SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean entertainment company HYBE, home to K-pop superstars BTS, has signed a music distribution deal with China’s Tencent, the Seoul Economic Daily newspaper reported on Tuesday citing a HYBE official.
The deal will see music from HYBE artists become available on streaming platforms owned by China’s Tencent Music including QQ Music, Kugou, and Kuwo, the report said.
HYBE was not available for immediate comment.
Spearheaded by the likes of BTS and Blackpink, South Korea’s pop music industry, known as K-pop, has enjoyed a rise in global popularity in recent years.
But the Chinese market has proven difficult to enter for South Korean entertainment companies as of late due to Beijing’s unofficial ban on South Korean content.
Relations between the two countries took a hit in 2017 following South Korea’s installation of a THAAD system, a U.S. missile defence shield to better counter North Korea’s evolving missile threats.
Beijing had argued that THAAD’s powerful radar could peer into its airspace and responded sharply by cutting trade and cultural imports from South Korea.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; editing by Jason Neely)
