K-POP’s Intense Competitive Landscape: Efforts to Improve It Through Musician Cooperatives

An extremely competitive environment has emerged in the K-POP industry due to the abnormal combination of music chart systems and fandom culture. Competition focused on initial sales figures and fan sign-up events is putting pressure on the entire idol industry, prompting musicians to take action on their own. Informally among agency executives, there are widespread rumors that fans of one group purchased millions of copies of a rival group’s album in an attempt to surpass their initial sales numbers. This situation illustrates how extreme fan desires, along with the “gacha” system and competition driven by album purchase volumes created by industry insiders, have escalated. Fans are encouraged to overspend, while the industry tends to focus on highly profitable “successful songs.” Additionally, there are cases where agency employees ask team members to vote for trainees in survival shows and even offer them coffee, showing how this competitive culture has spread into workplace environments. Efforts to address this vicious cycle have begun. On the 29th, the “Korean Music Solidarity Cooperative” was officially launched under the initiative of musicians. This new type of organization brings together creators, planners, and activists as members, aiming to promote fairness and sustainability within the music industry. Its core values include establishing fair distribution systems, creating sustainable creative environments, and protecting musicians’ rights while helping them build self-reliance. Hong Se-jon, founder of Club Evans and a professor in practical music at the International College of Arts who also works as a music educator and event planner, was elected as its chairman. Five other individuals—Choi Won-min from Culture People, Na Sung-sik from Rockstar Music & Live, Yoon Dong-hwan from MW Music, and Im In-guk from Juntoos Music—served as co-founders. Chairman Hong Se-jon stated, “The Korean Music Solidarity Cooperative is not merely an interest group; it is a community where musicians themselves design and safeguard their future.” He added that the organization aims to work together to create institutional frameworks that enable everyone who makes music to create and perform in a better environment. In the future, the cooperative plans to pursue various collaborative projects, including event planning, educational programs, and operating shared distribution platforms. It also intends to establish an open structure that allows musicians from different genres and generations to participate, laying the foundation for transforming the industry into one centered around creators.