2023 Melon Music Awards to take place Dec. 2

Melon Music Awards, one of the nation's biggest music award shows, will take place on Dec. 2, its organizer announced Thursday.

Melon, Kakao Entertainment's music streaming company, said Thursday that the 15th Melon Music Awards, or MMA2023, will take place at the Inspire Arena, a new concert venue on Yeongjongdo, Incheon.

Under the slogan "K-pop Changes the World," the MMA 2023 will officially kick off its promotions starting with a teaser video on Oct. 27. Next month, the voting process for the top 10 artists award and other competitive categories will begin.

A new category -- the millions top 10 award -- has been added this year in celebration of the ever-expanding scale of K-pop, the music service said. Thirty top albums that have sold over a million copies within 24 hours of release will be nominated based on Melon's data. From the 30 albums chosen, 10 winners will be selected through public voting.

The best music style award, whose winners had been determined by a panel of specialists until last year, has been revamped to include fan votes to better spotlight songs by artists who have contributed to the diversity of pop music by introducing their own genre and style.

The upcoming event will be the first-ever festival to be held at the Inspire Arena, a multi-purpose concert space inside Inspire Entertainment Resort, which is set to open soon. The Inspire Arena is expected to house up to 15,000 audiences.

The MMA began in 2005 as an online event and has since grown into one of the country's biggest music ceremonies, and is now held both online and offline. Last year's edition held on Nov. 25, 2022, at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul marked the return of the in-person ceremony after a two-year hiatus.