The global music industry is facing “unprecedented upheaval” amid the rapid expansion of generative AI — and South Korea is tackling the challenge head-on.
Six of the country’s major music industry organizations have joined forces to form a coalition, declaring a “state of emergency” and making what they describe as a “declaration of war” against AI copyright infringement.
HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, Sony Music, Warner Music, and Universal Music are all council members of the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), one of the six bodies within the coalition, which has been dubbed, the K-Music Rights Organization Mutual Growth Committee.
The coalition, officially launched on February 26, also brings together the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), the Korea Recording Industry Association (RIAK), the Korea Entertainment Producers Association (KEPA), the Together Music Copyright Association, and the Korea Music Performers Association (KOSCAP).
The coalition was the first official act of Lee Si-ha, who was elected as KOMCA’s 25th president just one day earlier.
A musician best known as a member of Korean band The Cross and composer of the hit Don’t Cry, Lee was also elected as the committee’s inaugural chairperson.
“The upcoming two years are a golden time that will determine the life and death of South Korea’s music industry.”
Lee Si-ha, KOMCA
“The upcoming two years are a golden time that will determine the life and death of South Korea’s music industry,” Lee said.
“Individual responses cannot stop the massive wave, which is why the six organisations have joined hands. We will establish the copyright management system we have built as a global standard, enabling Korea to lead the global copyright order.”
According to an official press release issued on March 3, the six organisations signed a joint declaration titled: “In the AI era, we declare the noble sovereignty of human creation,” pledging to defend creators’ rights against what they described as “big capital and algorithms.”
The declaration sets out three specific demands:
A ban on unauthorized AI training without creator consent
Mandatory transparency in AI generation processes
Clear standards distinguishing human-created works from AI-generated outputs
The slide above reads (translated): “This is not a meeting. It is a declaration of war. Today, this gathering goes beyond the interests of individual organisations, to protect the right to survival of South Korea’s music industry… Will we become victims of technology? Or will we become its masters?”
The committee has defined the current moment as a state of emergency shaped by four overlapping crises:
The spread of generative AI;
Blockchain-based decentralisation;
The overseas outflow of Korean Wave revenues; and
The restructuring of the platform market.
Rather than continuing to respond individually, the six organisations have agreed to operate through a joint AI response task force, a single-window negotiation system, and a joint fund.
The ambition goes well beyond South Korea’s borders. The committee aims for Korea to directly seize ‘copyright management technology’ and become what it calls the ‘rule maker’ of the global market.
At the technical core of the strategy is a blockchain-based integrated infrastructure designed to consolidate fragmented rights data currently scattered across separate organisations.
The plan involves linking four major identification codes into a unified data structure: the International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC) for compositions and lyrics, the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) for sound recordings, YouTube‘s Content ID system, and South Korea’s Universal Content Identifier (UCI). The goal is a system capable of tracking, collecting, and distributing royalties in real time — what the committee calls a “K-Copyright Standard Model.”
The coalition spans the full rights chain of South Korea’s music industry:
Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) — represents songwriters and composers, managing performing and mechanical rights for musical compositions. South Korea’s largest music copyright collective, with 30,000 members and a catalog of over 3.7 million works.
Together Music Copyright Association — also represents songwriters and composers. South Korea’s second CMO for musical compositions. Notably, KOMCA and Together have historically operated as rivals.
Korea Recording Industry Association (RIAK) — represents record producers and labels, managing neighbouring rights for sound recordings.
Korea Music Performers Association (KOSCAP) — represents performing artists and musicians — the performers on recordings, as distinct from songwriters or labels.
Korea Entertainment Producers Association (KEPA) — represents entertainment production companies and talent agencies: the companies that produce, manage and develop artists.
Korea Music Content Association (KMCA) — represents major domestic record production companies, distributors, and overseas direct distributors. It also operates the Circle Chart, South Korea’s primary music chart. Its council members include HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music, and Kakao Entertainment.
The new coalition marks an escalation of measures South Korea’s music industry has already been taking.
Last year, KOMCA introduced a rule requiring creators to guarantee that AI was not used in the songwriting process when registering new works. If AI was used but the registrant claims otherwise and KOMCA finds out, the organisation may withhold royalty payments or delete the work from its system altogether.
As MBW noted last year, KOMCA’s policy is stricter than South Korea’s overall position on AI and copyrighted works. In 2023, the Korea Copyright Commission and the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism announced that while fully AI-generated works cannot be copyrighted, parts of a work that were human-created may be copyrightable in cases where AI contributed to the creation.
