News An increasing number of K-pop idols are breaking free from big agencies. Why? (3 Viewers)

[centen]

It's an interesting, not particularly long read. For examples, it focuses on (G)-IDLE's Soyeon, Red Velvet's Joy, EXO-CBX, and Mamamoo's Wheein.

An increasing number of K-pop idols are breaking free from big agencies. Why?

An increasing number of K-pop idols are finding it less appealing to renew their contracts with major agencies, citing restrictions on freedom of expression and

www.koreaherald.com

 

[centen]

I think the most interesting part is the industry side acting surprised that idols want more say in the way their careers go.

 

[Moguri]

It's great that more smaller labels manage to find success and the market is more open

But I'm not sure that means artists always have more freedoms.. I think many of those smaller agencies are also very restrictive..

Also still the numbers and achievements new groups from especially HYBE put up in recent years, are not imaginalbe by groups from smaller labels

 

[centen]

It's great that more smaller labels manage to find success and the market is more open

But I'm not sure that means artists always have more freedoms.. I think many of those smaller agencies are also very restrictive..

Also still the numbers and achievements new groups from especially HYBE put up in recent years, are not imaginalbe by groups from smaller labels

Right. I saw a quote from an older gen idol ... maybe HOT? That he was thinking he would be lucky if 10% of the group's fans followed his solo career, and he realized after that wasn't a realistic thought, it was actually way optimistic. There's a lot of risk in jumping ship from a known group and a company with known connections to going solo; a lot of your fans are fans of the group, not akgaes/solo fans. You might pick up some new fans who like your solo music but not the group's, but that's unlikely to balance out the discrepancy.

And I think we've seen that, too, in big groups with multiple members who have gone solo that for every million seller idol you have, you're very unlikely to have all, or even most, of the members get anywhere close to that.

 

[Moguri]

Right. I saw a quote from an older gen idol ... maybe HOT? That he was thinking he would be lucky if 10% of the group's fans followed his solo career, and he realized after that wasn't a realistic thought, it was actually way optimistic. There's a lot of risk in jumping ship from a known group and a company with known connections to going solo; a lot of your fans are fans of the group, not akgaes/solo fans. You might pick up some new fans who like your solo music but not the group's, but that's unlikely to balance out the discrepancy.

And I think we've seen that, too, in big groups with multiple members who have gone solo that for every million seller idol you have, you're very unlikely to have all, or even most, of the members get anywhere close to that.

thats why I'm often very surprised when some fans are hoping for a certain member to leave a group so they can go solo, because they somehow make themselfs believe that will greatly help that idol.. I often wonder if the people saying that have really the idols best interest in mind

 

[Ahsoka]

I feel like there are a lot more idols who have longer careers now than before. Before, being a group who doesn’t disband before first contract renewals was relatively impressive. Now less so. But given that this article is all about idols moving to smaller companies after renewal, how can you expect this to have been a common thing before if the idols don’t make it to the first renewal? I don’t doubt that the other stuff can play a role, but also find it completely expected that it’ll happen more now. Unless I’m missing something, I haven’t looked at numbers to verify this. It’s just been the impression I’ve had

 

[Selfmate]

it's all about agency (rather self agency) and freedom to do wtf you want
but remember how they got there in the first place

one has to remember that those idols that have the choice are there because they are successful and have the freedom to decide what to do
nugu and less successful idols don't have that luxury of choice (or less choice)

 

[Moguri]

I feel like there are a lot more idols who have longer careers now than before. Before, being a group who doesn’t disband before first contract renewals was relatively impressive. Now less so. But given that this article is all about idols moving to smaller companies after renewal, how can you expect this to have been a common thing before if the idols don’t make it to the first renewal? I don’t doubt that the other stuff can play a role, but also find it completely expected that it’ll happen more now. Unless I’m missing something, I haven’t looked at numbers to verify this. It’s just been the impression I’ve had

yeah the article is not taking a lot of factors into account like the things you mentioned.

Also kpop is just way more popular now worldwide and by extension the indiviual idols are way more popular, espeically the ones from the top groups. Lets take Lisa for an example, she is so popular worldwide, YG has to come begging for her to extend with the group and she can't be bullied around, idols in the past never had this power as they were barely known outside of korea

 

[RandAlThor]

Right. I saw a quote from an older gen idol ... maybe HOT? That he was thinking he would be lucky if 10% of the group's fans followed his solo career, and he realized after that wasn't a realistic thought, it was actually way optimistic. There's a lot of risk in jumping ship from a known group and a company with known connections to going solo; a lot of your fans are fans of the group, not akgaes/solo fans. You might pick up some new fans who like your solo music but not the group's, but that's unlikely to balance out the discrepancy.

And I think we've seen that, too, in big groups with multiple members who have gone solo that for every million seller idol you have, you're very unlikely to have all, or even most, of the members get anywhere close to that.

i think that can be seen in even the IZ*ONE girls solo's.

While all 4 are doing well the numbers are a fraction of what iz*one was let alone what the power company's did with IVE and ssera.

Hyuna has never hit her cube levels for example.

Jessica had a chance but SM nuked her and all the promos got killed and its been game over since.

 

[Moguri]

i think that can be seen in even the IZ*ONE girls solo's.

While all 4 are doing well the numbers are a fraction of what iz*one was let alone what the power company's did with IVE and ssera.

Hyuna has never hit her cube levels for example.

Jessica had a chance but SM nuked her and all the promos got killed and its been game over since.

IVE's company is not even a power company

 

[RandAlThor]

IVE's company is not even a power company

they have been successful for more than 15 years never a flop group and running multiple gg at one time.. Starship is not top 4 but you could make a case for top 8 easy maybe even 5th

 

[Moguri]

they have been successful for more than 15 years never a flop group and running multiple gg at one time.. Starship is not top 4 but you could make a case for top 8 easy maybe even 5th

I'm not sure! I saw a graph a while ago showing they were in the red before IVE

 

[RandAlThor]

I'm not sure! I saw a graph a while ago showing they were in the red before IVE

Remember that counting covid negative's the companies are maximizing tax writeoff ect.
hard to make money it was pretty much only album/music sales.

they have several sub companies also.


AI Overview
Learn more…Opens in new tab

Here's some information about Starship Entertainment's profitability:

• 2021 revenue: Starship Entertainment's revenue in 2021 was ₩85.7 billion.
  
  
  
• 2021 net income: Starship Entertainment's net income in 2021 was ₩4.5 billion.
  
  
  
• 2021–2022 revenue growth: Starship Entertainment's revenue increased by ₩53.5 billion ($40.6 million) from 2021 to 2022.
  
  

Starship Entertainment is a K-pop entertainment company that offers music production, publishing, and artist management services. Kakao Entertainment owns 59.73% of Starship Entertainment.


K-pop entertainment companies make money primarily through concerts, paid appearances, endorsements, merchandising, and licensing deals


there are ppl saying they lost 2 million in 2021 but that does not seem to be accurate.

ive has for sure helped. Since the boy groups atm are getting old (MonstarX)ect.

Starship was not a big physical album seller especially for gg until IVE that is true.

 

[Moguri]

Remember that counting covid negative's the companies are maximizing tax writeoff ect.
hard to make money it was pretty much only album/music sales.

they have several sub companies also.


AI Overview
Learn more…Opens in new tab

Here's some information about Starship Entertainment's profitability:

• 2021 revenue: Starship Entertainment's revenue in 2021 was ₩85.7 billion.
  
  
  
• 2021 net income: Starship Entertainment's net income in 2021 was ₩4.5 billion.
  
  
  
• 2021–2022 revenue growth: Starship Entertainment's revenue increased by ₩53.5 billion ($40.6 million) from 2021 to 2022.
  

Starship Entertainment is a K-pop entertainment company that offers music production, publishing, and artist management services. Kakao Entertainment owns 59.73% of Starship Entertainment.


K-pop entertainment companies make money primarily through concerts, paid appearances, endorsements, merchandising, and licensing deals


there are ppl saying they lost 2 million in 2021 but that does not seem to be accurate.

ive has for sure helped. Since the boy groups atm are getting old (MonstarX)ect.

Starship was not a big physical album seller especially for gg until IVE that is true.

tbh I don't read anything that convinces me they did super well before

btw you mentioned they had several girl groups at the same time, I never heared of that?

 

[RandAlThor]

tbh I don't read anything that convinces me they did super well before

btw you mentioned they had several girl groups at the same time, I never heared of that?

Sistar and WJSN were active together for a bit.
Sistar are legit digimons.

numbers now are so crazy its very hard to compare, but monsta x doing 400k for an end of life group is solid.

I say Pledis were/are bigger just because of 17 but that is HYBE umbrella now.

 

[Moguri]

Sistar and WJSN were active together for a bit.
Sistar are legit digimons.

numbers now are so crazy its very hard to compare, but monsta x doing 400k for an end of life group is solid.

I say Pledis were/are bigger just because of 17 but that is HYBE umbrella now.

yeah I checked it myself after your comment, they only overlapped by one year Also ChatGPT says the years after Sisatar were kinda rough overall compared to Sistar era