Musicians and culture officials from the ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and South Korea are gathering in Seoul to discuss Asian pop music's expansion into the global market.
 
Hosted by the Korean Broadcasting System(KBS), the 2024 ROUND Forum will take place for two days, starting on Tuesday at the KBS headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.
 
Serving as a networking opportunity for music industry insiders from Korea and the association's member countries, this year's forum participants will discuss the success of K-pop and J-pop and what's coming next for ASEAN musicians, according to the event's organizer. 

During the event, KBS is set to introduce its AI-powered video editing solution VVERTIGO featured in the production of KBS’s leading K-pop music show, Music Bank.
 
Referring to ASEAN and Korean participants’ sitting around a round table and sharing equal status, the ROUND Forum comes ahead of the ASEAN-Korea Music Festival 2024 ROUND.

Originally planned as an offline in-person event in 2020, ROUND was adapted into two virtual performances in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, an inaugural in-person music festival was successfully held in Jakarta, Indonesia, featuring 18 artists from eleven countries, including Korea.

This year's ROUND music festival is scheduled to take place in the summer in South Korea and again in November in the Laotian capital city of Vientiane, celebrating “Visit Laos Year 2024.” 
 
The forum and festival are being held as South Korea and ASEAN are celebrating 35 years of ties, complementing each other in economic resources and strategic interests.