Sharing too little revenue with copyright owners is said to be the real barrier that caused BLACKPINK's Rosé to withdraw from the Korea Music Copyright Association. Earlier this year, Rosé made headlines when she withdrew from the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA).
According to Dispatch, Rosé is the first Korean artist since Seo Taiji in 2002 to withdraw from KOMCA. Going forward, all of Rosé's music rights will be managed by an American publisher. The profits will be distributed by her current management company, Atlantic Records, which is based in the US.
Atlantic Records manages international derivative rights through ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, Publishers and Artists) and BMI (Broadcast Music Industry Association). At that time, there were several reasons given by the media.
Dispatch said that Rosé was active in the US, so she withdrew from KOMCA to be able to manage her copyright more effectively. Some industry insiders believe that in Rosé's case, it is not necessary to manage copyrights separately in both the US and Korea because it would cost double the fees.
But recently, when KOMCA released its streaming revenue report, people speculated about the real reason why Rosé withdrew from KOMCA. According to the report, the size of South Korea's digital music market has nearly doubled, from about $700 million in 2019 to $1.32 billion in 2023, surpassing Japan, previously considered Asia's top music market.
However, despite the explosive growth of the market, the revenue allocation to creators in Korea remains very small. In the US, 12.3% of streaming revenue goes to copyright holders; in the UK, it's 16% and in Germany, 15%. But in South Korea, it's just 10.5%, between 1.8% and 5.5% lower than in major overseas countries.
The low revenue share of Korean content creators is especially evident when looking at the overall structure of streaming revenue. Streaming 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 with the highest share is up to 35% (Melon), which means the revenue shared with copyright owners is even less. Additionally, in Korea, song revenue goes through multiple layers before reaching the creators, including distributors and several copyright management organizations.
Ultimately, the actual music creators only receive 10.5% of the revenue. In contrast, many foreign artists work with just one publisher to manage their copyrights and earnings, creating a more efficient and creator-friendly system.
Experts believe this inefficiency is one reason why Rosé withdrew from KOMCA. Because her music generates a lot of revenue overseas, Rosé has to pay fees to both international publishers and again to domestic copyright groups like KOMCA.
This double deduction significantly reduces her final earnings. Insiders claim that while major streaming platform deals (like with Apple Music) can give Rosé 100% of her revenue, going through Korean channels can reduce that figure to just 60-70%.
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