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 give attention to the Higher 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 companies, TME operates QQ Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music, and karaoke platform WeSing, in addition to quite a lot of different companies together with long-form audio streaming platform Lazy Audio and reside occasions producer TME Dwell.
Established through NCC Leisure – an organization established by JYP’s Chinese language subsidiary and TME – ONECEAD will give attention to artist improvement and administration, with plans to broaden into music manufacturing, reside occasions, and merchandise.
Its first venture might be managing seven-member group MODYSSEY, fashioned by Chinese language actuality present PLANET C: HOME RACE.
CJ ENM says that the JV marks an necessary strategic milestone, because it goals to construct artist companies that “resonate each regionally and globally”, working with companions in Higher China.
It plans to develop a “complete music enterprise” spanning artist administration, manufacturing, touring and merchandise, with the objective of “repeatedly 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 enchantment” comparable to JO1 and INI.
Final 12 months in the meantime, it teamed up with Japanese promoting agency Hakuhodo to launch a JV known as Chapter-I to develop music-based IP.
ONECEAD marks the newest instance of the rising collaboration between corporations from China and Korea following years of strained relations.
Okay-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 ‘Okay-pop Artist Chart.’
Moreover, in November 2025 South Korea’s nationwide broadcaster KBS entered right into a media alternate and cooperation enterprise settlement with Chinese language state media firm China Media Group.
Improved relations between the 2 nations might end in a considerable uplift in live performance ticket, album, and merch gross sales for South Korean leisure corporations as they broaden past their residence market amid the continued rise in Okay-pop’s world recognition.
ONECEAD’s launch additionally comes lower than 12 months after Okay-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, aimed toward serving to its artists broaden into the market.
As of 2024, China was the world’s fifth-largest recorded music market (IFPI).Music Enterprise Worldwide
