l to r: Titan Content chief visual officer Guiom Lee, CEO Katie Kang, board chair Nikki Semin Han, and chief performance officer Lia Kim. Photo Credit: Titan
Titan Content, a self-described “multinational K-pop powerhouse” founded by former SM Entertainment CEO Nikki Semin Han, has officially launched with a goal of growing the genre’s reach on the global stage.
Los Angeles-headquartered Titan Content, which has a presence in Seoul as well, emailed Digital Music News today about its formal rollout. Billing itself as “the first U.S.-based music company totally committed to the thriving K-pop genre,” Titan says it intends to work towards “bridging the gap between East to West business and creative talent.”
Beyond developing artists in pursuit of the objective, the start-up has set its sights on expanding “to a variety of festivals and brands” in the long term. Also in the pipeline for Titan, which has tapped “true luminary” Katie Kang as CEO, are initiatives designed to complement components of “traditional K-pop business models” with Web3, metaverse, and artificial intelligence buildouts.
While concrete details about the latter as well as different areas of Titan Content’s operations are forthcoming, the K-pop business further disclosed an “initial seed round” led by blockchain investment firm RW3 Ventures and Stockholm’s Raptor Group, with Seoul-based Dreamus described as a “co-lead investor.”
Similarly, though Titan hasn’t shed light upon the precise size of this raise, it did identify as co-investors Animoca Ventures, “metaverse-native investment firm” Sfermion, Hayden Bell’s Bell Partners, blockchain platform Avalanche, Heros Entertainment, Web3 VC Infinity Ventures Crypto, San Francisco’s Scrum Ventures, and blockchain gaming company Planetarium.
Shifting to the executive side, the aforementioned Nikki Semin Han has signed on as Titan’s board chair, with 1Million Dance Studio’s Lia Kim as chief performance officer, former Prada sales head Guiom Lee as chief visual officer, and former SM Entertainment exec Dom Rodriguez as chief business officer.
In a statement, Titan Content’s CEO highlighted an ambitious vision for the business’s potential against the backdrop of a quick-expanding K-pop sphere.
“By connecting the East and the West, TITAN plans to lead the K-pop revolution on a global scale,” elaborated Katie Kang. “Not only will we utilize our vast experience and expertise to develop and create beloved K-pop artists and brands, we will also push the industry forward through savvy Web3 disruption.”
Titan isn’t alone in hunting for international K-pop results and/or looking to build upon K-pop success in different genres. To be sure, the Exile Music owner Hybe earlier in November revealed the final six members of the U.S.-based girl group, Katseye, that it formed in collaboration with Universal Music Group (UMG).
Additionally, Sony Music-partnered SM Entertainment is currently creating a “British boy group,” SM controlling stakeholder Kakao has scored a Sony Music tie-up of its own, and JYP Entertainment over the summer finalized a bolstered deal with UMG’s Republic.
