Kakao Entertainment to Introduce Melon K-pop Categories at Tencent Music Awards

TIMA to Be Held at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium on August 22-23

Melon-TIMA logo. Provided by Kakao Entertainment

A new awards category linked to Melon, a domestic music streaming platform, will be introduced at the 'TME Live International Music Awards 2026 (TIMA)', the music awards ceremony hosted by China’s Tencent Music in 2026.

Kakao Entertainment, which operates Melon, announced on August 10 that it will introduce two new categories at TIMA—'Global K Artist' and 'Melon Music Choice.' The ceremony will take place at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Stadium from August 22 to 23.

TIMA is a music awards ceremony organized by Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), a Chinese digital music platform operator. Having launched last year, this year marks the second edition. The ceremony features live performances. This year, 28 teams—including K-pop artists such as Super Junior, Stray Kids, Tomorrow X Together, aespa, IVE, PLAVE, RIIZE, BABYMONSTER, NCT WISH, and the All Day Project—will perform on stage.

The winner of the 'Global K Artist' category will be selected based on the Global K Chart, which was launched in June. One group will be chosen by combining 30% of the chart data and 70% of fan votes. Fan voting was held from July 20 to August 9, and the winner will be announced on the day of the ceremony.

The 'Global K Chart' is a K-pop artist chart aggregated by combining user data from each country's music platforms—including Korea's Melon, China's Tencent Music, and Japan's Line Music. It reflects not only music streaming figures but also fan engagement indicators from each platform. By utilizing this chart as an award criterion at TIMA, Kakao Entertainment has broadened the scope of cross-platform collaboration to include the awards ceremony.

'Melon Music Choice' will be awarded to artists who achieved outstanding results on the Melon chart during the year. The winner will be determined entirely (100%) by a review panel, with no fan voting involved.

A representative from Kakao Entertainment stated, "It is meaningful that the establishment of these new award categories highlights K-pop across multiple music platforms," adding, "We will continue to connect K-pop artists and fans through global partnerships and platform collaboration."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.