Culture minister praises BTS for providing a way forward to K-pop

By Lim Chang-won Posted : June 19, 2020, 17:38 Updated : June 19, 2020, 17:38

[Courtesy of Big Hit Entertainment]

SEOUL -- South Korea's culture minister praised the agency of BTS for providing a way forward to K-pop with a paid online concert, urging other entertainment agencies to follow suit and create "differentiated and high-quality" digital works using advanced technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.

"I pay respect," Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Park Yang-woo told a meeting of entertainment company officials and music industry representatives, referring to successful online concerts by SM Entertainment and Big Hit Entertainment.

BTS proved its brand power as one of the world's top-grossing touring groups with a successful paid online concert on June 14. A maximum number of simultaneous users estimated at 756,600 watched the live online concert from a special studio. Big Hit said it was the largest paid online concert in the world. The content and technology of BTS' paid online concert set a new precedent in the global music industry.

"I think using advanced technology to create differentiated and high-quality digital works that cannot be compared to other countries will be a shortcut to the success or failure of Hallyu (Korean cultural wave) in the future," Park said. "We need to go beyond simple delivery and make it a better cultural product by utilizing advanced digital technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality."

The minister said that related technologies developed by the Korea Creative Content Agency, a government agency charged with governing cultural content, would be transferred to the entertainment community.

In response to a request for financial support and new government guidelines on how to hold suspended offline performances, Kim Hyun-hwan, a content policy bureau head, pledged support, saying the government would consider allowing small-scale concerts at four tourist destinations in the second half of this year through consultations with health officials.

"(The government) will seek to set up facilities for small and medium-sized labels to share and perform online concerts," Kim said.

 
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