A New Concert Brand

The South Korean entertainment firm CJ E&M announced a partnership with some of the country’s music labels and talent agencies to form M-Live, a “new global concert brand” that will help spread Korean pop all over the world.

Twelve music-related companies plan to take part in the project.

“K-pop is well established in Korea and Asia, but now we want to effectively enlarge our territories in South America and the Middle East,” CJ E&M’s Ahn Suk-jun said Nov. 2.

Ko Kyung-min of talent agency Amoeba Culture added, “American hip-hop focuses on rhythm and beat, while Korean hip-hop focuses more on melody.

“American hip-hop is now changing, incorporating more melodies, and because this is something we have been doing all this time, Korean hip-hop will have more of a competitive edge. We believe M-Live will do positive things.”

Hong Seung-sung of Cube Entertainment outlined the advantage that M-Live will provide to his company.

“We have done a lot of shows overseas,” he said. “But we never had enough information about the local community, and we ran into a lot of problems.”

The partnership, he said, “Will be much more organized and effective.” Shin Ju-hak of Star Empire added, “When artists travel to perform in other countries, we don’t have accurate information and sometimes local organizers are nowhere to be found mid-performance. Working with CJ E&M should alleviate these problems.”

The first project for M-Live will be concerts in the United Arab Emirates by Nine Muses and Seo In-young later this month.

In December, M-Live will coordinate the Jungle Entertainment Label Show in Los Angeles starring Tiger JK, Yoon Mirae and other Jungle artists.