Foreigners must pay for Melon's streaming service to attend MMA2022

[KAKAO ENTERTAINMENT]

Foreigners who do not pay a subscription to Melon, one of Korea’s major music streaming services, will not be eligible to purchase tickets for the Melon Music Awards 2022 (MMA2022).

On Thursday, Kakao Entertainment, which hosts the annual music award ceremony, released information about three rounds of ticketing for the event scheduled to take place at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro District, western Seoul, on Nov. 26, on Thursday.

There are no options available in any of the three rounds that allow foreigners who are not paid subscribers of Melon to purchase tickets for the event.

According to Kakao Entertainment, the first ticketing round will begin from 8 p.m. on Oct. 31 through 11:59 p.m. that day. This round is only open to people with GOLD, VIP and MVIP memberships for Melon. Users earn GOLD membership after subscribing to Melon’s paid service for at least a year.

The second round scheduled to open at 8 p.m. on Nov. 2 is open to all subscribers of Melon, whether they are paid or not. However, applicants must pay with a KakaoBank debit card or KakaoBank mini card, which is a pre-paid card.

Foreigners currently cannot open an account at KakaoBank and a KakaoBank spokesperson told the Korea JoongAng Daily Thursday that the bank currently does not offer a system where foreigners can apply for the mini card either.

The third round is set for 8 p.m. on Nov. 4. The round is open to all paid members of Melon, regardless of their membership levels.

Kakao Entertainment in its statement Thursday said “we hope to increase the level of satisfaction of our 5 million paid members by offering privileges in the ticketing process to our long-term members for the MMA2022.”

The event will be livestreamed via multiple social channels including Melon’s mobile app as well as the Kakao TV app and the Wavve video streaming service app.

Residents outside of Korea can watch the event through YouTube channel “1theK.” Residents in Japan can watch the livestreamed event via Japanese service U-NEXT, according to Kakao Entertainment.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]