Listen to 'Millie's Library' Audiobooks on Genie Music

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] Genie Music is evolving into an artificial intelligence (AI) audio platform and embarking on a second leap forward.

On the 21st, KT Group held the 'Yeouido Forum' at the IFC in Yeouido, Seoul, where it announced future strategies for platform affiliates such as Genie Music and Millie's Library.

On this day, Choi Ho-chang, Vice President of Genie Music, stated, "Based on KT Group's AI technology capabilities and the strengths of shareholders such as CJ ENM, we will fuse music and audio domains to evolve into the number one audio service platform."

Genie Music also unveiled a three-step business strategy to lead the audio content market.

▲ Platform expansion through the launch of audio services (Step 1), ▲ Supply of differentiated audio content based on customer needs and service advancement (Step 2), ▲ Business model performance creation through B2C and B2B subscription-based audio service evolution (Step 3). Genie Music aims to achieve successful evolution as an AI audio platform company utilizing content ICT technology.

An AI audio platform service applying the Step 1 business strategy will be unveiled by the end of October.

Starting with offering some audiobook content previously provided by Millie's Library on Genie, the service scope will expand to various audio content such as audiobooks, audio entertainment, and audio dramas. A bundled product at a reasonable price that allows enjoying both Genie and Millie's Library will also be launched within the year.

The differentiated audio content supply and service advancement based on customer needs, presented as the Step 2 business strategy, are expected to be achieved by the first half of next year through KT Group collaboration synergy. Genie Music is strengthening business cooperation with Millie's Library, CJ ENM, and others to secure differentiated content reflecting customer needs. Additionally, it plans to revolutionize the audio environment by introducing KT's AI technology.

Genie Music utilizes KT's AI audio technologies, including AI voice synthesis technology (P-TTS, Personalized-Text To Speech) and E2E (End-to-End) speech recognition technology, to reduce time and costs while enabling large-scale text conversion into various voice modulations and multilingual transformations. Based on this, Genie Music plans to provide a large volume of unique audio content to customers in a short time.

Following this, the Step 3 strategy aims to create results through the evolution of B2C and B2B subscription-based audio services. Genie Music plans to expand environments where audio content can be enjoyed in various connected settings such as connected cars and smart homes, and to preoccupy the B2C and B2B subscription audio markets. Through this, Genie Music aims to achieve successful evolution as an AI audio platform utilizing content ICT technology.

Genie Music Launches Interactive Live Platform 'STAYG' Targeting Global Market

Genie Music is actively expanding its music business targeting the global market. On the 21st, Genie Music launched 'STAYG,' a live platform where global fans and K-pop stars communicate. 'STAYG' is optimized for fans who want to watch artists' performances in a situation where non-face-to-face interactions have become routine due to COVID-19, and it will be opened to overseas fans within the year. It is equipped with a global payment module and plans to actively pursue revenue businesses based on overseas fan bases. Additionally, 'STAYG' is expected to be utilized as a diverse form of live platform through business cooperation among shareholders KT, CJ ENM, and LG Uplus beyond the Genie Music platform.

Genie Music's overseas music distribution business is also continuously growing. Based on over 10 years of experience in music content distribution capabilities and network infrastructure, Genie Music currently distributes K-POP music to 95 countries and over 50 music platforms overseas. Recently, Genie Music signed contracts to supply K-pop music to global platforms such as Huawei Music and Anghami.

Huawei Music supplies music to 22 countries including Egypt, Kenya, Thailand, and Singapore. Anghami is the largest music streaming service company in the Arab region, serving music in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and others. Through this contract, Genie Music's global music distribution business has expanded from existing markets in the U.S., China, and Japan to various global markets including the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

Genie Music recorded global music distribution sales of over 11.7 billion KRW in the first half of this year, a sharp increase of 37.5% compared to the same period last year. With the continued success of K-POP music, the growth trend of Genie Music's global music distribution sales is expected to expand further.

Metaverse-type Music Service, AI Composition, Connected Services, and Future Technology-based Convergence Business Promotion

Genie Music is diversifying its future technology-based content business through metaverse-type music services, AI composition advancement, and expansion of connected services. In 2018, Genie Music entered the metaverse world by releasing the world's first artist 'VP' (Virtual Play) album.

Over the past two years, Genie Music has collaborated with top domestic idol groups such as MAMAMOO, SF9, and ONF to release vivid virtual performance albums. Genie Music is preparing to launch a new metaverse-type music service. Within the year, Genie Music plans to introduce a metaverse-type music service that combines music business know-how and metaverse technology, and AI creative areas will also be applied to the metaverse service.

Millie's Library Growth Plan Presented, IPO Pursued in 2022

Genie Music is actively pursuing business strategies for successful growth as an audio platform while simultaneously advancing Millie's Library's corporate growth plan.

Millie's Library, acquired by Genie Music, launched a monthly subscription e-book service in October 2017 and, as of September 2021, has 3.8 million subscribers and 100,000 reading content titles, making it the overwhelming number one company among subscription-based e-book service platforms.

Millie's Library has a broad partner publisher network, having signed supply contracts with over 1,300 publishers. Based on this, Millie's Library services nearly 70% of bookstore bestsellers. The number of books supplied to Millie's Library within three months of publication reaches 3,700, indicating a fast update speed for new releases.

Millie's Library is also accelerating in original content. Since early 2019, it has been releasing original content at the fastest pace among reading platforms. From the perspective of 'One Source, Multi-use,' it plans to expand the number of original content titles and accelerate the pace so that book-based IP can be utilized in various ways such as movies, dramas, and webtoons.

Under the media value chain of KT and Genie Music, Millie's Library is expected to inject new vitality into the market by expanding IP supplied from publishers into audiobooks, audio dramas, and even video content. Millie's Library actively services new forms of secondary content that lower reading barriers and fit the digital environment, such as audiobooks with visible books and chat books adapted from existing single volumes in chat form.

Millie's Library's sales reached 19.2 billion KRW in 2020, a 75% increase from the previous year, and it is pursuing a listing in 2022. According to the investment banking (IB) industry, Millie's Library's corporate value based on 2020 performance is over 150 billion KRW, and considering industry cases, the corporate value is expected to more than double.

Genie Music Secures New Growth Engines and Future Growth Foundation Alongside Improved Management Performance

Genie Music has steadily enhanced its corporate value through improvements in sales and operating profit. In 2020, annual sales were 247 billion KRW (up 7.2% year-on-year), and operating profit was 11.5 billion KRW (up 41.1% year-on-year). The first half of 2021 recorded sales of 122.1 billion KRW and operating profit of 7.2 billion KRW, with operating profit increasing 37.9% compared to the first half of the previous year.

Along with sales growth, Genie Music has continued its operating profit increase and secured new growth engines through the acquisition of Millie's Library in the second half of 2021, expansion of overseas music distribution, synergy creation among shareholders (KT, CJ ENM, LG Uplus), and building a creative ecosystem based on IP. These new growth engines are expected to drive performance improvement.

Choi Ho-chang, Vice President of Genie Music, said, "We have strengthened our fundamentals through improved management performance and secured new growth engines in the audio content business that can create synergy with the music business. We will leap forward as a company leading the future content convergence market and as an AI audio platform company."

Seo Young-taek, CEO of Millie's Library, said, "We will explore various cooperation plans with Genie Music to expand and utilize the reading content owned by Millie's Library into diverse content, and we will do our utmost to prepare additional growth engines so that more people can become unlimitedly familiar with reading."

Meanwhile, Park Hyung-min, researcher at Cape Investment & Securities, said, "The acquisition of Millie's Library by Genie Music will structurally change the fundamentals and is expected to act as a factor that strengthens corporate value in the future."

Vice President Choi Hochang of Genie Music (left) and CEO Seo Youngtaek of Millie's Library are having a conversation on the 21st at Three IFC in Yeouido.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.