*This content was translated by AI.
On the 29th, the Korea Music Copyright Association (Chairman Choo Sang-yeol, hereinafter referred to as the Manger Association) announced the list of a total of 30 members to be promoted to full members in 2026 on its official website.
According to the association's regulations, the Korea Music Association, which trusts and manages the copyright rights of domestic music creators, selects those who are promoted to full members by comprehensively considering the period of enrollment and the performance of copyright fees. Members of all genres, including popular music, children's songs, religion, and pure music, are eligible.
This year's list of full-time members released by the Korea Music Association included representative music creators who combined popularity and workability, including Day6's YOUNG K (Kang Young-hyun), Idle Yuqi (Song Yu-gi), singer-songwriter Stella Jang (Jang Jang-eun), and Bae Chul-soo.
Young K is a creator who wrote and composed the team's representative songs such as "You Were Beautiful," "To Be One Page," and "Welcome to the Show," leading the musical color of Day6 and expanding the band's music to the public. Young K was promoted to a full-time member for the first time in DAY6, which has been very popular with self-composed songs, and his creative achievements, which he has steadily accumulated along with his singing career, have been officially recognized.
Yuqi has proven her solid creative ability within the group by participating in writing and composing a number of songs such as "Last Forever," "Neverland," and "All Night." After Jeon So-yeon, a member of the same group who was promoted to a full member in 2024, she was listed on the full member list for the second time, once again solidifying her position as a creator beyond an idol.
Singer-songwriter Stella Jang, who has been attracting attention for his French sensibility and unique music world, was also included in the list of candidates for full membership promotion. He has continued his creative activities across genres and boundaries by participating in works by various artists, including his songs 'Colors', 'Villain', 'L'amour, Les Baguettes, Paris', 'Friends' of BTS, and 'Dreamer' of Tomorrow X Together.
Bae Chul-soo, an iconic figure in the history of Korean pop music, was also promoted to a full member this year. Bae Chul-soo led the popularization of Korean rock music by participating in the lyrics and composition of the group's Songgolmae's representative songs, "Rain" and "Gather Up," and since then, he has been deeply influential in the overall music culture as a singer and DJ of "Bae Chul-soo's Music Camp." This promotion once again highlighted his creative history and musical contributions.
In addition to them, this year's full-time membership promotion list included a number of young creators, including GIGI (Kim Hyun-ji), who participated in writing lyrics for major hits such as NewJeans's "Hype Boy," "OMG," and "Super Shy," as well as Han Won-tak and KAKO (Lee Yoo-jin), GHSTLOOP (Kim Min-soo), JUNNY (Kim Hyung-joon), and MILLENNIUM (Cho Rae-sung), who worked on songs such as Seventeen, Stray Kids, and NCT DREAM. The recent joining of these writers, who are leading the K-pop music industry, is also meaningful in terms of generational change and expansion of the creative base.
In addition, middle-aged artists such as ASTROZ (Son Young-jin), Big Sancho (Kim Tae-ho), and Kang Hwa-sung, who have continued their creative activities for a long time with more than 10 years of enrollment, have also been promoted to full members. ASTROZ has created a number of hit songs, including IZ*ONE's "Twilight," Hyuna's "Lip & Hip," and BTOB's "It's Okay," and Big Sancho has built strong musical colors through children's "LATATA," "LION," and "Oh My God." Kang Kyung-sung is considered a writer who has improved the completeness of the sound of domestic popular music by performing arrangements such as Naerl's "Wind Memory," HYNN's "Like Watering a Withering Flower," and Roy Kim's "We Can Break Up Then."
In the non-Chinese music field, children's song writer Oh Nam-hoon, religious music writer Lee Hyuk-jin, and pure music writer Kim Eun-soo were promoted to full members, making it a meaningful milestone for creators in each field.
Meanwhile, the promotion list also included writers who had served as full-time members in the past, such as Jang Bum-joon, Kwon Jung-yeol, and Sun Woo-junga, but were re-promoted according to the Mjeo Association regulations, Mjeo Association said.
The list of promotion to full members announced by the Korea Music Association at the beginning of every year is used as an indicator of the flow of the music industry and the current creative environment. "The promotion of full membership is not just a change in qualifications, but a fruit of continuous activities and achievements as creators," an official from the Korea Music Association said. "We hope that the promoted creators will continue to contribute to the development of the domestic music industry and the enhancement of K-pop's status through various work activities."
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*This content was translated by AI.
