South Korea launches ₩3B annual fund for small K-pop agencies; RESCENE among 10 groups selected

On June 16, South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency announced the "Small Agency Global Leap Support" program. Ten groups were selected as inaugural recipients: RESCENE (리센느), Psycus (싸이커스), Tunex (튜넥스), Kiras (키라스), Can't Be Blue (캔트비블루), 82Major (82메이저), Big Ocean (빅오션), Yoosphere (유스피어), Exin (엑신), and Eighton (에잇턴).

Each agency gets up to approximately 300 million won annually. The support runs for up to three years, contingent on performance evaluation. Agencies decide how to spend the money across three buckets: export album and music video production, overseas marketing and promotion, and overseas concert hosting.

The disparity is enormous. Large entertainment companies averaged 43.11 billion won in annual music production budgets as of 2023. Small and mid-sized agencies averaged 1.49 billion won. That's a gap of nearly 30 times. On overseas concerts, large companies averaged 83.4 shows per year. Small agencies averaged four. The K-pop market itself grew 15.8% in revenue and 32.4% in exports from 2024 to 2025.

RESCENE is the program's marquee example. The five-member girl group debuted two years ago under The Muse Entertainment, a single-act agency. Their mini album Syndrome (신드롬) dropped in August 2024 with the title track "Love Attack" (러브 어택). For 338 days it sat outside the charts. Then on May 28 it entered Melon's Top 100. By June 16 it had climbed to No. 5 on Melon, No. 4 on Bugs Music's daily chart, and No. 17 on Genie Music's Top 200, with three straight weeks of gains since entry.

The breakthrough came in March. Leader Won-i and member Minami filmed a travel video in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, wearing Japanese gyaru-style makeup. The content went viral. RESCENE was then appointed as Geoje's promotional ambassador. (The meme "거제 야호!" now follows the group everywhere.)

RESCENE recently performed at KCON Japan and is scheduled for KCON LA in August, with Japan and U.S. activities planned around the government funding.

The other selected groups have their own overseas plans. Psycus, the ten-member junior group of ATEEZ, is targeting Japan with a mini album and unit project. Tunex debuted in March and plans a special stage in Mumbai plus local music video filming in India. Kiras, a six-member act currently promoting with "Tata" (타타), announced a Malaysia showcase and fan meetings across 10 cities in seven Asian countries. Can't Be Blue, a five-member band officially selected for Spotify Radar, will use the backing for overseas solo concerts and promotions.

Choi Sung-hee, Content and Media Industry Director at the ministry, said the program aims to ensure "the backbone of the industry" can grow alongside the major players. She hopes "another 'miracle of small businesses' will be born to lead K-pop's future."

Critic Kim Heon-sik argued that the hardest problem for small-agency acts is opening up promotion and marketing channels. He called for parallel measures: production support for collaboration programs like K-pop-d on Apple TV, and creating stages such as Gwanghwamun concerts that leverage Seoul's sense of place.