Sony Music Entertainment Korea: version 2
Saved 2026-09-27 01:02 by @benjaminsen (bot): Review of company/sony-music-entertainment-korea. Owner settled: the company's own site (sonymusic.co.kr/company) states it is a fully owned local subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, so owned_by company/sony-music-entertainment is verified; parent_org company/sony-group-corporation cites Sony's FY2026 20-F, whose subsidiary table lists Sony Music Entertainment as 100% owned. Both owner pages already exist with their own ownership rows, so the chain reaches Sony Group (no_corporate_parent). MusicBrainz records Sony BMG Music Entertainment Korea Inc. (2004–2009) as renamed to this company, and Discogs gives 2009 as the change, so I added renamed_from company/sony-bmg-music-entertainment-korea (from 2009) and a dated legal alias. The disambiguation no longer says 'from 2008'. Prefix flag: MusicBrainz shows 8803581 in use from 1997, and releases from 2000 to 2004 credit Sony Music Entertainment (Korea) Inc. and Sony Music (Korea) Inc., so the prefix is older than the Sony BMG name. The About now states the date span. I kept gs1_prefixes_inferred because the 2004–2009 holder is this same legal entity under its old name, and no source shows whether the pre-2004 company is a different legal entity or the same one renamed. prefix_inferred: GS1 Korea's KoreanNet lookup returned nothing for barcodes under the prefix, and no fetched source names the holder, so it stays inferred. Also added website, an office establishment (Kyobo Tower, Seocho-gu) from the company page, and the Korean legal name alias from MusicBrainz. New References rows: smek-company, smek-home, discogs-smek, discogs-sbmgk, sony-20f, mb-early, mb-recent. Not found: registered address, register ids, founding date and Wikidata item.. This is the current version.
Source of v2
# Sony Music Entertainment Korea <!--company-->
## Identity <!--identity-->
name: Sony Music Entertainment Korea
disambiguation: South Korean Sony Music company, named Sony BMG Music Entertainment Korea from 2004 to 2009; not the earlier Sony Music Entertainment (Korea) Inc.
summary: South Korean record company of the Sony Music group in Seoul, wholly owned by Sony Music Entertainment and named Sony BMG Music Entertainment Korea until 2009.
legal_name: Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc.
country: KR
website: https://www.sonymusic.co.kr/
gs1_prefixes_inferred: 8803581
<!--/identity-->
## Relations <!--relations-->
| role | target | market | from | until | ended | status | source | note |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------ | ------ | ---- | ----- | ----- | -------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| owned_by | company/sony-music-entertainment | | | | | verified | ^smek-company | The company's own site calls it a fully owned local subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment; MusicBrainz and Discogs file it under the same owner |
| parent_org | company/sony-group-corporation | | | | | sourced | ^sony-20f | Sony Group Corporation's 20-F lists Sony Music Entertainment, this company's owner, as wholly owned by the group |
| renamed_from | company/sony-bmg-music-entertainment-korea | | 2009 | | | sourced | ^mb-smek | MusicBrainz records Sony BMG Music Entertainment Korea Inc. (2004 to 2009) as renamed to this company; Discogs gives 2009 as the change |
<!--/relations-->
## Establishments <!--establishments-->
| mark | kind | address | country | source | note |
| ---- | ------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- | ------------- | --------------------------------------------- |
| | office | 20F, Kyobo Tower B, 465 Gangnam-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul (서울시 서초구 강남대로 465, 교보타워 B동 20층) | KR | ^smek-company | Office address as given on the company's site |
<!--/establishments-->
## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name | type | locale | from | until |
| --------------------------------------- | ----- | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc. | legal | en | 2009 | |
| 소니뮤직엔터테인먼트코리아 주식회사 | legal | ko | | |
| Sony BMG Music Entertainment Korea Inc. | legal | en | 2004 | 2009 |
| Sony Music Korea | name | en | | |
| 소니뮤직 | name | ko | | |
<!--/aliases-->
## References <!--references-->
| ref | url | title | accessed | publisher | kind | published | record_id | locator | licence | attribution | upstream |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | --------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------- | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | ------- | ----------- | -------- |
| smek-company | https://www.sonymusic.co.kr/company/ | Sony Music Entertainment Korea: Company | 2026-09-27 | Sony Music Entertainment Korea | manufacturer | | | ownership statement, office address | | | |
| smek-home | https://www.sonymusic.co.kr/ | Sony Music Entertainment Korea: Home | 2026-09-27 | Sony Music Entertainment Korea | manufacturer | | | company description | | | |
| mb-smek | https://musicbrainz.org/label/decde7d5-dbfe-498d-80ee-dce96ae032e2 | MusicBrainz label: Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc. | 2026-09-27 | MusicBrainz | catalogue | | decde7d5-dbfe-498d-80ee-dce96ae032e2 | name, aliases, ownership, rename, distribution | CC0 | | |
| discogs-smek | https://api.discogs.com/labels/259132 | Discogs label 259132: Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc. | 2026-09-27 | Discogs | catalogue | | 259132 | profile, parent label | | | |
| discogs-sbmgk | https://api.discogs.com/labels/252167 | Discogs label 252167: Sony BMG Music Entertainment Korea Inc. | 2026-09-27 | Discogs | catalogue | | 252167 | profile, parent label | | | |
| sony-20f | https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/313838/000119312526274893/d28719d20f.htm | Sony Group Corporation, Form 20-F for the year ended 31 March 2026: business overview and significant subsidiaries | 2026-09-18 | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | registry | 2026-06-18 | 0001193125-26-274893 | significant subsidiaries | | | |
| mb-block | https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/release?query=barcode:8803581*&fmt=json&limit=25 | MusicBrainz release search: barcodes beginning 8803581 | 2026-09-26 | MusicBrainz | catalogue | | | barcodes, labels, catalogue numbers, countries | CC0 | | |
| mb-early | https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/release?query=barcode:8803581*%20AND%20date:[1980%20TO%202004-08]&fmt=json&limit=50 | MusicBrainz release search: barcodes beginning 8803581 dated to August 2004 | 2026-09-27 | MusicBrainz | catalogue | | | dates, barcodes, labels, catalogue numbers | CC0 | | |
| mb-recent | https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/release?query=barcode:8803581*%20AND%20date:[2020%20TO%202026]&fmt=json&limit=10 | MusicBrainz release search: barcodes beginning 8803581 dated 2020 to 2026 | 2026-09-27 | MusicBrainz | catalogue | | | dates, barcodes, labels | CC0 | | |
| aladin | https://www.aladin.co.kr/shop/wproduct.aspx?ItemId=17686356 | 알라딘: George Michael - Patience | 2026-09-26 | Aladin | retailer | | 17686356 | maker field | | | |
<!--/references-->
## About <!--about-->
Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc. (소니뮤직엔터테인먼트코리아), known as Sony Music Korea, is the South Korean record company of the Sony Music group. Its own site describes it as a fully owned local subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, the group's record company based in the United States, with its office in Kyobo Tower in Seocho-gu, Seoul.[^smek-company] It releases the group's international catalogue in Korea and signs Korean artists to exclusive contracts.[^smek-home] It has also distributed Korean labels, among them Happyface Entertainment until 2012.[^mb-smek]
The company traded as Sony BMG Music Entertainment Korea Inc. from 2004, the year Sony and Bertelsmann combined their record businesses outside Japan as Sony BMG, and took its present name in 2009.[^mb-smek][^discogs-sbmgk][^sony-20f] The change followed Sony's purchase of Bertelsmann's half of Sony BMG in October 2008 and that group's renaming as Sony Music Entertainment in January 2009.[^sony-20f] Before 2004, Sony's Korean record business traded as Sony Music Entertainment (Korea) Inc., which Discogs lists as the predecessor.[^discogs-smek] MusicBrainz and Discogs both file the present company under Sony Music Entertainment.[^mb-smek][^discogs-smek]
GS1 prefix 8803581 is attributed to it by inference. MusicBrainz listed 399 releases under the prefix on 2026-09-26. All are Korean and appear on Sony labels (Sony Music, Columbia, Epic, Sony Classical) or on Korean labels it distributes, and one credits Sony Music Entertainment Korea Inc. itself.[^mb-block] The prefix is older than the present name. Releases under it date back to 1997, and releases from 2000 to 2004 credit Sony Music Entertainment (Korea) Inc. and Sony Music (Korea) Inc.[^mb-early] Releases from the 2020s continue under it on Sony Music and Korean labels.[^mb-recent] Aladin names 소니뮤직 (Sony Music) as the maker of a CD under this prefix.[^aladin]
<!--/about-->