The Korea Music Copyright Association, the biggest music copyright manager in the country, with some 46,000 songwriters and composers’ music works trusted to the association, said Wednesday that it ranked ninth in terms of music royalty collections among 142 societies in the same sector around the globe.

Citing data from the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, the France-based world’s largest network in the creative sectors with 228 member societies in 119 countries, the KOMCA said the amount of music royalties it collected last year surged by 16 percent on-year to mark about 201 million euros ($198.6 million).

It was the highest position reached by the association, while it positioned at 10th place in 2020, KOMCA said. Among the related societies in the Asia-Pacific region, it came to third place, following Japan (third place) and Australia (eighth place), the association explained.

Of the top 10 music copyright fee collectors, the US took the No. 1 spot with some 2 billion euros, followed by France (951 million euros), Japan (818 million euros) and the UK (813 million euros), data from the report showed.

The remarkable on-year growth was attributable to the increase of digital royalties backed by a rise of online music streaming service users amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the KOMCA said. Its collected fees from the service went up by 24 percent on-year to 136.2 billion won ($960.7 million), it added.

CISAC’s report also showed that digital music collections grew 27.5 percent to 3.06 billion euros in 2021 with digital market share more than doubling from 15.4 percent to 36.1 percent since 2017.

Contrary to the figures, other data from the same report revealed the local copyright market’s vulnerable side. The value of the association’s music royalty collections-to-domestic product ratio came to 0.014 percent, lower than the world average of 0.015 percent. It took the 38th highest position among 119 member nations, the data showed.

It was due to a decrease in live and background collections since the local entertainment facilities were regulated under the toughened social distancing rules last year. The value plunged 20.1 percent to end at nearly half the pre-pandemic level.

Chu Ga-yeoul, chairman of KOMCA, said, “Koreans’ awareness of copyrights has been much improved, as well as the conditions and systems for creators. But some figures have proved, we’re still in a ‘disastrous situation.’” He further highlighted the need for creators’ better environments in line with Hallyu, or the Korean Wave around the globe.