The Music Nation SMTown Meta-passport, a digital passport membership for fans, has been established by K-pop behemoth S.M. Entertainment, according to the company's announcement on Monday.

It is a new form of identity granted by the entertainment company to the "citizens" of SMTown Virtual Nation in August 2012, and it is called a digital passport membership. It is possible to identify as a virtual Music Nation citizen through the usage of the new digital passport membership.

Music is king in the United States. SMTown was founded more than a decade ago to bring the agency's music and performance services together in one place. According to S.M. Entertainment, its passport membership was handed to fans from 30 countries, as well as the first citizens of SMTown, as part of a pilot program.

"The 'passport' is used to establish a connection between the actual world and the digital world (metaverse) in order to record and validate all information. An S.M. Entertainment representative stated that "the activities of passport holders within every S.M. Entertainment service will be digitally recorded for the purpose of providing a variety of benefits (to members)."

A membership in SMTown and its artists can be obtained by registering on the agency's official Facebook page, which can be found at www.facebook.com/SMTownStore/joining/. According to the schedule, the application period will close on January 31 with the digital passport membership set to be distributed at 2 p.m. on February 14.