Earlier this year, Rose (Blackpink) attracted attention when she withdrew from the Korea Music copyright Association (KOMCA). According to Dispatch, Rose is the first Korean artist since Seo Taiji withdrew from KOMCA in 2002.
In the future, all of Rose's music rights will be managed by an American publisher. The proceeds will be distributed by her current management company, Atlantic Records, based in the US.
Atlantic Records manages internationally arising copyrights through ASCAP (Union of American songwriters, Authors, Publishers and Artists) and BMI (Rio Music Industry Association).
At that time, there were a number of reasons given by the media. Dispatch believes that Rose is active in the US, so she withdrew from KOMCA to be able to manage her copyright more effectively.
Some in the industry believe that Rose's case does not need to be regulated separately in both the US and South Korea because it will have to pay double the fee.
But recently, when KOMCA released its streaming revenue report, it was people who reasoned the real reason for Rose's withdrawal from KOMCA.
According to the report, the size of Korea's digital music market has nearly doubled, from about 700 million USD in 2019 to 1.32 billion USD in 2023, surpassing Japan, previously considered the leading music market in Asia.
However, despite the explosive growth of the market, the revenue allocation rate for creators in Korea is still very small.
In the US, 12.3% of streaming revenue belongs to copyright owners; in the UK, this figure is 16% and in Germany is 15%. But in South Korea, the figure is just 10.5%, down 1.8% to 5.5% from major overseas countries.
The low revenue ratio of Korean content creators is especially clear when considering the overall streaming revenue structure. Online platforms in the US account for 29.4% of revenue; the UK is 29%; Germany is 30% and Japan is 22%.
In Korea, the platform accounts for the highest ratio of up to 35% (Melon), meaning that the revenue divided among copyright owners is even less.
In addition, in Korea, song revenue must go through many layers before reaching the author, including distributors and some copyright management organizations. In the end, music creators actually only received 10.5% of their revenue.
In contrast, many foreign artists only work with a single publisher to manage their copyright and income, creating a more efficient and creator-friendly system.
Experts believe that this ineffectiveness is one reason why Rose withdrew from KOMCA. Since her music generates huge overseas sales, Rose has to pay fees to both international publishers and pay fees again to domestic copyright groups like KOMCA.
This double deduction significantly reduced her final income. The insiders say that while major streaming platform deals (such as Apple Music) could give Rose 100% of her revenue, going through Korean channels could reduce that number to just 60-70%.
