Who Goes in the Composer Field When AI Wrote the Song

The song charted at 89 and earned no songwriting royalties

Anyone who wants to make tracks with AI music tools and work as a creator or producer runs into the registration desk before any question of musical skill. Which field the finished song is filed under, and under whose name, decides which way the money comes in.

“Maeum-ui Sup” by the music project Joseon Hiphop entered the Melon Top 100 on September 7, 2026 and climbed to number 89. A person wrote the lyrics, while the composition and the vocals were made with Suno, an AI music generation service. Joseon Hiphop earns no copyright income from the track. The only income is the neighbouring rights share that goes to the producer of the recording. In the same September the track charted, the registration standard for AI assisted songs written by the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) had already been withdrawn 22 days after it took effect.

Rights appear at creation, money arrives through a collecting society

Korean copyright law does not make registration a condition of the right. A work such as a piece of music carries copyright from the moment it is created, with no separate filing. Collecting a fee in person every time the song is used, however, is not practical. So lyricists and composers entrust their rights to a society such as KOMCA, and the society collects the fees and distributes them.

A song involving AI passes through two separate judgments. In June 2025 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Commission published a guide to registering copyright in works made with generative AI. The guide drew a line: a result with creative human involvement can be registered, while a purely AI generated output cannot. Entering a prompt, or making a trivial edit, does not count on its own as a creative contribution. For music, the guide wrote, there has to be a contribution that goes beyond entering a prompt.

An official at the ministry’s copyright industry division explained it the same way. Recognising an AI made portion as a protected work is one question, and the standard by which KOMCA takes a song on and collects and distributes fees for it is another. There are two desks to clear, not one.

One checkbox on the application carries legal force

From March 24, 2025 KOMCA required anyone registering a new song to declare that AI had no part in its creation. A single checkbox on the application carries legal force. A false entry can delay royalty payments or remove the registered song, and it can bring civil and criminal liability. A song reported as having used AI has its registration held.

On March 24, 2026 the Board of Audit and Inspection reviewed how 11 copyright trust management societies operate. Its finding was that the 11, KOMCA among them, register works and collect and distribute fees without separately checking whether AI was used. KOMCA replied the next day that it already runs a registration hold. In the same statement it said there is still no authoritative technology for telling whether AI was used, leaving it to rely on creators declaring it themselves. When the side doing the checking has no technology, the burden on the side doing the declaring is that much heavier.

What is blocked now and what stays open

KOMCA put a new standard into force on August 3, 2026. Under it, a song in which a person took a substantial and leading part in the lyrics, the composition or the arrangement would be accepted into trust for the part the person created. On August 25 KOMCA’s eighth board meeting resolved to withdraw the revision. It was 22 days after the new standard took effect.

Rules remain after the withdrawal. A 100 percent AI generated output with no substantial creative contribution from a person is still not registered. An AI assisted song that completed registration during the period the new standard was in force goes through cancellation. A song that was only received and not yet registered is held until a new standard arrives. Where membership was completed on the basis of an AI assisted song, the trust contract is terminated.

Under these rules copyright and neighbouring rights travel different roads. Joseon Hiphop has no share to receive as the writer of the song. The share it receives as the maker of the recording arrives as before. The field where income can be counted today is not the composer field but the field for whoever made the recording.

What the next standard will ask for is the record, not the finished track

The ministry said it plans to hold a forum as early as September 2026 to gather views. KOMCA, announcing the withdrawal, said that setting a standard for AI assisted songs can no longer be put off.

What the government guide and KOMCA both pointed to is the record of the creative process. The guide said that explanatory material about the process, or video of the work session, can serve as evidence in a registration review. KOMCA’s president had proposed, since before taking office, submitting DAW files that prove the actual creative process, and the association is considering adopting it. A DAW is the working software used to record and edit music. What can be produced when the standard is set again is not the finished track but those files and records.

The unresolved question is what the human contribution is measured by. The withdrawn rule assumed a line at 50 percent. Yet KOMCA has itself said there is no authoritative technology for telling whether AI was used. To be able to answer wherever that line falls, the work files have to be kept from the song being made now.