KOMCA was founded by members of the Korea Record Writers Association, a voluntary organization for songwriters. In December 1961, the Korea Entertainment Association was formed as a member of the , established by the government following the
May 16 coup. The government then merged the Korea Record Writers Association into the new association's creative division. After the merger, members of the former Korea Record Writers Association felt their rights were not being protected and sought to establish a copyright management organization under the
Copyright Act of 1957. KOMCA was founded in March 1964 and was approved by the Ministry of Education on June 19, 1964. KOMCA became of member of the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1979 and joined
CISAC as an associate member in 1987, becoming a full member in 1995. In 2004, KOMCA hosted the 44th CISAC World Congress in Seoul. In 2024, KOMCA celebrated its 60th anniversary and hosted the CISAC conference again for the first time in twenty years.
Agreement with JASRAC In December 2007, KOMCA signed a reciprocal representation agreement with the
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), which allows "either society to administer (license, collect and distribute royalties) usage of the other society's repertoire in its own country on behalf of the other society". In 2012,
Korean pop music earned ₩11 billion (US$10 million) in royalties from Japan, about ten percent of what was earned in South Korea that same year. In comparison, ₩137 million (US$126,000) was earned in Hong Kong, ₩130 million (US$120,000) in Taiwan, ₩100 million (US$92,000) in Singapore, and ₩58 million (US$53,000) in the United States.
Establishment of KOSCAP In October 2014, the
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) approved the establishment of a new copyright association, the Korean Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (KOSCAP), in an attempt to "create competition and extend the rights of [music] creators". Before this, KOMCA had had a copyright management monopoly on music for fifty years. In April 2015, MCST approved KOSCAP's new copyright royalty distribution system, which treats all types of music equally. Under KOMCA, licensing fees paid by broadcasting stations differ according to the type of music, so fees for using background music are much less than music with lyrics, like K-pop songs. This caused conflict between the two competing organizations, as they both felt the other's distribution system was unfair to songwriters. ==Korea Music Copyright Awards==