A live performance from Blackpink member Rose, who’s pulled her music from KOMCA. Photo Credit: Jonas Louis
Amid continued global success as a solo act, Blackpink’s Rosé has officially parted ways with the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA).
That development, confirmed by KOMCA but not Auckland-born Rosé herself, first came to light in reports out of South Korea last week. But the news, like a number of stories in the quick-moving K-pop space, has largely flown under the stateside media radar until now.
Furthermore, Rosé reportedly set her KOMCA exit in motion back in October 2024 and received the green light at January 2025’s end. As some know, the 28-year-old has a solo deal in place with Warner Music’s Atlantic – albeit while remaining signed to YG Entertainment as part of Blackpink.
And as many more than that are aware, Rosé is making a commercial splash with English-language efforts such as “APT.”; the Bruno Mars collaboration has racked up 1.24 billion Spotify streams in the four months and change since its release.
Technically, Rosé is now the second to step away from KOMCA, after Seo Tai-ji pulled his own music in 2003, the Korea Times noted. However, the older of the moves stemmed from a licensing dispute, and Rosé’s decision to embrace a U.S.-based royalty hub is presumably attributable to her international reach (and the possibility of overlapping fees).
To be sure, KOMCA, which deals in mechanicals, public performance, and more, takes “‘from six months to a year’” to process payments from the U.S., per an anonymous “industry insider” cited by the Korea Herald.
In the bigger picture, Rosé’s royalties shift has arrived ahead of a comeback tour for Blackpink, which is scheduled to kick off the concert series in Seoul on July 5th.
While that’s certainly a positive for YG’s financials and Blackpink’s diehard supporters, Rosé isn’t alone in securing solo success. Just for reference, with 16.41 million Spotify monthly listeners attributable to Blackpink proper, Rosé currently boasts 63.88 million monthly listeners, against 42.47 million for Jennie, 23.25 million for Lisa, and 7.87 million for Jisoo.
Stated differently, Rosé isn’t the only K-pop act making international waves, and time will tell whether others follow in her footsteps by splitting from KOMCA.
Closer to the present, YG Entertainment stock (KOSDAQ: 122870), at $41.22/₩59,100 per share, is now up 44.5% during the past year. Meanwhile, its rights-focused YG Plus subsidiary (KRX: 037270) has experienced an over 36% stock-price surge since word of Rosé’s KOMCA separation emerged.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.