Corporation reveals their plan to expanding their Line product range beyond their messaging service Line to provide a one-stop entertainment portal where users can use Line services to consume media, in which these plan has been made in October 2014. This expansion has been announced during the Line annual event, on the same time the company also announces the introduction of online

Manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

service and also new game ventures, with investment of music streaming division worth ¥480 million. Line Corporation, in the early stage, has signed the deals with

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

and

Avex Group Avex Inc. ( kabushiki gaisha , commonly known as Avex and stylized as avex) is a Japanese Conglomerate (company), entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J- ...

to allows their works to be streamed in their services once the service has been launched. Following the announcement on the same month, Line Corporation acquired MixRadio from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in order to make its expansion to music industry globally. Line Corporation, however stated that the MixRadio will continue to operate separately from parent company.

Launch in Thailand

Line Music was initially launched in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

where Thailand is the second largest Line messenger market share in the world after

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, with 33 million registered users using this service, compared to the Japanese market with 58 million registered users. Line has signed deals with major labels in Thailand such as RS Music, BEC-TERO, SpicyDisc and What The Duck to allow their works to be streamed in this service. On 25 August 2016, Line Thailand announced their intention to shut down and move to Line TV on 1 October 2016.

Expansion to Japan

On 11 June 2015, Line Corporation launched the Line Music in Japan, with new deals with major labels has been signed such as

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

and King Records.

Expansion to Taiwan

On 10 July 2019, Line Corporation started to provide Line Music service in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Features

Catalogue

At the launch, Line currently has 1.5 million licensed tracks from 30 music labels and publishers worldwide. But the company will expand their catalogue to 30 million licensed tracks by 2016.

Integration with Line messenger

One of the main features of the Line Music is the integration with the Line Messenger where users can send the music track or playlists to friends or chat group in Line Messenger. In addition, users can stream the music simultaneously with the person the user is chatting with in order to hear the music at the same time. A user without a Line Music subscription can preview the music for up to 30 seconds only.

Promotion

On 11 July 2015, Line Corporation air its first

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

about Line Music in Japan. In this video, a girl is dancing and singing at home while listening to Carly Rae Jepsen's latest single, I Really Like You.

Competition

Before the launch of the Line Music in Thailand,

Deezer Deezer is a List of companies of France, French music streaming service and media service provider founded in 2007 that provides users with access to a vast library of music tracks, podcasts, and radio stations. It offers streaming services in ...

, Rdio and Tidal were the only competitors in the Thai music streaming market, at the time where other major services such as

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

are still absent in Thai market. However, unlike in Thailand, Japan did not have any major streaming services launched in their country such as

, Rdio,

Xbox Music Groove Music (formerly Xbox Music and Zune Marketplace) is a discontinued Audio player (software), audio player software application included with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11. The app is also associated with a now-disco ...

Pandora Radio Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by the broadcasting corporation Sirius XM that is based in Oakland, California in the United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the " Music Genome Proje ...

etc., with the exception of

Music Unlimited Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) was a digital media delivery service operated by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI). SEN provided access to services, including PlayStation Network for games, Video Un ...

by Sony Entertainment Network prior to the launch of Line Music. However the pricing for the monthly subscription of Music Unlimited was high at ¥1,480 due to Sony's monopolistic practices and also their decision to withhold their catalogues from iTunes Store until end of 2012. However, after the closure of the Music Unlimited and with the Sony's announcement to replace its service with PlayStation Music which is powered by

on 28 January 2015. On 30 June 2015,

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

launched

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

worldwide, which makes it the third competitor in music streaming industry in Japan.

Availability

Line Music is currently available in

and

Reception

The reception for the Line Music was well received by the customers in both

and

with 6.2 million downloads within the first months of availability.

Accounts and subscriptions

Line Music provides different types of accounts, vary by countries. Currently, Line Music provide free-tier account in Taiwan.

References

External links

Official website
{{Music streaming services 2015 software Music streaming services Android (operating system) software Online music stores of Japan Jukebox-style media players Naver Corporation IOS software 2015 establishments in Japan 2015 establishments in Thailand 2016 disestablishments in Thailand 2019 establishments in Taiwan