A few days before Christmas, while most of the industry was winding down for the year, UK Music chief executive Tom Kiehl was doing the opposite. He boarded a flight to Seoul as part of a senior UK delegation just ahead of the announcement of a major new trade agreement between Britain and South Korea.
Kiehl was there to represent an industry that has quietly become one of the country’s most reliable global earners. UK music now brings in around £8 billion GBP a year for the economy, with exports alone accounting for roughly £4.8 billion.
The destination made perfect sense. South Korea is now the world’s seventh largest recorded music market, worth more than $750 million annually, and it sits comfortably inside the top tier of markets for UK exports. It’s also one of the few places on earth where music fandom has reshaped global culture in real time. Last year, nine of the ten biggest-selling albums worldwide came from South Korean artists, a statistic that still feels unreal unless you’ve been watching the K-pop wave build for the past decade.
But the exchange isn’t one-way. While Korean acts dominate global charts and social feeds, British music continues to have a strong pull in South Korea, and Kiehl’s message to policymakers was clear. The audience can and should be grown.
For UK Music, the trip was about reinforcing a simple but increasingly urgent ambition: keep pushing export income higher in a global market that’s more crowded and competitive than ever. The logic is mutual. The UK has a love for Korean pop culture, and South Korea has a long-standing appreciation for British artists and scenes that stretches back far beyond the current streaming era.
Kiehl’s invitation came via the British Embassy in Seoul, which brought him into the UK–Korea High Level Forum, a gathering organised by Wilton Park that pulled together figures from technology, defence, and various industries.
The forum was designed to explore practical ways of strengthening the broader strategic partnership agreed between the two countries in 2023. And it didn’t take long for talk to turn into action. Just days after the delegation wrapped up, UK Trade Minister Sir Chris Bryant confirmed the updated trade deal, describing it as a move that would boost growth, support jobs, and widen international opportunities across a relationship already valued at £15.8 billion and supporting more than 92,000 roles.
For the music business, this kind of diplomatic scaffolding matters more than it might look from the outside. Trade agreements shape how easily artists tour, how rights are managed, how companies invest, and how content travels. In an era where global success is often decided by algorithms and playlists, the legal and economic aspects still count.
There are still procedural steps to clear before the agreement fully comes into force in both countries, but the direction of travel is obvious. As the center of gravity in global pop continues to shift and multiply, the UK isn’t just watching from the sidelines. It’s trying deliberately and diplomatically to make sure its songs, scenes, and businesses remain part of the conversation.
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