Bernie Cho: President of DFSB Kollective
1. As a Korean-American who grew up in the States, what was it like making the transition to Korea? When I grew up in the US, I always lived in sleepy countryside towns. Moving to Seoul was like stepping onto the set of Blade Runner—way too many bright lights in this big city. The noise, the crowds, and the speed of Seoul were a bit overwhelming at first. But daily reminders such as taking off my shoes at the front door, having kimchi served with almost every meal, and getting yelled at in Korean all the time made me feel at home.
2. How did you get involved with the music industry? I originally came here in 1993 to attend graduate school. When I crashed a movie launch party one night, I happened to meet an executive who asked me to apply for a job at his new music TV channel. On a whim, I went in for an interview and somehow ended up getting hired. So a week before classes started, I dropped out and never looked back. Over the next dozen years, I worked both in front of and behind the cameras as a presenter and producer for Korean music TV channels such as MNET, MTV, and Channel [V]. Thanks to such opportunities, I’ve had amazing front row views and backstage stage access to the rapid rise of the K-Pop music scene.
3. So how has K-Pop developed over the past fifteen years? The first K-Pop music clips I saw on TV felt like cheesy, kitschy karaoke—I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But then, surprisingly, the quality of K-Pop music improved dramatically. Imitation gave way to innovation. Thanks to the emergence of slick beats, sexy stars, and sophisticated videos, K-Pop became hip, hot, and happening. Within a decade, K-Pop dominated almost 70% of the Korean music market. By the time the 2002 World Cup kicked in, K-Pop artists were topping music charts all over Asia. Fast forward to 2010 and K-Pop is now starting to climb the charts in North America and Europe.
4. What does “DFSB Kollective” stand for? “DFSB” is a semi-meaningless, pseudo-heavy acronym of our favorite Fatboy Slim song chorus, “Da Funk Soul Bruthas.” Being that we were a bunch of guys from Seoul, it kinda sorta made sense. Over drinks, it sometimes gets misinterpreted as “Delta Force Seoul Base.” Over a lot of drinks, some people try to confuse it with the popular boy band Dong Bang Shin Ki (DBSK).
5. What led you to start this agency? Over the years, my business partner Dalse and I developed not only professional but also personal relationships with many Korean artists and their management. What we kept hearing was a growing sense of frustration. Although no one would argue the quality of Korean music was getting better, the financial incentives to make great music seemed to be getting worse. They had to spend more time and money in marketing, only to make less profit, and split it with more people and places. Korean music TV channels were playing less videos in favor of reality TV shows and local online music stores were pricedumping digital tracks practically to free. This kind of business logic seemed dyslexic to us. As fans of music, we felt compelled to create a more sensible, sustainable, artist-friendly business model. Hence, we opened our creative agency.
6. So what exactly does DFSB Kollective do? For Korean artists and management companies who want to go direct to their fans and go direct worldwide, we are a convenient, one-stop shop. We essentially provide label-like services without being a label. As the first official K-Pop aggregator for iTunes worldwide, we offer them the most direct distribution avenues into the most international digital music stores. We strike revenue-sharing deals with the world’s leading audio and video streaming sites on behalf of the 150 K-Pop acts that we represent, and we offer our clients overseas PR, concert productions, and a wide range of digital media solutions. And given that we not only offer 15% more but 15 times more in profit for every digital music sale overseas (compared to what they make in Korea), we provide non-rocket science reasons for them to work with us.
7. Just how important is the internet to artists these days? In this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, anybody anywhere at any time can become the next big thing. If the Korean Wave is to shift from fad to phenomenon among those surfing the net, we need to empower K-Pop artists with the right combination of digital tools to enable music fans all over the world to discover them in a simpler, better, faster manner.
8. How would you describe the Korean digital market? DMZ: Digital Media Zeitgeist. In 2006, Korea became the first country in the world where digital music sales surpassed physical music sales. By 2007, Korea emerged as the #4 digital music market in the world. But below these staggering sales numbers are some hidden landmines. Although Korea is admired as one of the most wired (and wireless) societies in the world, the Korean internet has spawned a virtual walled garden that hinders non-Koreans from finding out more about K-Pop. Local portal sites’ reliance on ActiveX plug-ins makes it tough to preview and purchase K-Pop music from overseas and their reluctance to let foreigners register makes it rough for them to access K-Pop fan clubs. As much as K-Pop has surged in popularity in Asia and beyond, I wonder how much bigger K-Pop would be if Korean websites were more open and in tune with global standards and practices.
9. What is your personal opinion on Hallyu, the so-called Korean Wave? I’m very optimistic. But try asking 10 non-Asians to pronounce ‘Hallyu’ and see how many can pronounce it correctly and how many even know what it is. Until a bad hair perm takes on the name, I think it’s a lot safer and easier to sell K-Pop as part of the “Korean Wave.”
10. What advice would you give to a newcomer to Korea who wants to explore the indie music scene? If you’re on the ground and want to go underground, the only answer is Hongdae. It’s the mecca for Korea’s best and brightest new music talents. If you’re looking for some action in outdoor mosh pits, you can’t go wrong checking out amazing events like the Pentaport Rock Festival, Jisan Valley Festival, and Green Mint Festival. If you’re online, I recommend the quirky site Indieful ROK (indiefulrok.blogspot.com), run by a woman in Sweden (no joke) and the US-based sites AllKPop (allkpop.com) and Soompi (soompi.com), both of which generate way higher web traffic than any and all Korean music sites in Korea (go figure).
http://10magazine.asia/3114/bernie-cho-10questions/
By David Carruth