Noraebang: coin booths, hourly rooms and the no-alcohol rule

노래방: 코인과 시간제, 술 금지, 청소년 시간

A noraebang (노래방) is a private singing room. In Seoul you will mostly see two kinds: coin karaoke, where you pay by the song in a small booth, and room karaoke, where you pay for time in a larger room. Both are run as registered singing-room businesses under Korea's Music Industry Promotion Act, and that law does not let them sell or serve alcohol.

Reviewed 2026-10-02 · Written from the public sources listed below

Coin booth or a room

Coin karaoke (코인노래방) booths are small, often for one to three people. You pay at a machine for a number of songs. The places we checked list prices like 2 or 3 songs for ₩1,000, with bigger bundles for ₩5,000 or ₩10,000.

Room karaoke is charged by time, often in 30-minute or one-hour blocks, and the rooms fit groups. Many places have both: a row of coin booths and a few larger rooms by the hour. The places we checked list roughly ₩5,000 to ₩15,000 an hour, depending on room size and time of day.

Paying

Some coin booths take cash only at the machine; others have a card reader inside the room, and some set a minimum amount for paying by card. If you only have a card, look at the machine or ask at the counter before you go into a booth. Carrying a few ₩1,000 notes makes coin booths easy.

No alcohol in a noraebang

The Music Industry Promotion Act (Article 22(1)3) says a noraebang operator must not sell or serve alcohol. Its Enforcement Decree (Annex 1) also bars the operator from keeping alcohol on the premises or letting customers bring it in. So don't bring your own drinks.

Singing rooms that do serve drinks hold a different licence: under the Food Sanitation Act they are bars where customers may sing (a "danran jujeom") or entertainment bars. Signs saying 노래주점 (singing pub) or 노래바 usually mean this kind of place. They are priced and run differently, and we don't list them.

Under-19s

Korean law counts people under 19 as youth, except that anyone who turns 19 this calendar year stops counting as youth on January 1.

Youth may be in a noraebang only from 9 am to 10 pm (Enforcement Decree, Article 8). Outside those hours they need a parent or guardian with them or the guardian's written consent, or an adult relative or a teacher with them. Staff may ask for ID to check age and may refuse entry if you don't show it (Act, Article 22(2)).

Inside, youth may use only rooms set aside for youth, unless a parent or guardian is with them (Enforcement Decree, Annex 1).

What we list

Our karaoke list shows places we confirmed from their own Naver listing and reviews: whether they have coin booths, hourly rooms, group rooms or 24-hour opening. We don't list singing bars.