Ok-pop big JYP’s China unit and CJ ENM strike three way partnership with Tencent Music
South Korean leisure and retail firm CJ ENM has arrange a three way partnership with JYP CHINA and Tencent Music Leisure (TME), with a strategic deal with the Larger China market.
The partnership, named ONECEAD, will mix “CJ ENM’s content material manufacturing experience with JYP CHINA and TME’s native infrastructure and networks”.
China’s largest operator of music streaming providers, TME operates QQ Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music, and karaoke platform WeSing, in addition to plenty of different companies together with long-form audio streaming platform Lazy Audio and dwell occasions producer TME Stay.
Established by way of NCC Leisure – an organization established by JYP’s Chinese language subsidiary and TME – ONECEAD will deal with artist improvement and administration, with plans to develop into music manufacturing, dwell occasions, and merchandise.
Its first challenge will likely be managing seven-member group MODYSSEY, shaped by way of Chinese language actuality present PLANET C: HOME RACE.
CJ ENM says that the JV marks an vital strategic milestone, because it goals to construct artist companies that “resonate each regionally and globally”, working with companions in Larger China.
It plans to develop a “complete music enterprise” spanning artist administration, manufacturing, touring and merchandise, with the objective of “constantly increasing artist IP enterprise”.
The agency says it’s trying to replicate the success of its LAPONE Leisure JV in Japan, having cultivated “native expertise with world attraction” equivalent to JO1 and INI.
Final yr in the meantime, it teamed up with Japanese promoting agency Hakuhodo to launch a JV referred to as Chapter-I to develop music-based IP.
ONECEAD marks the newest instance of the rising collaboration between firms from China and Korea following years of strained relations.
Ok-pop teams have reportedly been unofficially barred from performing in China since round 2016/2017, however South Korean tech big Kakao partnered with China and Japan’s largest audio streaming suppliers final month to launch a brand new ‘Ok-pop Artist Chart.’
Moreover, in November 2025 South Korea’s nationwide broadcaster KBS entered right into a media trade and cooperation enterprise settlement with Chinese language state media firm China Media Group.
Improved relations between the 2 nations might lead to a considerable uplift in live performance ticket, album, and merch gross sales for South Korean leisure firms as they develop past their house market amid the continued rise in Ok-pop’s world recognition.
ONECEAD’s launch additionally comes lower than 12 months after Ok-pop powerhouse HYBE formally launched a subsidiary in China.
The corporate, which is behind celebrity acts together with BTS, ENHYPEN, and Seventeen, arrange an workplace in Beijing in spring 2025, geared toward serving to its artists develop into the market.
As of 2024, China was the world’s fifth-largest recorded music market (IFPI).Music Enterprise Worldwide
