Major music firms join hands to overcome low sales

SEOUL, May 14 (Yonhap) -- Five major South Korean music firms said Thursday, they will join forces under the title "Korea Music Power" to overcome the dwindling consumption of local pop music and the spreading use of illegal music downloads on the Internet.

The project -- joined by local music power houses including SM Entertainment, YG
Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, Line Media and Star Empire Entertainment --
aims to revise copyright laws and energize the local music market, participants
in Thursday's press gathering said.
"There is a need for us to reform the overall music industry," said Kim
Young-min, head of SM Entertainment. "The problems have been existing for such a
long time that we've all become blind and numb -- but we can't go on this way."
The Korean pop music industry has been suffering from record low sales since 2000
due largely to the spread of illegal downloads on the Web.
Top-rate popular South Korean musicians, who used to sell as many as one million
discs in the 1990s, have experienced steep reductions in sales over the past few
years, barely managing to sell a few hundred thousand CDs and tapes.
The Korea Music Power project, sponsored by the Korea Entertainment Producer's
Association, will together set up a music awards event and fund free-of-charge
concerts throughout Korea and Asia, participated in by top singers. The first
such concert is scheduled for Oct. 10.
The South Korean government said earlier it would spend about US$9 million in
propping up the country's pop music industry.