Korean Conglomerate CJ Develops Blockchain for Music Copyright

CJ, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates, is developing a blockchain-based music copyright management system using AWS' Amazon Managed Blockchain Service, according to local media.

Korean news agency Yonhap said in a report Thursday that the initiative is being led by CJ OliveNetworks, a subsidiary of the CJ Corp parent company that operates the beauty retail and technology business of the conglomerate.

The digital copyright system will keep a history of the broadcasting of copyrighted songs and store the information on the blockchain. The goal is to allow the owners and users of the material to share the resulting ledger and arrive at an equitable payment scheme for the use of the copyrighted intellectual property.

“It is very important to have a system that guarantees fairness and transparency among copyright stakeholders," Kim Eung-do, a director of the DT Convergence Research Institute at CJ OliveNetworks, was quoted as saying in a report from business outlet Hankyung. “The blockchain-based copyright management system will greatly contribute to improving the copyright management process.”

The CJ Group is South Korea's 14th largest conglomerate and has 31 trillion won ($25.9 billion) in assets, according to the latest Fair Trade Commission data. Its business lines include food and beverage, logistics, beauty stores, IT, entertainment and a cinema chain.

CJ OliveNetworks operates OliveYoung, one of the country's K-beauty leaders, and has an IT division that does everything from internet of things to cloud computing to Big Data. But a decision was announced in April to split the two and transfer the IT division to CJ Corp. CJ OliveNetworks did not respond to a request for comment.

AWS became available in Korea in 2016. It started offering its Managed Blockchain to the public in May 2019 following the introduction of the service late in 2018. AT&T, Nestle and Accenture are among the clients for the service.

OliveYoung image via Shutterstock