Tag: KKBOX

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, KK Company, the parent company of KKBOX, announced the launch of its new idol-following platform, "FANKLUB," today (September 4th). With five key features, FANKLUB aims to provide a "one-stop, complete idol-following experience," evolving from simply listening to music into a new arena for two-way interaction between fans and artists, thus ushering in a new chapter of music streaming 2.0. Data from market research firm FMI shows that the global fan interaction market is rapidly expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 18%, and its market value is expected to exceed US$378 billion by 2035. KKBOX's own survey also found that over 9% of fans in Taiwan are willing to spend more than 10% of their income to support their idols, with younger generations demonstrating strong engagement, making the "fan economy" an undeniable driving force in the music industry. Since its beta version launch in August, FANKLUB has accumulated over 8 user interactions. The newly launched "Super Fan" annual membership (NT$620 to NT$1600) further unlocks benefits such as "exclusive content," "exclusive membership card," "early access to concert tickets," "exclusive merchandise," and "exclusive live streams." The platform will also add a private messaging (DM) function by the end of this year and launch an online store, video and audio live streams, and exclusive music live streams in the first half of next year. It expects to reach 5 users within a year and attract over 10 to upgrade to Super Fan status. KKBOX stated that FANKLUB integrates hundreds of billions of listening data points accumulated over 20 years, a membership base of tens of millions, and resources deeply connected with the music industry, combining three core mechanisms: "music listening × artist interaction × fan support." It also introduces exclusive Taiwan-market features such as "early access to concert and event tickets" and "subscription-based one-on-one private messaging." This not only allows fans to participate more instantly and closely in their idols' daily lives but also evolves the platform's role from a music distributor into an interactive bridge between fans and artists. KKBOX General Manager Yeh Chan-yun pointed out that in the past, KKBOX connected fans and works through "Listen Together" or "Best Music Awards Concerts." The launch of the FANKLUB service officially advances the streaming platform to a new stage of two-way interaction, directly responding to the high expectations of the new generation of fans for "actual participation," and driving the next wave of growth in the music industry under the fan economy. Echoing this trend, FANKLUB focuses on three major experience needs: "limited access, priority access, and intimacy," launching five highlight services: • Artist-exclusive content unlocking: Includes posts, audio, and video live streams; upgrading to "Super Fan" unlocks more exclusive content and exclusive support symbols. • Exclusive subscription-based private messaging function: Establish one-on-one dialogue with each artist, supporting voice, image, and video messages, creating a closer interactive experience. • Early access to concert and event tickets: Super Fans enjoy exclusive priority ticket purchase channels, satisfying fans' most urgent need for on-site participation. • One-stop collection of merchandise: Integrates an artist support merchandise store and provides exclusive merchandise purchase privileges. • KKBOX Data Integration: Combining KKBOX listening records with chart data, every playthrough becomes a meaningful support. FANKLUB currently features its first wave of 20 artists, from Golden Melody Award winner Hsiao Huang-chi and heartthrob Huang Wei-chin, to the new generation girl group ELL&s, the new co-ed group B CRUSH, and MEME, who have ventured into cheerleading, showcasing their diverse and cross-disciplinary charm. KKBOX also announced its first exclusive "fan appreciation event" in October, with the list to be continuously expanded in the future.

LG, continuing its "Life's Good" brand spirit, announced the launch of its new global "Radio Optimism" brand campaign. Through music and AI technology, the campaign aims to rebuild deeper emotional connections between people. LG Taiwan has also partnered with music streaming platform KKBOX to launch the "Good Life Radio" social media interaction campaign, inviting users to send care and blessings to important people through song requests, comments, and sharing. The campaign runs for a limited time from now until July 21st. A survey of LG's global users revealed that 68% of respondents believe that making friends has become more difficult in modern society, and 8% admitted to having no meaningful social interactions in the past month. LG Taiwan Chairman Cheng Yuan-kuan stated, "Ninety percent of respondents believe that meaningful social interactions can improve one's attitude towards life. We hope to use the emotional power of music to make it easier to build genuine connections and transform the 'Life's Good' brand spirit into positive energy in daily life." This year's "Radio Optimism" brand campaign continues last year's "Optimism Your Feed" initiative, further integrating music and AI applications into the concept of using social algorithms to deliver positive energy. Through the official event website, users worldwide can simply enter simple text to use AI to automatically compose music, generate personalized songs, and even automatically create album covers, creating their own "heartfelt music." They can then share these with friends or listen publicly, making emotional expression no longer limited by geography or language. In Taiwan, the "Beautiful Life Radio" service is launched simultaneously, replicating the song request interaction of the traditional radio era. In conjunction with the KKBOX music platform, users are invited to send their personalized playlists and a short message to friends and family through AI recommendations or manual song selection. After requesting a song, the system will automatically generate a personalized playlist, making it easy for users to share on social media. This breaks down the virtual appearance of likes and comments on social media, creating a more genuine interactive experience. From now until July 21st, anyone participating in the "Beautiful Life Radio" event and completing designated tasks will have the chance to win prizes worth over NT$10,000, including an LG XBOOM 360˚ Bluetooth speaker and department store gift certificates. For detailed event information, please refer to the KKBOX event page: https://event.kkbox.com/LG-RadioOptimism-2025/ LG emphasizes that whether it's the Beatles who swept the globe in the 1960s or contemporary K-pop, music has always been the best medium for connecting hearts and transcending cultural and linguistic barriers. Through this event, LG hopes to rekindle people's emphasis on genuine interaction in the digital age, making music a bridge for exchanging emotions and conveying warmth, transforming every blessing and concern into the most beautiful companionship and strength in daily life.

KKBOX announced today (February 11th) that the 20th KKBOX Music Awards, scheduled to be held at the Kaohsiung Arena on April 19th, will be hosted by Golden Melody Award-winning singer Tanya Chua as the ambassador and rising all-around idol Huang Wei-Chin for the second time. They also announced 18 domestic and international musicians and groups who will be participating in the performance. ▲The 20th KKBOX Music Awards are scheduled to be held at the Kaohsiung Arena on April 19th. The 20th KKBOX Music Awards will feature 18 domestic and international musicians and groups, including AKASAKI, Mei Show Group, Ding Dang, Chen Hua, Wen Lan, Lollipop, Mango Jump, MARZ23, 911, OSN, Ozone, Patrick Brasca, SUPER JUNIOR-D&E, SUPER JUNIOR-LSS, Tanya Chua, Lin Chia-Chien, W0LF(S), and Huang Wei-Chin. The awards are expected to be broadcast through the official KKBOX YouTube channel and Facebook fan page, as well as platforms including PTS, ETtoday, LINE TODAY, TVBS, Chunghwa Telecom MOD, and Chunghwa Telecom Hami Video. In addition to announcing the 20th edition of the KKBOX Music Chart, KKBOX also explained that since its founding in Taiwan in 2005, it has become the world's first legal music streaming platform, accumulating over 100 billion listens and nearly 50 million playlists. The KKBOX Music Chart, which began in 2006, has also accumulated over 100 million views. ▲Founded in Taiwan in 2005, KKBOX became the world's first legal music streaming platform, accumulating over 100 billion listens to date and nearly 50 million playlists. This milestone reflects its commitment to audience segmentation and diverse musical styles, which will shape the future of music. After more than 20 years of development, Yeh Chan-yun, General Manager of KKBOX Asia Pacific Business Region at KOSTA, stated that KKBOX currently adds an average of 70,000-80,000 songs daily, and over 28 million songs annually in the past two years. Album sales have also increased more than 85 times, demonstrating that continued technological advancements are fueling the music industry's continued growth. Listener listening time has more than doubled, the number of uniquely requested tracks per week has more than doubled, and the number of artist songs requested per week has more than doubled. Many songs have even broken geographical barriers and become popular in different countries and regions. Furthermore, under this wave of digital music development, the Chinese music market has also shown significant growth, including a more than 1410-fold increase in the number of singles, a more than 45-fold increase in the number of albums, a more than 1110-fold increase in the number of single releases, and a more than 30-fold increase in the number of album releases. ▲Ye Zhanyun, General Manager of KKBOX Asia Pacific Business Region and KKBOX, noted that with the recent active short video market, KKBOX has observed that the average length of popular songs played over the years is less than 4 minutes, which has driven the number of plays for songs appearing in short video content. For example, TikTok successfully boosted the play count of Billboard's top songs in the United States, and many songs appearing in Chinese short videos have also become popular playable tracks on KKBOX. Regarding the future development trend of digital music, Ye Zhanyun believes that segmentation and more diverse musical styles will be the future trend. He also expects more songs to be produced at a faster pace and spread rapidly through online social media, thereby doubling the listening time of songs. While observing the trend of content creation using artificial intelligence, KKBOX currently prioritizes compliance with existing Taiwanese regulations. However, given the increasing prevalence of AI-generated content in recent years and its growing role as a creative tool, and even the recent shift in the US Copyright Office's stance to allow AI-generated content modified under human instructions to be protected by copyright law, Yeh Chan-yun stated that KKBOX will continue to adhere to local Taiwanese regulations. Furthermore, because content provided by partners is currently reviewed, AI-assisted creation is not expected to become widespread on the KKBOX platform in the short term. However, Yeh also indicated that the trend of AI-assisted creation is expected to become mainstream in the future, and KKBOX has already observed this phenomenon and may make corresponding adjustments in the future. Regarding KKBOX's current lossless audio service, Yeh explained that it will use the highest original audio quality provided by partners, without additional AI or other technologies to enhance the audio performance. Therefore, if the original audio quality provided by a partner is only at the HD standard, it will not be upgraded to a higher standard through additional technology, ensuring a more realistic audio presentation.

KKCompany Technologies has been invited by Microsoft to join its Unicorn Initiative, and its streaming video service BlendVision One will be available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. The enterprise knowledge AI database BlendVision AiSK is also scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of this year. Its KKBOX service is also preparing to modularize its music streaming technology to target the application needs of medium and large enterprise customers. KKCompany Technologies stated that it will collaborate with Microsoft and focus on expanding into the Southeast Asian market, allowing cloud streaming technology to create more application possibilities with artificial intelligence. Joining the Microsoft Unicorn Initiative will leverage the Microsoft partner ecosystem to accelerate KKCompany Technologies' overseas market expansion. Its multimedia technology brand BlendVision also announced that its smart streaming service BlendVision One is officially available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, and plans to launch the new enterprise knowledge AI database BlendVision AiSK in the fourth quarter of this year. Meanwhile, KKBOX, a legal music streaming platform under KOKO Technology, will integrate artificial intelligence technology with existing music streaming technologies, leveraging modular SaaS services to enter the B2B market and expand the application scenarios of music streaming. KOKO Technology's core technologies focus on "multimedia technology, digital cloud, and AI applications," providing comprehensive digital transformation technology services. It has already expanded from the Taiwan market to markets such as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. Wang Hsien-tang, Chairman and CEO of KOKO Technology Group, stated, "Following our collaboration in 2019, we are once again embarking on a deeper development plan with Microsoft. We are honored to join the Unicorn Program as a strategic partner. We believe that with Microsoft's support and the technological exchange between our two companies, we will create more AI application scenarios and accelerate our business expansion in the Southeast Asian market." Ahmed Mazhari, President of Microsoft Asia, said, "Microsoft, with its market-leading cloud and AI technologies, combined with global business and technological resources, works hand in hand with its partners to achieve success. Microsoft highly values ​​and is optimistic about KOKO Technology's experience and development in music streaming and multimedia technology. We hope that through Microsoft's investment in technical engineering, marketing, and promotion resources, combined with KOKO Technology's expertise in these areas, we can accelerate the empowerment of Southeast Asian customers and SMEs with technology, jointly drive industrial digital growth, and create a new milestone in the AI ​​era."

Founded in 2016, KKBOX Group officially announced today (November 25th) that it will change its group name to KKCompany. The company stated that it will continue to focus on media technology, integrating its audio community KKBOX, video streaming KKTV, streaming technology KKStream, and cultural and creative investment assets KKFARM, thereby fulfilling its mission of "Freeways to Inspiration." ▲KKCompany CEO Lin Kuan-Chun explained that the name change from KKBOX Group to KKCompany was due to the significant growth KKBOX services have accumulated over the years, coupled with the expansion of its business portfolio. Therefore, the company chose to separate the group name from KKBOX to enhance brand recognition. Regarding future development, in addition to continuing to advance media technology applications, besides the existing markets of Taiwan and Japan, Lin Kuan-Chun also revealed plans to expand into the Southeast Asian market. Furthermore, the company has already established a presence in the US market through subsidiaries. Meanwhile, Lin Kuan-Chun also explained that they will continue to embrace the content creation market, enabling more creators who hope to gain greater development opportunities through video content to connect with more content monetization models through KKCompany's services. The company's services will also continue to invest in more diversified market development with content at its core. Regarding the development of existing video content, online live streaming, and ticket sales services, Lin Kuan-Chun stated that they will continue to invest in the previously established blockchain technology development, and will further explore blockchain technology applications and even the NFT application trend. The future development of more media technology applications will also be a focus for KKCompany. Furthermore, regarding KKStream, which they recently identified as a key area for future development, Lin Kuan-Chun believes that even after the pandemic gradually subsides, there will still be development opportunities. This is due to changes in lifestyle and work patterns, especially with more and more companies advocating remote work, and more performances attracting more viewers online. Therefore, the demand for online live streaming will still have considerable development potential.

Following Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music, which all offer family subscription plans, KKBOX, which previously launched its family subscription plan in Hong Kong, has finally brought it to the Taiwan market, offering two plans to cater to different user needs: a "small family of 3" and a "large family of 6". The "small family of 3" plan is priced at NT$199 and includes one head of household and two family members, while the "large family of 6" plan is priced at NT$240 and can be used by one head of household and up to five family members. Both plans are available for subscription starting today. Subscriptions must be made through the head of household's account, and members are invited to join, similar to other streaming music services. Family members who join the subscription will have their own accounts and full access to the service, including personalized content recommendations, accumulated listening achievements, fan badges and event badges, KK Points rewards, prize draws, and exclusive offers. New accounts can directly choose to subscribe to the family plan, while existing users can upgrade directly and invite other family members to join via email. Currently, in addition to the newly launched family subscription plan, KKBOX already offers individual standard audio monthly plans, lossless audio monthly plans, student discount plans, as well as single-purchase and channel partnership plans. Compared to streaming music services already available in Taiwan, KKBOX's family subscription plan is similar to those offered by Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music, but offers a smaller number of subscribers at a lower price, while emphasizing the inclusion of more local Taiwanese Mandarin music and Japanese and Korean pop music.

Having previously partnered with Xiaomi's Xiao Ai speaker, FarEasTone's Wenwen smart speaker, and Google's Nest Home series smart speakers sold in Taiwan, KKBOX can now also connect directly to Apple's HomePod series smart speakers and play music via voice control. This collaboration also makes KKBOX the first streaming music service in Taiwan to support HomePod voice control. Paid users simply need to connect to their HomePod in the KKBOX app settings or select KKBOX as their preferred music service in the Home app settings on iOS. They can then wake up their HomePod or HomePod mini with "Hey Siri" and play songs directly through their HomePod or HomePod mini by saying things like "Hey Siri, play music with KKBOX," "Hey Siri, play the Chinese New Songs Chart with KKBOX," or "Hey Siri, play my favorite songs with KKBOX." KKBOX has been actively expanding its service application market in recent years. Besides enabling KKBOX services on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and PCs, it has also added high-resolution audio playback options and services such as podcast content and shared listening to attract more users. By combining various smart speaker usage modes, KKBOX expects to drive demand for more streaming music services. This collaboration with Apple makes it the first streaming music service in Taiwan to support HomePod voice control, giving users different options besides Apple Music and allowing them to listen to local music content more suited to the Taiwanese market.

KKLab, the core data science and engineering team behind KKBOX, announced the launch of "Lyricist.ai," a lyric-writing assistant service built with artificial intelligence technology, aiming to become the best tool for creators. According to KKLab, "Lyricist.ai" gathers Chinese lyrics, classical and modern poetry, and trending social media phrases, accumulating millions of text entries in its database. Developed with the participation of 20 professional musicians, including lyricist Lin Xi and renowned producer Tao Yiqun (Tower), the service allows creators to input inspirational keywords, specify rhymes, and select a writing style to automatically generate lyric ideas. Creators can also manage their lyrics through the cloud, using it as a personalized lyric-writing tool, and can create anytime, anywhere via connected devices through cloud synchronization. "Lyricist.ai" features a cloud-based editor, a lyrics generation model, and a collection of classic and constantly expanding Chinese text data. It continuously learns from existing Chinese lyrics and innovative creative content, using Natural Language Generation (NLG) to transform diverse writing styles and help creators keep up with trends, thereby creating lyrics that resonate with current popular elements. KKLab aims to accelerate the creation of Chinese songs by rapidly piecing together the puzzle of music composition through artificial intelligence technology.

KKStream, which previously offered services through its commercial video streaming technology solution BlendVision, announced today (June 24th) the launch of a new business model encompassing the one-stop streaming platform KALEIDO, live video streaming MOMENT, and smart video encoding LOOM. This initiative aims to create a "Streaming as a Service" business model and plans to enter the Asia-Pacific streaming technology application market through modular services. KKStream General Manager Tsai Yi-Jen stated that with the continuous growth of internet technology and the significant increase in streaming video usage due to the pandemic in recent years, the demand for online video has also increased dramatically. Therefore, compared to providing customized streaming video technology services for specific businesses in the past, this time a modular product portfolio will be used to provide a one-stop "Streaming as a Service" business model, enabling its streaming technology to be more quickly and easily adopted across various industries and providing the best user experience for various usage needs. The newly launched one-stop modular service includes KALEIDO, which helps businesses build their own online video streaming platforms; MOMENT, which can be used for various commercial performances, events, and interactive online live streaming needs; and LOOM, an encoding technology that dynamically optimizes streaming quality for video streaming services. KKStream emphasizes that it not only dynamically adjusts network transmission resources using artificial intelligence but also improves streaming quality through dynamic encoding adjustments. Furthermore, it strengthens digital copyright management through content encryption, limiting the number of playback devices, and geolocation identification, preventing piracy and copying from affecting content copyright. In its future plans, KKStream also revealed that it will consider entering the virtual reality or augmented reality content streaming service market, which requires larger data transfer volumes, and the streaming game application market, which requires faster online interactive performance. However, at this stage, its primary focus will be on high-quality streaming video and online performance content applications. In addition to expanding its BlendVision commercial video streaming technology solutions through public cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, KKStream is also considering using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) architecture to distribute streaming traffic by setting up servers locally. They are also considering partnering with local telecom operators to deliver streaming content via leased servers. However, considering the differences in network usage patterns across different regions, Tsai Yi-jen explained that they will take a more comprehensive approach to assessing the best technology. For example, they previously tried partnering with local operators in Southeast Asian markets such as Myanmar, but the overall effectiveness was not very good due to differences in local network bandwidth. In the Japanese market, they expanded their presence with KKBOX, successfully establishing partnerships with telecom operators such as KDDI, mainly because the Japanese market has a good network connectivity environment.

Following the recent release of the official iOS 14.5 version, Apple quickly provided iOS 14.6 beta 1 and beta 2 preview versions to developers. The related code reveals that Apple will add a lossless HiFi audio option to the Apple Music service, but it may only be compatible with specific headphone products, such as AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, or the upcoming new AirPods series. According to a report by MacRumors, the code in the newly released iOS 14.6 preview version includes terms like "lossless audio," "high-quality stereo streaming," and the word "HiFi," indicating that Apple plans to add a Hi-Fi audio option to the Apple Music service, allowing users to listen to lossless compressed music. On the other hand, Apple may only allow this feature to be used with certified headphone accessories, such as the currently released AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and the new AirPods headphones expected to be updated soon. Whether it will be open to other headphone brands and provide certification markings for identification remains to be seen, depending on Apple's subsequent announcements. It is currently unclear when Apple expects to announce the addition of a HiFi audio option to Apple Music. Compared to the current service version, it may be offered at a higher price, but it may also maintain the original billing method to attract more users. Besides Apple Music, Spotify, which also offers streaming music services, has confirmed that it will launch a streaming music service called Spotify HiFi by the end of this year, compatible with existing Spotify Connect devices. However, Spotify has not yet revealed specific details about this service, the expected rollout regions, or the pricing method. It is also uncertain whether it will be merged with the existing Spotify service, allowing users to access it through a separate paid plan. KKBOX, a streaming music service that has been operating in Taiwan for a long time, has now launched a high-fidelity music service called KKBOX HiFi, allowing users to listen to streaming music with CD-quality sound, but the price will also increase accordingly.