Mystic, Afreeca TV team up for new venture

Music label Mystic Entertainment, home to artists such as Lim Kim, Eddy Kim and Jane Jang, and peer-to-peer content streaming site Afreeca TV have joined to create a new content company, the companies announced Thursday.

The joint venture, called Freec, will be used to create and share content in a way that integrates and maximizes the advantages of new and old media. Afreeca’s “broadcast jockeys” (known as BJs) and Mystic’s artists will form the base of the new platform, bringing together crowdsourcing-style content creation with agency-directed management.

With initial capital of 500 million won ($430,000) and more investments to come, Freec will be operated for the first few months without a central command structure.

“This is not a simple collaboration,” said Afreeca TV CEO Seo Soo-kiel at a press conference at CGV Apgujeong. “It is a new platform for creating, consuming and sharing content. The goal is to bring together two companies who have always run outside the mainstream, and create something new.”

“When we first spoke, we agreed that in today‘s media environment, the process for releasing content to the mass public and making it popular is too difficult,” Mystic CEO Yoon Jong-shin said. “The way in which Afreeca TV allows content creators to reach their audiences is the simplest method.”

Although the two CEOs declined to comment on specific Freec projects in the works, Yoon mentioned that they will be launching a music program hosted by Yoon himself, with a freer and more unscripted ambience than existing music programs on air.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)