Step two: structure operations that can “consistently produce superstars.” Step three: expand platforms to monetize fan-artist interaction like HYBE’s Weverse, an app that’s now introducing an array of new features including direct messaging, special badges to reward fan activity and a digital currency called Jelly.) “I think it’s time for us to have a sense of urgency,” he said.īang founded Big Hit Entertainment as an agency in 2005 and engineered the debut of BTS a decade ago, assembling the band, writing and producing its music, and overseeing everything from its marketing to social media content, though success came slowly. (Step one: grow K-pop’s global influence by acquiring foreign companies like Quality Control. There was 53% less K-pop on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 than 2021, and K-pop consumption is inexplicably shrinking in Southeast Asia, trends that “are alarming for those on the front line,” Bang lamented in a March speech at a Seoul conference that outlined a three-pronged plan to strengthen K-pop’s future. Whether forging alliances with global record labels and management giants or shopping for gaming and technology companies that will help HYBE better monetize the passion of its artists’ fans, the idea is to grow beyond K-pop, which is, as some see it, in crisis.ĭespite the swelling cultural influence of K-pop’s multiplying stars, Korea’s K-pop exports have actually been declining since 2020. Welcome to the action-packed life of the man who’s reshaping the music business one megadeal at a time. But Bang also notes that his mentors (whom, per Asian tradition, he declines to name) had warned him about making such an expensive bet in a period of economic volatility - and as Silicon Valley Bank collapsed the day after HYBE withdrew its bid for SM, he felt assured that they were right. In part, that’s because HYBE will now pocket around $87 million in profit from the sale of its SM shares it bought in February. “At this point, I’m quite satisfied with the result,” he says. Weeks later, casually clad in a black T-shirt and his signature spectacles, sipping cold corn-silk tea, Bang exudes remarkable calm - especially for a multibillionaire who has just retreated from a high-stakes corporate battle that leaves SM a much more threatening competitor and one with equally ambitious plans to expand in the United States and beyond. But HYBE ultimately abandoned its takeover bid after Korean internet giant Kakao made its own, much richer offer. partners by day and talking with colleagues in Korea at night, it was amid all this frenzy that SM’s ousted founder and famed record producer, Lee Soo-man, surprised Bang with an offer to sell HYBE most of his 15% stake in SM, spurring Bang and his board to accept and pledge they would buy another 25% of SM to become its largest shareholder. Running on little sleep as he worked across two time zones, meeting with his new U.S. ![]() The opportunity had come about in February, while Bang was in Los Angeles finalizing a very different blockbuster deal - the acquisition of Atlanta hip-hop label and management firm Quality Control for $300 million. K-Pop Music in 2023: Artists, Industry Leaders & More ![]() “I personally tend not to attach too much emotion to business affairs,” he continues, “but there was quite a bit of backlash coming from inside of our company, so that was the more challenging part for me.” After hearing those concerns, he says, he recalculated that pros-and-cons list, but still pressed ahead. “After several days of being alone, taking stock of everything, I reached out to my mentors that I usually seek advice from - and to be honest, they opposed the idea,” Bang recalls on a recent Friday in his Seoul office, a modest space equipped with a guitar, a whiteboard and a single window, tucked amid a maze of recording studios. So to gather his thoughts, HYBE’s 50-year-old founding chairman shut himself in at his house in Seoul, stopped taking calls from friends outside his inner circle and made a careful list: all the pros and cons of making a potential move he long dreamed of that would bring the world’s most popular boy band, BTS, under the same roof as dozens of Korea’s biggest artists such as NCT DREAM, SuperM and aespa. In March, as he weighed a takeover of one of his company’s biggest rivals, SM Entertainment, Bang Si-Hyuk decided he could use some privacy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |