Korea Growing At SXSW

A record 11 acts from Korea will be performing at the South by Southwest music festival/conference this year in Austin, Texas.

This is thanks mainly to the Korea Creative Content Agency, a government-funded organization made up of several interested groups that want to promote Korean culture overseas.

As far as popular music goes, KOCCA helps any artist, whether K-pop, indie or traditional, to travel abroad when invited to play in a foreign country by covering travel and accommodation expenses.

According to a representative of the organization quoted in the Japan Times, the Korean music market is actually too small to provide enough opportunity for all the musical endeavors the country offers, so KOCCA wants to help them “find new markets overseas.”

In the last 12 months alone KOCCA has subsidized travel and lodging for groups going to SXSW, Canadian Music Week, Music Matters in Singapore, Pop Montreal and Midem in France. All the group has to do is get an invitation and then apply for the subsidy through KOCCA.