HYBE, Gold House, and Gold Music Alliance held a K-POP event in LA, discussing K-POP's global impact and future in the music industry.

On September 9, in Los Angeles, under Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), HYBE, in collaboration with Gold House and the Gold Music Alliance under the Recording Academy, held a special discussion and networking event titled 'Reshaping Global Music Industry: K-pop's Entertainment Blueprint.' This event aimed to invite leaders and experts driving the global music market to deeply explore the value of K-POP as a global cultural phenomenon and to form discussions about the impact and future of K-POP on the market. Approximately 100 participants included key executives and members from Gold House and the Gold Music Alliance, as well as experts from the global music industry. Gold House, which co-hosted the event, is a non-profit organization in the United States that supports entrepreneurs and cultural artists in the Asia-Pacific region, contributing to strengthening networks and cultural formation in the Asian region. The Gold Music Alliance is an organization under the Recording Academy, which hosts the Grammy Awards, established as part of the D.R.E.A.M. (Diversity Reimagined by Engaging All Musicmakers) initiative. It supports Asian members in expanding their influence across the global music industry and highlights their cultural heritage and contributions to the music industry. The event opened with greetings from Isaac Lee of HYBE AMERICA, Bin Chen, co-founder and chairman of Gold House, and Kiana Conley-Akinlo, Senior Executive of the Recording Academy LA branch. Bin Chen stated, 'K-POP started from one region but shows the power to unite the world. (Asian culture, including K-POP) is growing the fastest within the United States and has already produced results like BTS and KATSEYE.' Kiana Conley-Akinlo remarked, 'The influence of K-POP within the Recording Academy has greatly expanded in recent years. I hope that through the Gold Music Alliance, the voices of music professionals from the Asia-Pacific region will help build the future of the global music industry.' Isaac Lee from HYBE AMERICA noted, 'K-POP only accounts for 4% of the global music market, yet it is already dominating major global charts and will continue to grow explosively. HYBE's vision is not only to expand the K-POP market but also to create successful strategies shown by K-POP together with artists and fans worldwide.' The subsequent panel session included panelists such as Choi Junwon from Weverse Company, Mitra Darab from HYBE x Geffen Records, Grammy-winning producer Jonathan Yip, and Rick Che, a global tour promoter from Live Nation. They agreed that fandom culture and fandom platforms are unique characteristics and success strategies of K-POP, which are already influencing the Western music market. Choi Junwon stated, 'K-POP fandoms are not just listeners; they are very active and passionate, wanting to participate in the growth of the artists. I believe that the characteristics of such fandoms and the attractive elements of K-POP have all come together to create K-POP's innovation.' The panelists see that K-POP's fandom culture is already influencing Western culture. Mitra Darab emphasized, 'In K-POP, prioritizing fans and using platforms like Weverse to communicate directly with them is crucial. This is something Western cultural spheres, particularly American labels, should learn from K-POP, and many Western artists already want to join Weverse.' Darab also praised the strategy of utilizing Korean music programs, which influenced KATSEYE's success. She mentioned that KATSEYE chose Korean music programs as the first activity for their single 'Gnarly' released in April this year, explaining, 'The top four Korean music programs with the highest production standards are stages that fans expect and places to understand fandom culture. Since the performance was crucial for the song, this was a very strategic choice.'