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One of South Korea’s largest entertainment agencies, SM Entertainment, plans to create future content under its SM Culture Universe (SMCU) metaverse in NFTs — according to its founder Lee Soo-man at Solana’s Breakpoint 2021 conference.
Fast facts
- Lee said SM’s own metaverse, the SMCU, needs to be a place for creation where K-pop prosumers can play, enjoy and freely create. “Such direction for recreatable content will also be presented through NFT (non-fungible token) content,” Lee said. SM plans to allow K-pop prosumers to recreate its NFT content and earn a percentage of NFTs in return.
- On its metaverse, Lee mentioned that SM will utilize different forms of intellectual property (IP) from K-pop artists, music, music videos and performances to create cultural IP that is centered around the metaverse.
- Lee also acknowledged the NFT platform may become a subject of regulations, and said that the company will need to “seriously consider the scope of these legal regulations.”
- SM entertainment, founded in 1989, is touted as the pioneer of the current K-pop industry, producing many successful groups such as EXO, NCT, SNSD and SHINee. In November 2020, SM launched its first metaverse-themed girl group named aespa, which includes four members and their virtual reality counterparts that perform and promote the group in the virtual world.
- It is reported that SM Entertainment is considering using Solana as the blockchain platform to issue their NFTs.
- Meanwhile, HYBE, the K-pop sensation BTS’ music label, recently partnered with Dunamu, the operator of Korean crypto exchange Upbit, to release NFT fan collectibles of BTS.