Dongseo University has launched a full-scale effort to build an exchange platform for independent music across Asia.
According to Dongseo University on Friday, the university's RISE Project Group and Busan-based entertainment company SH Entertainment jointly held the "Asia New Beat Indie Music Festival Korea Finals" at Dongseo University's Sohyang Art Hall on Wednesday. The event is a follow-up project to an agreement the two sides signed in September last year.
Ten teams advanced to the Korea finals, including student teams from universities nationwide such as Daekyeung University, Howon University and Seoul Cyber University. The event, organized as an inter-university sharing and collaboration program, has been recognized for simultaneously discovering young music talent and creating an industry-academia cooperation model.
The RISE Project Group and SH Entertainment jointly planned the competition and provided a total of 50 million won in prize money. The winning and runner-up teams will represent Korea at the "2026 Asia New Beat Asian Independent Music Competition Grand Finals and Music Festival" to be held at JJ Hall in Bangkok, Thailand on the 21st, where they will compete against musicians from other countries.
Dongseo University also selected two students from its Musical Entertainment Department as "Global Cultural Ambassadors." They will participate in the Asia finals in Bangkok, experiencing the global music industry firsthand and taking part in performance production and operations.
This year's Asia New Beat Indie Music Festival was held through preliminary and main rounds across four countries: Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Winners from each country will face off at the grand finals in Bangkok.
The co-organizers plan to bring part of the Asia finals to Dongseo University's Centum Campus in Busan and develop it into an international performing arts festival. Star Nest Group, a major performance planning company in the Chinese-speaking market, is also participating in the event.
SH Entertainment is a Busan-based company operating creator and content businesses. Star Nest Group is a major performance production company that plans more than 200 shows annually across Asia.
"This festival will serve as an opportunity for Busan to leap forward as an international performing arts hub city," said Oh Se-jun, a professor at Dongseo University. "It was also an occasion that confirmed Dongseo University's competitiveness in cultural content education."
Hwang Ki-hyun, head of the RISE Project Group, expressed expectations that "this event, linked with the 'Centum Open UIC' (COU) program, will contribute to revitalizing the local economy and nurturing talent while developing into a global industry-academia cooperation model."
The COU program is a Busan-type RISE business model in which universities, research institutes and companies collaborate, based at Dongseo University's Centum Campus. It pursues education, research and development, and startup projects that combine cultural tourism with digital technology.
