[Sound Economy] Subtle Differences Determine Quality... The Completion of Content is 'Sound'

Sound in content provides realism and immersion. Therefore, sound is considered a crucial factor that determines the quality of almost all content, including movies, music, and games. This is also why domestic music platforms, game companies, and OTT services invest enormous costs and time to create immersive sound.

Domestic Music Platforms Bet on Spatial Audio Technology

If we were to name the industry most sensitive to sound, it would undoubtedly be the music platform industry. Recently, tension has been rising in the domestic music platform industry as YouTube Music's market dominance has become more pronounced. Last month, statistics showed that YouTube Music's monthly active users (MAU) surpassed Melon, the number one domestic platform, sparking concerns about the crisis facing native platforms.

Qualitative changes in services are required to overcome this crisis. The weapon domestic platforms have pulled out is immersive audio technology, 'Dolby Atmos.' Dolby Atmos is an object-based 3D surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. This technology goes beyond the limitations of sound coming only from left and right channels, allowing free implementation from all directions?front, back, left, right, and even above the head. It offers an experience of spatial audio that envelops the listener's entire body. For example, when listening to BTS's music produced with Dolby Atmos audio technology, one can feel the sound moving according to the members' choreography paths.

Genie Music recently collaborated with Dolby Laboratories to implement the Dolby Atmos environment in its music platform service. The aim is to enhance the intrinsic value of music and provide customers with a vivid music listening experience.

Spatial audio technology is also becoming widespread in the domestic composition market. Not only BTS but many K-POP songs are already produced with Dolby Atmos spatial audio. Accordingly, Genie Music has established a ‘Dolby Atmos Hall’ where users can listen to tracks produced with Dolby Atmos technology from the production stage. Premium tracks created by artists worldwide using Dolby Atmos technology with the best sound and vocals can be enjoyed all at once.

Melon has also been offering the 'Dolby Atmos Music' service since last year. Within the Melon application, a dedicated Dolby Atmos section has been opened, providing playlists where users can listen to Dolby Atmos tracks.

Creating Weapons and Recording Impact Sounds to Enhance Immersion

Sound is an indispensable element in games as well. NCSoft established a sound center in 2010 to produce game music. It is equipped with a Dolby Atmos system and over 40 soundproof rooms. There is also a studio for creating game sound effects. In this studio, weapons appearing in games are physically created and recorded for sound. To produce more realistic impact sounds, for example, the sound of a sword hitting armor is recorded. Pearl Abyss strengthened its audio facilities when it moved to a new headquarters last year. It has an audio room consisting of composer rooms and dubbing rooms, as well as a Foley sound studio. Foley sound work involves capturing real sounds using various tools and is mainly used in commercial film production.

Sound enhances immersion in the game world. It adds realism to specific eras or locations appearing in games and accentuates the genre's atmosphere. Pearl Abyss's flagship game Black Desert offers different background music for each continent where adventures take place. To achieve this, they collaborated with various orchestras such as the German Weimar State Orchestra, Halle State Orchestra, Czech Film Orchestra, and Hungarian Scoring Orchestra. For the continent 'Land of Morning,' inspired by Joseon, traditional Korean music (gugak) was introduced, mixed with orchestras and synthesizers. Sound also becomes a game element itself. NCSoft made the hit sounds different for each character during combat in the MMORPG Lineage W, allowing players to feel unique impact sensations. Players can also judge situations by sound alone. When entering a player-versus-player (PvP) battle, dedicated music plays to change the atmosphere. As the number of enemies defeated increases, the music tempo speeds up to express heightened tension.

Game music has established itself not only as a tool to enhance user immersion but also as a cultural content in its own right. Game companies actively expand their scope by releasing soundtracks or holding concerts. On the 5th, Nexon held the first solo orchestra concert for the subculture game Blue Archive at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts Grand Theater, attracting about 5,000 spectators by delivering the game's representative songs through orchestral melodies. In June, an orchestra concert was held at the Seoul Arts Center to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the online RPG TalesWeaver. Originally planned as a single concert in April, it was extended to an encore performance after all 2,000+ seats sold out. Riot Games consistently releases albums through the virtual girl group K/DA, which uses League of Legends (LoL) characters. Their debut album released in 2018 topped the iTunes K-pop chart and ranked second on the pop chart, gaining popularity in the global market. Fans imitate their choreography and upload videos, creating interactive content.