Joseph Hwang
* This article is based on the “2023 Music Industry White Paper” published by the Korea Creative Content Agency, part of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.
Creation is a fundamental part of the music industry. Songwriters, such as composers and lyricists, are at the center of it. They are all copyright holders, and their income comes almost entirely from copyright royalties.
Beyond the success of K-pop and the spotlight of the idols, the creators have existed with their bloody efforts for the K-pop artists, and their music works have become the resources to fire for the development of the pop music industry. At this time, I’m going to highlight them through this article.
1. Music composers
Even though some colleges and academies teach how to compose music, especially popular music known as “K-pop,” there is no separate education system in the professional stage. Most music composers are picked up or hired by production companies or artist management companies to select their demo tracks based on the producer’s listening.
A different point compared to the past is that the level of demos is almost like a high-quality master track, not a demo track. This environment has been made possible by developing the digital home recording system at a meager cost. Therefore, composers need to treat the system and equipment with the ability to write songs. This change also allows for screening good or bad tunes and assuming that hittable tunes are also possible for producers.
This means that it’s not necessary to separate the music arrangers for recording work. In the past, there was an arranger in the recording session for creating a recorded track. As the creators for a song to be released, there are at least 3 creators such as a composer, lyricist, and arranger. However, developing music production with the digital home recording system could exclude the arrangers. The role and function of the music composer have been expanded from the songwriter to the music producer in a broad sense. Therefore, the music composer who has a lot of successful experience is likely to become a producer, and the producer who has experience in the process and has sub-composers is also expected to become an executive producer.
The change in the music production environment intensified the collaboration to create music with other songwriters. The creators cooperate partially or categorically for only one musical work or production project. The digital home recording system made collaboration more manageable than before. This is another feature due to the change in the recording system.
2. Lyricist
The role and value of the lyricist differ according to the method of composing music. A composer can first create a melody, then adopt a lyric to the melody or one already written before songwriting, and then add the melody to the lyric. So, a songwriter had advantages over a lyricist because the melody and harmony progress was more important than the lyric, and the discretion to distribute the work belonged to the songwriter, not the lyricist. But nowadays, with the change of recording system, a songwriter who writes a melody and a lyricist tends to be separated more strongly.
The method to debut as a lyricist is not determined by the specific course. Some applied music academies are prepared for some of the curriculum and teaching by apprenticeship. Despite the educational system, most lyric apprentices have to find their jobs individually because the chance comes from songwriters or music producers. This means that the process of executing lyricists’ works under the strict hierarchical structure and the power of controlling, distributing, and assigning opportunities to lyricists are held by composers or producers.
Lyric writing is becoming increasingly important in the K-pop industry. Audiences require specific images to be drawn in their minds, so the classification of the situation in the songwriting as the lyrics have become very important over time.
In particular, as the K-pop market grows and becomes more prominent, the power and authority of the songwriters are becoming more assertive. This phenomenon causes some unfairness or illegality between K-pop creators. Foreign songwriters occasionally ask for their shares of copyright property rights at 87.5% per song, then the lyricist’s royalty of the copyright becomes 12.5% of the song. This share rate is outside the standard rules of copyright royalty sharing in South Korea - the half and half is the correct rate excluded by the arranger due to the regulation of the Korean Copyright Organization. Of course, it’s not an impossible request from a songwriter, but certainly, it is an extraordinary situation.
Except for representative lyricists, most are subordinate to music composers and producers. There are lyricists under contract artist management companies with freelancers. The lyricist is a painter who paints and covers a story on the music. When their hands touch the music, it becomes life at that time. They are all magicians.
* References and quotations:
https://welcon.kocca.kr/ko/info/trend/1953646
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