The 17th Melon Music Awards (MMA) will take place at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Dec. 20, the music streaming platform said Wednesday.

The MMAs are among Korea’s largest annual end-of-year awards ceremonies recognizing K-pop acts and music. The program was fully online when it was founded in 2005 and expanded to the physical stage in 2009.

This year, the MMA announced a couple of changes, including the fact that its primary Top 10 artist category will now be determined 60 percent by digital music performance, 20 percent by popular vote and 20 percent by expert evaluation. Previously, the formula had mixed 80 percent digital music performance and 20 percent popular vote.

Melon explained that the revision attempts to “comprehensively judge music among a wide variety of elements, including buzz, influence and completeness.”

Another change is ticketing. Beginning with the upcoming edition, only paid subscribers to the streaming platform are able to purchase tickets. Melon said it aims to block unauthorized ticket sales through this adjustment.

More information about the 2025 MMAs will be announced later.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]