We heard last week that South Korea has now become the third biggest music-exporter in the world, overtaking Canada. Now we’ve got some new figures behind that.
According to the latest stats from the Korea Customs Service, exports of K-Pop albums reached $257.5m in the first half of 2026, up 125% year-on-year.
$74.1m of those revenues came from the US, $61.2m from China and $45.5m from Japan according to UPI, which pointed out that BTS’s comeback album ‘Arirang’, which was released in March, has been a key factor in that growth.
Blackpink’s February mini-album ‘Deadline’ was also cited, reminding us that the two biggest K-Pop acts have both been back in cycle this year.
‘Arirang’ racked up 739.1m on-demand audio streams globally in the first week after its release, according to Luminate. The US, Brazil and Mexico were the three biggest markets for those streams.
The album also helped label Hybe to grow its Q1 revenues by 39.5% year-on-year, aided by the fact that pre-orders for ‘Arirang’ began in January, even if the album itself didn’t come out until 20 March.
