Korea’s music industry is fighting back against artificial intelligence with an unprecedented show of unity. On Feb. 26, six major music rights organizations launched the K-Music Rights Organization Mutual Growth Committee in Seoul, warning that the next 24 months will determine whether Korean creators survive the AI revolution.
“The next two years are the golden time that will decide the life or death of Korea’s music industry,” committee chair Lee Si-ha said at the launch event. “Individual responses from separate organizations can’t stop this massive wave of change. The entire industry must stand together.”
The coalition includes the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), Korea Music Content Association, Korea Music Performers Federation, Korea Recording Industry Association, Korea Entertainment Producers Association and the Together Music Copyright Association. Together, they represent virtually every stakeholder in Korea’s domestic music ecosystem.
The groups adopted an “AI-Era Music Rights Declaration” demanding three core protections: a ban on AI training without creator consent, mandatory transparency in AI generation processes and clear legal distinctions between human-created and AI-generated works.
Korea has already felt AI’s impact firsthand. When KOMCA discovered that trot singer Hong Jin-young’s hit “Love Is 24 Hours” was composed by GIST professor Ahn Chang-wook’s AI program EvoM, the organization froze royalty payments for the AI-created songs in July 2022. EvoM had generated 300,000 compositions over six years, selling 30,000 tracks and earning 600 million won in revenue.
The legal reasoning was stark: Korea’s Copyright Act defines creative works as “creations expressing human thoughts or emotions.” If AI is the creator, there’s no legal basis for royalty payments.
That 2022 controversy became the flashpoint for Korea’s AI music rights debate. It exposed a fundamental problem: AI was already producing music consumed by millions, but the law hadn’t caught up.
Related
The core issue is training data. Generative AI systems learn from millions of existing recordings to create new music, typically without obtaining permission from original rights holders. The result can unconsciously mimic existing melodies and styles.
Another legal gap compounds the problem. Under Korean law, a singer’s voice itself isn’t defined as a copyrightable work. Even when AI cover creators illegally clone famous K-pop idols’ voices, existing performer rights protections can’t effectively stop the flood of unauthorized content online.
K-pop artists face the heaviest burden. A 2023 Security Hero report found that Korean singers and actresses make up 53% of the individuals featured in deepfake pornographic content worldwide. Eight of the top 10 individual targets were Korean female singers.
The global exposure K-pop acts like BTS, NewJeans and BLACKPINK have achieved has paradoxically made them prime targets for AI-generated fake content. Voice synthesis technology has advanced to the point where fans say they “can’t tell who’s real anymore” when AI cover songs flood YouTube.
HYBE has responded by acquiring AI voice startup Supertone for 45 billion won, taking a 56.1 percent controlling stake. The message is clear: Korea’s biggest entertainment companies are internalizing AI voice technology rather than waiting for regulations to catch up.
Related
Globally, the music industry’s approach has evolved from early litigation toward negotiation and licensing. In June 2024, the three major labels — Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music — jointly sued AI music startups Udio and Suno, alleging that both platforms trained their models on copyrighted recordings without permission. Through late 2025, the major labels reached varying settlements and licensing arrangements with these platforms as the industry shifted toward seeking structured commercial relationships with AI companies rather than relying solely on the courts.
The shift from courtroom battles to conference room deals signals that major labels see coexistence with AI as inevitable. The legal conclusions, however, remain unwritten.
KOMCA has moved faster than most of its global counterparts. As of March 24, 2025, all new music registrations require a signed statement certifying that “AI was not used and the work consists solely of human creative contributions.” False statements can trigger legal liability, royalty freezes and removal of works from the database.
The policy doesn’t ban all AI use. KOMCA’s official position is that works created “100 percent by AI” cannot be registered. But if AI served as an assistive tool while the human creator’s core contribution remains clear, copyright protection may still apply.
This aligns with guidance from the World Intellectual Property Organization, which stated in a 2024 report that “AI-centric creations are difficult to protect under current copyright frameworks.”
Related
The newly formed committee plans to build a blockchain-based unified infrastructure to track AI-generated and distributed music data. The system aims to connect international standard identification codes used for musical works and sound recordings with content identification systems used by major platforms, creating auditable records of AI training pathways.
This integrated data structure aims to increase copyright tracking transparency and create auditable records of AI training pathways.
The question now is whether regulatory frameworks can match the pace of technological change. Korea experienced the cost of legal gaps through the EvoM case. KOMCA’s proactive policy and the solidarity committee’s launch position Korea among the fastest-moving nations on AI music governance.
Yet structural gaps remain, including inadequate legal protections for vocal identity, unclear standards for determining whether AI-created works qualify as copyrightable and limited enforcement mechanisms against platforms hosting unauthorized AI covers.
Whether this industry-wide coalition can move beyond declarations to meaningful institutional reform and technical defenses will become clear within the next two years. The countdown has begun.
This story was originally published by Billboard Korea.
