Unchained Music Distribution passport
- Platform
- Melon
- Site
- melon.com
- Social
- @melon_music
Melon is South Korea’s largest and most influential music streaming platform, known for its extensive catalogue of K-pop, Mandopop, and international hits. By distributing your music to Melon with Unchained Music, you can connect with millions of fans who drive global music trends and discover new artists daily. Our distribution model ensures independent artists and labels expand their reach into one of Asia’s most dynamic digital music ecosystems.
Melon is South Korea’s largest music streaming service, launched in November 2004 by SK Telecom. With a vast catalogue exceeding 40 million tracks, Melon has become the go to platform for K-pop enthusiasts and music lovers in South Korea. The service offers both subscription based and ad supported streaming options, catering to a wide range of user preferences. Melon’s influence extends beyond streaming, as it actively shapes music trends through its real time charts and the prestigious Melon Music Awards.
Five questions, answered for this platform specifically.
Melon receives new releases through approved distributors that provide audio masters, artwork, and metadata formatted to the platform’s technical specifications. Once processed, tracks appear in Melon’s catalogue and become accessible to tens of millions of Korean listeners.
Melon requires detailed metadata including Korean and English titles when appropriate, composer and lyricist credits, instrumentalist information, and accurate genre tags. Distributors ensure that all fields meet Melon’s strict localization and formatting rules.
Melon highlights tracks through curated playlists, “Melon Chart” rankings, recommendation algorithms, genre hubs, and editorial features. Songs gaining strong listener engagement like downloads, streams, and playlist adds, often rise in visibility across the platform.
Melon does not offer a dedicated international artist dashboard, but distributors typically provide reporting on stream counts, chart performance, and regional listener activity based on Melon’s data.
Melon calculates royalties based on listener activity, streaming volumes, and subscription level usage on the platform. Earnings are paid to distributors according to Melon’s reporting schedule, and artists receive royalties through their distribution partner.
Set the release up in the app and it goes to this platform with the rest of them, delivered to spec and checked by a person first.
Upload the release yourself in the app, on the plan that fits, and send it to every store you want in one go.
Start DIYFor multi-release plans and label rosters, scoped with the services team before anything starts.
Apply for Artist & Label Services