Introduction 

What is Pine Muse?

Pine Muse is a 'music copyright ecosystem platform' to breathe new life into K-pop, children’s song and all other songs, that are waiting to be known to the world again. 

It is a platform that applies financial techniques to closed music copyrights, that are difficult to obtain the consent of the original copyright holder, and make them into funds, and supports creators around the world to create new copyrights. 

Artists around the world looking for an opportunity for K-pop producing will have the opportunity to reinterpret the fund's numerous masterpieces through the Pine Muse Remake Audition to show their outstanding musical skills to the world. Artists who won the audition will also have the opportunity to grow to be the ‘global K-pop artists’ through professional ‘K-pop management.’ 

K-pop fans can reminisce their memories while they are listening to music recreated in numerous versions by talented artists. Content creators from areas like dramas, movies, music etc, can get a chance to meet new talented artists who they can collaborate with to produce contents. 

In addition, Pine Muse platform is the world's first 'Co-ownership music copyright platform' where all platform members enjoying music can share the economic benefits and added value generated from the platform ecosystem by applying blockchain technology.

The wind of change blowing in the music copyright and music market

Growth of Korean music copyright and music market

According to data released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Korea's music market ranked 30th in the world as of 2007, but it grew rapidly to 7th in the world after the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and China as of 2021. 

Meanwhile, as of 2021, 65% of the global music market's revenue came from the streaming market and it is on the rise every year.

According to the data released by the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), the size of the Korean music copyright market had grown from about KRW 120 billion in 2013 to about KRW 290 billion in 2021. 

The revenue sharing structure of music distribution as of 2021 shows that 10.5% of revenue from streaming was distributed to copyright holders and 48.25% to record producers, and 11% of revenue from downloading was distributed to copyright holders and 52.5% to record producers. Considering this, the market size of neighboring rights compared to copyrights can be seen as approximately 4.5 times or more, and therefore, it can be estimated that the market size of neighboring rights had grown to more than KRW 1.3 trillion in 2021. 

This growth is due to the government and the Korea Music Copyright Association continuously supervising the illegal use of copyrights to protect artists' rights, increasing the proportion of creators' profits on streaming products, and expanding the field of the collection of copyright fees.

Change of the music copyright paradigm

Music copyright has been difficult to receive proper evaluation because it was considered to be an intangible asset, but the landscape of music copyright-related industry is rapidly changing due to the increase in music distribution which is induced by the growth of the music streaming market, etc. 

Investment in music copyrights have established itself as one of the world's popular investment trends. Overseas, music copyright funds that can be invested by the general public are already cruising.

Large-scale financial investors as well as the general public, are investing in music copyrights and neighboring rights through funds such as the ‘Hipgnosis Songs Fund’ and the ‘Round Hill Music Royalty Fund,’ which were listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2018 and in 2020 respectively. 

In the case of the 'Hipgnosis Song Fund,' it started its portfolio by purchasing 75% copyrights stake in 302 songs owned by famous U.S. composer, The-Dream, for $23.25 million. It has more than 65,000 songs as of September 2021, including 1,439 songs purchased from a total of 7 composer and lyricist groups, including Poo Bear, known as Justin Bieber's composer, and TMS, a British composition group. The value of the songs is estimated to be more than KRW 3 trillion. 

The music copyright fund market continues to grow, with 'Blackstone,' a large U.S. private equity fund, created a $1 billion fund with the UK's 'Hipgnosis' to invest in music copyright in October 2021. 

Combination of music and NFT

3LAU, a world-renowned musician and DJ, sold his music as NFTs in February 2021, and earned about $11.7 million. The sales of NFTs, which had been given with special benefits (limited edition LP, access to unreleased songs, and opportunity to participate in producing new songs) drew great attention.

In March 2021, Kings of Leon, an American rock band, issued three types of NFTs on the YellowHeart Platform, which generated revenue of about $1.45 million. The benefits for NFT holders included digial album download, limited edition physical album, and lifetime concert ticket.

Additionally, musicians like Grimes, Steve Aoki, and Vérité also earned substantial income through the release of music NFTs or music NFTs with special perks.

These examples clearly showed how NFT can provide artists with more freedom in decision-making and economic gains in the production, sale, and distribution of their music, in an environment where record labels and streaming platforms are excluded.

World-renowned music agencies like Hive, YG Entertainment, and SM Entertainment in korea, are also attempting to establish a new music distribution system through the combination of music, NFT, and metaverse.

Problems with music copyright and music market

Masterpieces being gradually forgotten

With numerous new songs being released, old songs are gradually being forgotten in people's minds. Remakes for the production of movie or drama OSTs end up as one-off events, and sometimes they gain popularity by reversing trends through dramas, movies, retro broadcasts, etc., but they are insignificant. It can be said that it is still far from fulfilling the wish of the original copyright holders who want their song to be remembered for a long time.

Remake market concentrated on large content producers, etc.

In order for creators to release a remake album, they must obtain the consent of the 10 copyright holder, which is not easy for an amateur artist. Therefore, they are staying at the level of singing cover songs on social networks such as YouTube. As a result, remakes end up as one-off events for the production of OSTs for movies or dramas, or are becoming the exclusive property of large record producers who are relatively easy to obtain the consent of copyright holders.

Copyright investment remaining in copyright purchase

In the case of copyright investment limited to equity capital, investment to increase the value of copyrights through producing remake albums or utilizing new distribution media after purchasing copyrights is inevitably passive. Since it is not possible to create economies of scale for continuous remake production, It remains in a passive position to the extent of simply collecting copyright fees or agreeing with the album production of the company that wants to remake.

Music consumers excluded from revenue distribution system

The revenue of the music industry is generated based on the expenditure of music consumers, but the distribution of the revenue is made only to record producers, music distributors, and artists, excluding music consumers.

Creator recruitment system with limited opportunities

Currently, lyricists and composers have limited routes to show their talents. They personally visit record producers with their work and receive evaluations, or wait to be recognized on social networks like YouTube. In particular, it is a reality that it is difficult to attract public attention if talent is not recognized by large record companies.

Pine Muse Solution

Rebirth of old masterpieces as masterpieces of this generation

Pine Muse will build a systematic infrastructure for continuous remake so that old masterpieces that are being forgotten in memory can be reborn as masterpieces suitable for today's era.

Pine Muse remake audition for artists from all over the world

The Pine Muse remake audition is open to any artist from all over the world. Artists can freely remake original songs into other genres using their talent, and get opportunities to produce remake albums and collaborate with content producers for dramas, movies, etc.

Ceaseless value-enhancing efforts for generating music copyright revenue

Pine Muse will create new copyright-related revenue sources through ceaseless value-enhancing activities such as remakes of masterpieces owned by Pine Muse and creating new distribution media.

Sharing revenue with all members of the platform ecosystem

Pine Muse shares the revenue generated from the platform with all members of the platform ecosystem, including music consumers. Unlike existing systems where music consumers are completely excluded, on the Pine Muse platform, sponsoring favorite artists and enjoying music can be one’s own profit.

Growth platform for global K-pop rising star

Pine Muse will discover unknown global musical geniuses that have not been recognized before through remake audition. Pine Muse will faithfully play the role of a 'global artist growth platform' that supports artists to fully display their musical skills and to fulfill their dreams on the world stage with the numerous masterpieces of Pine Muse.