Kakao M

Kakao M Corporation (Korean: 주식회사 카카오엠; formerly Seoul Records, YBM Seoul Records and LOEN Entertainment) was a South Korean entertainment company established by Min Yeong-bin in 1978. It was one of the largest co-publisher companies in South Korea. The company operated as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management, concert production company, and music publishing house. In 2015, the company was the leading record company in South Korea by net revenue according to the statistics compiled by the Korea Music Content Industry Association (KMCIA) through the Gaon Music Chart (30.4%); it was also the second leading company in terms of album sales (25.4%). LOEN Entertainment became a subsidiary of Kakao in January 2016 and was subsequently renamed two years later. Online music sales accounted for most of the company's profit, with 93.9% of revenue coming from online music sales. The label also distributed CDs of some other entertainment agencies in South Korea through its branch 1theK, but made less than 5% of its revenue through them. On March 2, 2021, the company became defunct upon merging into KakaoPage. The merger resulted in the formation of a new company, Kakao Entertainment.