Post COVID-19 music industry to be discussed at MU:CON 2020

The four-day international music fair “2020 MU:CON” will take place online Sept. 23 - Sept. 26, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency on Wednesday.

Now in its 9th year, MU:CON gathers members of the music industry and artists for discussions about the industry and to showcase performances from both Korean and international groups.

“The music industry has shown the power of K-pop through a fast transition to contactless concerts, despite the tremendous damage due to the difficulties of holding offline concerts as COVID-19 spread continues,” said Kim Young-jun, president of KOCCA. “I hope through MU:CON Online 2020, artists in and outside Korea will think once more about the changes brought on by COVID-19 and organize the direction for the music industry moving forward.”

The main topic of discussion at the MU:CON conference on Sept 24 and 25 will be “Post Corona, Next Music Industry.”

Keynote speaker Jaeson Ma, co-founder of 88rising and co-owner of social media platform Thriller, will talk about post pandemic changes and trends in the music industry, while Lee Sung-soo, CEO of S.M. Entertainment will talk about new businesses that break down musical boundaries.

Also, Cho Sung-moon, CEO of Chartmetric, which analyzes music industry data, and Kim Yeon-jeong, head of Global K-pop & K-Content Partnership at Twitter, will assess the prospects for the music industry.

In the opening concert on Sept. 23 at 7 p.m., musicians from different genres including K-pop groups Teen Top, GFriend, ONF, Moonbin & Sanha and Dream Catcher and artists Park Moon-chi, Gaho, George and Leenalchi will give online performances.

Yoon Sang has joined MU:CON once again as the artistic director for the “MU:CON Showcase” that runs Sept. 24- Sept. 26. The showcase will feature 70 performing groups including MC Sniper, Lim Kim, Dickpunks and Seodo Band. The showcase is a chance for the participating artists to grab the attention of organizers of international music festivals and members of the media.

The conference and showcase will be available to the public through the KOCCA Music YouTube channel www.youtube.com/koccamusic. For more information, visit the event’s official website at www.mucon.kr

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)