Kakao Entertainment will design K-pop acts for the American market
Kakao Entertainment, which owns SM Entertainment, Starship and the streaming service Melon, signed a strategic partnership with Warner Music's Atlantic Music Group on 7 October to build K-pop artists for overseas markets from the planning stage.
Neither company disclosed financial terms, a structure, or any artist the partnership will apply to. Kakao Entertainment reported revenue of ₩1.19tn in 2025, about £643m, and is 63.5% owned by Kakao Corp.
Atlantic Music Group holds Atlantic Records, 10K Projects and 300 Entertainment. Atlantic's roster includes Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Charli XCX, Charlie Puth, Cardi B and Miley Cyrus.
What the two sides said they will share is unusually specific for an announcement with no numbers in it. Kakao brings music IP planning and production, distribution, artist management, marketing and fan communication. Atlantic brings A&R, promotion and its overseas network.
Kakao Entertainment, which owns SM Entertainment, Starship and the streaming service Melon, signed a strategic partnership with Warner Music's Atlantic Music Group.
The joint work runs from song camps and featuring arrangements at the writing stage through streaming and social distribution, digital marketing, local television and radio bookings, and fan communication in each market. Kakao said the two will also pursue a new label partnership for overseas expansion.
The stated point is sequence rather than scale. Korean companies have exported finished acts for fifteen years, building an artist at home and taking the result abroad once it worked. This agreement sets the overseas strategy before the music is made.
That is the second time in two years an American major has licensed the Korean method rather than the output. HYBE put the Korean training and production system inside Geffen to build KATSEYE, and Kakao Entertainment America has an existing arrangement with Columbia Records covering IVE.
For Kakao it also answers a question that has followed the company since it won control of SM Entertainment in 2023 against HYBE. It owns the largest collection of K-pop companies in Korea and has had no obvious American route for them.
What the announcement does not say is how any of this is paid for, who owns what is created, or where a jointly developed act would be signed. Atlantic already has the biggest K-pop crossover record of recent years on its books. ROSÉ and Bruno Mars's "APT." went out through the label, in a deal Kakao had no part in.
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