K-pop's 29x production gap: South Korea launches fund to back smaller agencies

South Korea's music exports grew 32.4% in 2025 compared to the previous year. The industry's structural imbalance tells a different story. In 2023, major entertainment companies spent an average of 43.1 billion won annually on music production. Small and mid-sized agencies averaged just 1.49 billion won — roughly 29 to 1. Overseas concert counts mirror the divide: large companies logged 83.4 performances per year abroad. Smaller agencies managed four.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched the "Small Agency Global Leap Support" program in response. Ten qualifying small agencies will be selected each year to receive up to 300 million won annually for a maximum of three years.

Smaller operations are already proving themselves on the charts. ATEEZ is the only small-agency act among the eight K-pop groups to have topped the Billboard 200, and one of just three K-pop groups — alongside BTS and Stray Kids — to have reached No. 1 there more than once. CIIPHER launched their first world tour just six months after debuting in 2023, then placed two albums inside the Billboard 200 top 100 within a year of debut. Virtual boy group PLAVE claimed a terrestrial music show No. 1 within a year of their own 2023 debut.

Among the program's selected recipients: Can't Be Blue, a five-member band that is fully independent with no agency backing. They debuted in 2024. Their debut track Sarangirado Haetdeon Mal Sogeseo has surpassed 10 million streams, building a fanbase without label infrastructure. Members write and compose their own material. Also selected was Big Ocean, described as the world's first deaf idol group, whose members perform entirely in sign language.