Secret Deals Reveal K-Pop’s Firm Grip on a Top Girl Group
NewJeans shattered records. Behind the scenes were unusually restrictive contracts, signed when the girls were ages 14 to 17.
Nov. 5, 2026
Two years ago, the five members of the record-shattering girl group NewJeans, some still in their teens, did what no K-pop stars of their stature had done in a generation. They quit their record label.
“Staying at the company will only prolong our psychological pain,” one of the members, Hanni Pham, told reporters, about a year after their album “Get Up” debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. charts.
What followed was one of the most explosive controversies in K-pop history, a yearslong legal and power struggle over artistic freedom in an industry where companies tightly control aspiring stars starting from early adolescence. Executives warned that if NewJeans could walk away, the multibillion dollar K-pop industry might collapse.
Underpinning this fight are the secret contracts that the singers signed while ages 14 to 17, when they were mostly unknowns, dreaming of stardom. The contracts, which were obtained by The New York Times, offer a rare inside look at the strict control that K-pop labels place on even the biggest acts. (The contracts contain redactions of names and home addresses. The Times made further redactions to protect personal information.)
The Korean government has a K-pop contract template that guarantees the right to education and to physical and mental health. The NewJeans contracts stripped away that language. The contracts banned such behavior as having an “insincere attitude,” entering “inappropriate romantic relationships” or criticizing the record label. The agreements included steep exit clauses and allowed the label to sell NewJeans music after the end of the deal, while slashing payments to the band. And it gave the label the right to use A.I.-generated NewJeans voices indefinitely.
K-pop has long been dogged by allegations of exploitation. Labels recruit children, put them through years of intensive training, then often bill them for those costs. Performers have described near-starvation diets and lingering debt, even while selling out stadiums. Several stars, known as idols, have died by suicide.
The NewJeans contracts show that despite years of promised overhauls and government intervention, little has changed, even for one of the most successful groups of its time.
Five young women with long dark hair sit behind a blue table. One woman, in red, speaks into a microphone.
Members of the K-pop group NewJeans held a news conference in 2024 to announce that they were terminating their contract with the band’s label. Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press
“This contract is unusually aggressive,” said Jong-eon Roh, a Seoul-based entertainment lawyer who was one of five experts who reviewed the NewJeans deal for The Times. “It restricts the artists’ freedom to a degree rarely seen, even in recent major-label contracts.”
At the heart of the NewJeans controversy is the band’s fight with Ador, a label under the entertainment conglomerate Hybe, the K-pop giant behind bands including BTS and Katseye.
Hybe made four spokesmen available for a lengthy interview and sent a written statement, both on the condition that information be attributed to company representatives.
Hybe said its labels’ contracts were legal and negotiated in good faith, with terms to protect both the artist and the company’s financial investment. The Korean government’s template is a nonbinding guideline, and Hybe said that adjustments were accepted by the performers’ parents.
Contract disputes in the music industry are not new. Lance Bass said recently that he lived on $35 a day during ’NSync’s heyday. Taylor Swift famously lost control of her master recordings.
But Dina LaPolt, an entertainment lawyer whose clients have included Britney Spears and Cardi B, said that such contracts were largely relics in the United States. Not so for K-pop. Entertainment companies act as labels, managers and agents, and wield control over all aspects of a performer’s life.
“In K-pop, you either do what they say, dress as they say, do your hair as they say, or you’re going to get replaced,” Ms. LaPolt said.
Child Protection Language Was Stripped Away
Protections in the government template omitted from The NewJeans contractS:
“The ‘Agency’ shall guarantee the basic human rights of popular culture and arts performers who are minors, including their physical and mental health, right to education, personality rights, and rights to sleep, rest, and free choice.
When entering into a popular culture and arts services contract, the ‘Agency’ shall verify the age of the popular culture and arts performer, and shall not demand that a performer who is a minor engage in excessive physical exposure or overly sexually suggestive expression.
The ‘Agency’ shall not have youth popular culture and arts performers provide popular culture and arts services for excessive periods of time.”
By the time they signed their NewJeans contracts, the performers — Ms. Pham, Minji Kim, Hyein Lee, Haerin Kang and Danielle Marsh — had spent years training. They started in dorms, one as young as 12, with no guarantee that they would make it into a pop group.
Rehearsing until 2 a.m. was not uncommon, according to interviews with people close to the group who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the fear of retribution from the label.
Video cameras monitored training areas, and three people close to the group said that taking breaks was discouraged. Four of the five members dropped out of school during training.
Hybe representatives said that the company fully complies with child-protection laws and works hard to ensure that performers work and train in safe environments. The company said it does not pressure artists to drop out of school or penalize them for resting.
A pair of women, one holding an umbrella, take photographs of a black building marked with the word Hybe.
Hybe is the entertainment conglomerate behind such K-pop powerhouses as BTS and Katseye. Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
To protect artists, the South Korean government’s template guarantees rights to physical and mental health, education and sleep. It bars labels from pressuring children to work excessive hours.
The NewJeans contracts removed that language. Doing so makes it harder for singers to challenge their working conditions, experts said.
Emails obtained by The Times show that contract terms were essentially nonnegotiable. In January 2022, the mother of one member requested several changes before signing.
“If you do not agree to the current contract draft, including the points above, it may be best to reconsider the contract itself,” Ador’s vice president responded.
The parents all signed.
Financial Terms and Cosmetic Surgery
COSTS to be incurred in part by the artists
Beauty expenses (skin care, plastic surgery, body shape correction, etc.)
Performers everywhere change their looks, but K-pop labels often arrange plastic surgery for their artists. That causes little comment in South Korea, which has one of the highest cosmetic surgery rates in the world.
K-pop labels urge singers, sometimes in their early teens, to get nose jobs or eyelid surgery, according to interviews with former idols. Labels often pay for the procedures and bill the performers later.
The NewJeans contract required members to repay a significant share of what the label spent on plastic surgery and other beauty treatments while they were trainees.
Before NewJeans debuted as a band, photographers took pictures from multiple angles to study how light would hit the singers onstage. The label then suggested cosmetic procedures to several of them, according to two people close to the group.
Hybe’s representatives said in a written statement that it does not require plastic surgery. “We do not even recommend cosmetic surgery or procedures against an individual’s wishes.” The two people close to the group said that, in an industry and country where cosmetic surgery was commonplace, the suggestions were not taken as coercive.
The Times is not revealing the medical histories of the NewJeans members.
NewJeans onstage in Hong Kong in March 2025. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
Cosmetic surgery often contributes to what is known in K-pop as trainee debt. Many singers start their careers owing their labels for training and other expenses, then work off the debt by performing.
In this regard, NewJeans was an exception. Hybe absorbed the group’s early costs, meaning that members started earning right away, without debt. The company’s representatives said that trainee expenses were handled at the discretion of its labels — in this case, Ador. (Hybe is in a legal fight with Ador’s former chief executive.)
From a financial standpoint, the NewJeans contract was fairly standard in the K-pop industry, experts said. After the label deducted expenses, the group received about half the profits from concerts, advertisements and promotional appearances, plus a small share of record sales and streaming.
Ms. LaPolt said that such terms would be “horrific” in the United States, where artists hire their own managers and agents and keep most of their touring revenue.
No ‘Insincere Attitude’ Allowed
Additional restrictions in the newjeans contracts:
The Artist shall not engage in acts that damage their dignity as a pop culture artist to the extent of causing a hindrance to Entertainment Activities, for example, acts prohibited under applicable law (e.g., drug use, sex crimes, fraud, gambling, driving under the influence); acts damaging the Artist’s image, including but not limited to an insincere attitude, false statements or behavior, and neglect of self-management, whether through social media, the press or any other means; acts causing public controversy, including but not limited to underage drinking or smoking, inappropriate romantic relationships, entering venues where minors are prohibited, and statements or behavior involving racial, regional or gender discrimination; and acts fostering division among artists or between an artist and the Company.
Nor shall the Artist engage in acts that damage the reputation or credit of the Company, for example, publicly stating true or false facts that damage the Company’s reputation or credit, or causing harm to the Company’s public reputation through acts that damage the Artist’s dignity as a pop culture artist.
In October 2024, after NewJeans became the fastest K-pop act to hit a billion Spotify streams, Ms. Pham testified before the South Korean Parliament that she believed that Ador hated her and her fellow singers. She accused the label’s employees of insulting the group on social media, playing down their success in the media and at times giving them the silent treatment.
A young woman with dark hair, wearing a white shirt, sits at a wooden desk. A name card with Korean text rests on the desk.
Hanni Pham, a member of NewJeans, at the South Korean Parliament in 2024. Yonhap News Agency, via Reuters
Her contract made no allowance for saying such things publicly. Singers were prohibited from saying “true or false facts” that could damage the company’s reputation. The contract also prohibited underage drinking and drug use, plus vague behavior and actions such as “insincere attitude,” “neglect of self-management” and “inappropriate romantic relationships.”
Experts said those terms would give labels wide latitude to claim that artists had violated their contract.
Weeks after Ms. Pham’s testimony, NewJeans members accused Ador of leaking training videos to the media and urged the company to treat them better.
When discussions fizzled, NewJeans called a news conference and said they were quitting the label. The rebellion sent shock waves through the industry. Ador sued and a monthslong legal battle followed. In March 2025, almost a year after the group’s announcement, judges sided with the company, saying that NewJeans could not strike out on its own.
Under their contract terms, the attempted insurrection had exposed the stars to potential lawsuits and millions of dollars in damages.
Family members moved to smooth things over and asked the company not to retaliate, according to a meeting transcript filed in a Korean court.
The company offered no such assurances, saying that the hiatus had already cost it a lot of money.
Penalties for Leaving, Even if You’re Pushed Out
Payout terms added TO newjeans contracts:
Regardless of the length of the Entertainment Activities, the Artist shall pay, as a penalty for breach, an amount equal to the average monthly sales, calculated over the months in which actual sales occurred during the last two years of the contract term before the termination date, multiplied by the number of months remaining in the contract term. The Company may also claim damages separately from this penalty.
Consequences came quickly.
In December 2025, the label terminated its contract with one NewJeans member, Ms. Marsh, who was 20 at the time, and sued her. The company said that she had broken her contract by refusing work and by doing unauthorized solo projects and photo shoots, as well as by signing a deal with a third party.
Ms. Marsh’s lawyer said the label was punishing her for the attempted revolt.
A young woman stands on a stage, illuminated by a bright spotlight.
Danielle Marsh performing onstage in Hong Kong in 2025. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
The lawsuit revealed a K-pop peculiarity. Contracts often allow labels to demand exit fees, even when the company, not the singer, ends the relationship.
In Ms. Marsh’s case, the company sued her for roughly $22 million, most of it in exit fees, claiming that her behavior had effectively severed the contract.
The government template suggests a payout formula based on average monthly earnings, projected over the months left in the deal. The NewJeans contracts used a similar calculation but with a twist. Instead of averaging all months, the contracts only considered months when the band made money — a change that lawyers who reviewed the terms said could inflate the penalty.
Hybe representatives said that its exit penalties are in line with industry standards. They said that, in practice, the formula does not increase penalties because its performers make money every month.
Ms. Marsh’s lawyer, Jung Jong-chae, complained to the South Korean Fair Trade Commission, accusing Hybe and Ador of trying to end her career.
Mr. Jung argued that the minor outside work was a pretext. The goal, he said, was to send a warning across the industry.
“If you try to escape Hybe’s control,” he said, “this is the price you will pay.”
The Label Owns Their Voices and Faces
Key clauses omitted in THE newjeans contracts:
For the duration of the contract, the “Agency” shall have the right to use the “Singer’s” name, photographs, likeness, handwriting, voice, and any other elements that identify the “Singer,” in connection with the “Singer’s” popular culture and arts services or the “Agency’s” business; such rights shall expire immediately when the contract terms end.
Under the government template, a label’s rights to a performer’s name, image and voice end with the contract. Not so with NewJeans.
The singers are under contract until 2029. After that, the contract allows the label to keep using and licensing their identities. NewJeans members must still be paid, but they will not control the use of their faces and voices. That includes any NewJeans voice clones or chatbots created by artificial intelligence.
NewJeans performing in Hong Kong in March 2025. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
How broadly those contract provisions would hold up in court is unclear, legal experts said.
Hybe can also sell and repackage NewJeans music after the contract ends, while slashing the amount of money due to the singers. Legal experts called that clause unusual.
The future for NewJeans remains uncertain. The label has teased the possibility of a new album, but the group has not performed in over a year.
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/11/05/world/asia/kpop-newjeans-contract.html
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