Domestic online music service providers (Naver, Dreamus Company, NHN Bugs, YG Plus, Genie Music, Kakao Entertainment) announced on the 9th that they “welcome the revision” of the ‘Music Copyright Fee Collection Regulation’ approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and “hope that this will lead to greater stabilization of the domestic music industry.”
The revised music copyright fee collection regulation focuses on excluding the ‘in-app payment commission fee’ arising from the mandatory in-app payment when calculating the ‘sales amount,’ which serves as the basis for settling music usage fees. This regulation will be applied temporarily to music usage fees for services provided from June 2022 to June 2024.
The providers stated, “With the mandatory in-app payment, domestic operators have faced difficulties in service operation, which could affect creators, record producers, and other rights holders as well as consumers. The revision of the collection regulation is meaningful in eliminating confusion caused by differences in settlement methods between domestic and foreign online music service providers and minimizing consumer damage.”
The domestic online music service industry predicted that if the collection regulation had not been revised, a significant price increase would have been inevitable due to the additional commission fee (IAP) burden. They expressed concerns that this would lead to consumer damage, increased price burden, and consumer attrition, causing an overall stagnation of the domestic music industry. However, as the agreement reached through multiple discussions over the past year among the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and stakeholders in the music industry was reflected in the revision of the collection regulation, some of these concerns are expected to be alleviated.
They added, “It can be said that this is a significant positive case where stakeholders in the music industry resolved major issues through intense and constructive discussions,” and “We express our gratitude to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and music rights holders (the four trust organizations and the Korea Music Content Association) who worked together to minimize consumer burden, guarantee rights holders’ revenue, and enable fair competition with overseas operators through this revision of the collection regulation.”
Furthermore, they stated, “We hope that the application of this revision will continue for the stability and growth of the domestic music industry, and we will continue to make our best efforts to provide highly satisfactory music listening services at reasonable prices and to protect the rights of creators.”
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