Producer 'Pidok' Tops Copyright Income for 5 Consecutive Years
Estimated Annual Copyright Earnings Exceed 3.5 Billion KRW
Jungkook, the youngest member of the group BTS who is currently serving in the military, was recently promoted to a full member of the Korea Music Copyright Association. His first solo album, "Golden," released on November 3 last year, stayed on the Billboard 200 main album chart for 13 consecutive weeks, setting the longest record for a K-pop solo artist. Jungkook has experienced a double celebration while serving in the military.
Jungkook became the fourth BTS member to be listed as a full member. Alongside Jungkook, (G)I-DLE leader Soyeon and Seventeen member Vernon also obtained full membership status at the Korea Music Copyright Association this year. Every year, the association selects and announces 27 full members from the popular music field and 3 from the non-popular music fields (pure, traditional Korean music, children's songs, religious music) based on the top copyright fee earners among associate members by membership duration. What are the criteria and total numbers for full membership promotion within the association?
For music publishers, one must have been an associate member of the association for at least three years as of December 31 of the year before promotion. Additionally, only those whose copyright royalties generated through conditional transfer contracts with authors who signed trust contracts in the past three years exceed 30 million KRW annually for three consecutive years qualify.
Then, according to Article 9 of the association’s membership regulations, the promotion candidates are ranked by the total amount of copyright royalties accumulated over three years, calculated backward from December 31 of the year before approval, and selected in order of highest earners. Currently, there are about 900 full members, who are granted rights to attend and vote at the association’s general meetings and receive various welfare benefits, according to the association.
Since copyrights last for 70 years after the creator’s death, there are many cases of high earnings through remakes or resurgence in popularity. For example, Brave Girls’ "Rollin’," a representative case of resurgence, saw its fancam video go viral four years after release, leading to a comeback on music charts. Although Brave Brothers (Kang Dong-chul), who wrote and composed "Rollin’," did not anticipate its resurgence and transferred 100% of the song’s copyright to Musicow in 2020, he did not earn direct profits. However, the copyright value surged by 1,227%, bringing significant returns to investors who purchased shares.
So, who currently earns the most from copyright income in South Korea? The winner will be revealed at the Korea Music Copyright Awards held at the end of this month, but industry insiders expect Pdogg (Kang Hyo-won, 41) to win, having maintained the top copyright income position for the past five years. As the senior producer at Big Hit Music, a label under HYBE, he participated as the main producer on almost all BTS albums. Notably, hit songs like "DNA," "Boy With Luv," "Spring Day," "FAKE LOVE," "IDOL," and "Blood Sweat & Tears" achieved remarkable success on major overseas charts including the US Billboard, likely generating enormous income.
Pdogg ranked first in copyright income for popular music lyrics and composition categories announced by the Korea Music Copyright Association from 2018 through last year. He also contributed to BTS member J-Hope’s "on the street" (with J. Cole), Jimin’s album "FACE," SUGA (Agust D)’s "Life Goes On," and BTS’s new song "The Planet" last year, making him a strong candidate for first place given the popularity and influence of these works.
How large is the actual income? The Korea Music Copyright Association only publishes rankings and does not disclose individual earnings. However, the total copyright income collected by the association last year was 352 billion KRW. BTS members’ songs immediately ranked high on Billboard charts and remained charted for a long time, proving their influence. Copyright income is generated from various sources including streaming, CD and other physical album reproduction fees, broadcasting, and performances.
An industry insider predicted, "Considering BTS’s ongoing influence even while all members are serving in the military, Pdogg’s income is expected to exceed 3.5 billion KRW, which is 1% of the total domestic music copyright income." While copyright income is huge, Pdogg also made headlines in 2021 for being the highest-paid executive in a listed company. That year, he received a total of 40.077 billion KRW, including 39.928 billion KRW from stock option exercise gains, 38 million KRW in salary, and 111 million KRW in bonuses. This amount was 10 billion KRW more than the 30.234 billion KRW received by Hyundai Motor Group Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo at the time.
Before Pdogg, the top copyright income earners alternated among Teddy (2017), Kim Do-hoon (2014, 2016), Jo Young-soo (2015), and Park Jin-young (2011, 2012, 2013).
As of January this year, a Korea Music Copyright Association official managing the trust rights of about 51,000 copyright holders said, "This year’s full member promotions include familiar names from entertainment such as Code Kunst (Jo Sung-woo), producer 250 (Lee Ho-hyung) who composed songs for NewJeans, VersaChoi (Choi Seung-hyuk) who composed many songs for Stray Kids, and lyricist Lee Seuran who wrote lyrics for numerous K-pop hits." He added, "While there are about 5 million artists exercising copyright rights worldwide, the K-pop market has about 50,000 registered authors, so we will focus more on protecting the rights and interests of creators going forward."
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