You might have heard of the global viral sensation, the Piki Piki dance! It went wild after a South Korean cheerleader danced to it nonchalantly while fixing her makeup.
What many don’t know is that the original creator of the song is H.O.T‘s Tony Ahn. After the group disbanded, he was active in the group JTL, where he wrote and produced the song “My Lecon.” After an Indonesian DJ reproduced the sound, it spread virally as part of the “Piki Piki Dance,” a dance traditionally done by KIA Tigers cheerleaders to open the game.
With how viral the song has gone, many wonder how much he has made off it. After all, the song and dance has over 80 million views at this point. Even if he makes a mere ₩10 KRW (about $ 0.01 USD) off each view, he could easily rack up ₩800 million KRW (about $ 557,000 USD).
On a recent variety show, My Little Old Boy, Tony revealed that he missed out on this huge sum because he didn’t register the copyright. His agency from back then had forgotten to! No one expected the song to suddenly rise to fame. He had written it a whole 20 years ago.
Tony finally registered it 3 months ago, in December 2024. By then, the viral moment had already passed and he only made ₩260,000 KRW (about $ 181 USD) off it. Looks like he missed his golden opportunity!
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