KT Corp., the nation’s second-largest telecom carrier, launched Wednesday the new digital music market “Genie” that targets the nation’s growing number of smartphone and tablet PC users.

KT will start the service on Thursday through the Android app store and its own Olleh Market. The mobile app also will be equipped within Android smartphones that KT plans to launch.

For the new music service, KT has joined hands with seven major record and entertainment companies including SM, YG and JYP Entertainment and two overseas companies Sony Music and Avex Group.

Among Genie’s features is that it allows artists or producers to place a value on their creations by themselves to better protect their rights.

“We want to create a new eco-system for the music market,” said Pyo Hyun-myung, president of the mobile business unit at KT, during a press conference.

“We will let artists price their music and share more sales profits with them,” he said.

Currently, local music portals share only 53.5 percent of their profits on average with the creators. Genie has increased the earnings rate for artists to 70 percent, the same level as Apple’s iTunes, the company said.

“Considering that K-pop’s popularity has largely been driven by digital media like YouTube, Genie is expected to help further spread Korea’s music and artists,” he said.

Korea’s music market is ranked 15th globally, while its digital service makes up 55 percent, the highest level in the world, the company said.

KT also plans to include Genie into a new app market OASIS, which will be operated jointly by Korea, Japan and China targeting some 70 million potential customers in the regions.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)