IU fans illegally stream the K-pop singer’s concert and get caught by her agency

Kakao M, the agency representing singer-actress IU, caught fans in the audience allegedly illegally streaming the singer's November 1 concert in Gwangju.

“We caught and kicked out some concertgoers [from] the gig for streaming it,” the agency said on Sunday. “Because our staff members don’t have the right to randomly examine people’s belongings, we called the police to check their identity and equipment.” 

It said these people were taken to Gwangju’s Hanam Police Station where they wrote a statement. 

“We later realised one of them has been audio streaming IU’s concerts for several years,” the agency said. “He was found to have streamed [one] gig for four hours.”

It added: “The Gwangju gig marks the beginning of a snippet of performances where the artist poured [her heart] into her [show] and [now she] worries [about these tapes]. So far, we haven't really restrained people from filming the performances, unless they disturbed the others. But this time, we thought the issue should be treated differently.”

The agency said IU has been feeling uneasy recently, adding that she worries the stories she told during the concert might be misunderstood, especially if they were turned into texts throughout the streaming.

Kakao M said: “We apologise for some staff members’ coercive acts and words toward some audience during the [checking] process.”

Meanwhile, IU will release her fifth mini-album “Love Poem” on November 18.

This article was originally written by Hong Ji-min for The Korea Times.

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