Kreation Music Rights is a South Korean music publishing company and a subsidiary of

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the car ...

. It was launched in 2023 as part of the company's

SM 3.0 SM 3.0 is the latest business strategy and development plan of the South Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment. Announced in February 2023, it would focus on integrating various aspects of the company's operations, including music producti ...

strategy. As of May 2024, KMR has recruited around 150 songwriters, making it the largest company of its kind in the

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

industry.

History

In August 2023,

CEO Jang Cheol-hyuk announced plans during an investor presentation to launch a new music publishing company called Kreation Music Rights (KMR), as part of the

strategy. SM converted the existing SM Friends subsidiary into a music publishing label to support SM's newly established multi-production center system, providing a wider pool of songs for artists. It was also intended to provide an additional revenue stream for the company, enabling the internalization of royalties and music sales to other companies. KMR was launched in September 2023, with investment of 27.1 billion won. Lee Sung-soo, SM's chief A&R officer and longtime head of production, was appointed CEO. KMR established a European office in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

in December 2023. Writers signed to the company include Norwegian songwriting team

Dsign Music Dsign Music is a Norwegian songwriting and music production company, established in 2004 consisting of the members Robin Jenssen, Anne Judith Stokke Wik, Nermin Harambašić, Ronny Vidar Svendsen, JINBYJIN and Adrian Thesen (pizzapunk).Music N ...

, responsible for songs such as

Girls' Generation Girls' Generation (), also known as SNSD, is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group is composed of eight members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun. Originally a nine-piec ...

's "

Genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

NCT Dream NCT Dream () is the third sub-unit of the South Korean boy band NCT (group), NCT, formed by SM Entertainment in 2016. They were initially intended to be the teenaged unit of NCT with an admission-and-graduation system, in which members would l ...

's "ISTJ" and

Taemin Lee Tae-min (; born July 18, 1993), better known mononymously as Taemin, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor. He debuted as a member of the South Korean boy band Shinee in May 2008 and the supergroup SuperM in 2019, both un ...

's "Want", and Sweden-based duo Sunshine, responsible for Red Velvet's " Psycho" and

Aespa Aespa ( ; , stylized in Letter case#All lowercase, all lowercase or as æspa) is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group consists of four members: Karina (South Korean singer), Karina, Giselle (singer), Giselle, Winter ...

's "

Spicy Pungency ( ) is the taste of food commonly referred to as spiciness, hotness or heat, found in foods such as chili peppers. Highly pungent tastes may be experienced as unpleasant. The term piquancy ( ) is sometimes applied to foods with a lower ...

". KMR also acquired the South Korean production teams MonoTree and The Hub, joining the

Kangta An Chil-hyun (; born October 10, 1979), known professionally as Kangta (stylized sometimes in all caps and formerly as KangTa; ), is a South Korean singer, composer, songwriter, record producer, actor and radio personality. He is well known as a ...

-led Smash Hit as CICs (company-in-company). It has plans to establish a North American subsidiary and form additional partnerships with local companies. KMR attracted controversy over its acquisition of The Hub and entertainment company 10x Entertainment, with allegations that it overpaid for the two companies. SM refuted this, explaining that The Hub showed rapid sales growth and 10x was part of its plan to establish a label. In March 2024, KMR launched the production label Kustomade, representing former

Stray Kids Stray Kids (often abbreviated to SKZ; ) is a South Korean boy band formed by JYP Entertainment. The band consists of eight members: Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han (musician), Han, Felix (rapper), Felix, Seungmin, and I.N. For un ...

member

Kim Woo-jin Kim Woojin (; born April 8, 1997) is a South Korean singer and actor. He is a former member of the boy group Stray Kids, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2017. After leaving the group in late 2019, Kim debuted as a soloist in 2021 with the rele ...

and Yelo, a member of MonoTree. It signed business agreements with several educational institutions to foster new talent in the field of K-pop production, including Dong-ah Institute of Media and Arts and

Howon University Howon University () is a private four-year comprehensive university located in Gunsan, South Korea. It is renowned for its high employment rate for its graduates. History Established in 1977 as Gunsan Industrial College, it was elevated to a u ...

. In September 2024, Kangta said that SM had released around 170 songs through KMR since its establishment, and that it was saving them up to 60 billion won per year in copyright and publishing fees.

Labels

Company-in-company * MonoTree * The Hub * Smash Hit * BadX Production labels * Kustomade

Artists

Kustomade

* Kim Woojin * Yelo

External links

References

{{SM Entertainment SM Entertainment subsidiaries Music publishing companies of South Korea