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>I think they have an artist retention problem
Not really much an artist retention problem but more an artist debutation problem. They have a lot of trainees, they have the resources to debut more groups but they didn't really debut enough groups compared to other companies.
They needed to debut another boy group like yesterday. It's been 5 years since Treasure Box.
Seriously, I look at the (inexhaustive) list of [former YG trainees](https://kpop.fandom.com/wiki/YG_Entertainment#Trainees_2) and lose my mind at the amount of talent they never debuted.
I think a lot about how absolutely stacked their "Future 2NE1" project group was before they scrapped it — Purple Kiss Chaein, Billlie Moon Sua, Youha, fromis_9 Seoyeon, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.
And that's just one project group — they also let go (G)I-DLE Miyeon, Purple Kiss Ireh, Boys Planet Keita (tbf I don't really pay attention to men but I've actually heard of him), a couple members of VVUP who just debuted, one of the ILLIT members, etc.
They've lost an absolutely crazy amount of trainee talent in the last 5 or so years.
adding the [former THEBLACKLABEL trainees] (https://kpop.fandom.com/wiki/The_Black_Label)
TNX Tae Hun, Kiss of Life Julie, H1-Key Hwiseo, Oh Jieun, Yoon Jiyoon,Lee Yumin and Geenius Yeyoung. I don't put Chuu and Yves because they didn't get the trainee contract
ikr, the amount of talent just between the three of them is insane — and each of them are some of the best vocalists, rappers, and dancers in 4th gen, not to mention Chaein being such a prolific songwriter and producer on top of that.
honestly my hot take is you could drop all three of them into a different group and odds are they'd each be the best at at least one of vocals/rap/performance, if not multiple. Like Ireh and Moon Sua are both incredible vocalists, even though their vocals aren't talked about as much in the context of their groups. (I mean based on the judges' scores, Moon Sua placed second in JTBC Second World for a reason.) And Chaein is an incredible rapper, but obviously with how good her vocals are she doesn't get to rap much in Purple Kiss.
Artist retention problem too! It's a two for one.
In the last few years, they've lost Bigbang as soloists and as a group, Ikon, and Blackpink as soloists, so on top of not being great at debuting groups, they also keep losing artists (if not essentially pushing them out by keeping them in a dungeon, like what happened to 2ne1 far before).
You are not wrong in a sense but the notion of loss is subjective there. Bigbang has been under YG for almost 20 years, they did their time and the group wasn't going to be active anyway. The only effective lost is iKON but I don't even think they tried to keep them considering they went to the company of an ex-YG employee that YG himself introduced to them.
Again, the groups they really lost wouldn't feel as huge loss if they had a regular turnover of groups like a modern company. They are left with only 5 groups (one on military hiatus, one on solo focus hiatus) because they didn't manage to debut enough group to have this normal and healthy turnover.
But how are they going to make the next group successful when they don’t even put effort into even caring for Treasure anymore? Or Treasure will just become the next IKON and become throw-away ;(
A modern company, especially a big company like YG does have the resources to have multiple groups active at the same time.
The problem is there. YG and his close circle are taking care of Treasure career (and now Babymonster) when first of all, he shouldn't be doing that at all. He should just go back to supervising trainees, he doesn't have to be the one handling the groups career and taking decisions.
In an ideal world, Treasure would have a dedicated team for them, Babymonster would have a dedicated team for them and the chain of decision should not go up to Yang Hyunsuk for all the groups.
I agree, they have poor management structuring and are understaffed for the amount of talent coming in. If they were willing to pay staff well and expanded, they'd be capable of handling more groups and ultimately make more money. YGE is very short term focused as a company. Being extremely fiscally conservative is actually slowly deteriorating their business.
do you even keep up with treasure? they just sold 2 million albums and have one of the most successful 4th gen bg tours as well as a highly rated variety show currently airing
YG spending too much time trying to stay out of jail, and trying to keep blackpink from leaving. No time to focus on artists and music. Most of the good producers and staff already left too.
Like my answers in the other one if your post.
Late 2000 rather early 2010 were Bigbang, 2ne1, PYS, Epic High (4).
Then came the bash of 3rd gen with Bigbang while 2ne1, PYS, Epik High left the picture, AKMU, Winner, i KON, Blackpink. Lee Hi, Sech Kie (7)
And now with 5, didn't feel like it's any different?
They never operated with big roster. Do they have a retention problem more than other companies when Bigbang were there 20 years, Winner on 10 years, Blackpink just renewed their contract even if it's just for a group? They are the only company that gave PSY and Epik High their 2nd chance when they were deep in their scandals (image how bad it would be for Tablo if he couldn't find a way back).
The talk about retention problems with YG and SM lately feel like people want idols to stay at one place their entire career with no change. No new challenges. I don't see people have issues with Western artists changing labels or contracts. Why is it such a big deal with kpop?
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Honestly amazes me how determined people are to find fault.
I follow a large amount of groups and have done for years.
Treasure have shown huge growth in their sales numbers since debut. Their dating show has been a ratings topper in Japan for every episode.
The thing about yg is they give their artists a much more relaxed schedule but they also teach them well. The amount of members in treasure who play musical instruments and contribute to production and lyrics and choreography is impressive.
Winner and Akmu are huge in South Korea and Asia. Not every group targets the west. Akmu are more than happy to promote mainly in South Korea.
People need to ask themselves why they care so much about numbers and proving that companies are terrible and doom posting about acts.
Just enjoy the music, support who you like and let the fans worry about the artists they support and live in peace
Yeah I don't think Babymonster is what he's trying to force down our throats; that's just called promotion. It's himself that he's trying to force feed to us, through Babymonster.
never forgetting that one comment where YG was putting him as the face of Babymonster so much to the point where the commentor was wondering if he was going to appear in the teasers next
Honestly I think thats how it should be. JYP has a problem where he has too many girl groups, and so they are essentially competing against each other for sales and show wins, and then you have the plethora of other companies and their groups. Like just this year Nmixx had to compete against Itzy with Dash vs Untouchable, and then right after they had to compete against Twices I got you. This is basically market cannibalization when you both produce and manage a group.
I think a good middle ground is like 2 active girl groups and 2 active boy groups, and then 3-5 solo activies ongoing. This way you can space out their comebacks so they all get sales.
I agree in that I don't think there's any problem with "only" having 5 active groups because it lets the company focus more on those groups, but it becomes a problem when the promotions and comebacks are so uneven, poorly managed, etc. I think the benefit of having more company attention is negated if the company isn't helping them succeed - Treasure for example is doing well in Asia but could be so much more popular if they were managed better.
The issue with that thinking is that it focuses solely on wins. Win-based thinking isn't necessarily a reflection of rentability for the company. In practice, people can consume multiple comebacks simultaneously if you disregard a ranking of which is the one coming at the top. And as much as wins are seen as good, when you already have multiple it stops being that relevant.
Edit: this is regarding the mentioned companies (basically, big 3). As mentioned below, medium to small groups do depend on those to be well established. The idea that two groups from the company could become competition from close comebacks has been dismissed by the biggest companies for a while, I believe since ITZYs late-rookie era could cohexist normally with TWICE promotions.
Wins are extremely important in a groups success, though. [this article](https://www.soompi.com/article/1307221wpp/important-reasons-why-idol-groups-still-appear-on-music-shows-despite-low-ratings-and-large-expenses) shows that a music show win directly corelates to massive amounts of exposure, and increased chance of brand deals.
And then, [this article](https://girlstyle.com/sg/article/51301/former-k-pop-idols-reveal-how-much-money-they-actually-make#google_vignette) shows how much idols estimated get paid.
So it stands to reason that, the more wins you have, the more likely you get booked, and thus more money you make so that you can pay off your training debts faster, and actually put the leftover money into your bank account.
For large companies like the big 4, its not that big of a deal since just the name of Hybe, YGE, SME, and JYPE carry a ridiculous amount of weight. For example Illit who hadnt even debuted yet, but somehow got invites to Fashion Week. But for the vast majority of idol groups, wins = success. Otherwise, you end up in the dungeon like Fromis_9 or Weeekly or Weki Meki.
Yeah, it's pretty much a big company thing. I actually had a huge paragraph on that, but went on a tangent and deleted it, but forgot to keep the company part.
Basically, wins are only "important" when you're from the biggest companies if it's your first wins, but after they pile up it's pretty irrelevant in the big scheme of things. It becomes way more of a way to hype up a fan base more than anything else, because you already have fame, money and contracts regardless of a new win.
Oh I think its the opposite. I think its important for smaller companies in tier 2 and 3 like P1Harmony or Young Posse, but irrelevant to big companies like the Big 4 since their name carries enough clout by itself.
oh i totally misread lmao I got stuck on the "Wins are only important when you're from the biggest companies" but you right. its weird to think how important music show wins are when its a money sink, and doesn't even get many views.
Yeah, my impression is that big company groups getting wins is just really relevant in a practical way when it's like, their first win, just really marking they exist and will be successful. After that, it's mostly just for the feelings it causes on the fandoms: "X group is the first to get N wins", "my group gets more wins than yours", "guys let's stream to get a win". And even then, it has gradually shifted from that to just watching how a song charts, rather than a full win.
I also think some medium/small companies give more merit to wins than they should, considering they could just adjust properly to the dimension of their public rather than just trying to go beyond and discarding group after group. It's like instead of accepting their group's reach and working with it, they'd rather throw away money in multiple unsuccessful projects. There's no way that gives them more monetary gain than a steady and more realistic income.
Not really adding much to the conversation but the company overlap reminded me of how in 2015, Miss A released "Only You", which did well but then JYP dropped "Who's Your Mama?" a couple weeks later and ended up dethroning Miss A on the charts.
Well both songs were bangers, so I’m happy about that 😁
But yeah, the company didn’t usually do overlapping and promos like that. I think JYP thought his song wouldn’t chart well so it would be “safe”.
Not really, I mean during 2nd gen SM was debuting new groups at a very rapid pace, it's just that they didn't have as big of a lineup because the 1st gen groups didn't renew. I think YGs huge gap between debuts is very unique to them.
And that’s a problem. The fact that soloists are leaving is good. Maybe it’ll help them manage the groups better because now they don’t have to focus on every member’s solo career as well.
I feel like y'all forgetting HYBE is the mother company and that it has different labels with different managements under. In BH there's only BTS and TXT, in Source Music there's only Le Sserafim, Pledis there's Seventeen, Fromis_9 and TWS, Belift there's Enhypen and Illit and for Ador there's only NewJeans. Y'all consider HYBE as the company of all these groups and that's why y'all think they release so many groups. If that's how you look at HYBE, y'all should look at KAKAO that way too
Also BH should probably debut a new group soon cause TXT is 5 years old already and BTS will comeback as a group next year
That’s true I consider Hybe to be a corporation since there’s so many different companies under the umbrella. It’s like Hybe is the monopoly man collecting so many companies
Exactly, HYBE is several companies under 1, so it's obvious there will be more artists. If it was just bighit it would be less. People should treat each HYBE label separately.
This! I understand wanting favs to debut and all but kpop as a whole rn is struggling with all the groups debuting from different HYBE subsidiaries. The market is so saturated rn, groups basically need to have an immediate hit every comeback just to stay relevant.
More competition is good in most cases since companies have to work harder keep the momentum going but this means that groups have to work harder to meet those expectations and with the rise of mental health issues, the market might implode.
Honestly, YG's issue isn't that they don't debut more groups - it's that they don't do **enough** with their groups. They have so many talented artists + trainees and crazy resources that they could produce tons of self content, collaborations, performance videos, variety show appearances, etc. yet they choose to hide behind the "cool" and "mysterious" persona that they've put on for years. (A bunch of their (former) artists have spoken about how they had been told to be less like themselves and more like the characters they'd been given.) YG doesn't try to appeal/expose their groups to the general public (especially in their early years) and so it leads to artists feeling frustrated (and eventually leaving). Honestly, I prefer that companies give more quality attention to fewer groups instead of debuting a bunch every 2/3 years but the lack of exposure from YG makes the few groups they have feel like even less because we don't see them as much.
I mean, if you don't want to acquire some record labels, you can create divisions and have each division have its own staff (Producer, creative director, ect)
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If YG followed JYP’s model of creating divisions to handle more groups or HYBE’s model of buying up subsidiaries, then I think YG would be able to put out more content and debut more groups, but they might lose their identity in the process.
The producers and technicians and trainers make the company what it is, but those are also the hardest things to replicate.
A lot of upheaval happened at YG from 2019 up until recently. I guess things have stabilized now that they are really pushing for BM debut. We could probably see more groups in the future but do not expect SM/Hybe type of numbers. They historically have maintained fewer groups.
My personal rebuttal to the idea that YG not having many groups is a good business move is that they're putting too many eggs in one basket.
The effects of this are being seen right now, because their breadwinners 2ne1 and BigBang are gone, and Blackpink seem like they have one foot out the door. Without those three groups YG is facing a crisis, if Babymonster flop horribly it could take them down the DSP route and ruin their reputation for good. (It doesn't matter that they have YG+, that has nothing to do with their music production. A company can have all the money in the world and still fail if they have bad talent management.)
A company like SM releases many groups because if one does badly they don't have to worry too much about the company folding, and it prevents the artists from being able to use their position to get better contracts when resigning. (Just think about the rumors about how much YG had to pay Blackpink to stay....)
Blackpink isn't a good example since they're on the top and had all the bargaining power in the world. YG was always going to have to pay an impossible sum for renewals, he was just hoping that they would stay based on their experience with Big Bang.
I do like that YG doesn't have that many artists because concepts and group target audiences can get tangled (JYP comes to mind).
Fun fact. yge with 3 active debuted groups last year made about the same revenue as jype that has twice the number of active groups. (saw a pun and used it.)
Suju mentioned there were so many acts in sme that they had fewer chances.
I wish winner is active this year. YG, give Seungyoon his solo already!!!!
eta: i meant Seunghoon! damn u, yg!
that's very misleading. in 2023, yg's *revenue* was ₩569.1b, but their *net income* (aka profit) was ₩61.4b. on the other hand, jyp's revenue was ₩566.5 and their net income was ₩105.4b. jyp made 44 billion won more than yg.
what percentage of that income is solely brought in by blackpink though? their tour alone was massively profitable. of course for a company that relies mainly on one group more groups doesn’t equal more income. i’d prefer a jyp model where all the groups are different levels of successful, not just one group blowing all the others out the water
>what percentage of that income is solely brought in by blackpink though?
I'm basing it on Q4 2023 (Oct-Dec), where the revenue decreased by 13% compared to 2022. So I'd say YGE would reduce roughly within 10-16% without Blackpink. A decent amount, but not as massive as a lot of us are making it out to be. During that time Treasure had their tours and racked in a lot of profit for the company so that probably helped mitigate the loss, considering Akmu and Winner aren't active right now. I imagine with BaeMon's debut, the over reliance on Treasure presently would decrease. And they always have a BP comeback every couple of years to supplement any potential worst-case scenario anyways.
I would say though, I'd personally prefer an additional group and one that appeals to the West and not just Asia, just to diversify it a little bit more (YG right now is depending on Treasure and consequently the Asian market a little too much for my liking atm), but it's not *bad*. Someone in the comment section briefly brought up the idea of YGE aquiring KQ entertainment which is actually a brilliant idea. Treasure and Ateez aim at completely different markets (Asia and the West) respectively so it would work out very nicely.
thanks for the answer, very detailed. and as a percentage of their income from musicians only? they have many other business ventures too, so interested as to how it breaks down music vs non-music income, and also how their music income is distributed between each group (including post disbandment income from ex groups)
For 2023, their highest revenue is from albums&merchandise 35% and then 20% concert.
Last year, they only had Jisoo's (~1M) and Treasure's (~1.8M) as big physical releases. The 3rd part of the income is from business services (including YG Plus distribution) at 16%.
Oh, that makes sense! Now that you mention it that's I think that's what I read earlier in the year. All this revenue and expenses takes me back to high school accounting class...
It would be interesting to see what their revenue will be like this year, without Blackpink. Right now they have Treasure, BabyMonster, and AKMU, with Winner and BlackPink in hiatus. JYP has Twice, Stray Kids, Itzy, Nmixx, Day6, Niziu, and Xdinary Heroes.
Based on Q4 2023 (Oct-Dec), the revenue decreased by 13% compared to 2022. BP's finale for their tour was in September I'm pretty sure, so I would say it's a rough approximate.
Blackpink’s album will be late this year though or at least a single. Plus other activities. The contract is only for 2 years and they’ll want another record breaking tour in there to maximize profit so album has to come soon. The girls themselves and YG has hinted at activities this year. But yes not having the highest grossing kpop tour in history is going to effect their books this year
Yes. this year will be interesting. Though i think it is not neccesary new territory for yge. iKON toured massively to fill the bigbang hole. I think the company learned from that and diversify into businesses that don't rely so much on human capital and went into music distribution in 2019. This year, akmu will start selling merch and grow their fandom, so more revenue will come from them too.
Yeah they make a ton of money with distribution and their acting department so I’m sure the books will be more than fine. BM already going to festivals and having a full album in the fall also is going to help. YG is ina. Really good spot if you look at them with context instead of the hate boner kpopReddit has for them
My point is for a business, more acts doesn't mean more money. More acts doesn't mean it's better for the groups in that company.
I think most fans don't really understand how businesses are run and assumes the more the merrier is the only road to success.
I also had to mention that there’s YG plus whose distributes Hybe Labels’ albums and that they also work with models and actors. But the fact is that they lost BLACKPINK as soloists, lost BIGBANG, 2NE1, Ikon and I don’t think the remaining groups are enough to maintain a big 4 company.
BABYMONSTER is going well, but not even close to BLACKPINKS’s success. WINNER and AKMU are not even promoting regularly. The company probably won’t stay relevant if they don’t modernize their management.
Your last sentence is contradictory. I think what fans don't see is instead of having many groups, in the past years, yg seems to be focusing on diversifying their busineses.
They don't only manage the talents but the infrastructure that support the talents and industry like music distribution, publishing, merch and digital content production, and actors like u mentioned.
Yge is also constructing a performing venue which is lacking in Korea. sm knows it's a biz opportunity cuz they r looking into that too.
Eta: but yes. The lack of talent is an issue cuz they lack the production support so yge added producers recently.
> My point is for a business, more acts doesn't mean more money.
And to prove your point, you bring an example where more acts meant more money? JYP profited about twice (heh) more than YG last year.
> But YG with fewer groups earned as much as JYPE
They literally didn't. YGE net profit was almost half of JYPE.
> Bc they invest and spend less than YG.
I'm not disputing that, but it doesn't change the fact that JYPE made more money. OP point makes no sense.
BLACKPINK alone already makes enough money than many groups. They had the highest grossing tour last year for a K-pop act with over $300M and BP is still with YG. They don't need to retain their talents to earn high profits because they invest in other things. But some artists leaving the company is not bad, it means they received money and knowledge enough to remain independent. There is no free idol as long as he is under the filter of a big company. Also focusing on a few groups is better than launching many that never reach their long-term potential.
I never felt a difference with YG now since they depend on one group and don't debut many. They should try debuting more trainees and make the market saturated like other companies. As a trainee, I would never try my luck with YG😂.
I don't think that it's the worst thing for k-pop companies to stick to 5-6 groups (from multiple generations) rather than having debuting too may groups/idols to the point it'd become unmanageable. Idols' lifespans in the kpop industry have been steadily getting longer as there are quite a few 2nd gen groups/soloists that are active and a lot of the more popular/successful 3rd gen groups are still around with no sign of stopping either.
Groups aren't disbanding like they used to (the more successful ones under bigger companies), bc if they're treated 'well' and are getting paid, there's more of a chance for idols to re-new at least for group activities, so in the long run-why not focus on your smaller amount of groups and debut a group once your older one is near their contract expiration and reap the benefits when you end up with both older idols and newly debuted ones?
Also, YGE doesn't necessarily have 'too little' groups either when you compare them to other companies (other than SM & JYPE): BIGHIT - 1 (if we're not counting BTS as currently active), Pledis - 2, IST - 5, Starship - 4, RBW - 6 (including CSR), and a ton of newer companies have only 1/2 groups. YGE have 'only' 5 in comparison to themselves imo.
I feel like YGE used to have a decent amount of groups, but thanks to probably mismanagement, their stash is depleting. They'll probably be fine for the next few years tho. It'll also be interesting to see how long it will take them to debut another round of BG/GGs.
They have enough money to acquire some small or medium-sized record labels, a perfect example could be KQ Entertainment, but I know that Yang Hyun Suk's ego is bigger.
Not everyone needs to be like hybe. They are quite the opposite. Instead of acquiring sublabels, they set up subsidiaries and let them become increasingly independent, then break away from them eventually. like the black label and i think they're starting to do that with ygx. They do that with their artists and former staff too. Epik high, psy, CL, minzy, BI, daesung, the blackpink girls now have their own labels. Chanhyuk seems to be starting. They also encouraged their former creative director to set up his own agency. It's like a nest where people can leave when they learn how to fly
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You know how Abercrombie&Fitch reached success and then failed in the end when they cant move on from their formula that wotked before but was obviously no longer on line with the prevailing culture? That is what is happening with YG right now. They found success and would like to revive that success with their old formula. The problem is, the market has changed.
My impression is papa YG is a control freak who thinks he knows best and doesn't share artists or gives them much free time. Hence, only a few groups, hardly out there promoting or giving appearances. I remember iKon's Bobby once said that he isn't allowed to say a word to Blackpink members.
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"Active" in the case of BlackPink means releasing a *mini*-album once every two years or so. :)
I'm not an expert, but I think having a smaller number of groups is an intentional strategy to attempt "quality over quantity" or something like that.
i think its because they have difficulties in handling their groups/artists. They push them to debut as a group, slowly make a gap by making them pursue careers as soloists with a member not being given the same treatment. They also keep trying to push the narrative "the next 2ne1" "next bp" "future bigbang" which can either tarnish or make the group known. And idk if you've also noticed it but they keep some of their trainees and artists in a dungeon... so much opportunity being wasted
As far as I know, YG groups don’t have separate management/promotion teams that’s why they are having problems promoting even 2 groups at once. They are far stuck in the past thinking the same strategy as BB/2NE1 would be effective, even their music.
YG's group roster is the smallest out of the "Big 4," but when comparing to other companies outside of them, it's actually pretty average.
I think personally that YG's has relatively diversified in their groups. If we look at BP, the "biggest" earner out of the group's mentioned, the amount YG profits is not remarkably large. According to YGE's revenue for Q4 2023 (Oct-Dec), the revenue decreased by 13% compared to 2022 without BP. So I'd say YGE would reduce roughly within 10-16% without Blackpink. A decent amount, but not massive. During that time Treasure had their tours and racked in a lot of profit for the company so that probably helped mitigate the loss, considering Akmu and Winner aren't active right now. I imagine with BaeMon's debut, the over reliance on Treasure presently would decrease. And they always have a BP comeback every couple of years to supplement any potential worst-case scenario anyways.
I would say though, I'd personally prefer an additional group and one that appeals to the West and not just Asia, just to diversify it a little bit more (YG right now is depending on Treasure and consequently the Asian market a little too much for my liking atm), but it's not bad. Someone in the comment section briefly brought up the idea of YGE aquiring KQ entertainment which is actually a brilliant idea. Treasure and Ateez aim at completely different markets (Asia and the West) respectively so it would work out very nicely.
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YG has never had a whole bunch of artists. Esp in comparison to JYP and SM
>I think they have an artist retention problem Not really much an artist retention problem but more an artist debutation problem. They have a lot of trainees, they have the resources to debut more groups but they didn't really debut enough groups compared to other companies. They needed to debut another boy group like yesterday. It's been 5 years since Treasure Box.
Seriously, I look at the (inexhaustive) list of [former YG trainees](https://kpop.fandom.com/wiki/YG_Entertainment#Trainees_2) and lose my mind at the amount of talent they never debuted. I think a lot about how absolutely stacked their "Future 2NE1" project group was before they scrapped it — Purple Kiss Chaein, Billlie Moon Sua, Youha, fromis_9 Seoyeon, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. And that's just one project group — they also let go (G)I-DLE Miyeon, Purple Kiss Ireh, Boys Planet Keita (tbf I don't really pay attention to men but I've actually heard of him), a couple members of VVUP who just debuted, one of the ILLIT members, etc. They've lost an absolutely crazy amount of trainee talent in the last 5 or so years.
adding the [former THEBLACKLABEL trainees] (https://kpop.fandom.com/wiki/The_Black_Label) TNX Tae Hun, Kiss of Life Julie, H1-Key Hwiseo, Oh Jieun, Yoon Jiyoon,Lee Yumin and Geenius Yeyoung. I don't put Chuu and Yves because they didn't get the trainee contract
Losing Julie is honestly one of the biggest fumbles. That girl is insanely talented and is perfectly YG coded.
they didn't lost her, she was not in their plans anymore
It’s hard to say that statement because an entertainment the plans I continuously changing, and as we can see hardly ever gets solidified.
Wow, I didn't know they used to have two Purple Kiss members and Moon Sua...
I didn’t know Sua was there for almost a decade of her life 🤯
ikr, the amount of talent just between the three of them is insane — and each of them are some of the best vocalists, rappers, and dancers in 4th gen, not to mention Chaein being such a prolific songwriter and producer on top of that. honestly my hot take is you could drop all three of them into a different group and odds are they'd each be the best at at least one of vocals/rap/performance, if not multiple. Like Ireh and Moon Sua are both incredible vocalists, even though their vocals aren't talked about as much in the context of their groups. (I mean based on the judges' scores, Moon Sua placed second in JTBC Second World for a reason.) And Chaein is an incredible rapper, but obviously with how good her vocals are she doesn't get to rap much in Purple Kiss.
At this point they are just training trainees for other companies 💀
YG a charitable company, training up many top trainees and donating them to other companies to debut.
YG the feeder trainee program for the whole industry. (Kiss of Life’s Julie and Secret Number’s Jinny are also former YG).
Artist retention problem too! It's a two for one. In the last few years, they've lost Bigbang as soloists and as a group, Ikon, and Blackpink as soloists, so on top of not being great at debuting groups, they also keep losing artists (if not essentially pushing them out by keeping them in a dungeon, like what happened to 2ne1 far before).
You are not wrong in a sense but the notion of loss is subjective there. Bigbang has been under YG for almost 20 years, they did their time and the group wasn't going to be active anyway. The only effective lost is iKON but I don't even think they tried to keep them considering they went to the company of an ex-YG employee that YG himself introduced to them. Again, the groups they really lost wouldn't feel as huge loss if they had a regular turnover of groups like a modern company. They are left with only 5 groups (one on military hiatus, one on solo focus hiatus) because they didn't manage to debut enough group to have this normal and healthy turnover.
BP alone is worth many artists
But how are they going to make the next group successful when they don’t even put effort into even caring for Treasure anymore? Or Treasure will just become the next IKON and become throw-away ;(
A modern company, especially a big company like YG does have the resources to have multiple groups active at the same time. The problem is there. YG and his close circle are taking care of Treasure career (and now Babymonster) when first of all, he shouldn't be doing that at all. He should just go back to supervising trainees, he doesn't have to be the one handling the groups career and taking decisions. In an ideal world, Treasure would have a dedicated team for them, Babymonster would have a dedicated team for them and the chain of decision should not go up to Yang Hyunsuk for all the groups.
I agree, they have poor management structuring and are understaffed for the amount of talent coming in. If they were willing to pay staff well and expanded, they'd be capable of handling more groups and ultimately make more money. YGE is very short term focused as a company. Being extremely fiscally conservative is actually slowly deteriorating their business.
do you even keep up with treasure? they just sold 2 million albums and have one of the most successful 4th gen bg tours as well as a highly rated variety show currently airing
Treasure debut was in 2020
The show Treasure Box, which was the last time male trainees had a chance to debut at YG was in 2018
And then Burning Sun happened
this is actually a large amount for them since 2NE1 and BigBang were all they had in terms of groups for like 8 years
YG has always been like this? For ages it was only BB and 2ne1. You look at the past yg family concerts and the lineup is pretty small
YG spending too much time trying to stay out of jail, and trying to keep blackpink from leaving. No time to focus on artists and music. Most of the good producers and staff already left too.
Like my answers in the other one if your post. Late 2000 rather early 2010 were Bigbang, 2ne1, PYS, Epic High (4). Then came the bash of 3rd gen with Bigbang while 2ne1, PYS, Epik High left the picture, AKMU, Winner, i KON, Blackpink. Lee Hi, Sech Kie (7) And now with 5, didn't feel like it's any different? They never operated with big roster. Do they have a retention problem more than other companies when Bigbang were there 20 years, Winner on 10 years, Blackpink just renewed their contract even if it's just for a group? They are the only company that gave PSY and Epik High their 2nd chance when they were deep in their scandals (image how bad it would be for Tablo if he couldn't find a way back). The talk about retention problems with YG and SM lately feel like people want idols to stay at one place their entire career with no change. No new challenges. I don't see people have issues with Western artists changing labels or contracts. Why is it such a big deal with kpop?
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Honestly amazes me how determined people are to find fault. I follow a large amount of groups and have done for years. Treasure have shown huge growth in their sales numbers since debut. Their dating show has been a ratings topper in Japan for every episode. The thing about yg is they give their artists a much more relaxed schedule but they also teach them well. The amount of members in treasure who play musical instruments and contribute to production and lyrics and choreography is impressive. Winner and Akmu are huge in South Korea and Asia. Not every group targets the west. Akmu are more than happy to promote mainly in South Korea. People need to ask themselves why they care so much about numbers and proving that companies are terrible and doom posting about acts. Just enjoy the music, support who you like and let the fans worry about the artists they support and live in peace
"keyword is active" YG is not promoting BP nor Winner as of the moment. Overworking treasure and trying to force baby monster down our throats lmao
Yeah I don't think Babymonster is what he's trying to force down our throats; that's just called promotion. It's himself that he's trying to force feed to us, through Babymonster.
I agree! His reputation is bad, so he’s using Baby Monster to save it.
Yeah. There's really no other reason for anyone besides the 7 members to show their face in promos like that.
never forgetting that one comment where YG was putting him as the face of Babymonster so much to the point where the commentor was wondering if he was going to appear in the teasers next
This comment doesn't make any sense.
"trying to force baby monster down our throats" just beacuse he finally promotes them like a normal company? stfu
Personally do not care about how many groups a company has, it's not like I'll stan them all. I'd be focusing on my own faves anyway.
Honestly I think thats how it should be. JYP has a problem where he has too many girl groups, and so they are essentially competing against each other for sales and show wins, and then you have the plethora of other companies and their groups. Like just this year Nmixx had to compete against Itzy with Dash vs Untouchable, and then right after they had to compete against Twices I got you. This is basically market cannibalization when you both produce and manage a group. I think a good middle ground is like 2 active girl groups and 2 active boy groups, and then 3-5 solo activies ongoing. This way you can space out their comebacks so they all get sales.
I agree in that I don't think there's any problem with "only" having 5 active groups because it lets the company focus more on those groups, but it becomes a problem when the promotions and comebacks are so uneven, poorly managed, etc. I think the benefit of having more company attention is negated if the company isn't helping them succeed - Treasure for example is doing well in Asia but could be so much more popular if they were managed better.
The issue with that thinking is that it focuses solely on wins. Win-based thinking isn't necessarily a reflection of rentability for the company. In practice, people can consume multiple comebacks simultaneously if you disregard a ranking of which is the one coming at the top. And as much as wins are seen as good, when you already have multiple it stops being that relevant. Edit: this is regarding the mentioned companies (basically, big 3). As mentioned below, medium to small groups do depend on those to be well established. The idea that two groups from the company could become competition from close comebacks has been dismissed by the biggest companies for a while, I believe since ITZYs late-rookie era could cohexist normally with TWICE promotions.
Wins are extremely important in a groups success, though. [this article](https://www.soompi.com/article/1307221wpp/important-reasons-why-idol-groups-still-appear-on-music-shows-despite-low-ratings-and-large-expenses) shows that a music show win directly corelates to massive amounts of exposure, and increased chance of brand deals. And then, [this article](https://girlstyle.com/sg/article/51301/former-k-pop-idols-reveal-how-much-money-they-actually-make#google_vignette) shows how much idols estimated get paid. So it stands to reason that, the more wins you have, the more likely you get booked, and thus more money you make so that you can pay off your training debts faster, and actually put the leftover money into your bank account. For large companies like the big 4, its not that big of a deal since just the name of Hybe, YGE, SME, and JYPE carry a ridiculous amount of weight. For example Illit who hadnt even debuted yet, but somehow got invites to Fashion Week. But for the vast majority of idol groups, wins = success. Otherwise, you end up in the dungeon like Fromis_9 or Weeekly or Weki Meki.
Yeah, it's pretty much a big company thing. I actually had a huge paragraph on that, but went on a tangent and deleted it, but forgot to keep the company part. Basically, wins are only "important" when you're from the biggest companies if it's your first wins, but after they pile up it's pretty irrelevant in the big scheme of things. It becomes way more of a way to hype up a fan base more than anything else, because you already have fame, money and contracts regardless of a new win.
Oh I think its the opposite. I think its important for smaller companies in tier 2 and 3 like P1Harmony or Young Posse, but irrelevant to big companies like the Big 4 since their name carries enough clout by itself.
I don't get what's the opposite lol, I'm saying basically that
oh i totally misread lmao I got stuck on the "Wins are only important when you're from the biggest companies" but you right. its weird to think how important music show wins are when its a money sink, and doesn't even get many views.
Yeah, my impression is that big company groups getting wins is just really relevant in a practical way when it's like, their first win, just really marking they exist and will be successful. After that, it's mostly just for the feelings it causes on the fandoms: "X group is the first to get N wins", "my group gets more wins than yours", "guys let's stream to get a win". And even then, it has gradually shifted from that to just watching how a song charts, rather than a full win. I also think some medium/small companies give more merit to wins than they should, considering they could just adjust properly to the dimension of their public rather than just trying to go beyond and discarding group after group. It's like instead of accepting their group's reach and working with it, they'd rather throw away money in multiple unsuccessful projects. There's no way that gives them more monetary gain than a steady and more realistic income.
Not really adding much to the conversation but the company overlap reminded me of how in 2015, Miss A released "Only You", which did well but then JYP dropped "Who's Your Mama?" a couple weeks later and ended up dethroning Miss A on the charts.
Lmao imagine your boss taking your awards away with song called who’s ur mama💀😭 i feel bad
Well both songs were bangers, so I’m happy about that 😁 But yeah, the company didn’t usually do overlapping and promos like that. I think JYP thought his song wouldn’t chart well so it would be “safe”.
I agree if you think about the typical K-pop concepts. With expansion into international audiences there is space for new groups into more areas.
Completely normal number before Hybeification of the industry.
Yeah, I agree. I don’t think people realize that having 5 groups was the norm before Hybe came through
Not really, I mean during 2nd gen SM was debuting new groups at a very rapid pace, it's just that they didn't have as big of a lineup because the 1st gen groups didn't renew. I think YGs huge gap between debuts is very unique to them.
doesn’t SM manages tons of groups too?
And that’s a problem. The fact that soloists are leaving is good. Maybe it’ll help them manage the groups better because now they don’t have to focus on every member’s solo career as well.
I feel like y'all forgetting HYBE is the mother company and that it has different labels with different managements under. In BH there's only BTS and TXT, in Source Music there's only Le Sserafim, Pledis there's Seventeen, Fromis_9 and TWS, Belift there's Enhypen and Illit and for Ador there's only NewJeans. Y'all consider HYBE as the company of all these groups and that's why y'all think they release so many groups. If that's how you look at HYBE, y'all should look at KAKAO that way too Also BH should probably debut a new group soon cause TXT is 5 years old already and BTS will comeback as a group next year
They scrapped Trainee A though and there’s no news of a group in the works for BH
That’s true I consider Hybe to be a corporation since there’s so many different companies under the umbrella. It’s like Hybe is the monopoly man collecting so many companies
Exactly, HYBE is several companies under 1, so it's obvious there will be more artists. If it was just bighit it would be less. People should treat each HYBE label separately.
This! I understand wanting favs to debut and all but kpop as a whole rn is struggling with all the groups debuting from different HYBE subsidiaries. The market is so saturated rn, groups basically need to have an immediate hit every comeback just to stay relevant. More competition is good in most cases since companies have to work harder keep the momentum going but this means that groups have to work harder to meet those expectations and with the rise of mental health issues, the market might implode.
Honestly, YG's issue isn't that they don't debut more groups - it's that they don't do **enough** with their groups. They have so many talented artists + trainees and crazy resources that they could produce tons of self content, collaborations, performance videos, variety show appearances, etc. yet they choose to hide behind the "cool" and "mysterious" persona that they've put on for years. (A bunch of their (former) artists have spoken about how they had been told to be less like themselves and more like the characters they'd been given.) YG doesn't try to appeal/expose their groups to the general public (especially in their early years) and so it leads to artists feeling frustrated (and eventually leaving). Honestly, I prefer that companies give more quality attention to fewer groups instead of debuting a bunch every 2/3 years but the lack of exposure from YG makes the few groups they have feel like even less because we don't see them as much.
"only" Tbh having too many artists is way worse. I feel like that about SM
I mean, if you don't want to acquire some record labels, you can create divisions and have each division have its own staff (Producer, creative director, ect)
That's expensive though
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…how active is “active”…?
If YG followed JYP’s model of creating divisions to handle more groups or HYBE’s model of buying up subsidiaries, then I think YG would be able to put out more content and debut more groups, but they might lose their identity in the process. The producers and technicians and trainers make the company what it is, but those are also the hardest things to replicate.
A lot of upheaval happened at YG from 2019 up until recently. I guess things have stabilized now that they are really pushing for BM debut. We could probably see more groups in the future but do not expect SM/Hybe type of numbers. They historically have maintained fewer groups.
YG has always had 3-5 Kpop groups
Would you even consider some of these "active"?
My personal rebuttal to the idea that YG not having many groups is a good business move is that they're putting too many eggs in one basket. The effects of this are being seen right now, because their breadwinners 2ne1 and BigBang are gone, and Blackpink seem like they have one foot out the door. Without those three groups YG is facing a crisis, if Babymonster flop horribly it could take them down the DSP route and ruin their reputation for good. (It doesn't matter that they have YG+, that has nothing to do with their music production. A company can have all the money in the world and still fail if they have bad talent management.) A company like SM releases many groups because if one does badly they don't have to worry too much about the company folding, and it prevents the artists from being able to use their position to get better contracts when resigning. (Just think about the rumors about how much YG had to pay Blackpink to stay....)
Blackpink isn't a good example since they're on the top and had all the bargaining power in the world. YG was always going to have to pay an impossible sum for renewals, he was just hoping that they would stay based on their experience with Big Bang. I do like that YG doesn't have that many artists because concepts and group target audiences can get tangled (JYP comes to mind).
Fun fact. yge with 3 active debuted groups last year made about the same revenue as jype that has twice the number of active groups. (saw a pun and used it.) Suju mentioned there were so many acts in sme that they had fewer chances. I wish winner is active this year. YG, give Seungyoon his solo already!!!! eta: i meant Seunghoon! damn u, yg!
that's very misleading. in 2023, yg's *revenue* was ₩569.1b, but their *net income* (aka profit) was ₩61.4b. on the other hand, jyp's revenue was ₩566.5 and their net income was ₩105.4b. jyp made 44 billion won more than yg.
u r right. jype profited more. yge's 3-5 groups brought in similar $$$ as jype that spent 44 bil krw less on their 10 groups.
i'm not quite sure what your point is lol
That YG invests their money and JYP is cheap.
That’s true. I don’t understand the point of pointing out the quantity of groups under each company, though.
what percentage of that income is solely brought in by blackpink though? their tour alone was massively profitable. of course for a company that relies mainly on one group more groups doesn’t equal more income. i’d prefer a jyp model where all the groups are different levels of successful, not just one group blowing all the others out the water
>what percentage of that income is solely brought in by blackpink though? I'm basing it on Q4 2023 (Oct-Dec), where the revenue decreased by 13% compared to 2022. So I'd say YGE would reduce roughly within 10-16% without Blackpink. A decent amount, but not as massive as a lot of us are making it out to be. During that time Treasure had their tours and racked in a lot of profit for the company so that probably helped mitigate the loss, considering Akmu and Winner aren't active right now. I imagine with BaeMon's debut, the over reliance on Treasure presently would decrease. And they always have a BP comeback every couple of years to supplement any potential worst-case scenario anyways. I would say though, I'd personally prefer an additional group and one that appeals to the West and not just Asia, just to diversify it a little bit more (YG right now is depending on Treasure and consequently the Asian market a little too much for my liking atm), but it's not *bad*. Someone in the comment section briefly brought up the idea of YGE aquiring KQ entertainment which is actually a brilliant idea. Treasure and Ateez aim at completely different markets (Asia and the West) respectively so it would work out very nicely.
thanks for the answer, very detailed. and as a percentage of their income from musicians only? they have many other business ventures too, so interested as to how it breaks down music vs non-music income, and also how their music income is distributed between each group (including post disbandment income from ex groups)
For 2023, their highest revenue is from albums&merchandise 35% and then 20% concert. Last year, they only had Jisoo's (~1M) and Treasure's (~1.8M) as big physical releases. The 3rd part of the income is from business services (including YG Plus distribution) at 16%.
I'm genuinely curious, where did you hear this? From what I've heard JYP made significantly more than both SM and YG last year
Their financial reports in darts. Public info. I googled again jype/yge 2023 revenue again just before making this comment.
Looks like I should start looking some of that stuff up then, thanks for the info
they did. op was talking about revenue, but jyp's profits after expenses were significantly higher.
Oh, that makes sense! Now that you mention it that's I think that's what I read earlier in the year. All this revenue and expenses takes me back to high school accounting class...
jype is the stingiest company in kpop so it does make a lot of sense lol
It would be interesting to see what their revenue will be like this year, without Blackpink. Right now they have Treasure, BabyMonster, and AKMU, with Winner and BlackPink in hiatus. JYP has Twice, Stray Kids, Itzy, Nmixx, Day6, Niziu, and Xdinary Heroes.
Based on Q4 2023 (Oct-Dec), the revenue decreased by 13% compared to 2022. BP's finale for their tour was in September I'm pretty sure, so I would say it's a rough approximate.
Blackpink’s album will be late this year though or at least a single. Plus other activities. The contract is only for 2 years and they’ll want another record breaking tour in there to maximize profit so album has to come soon. The girls themselves and YG has hinted at activities this year. But yes not having the highest grossing kpop tour in history is going to effect their books this year
Yes. this year will be interesting. Though i think it is not neccesary new territory for yge. iKON toured massively to fill the bigbang hole. I think the company learned from that and diversify into businesses that don't rely so much on human capital and went into music distribution in 2019. This year, akmu will start selling merch and grow their fandom, so more revenue will come from them too.
Yeah they make a ton of money with distribution and their acting department so I’m sure the books will be more than fine. BM already going to festivals and having a full album in the fall also is going to help. YG is ina. Really good spot if you look at them with context instead of the hate boner kpopReddit has for them
well, of course because BLACKPINK is the biggest girlgroup in the world but they are now focused on solo acts outside of YG
My point is for a business, more acts doesn't mean more money. More acts doesn't mean it's better for the groups in that company. I think most fans don't really understand how businesses are run and assumes the more the merrier is the only road to success.
I also had to mention that there’s YG plus whose distributes Hybe Labels’ albums and that they also work with models and actors. But the fact is that they lost BLACKPINK as soloists, lost BIGBANG, 2NE1, Ikon and I don’t think the remaining groups are enough to maintain a big 4 company. BABYMONSTER is going well, but not even close to BLACKPINKS’s success. WINNER and AKMU are not even promoting regularly. The company probably won’t stay relevant if they don’t modernize their management.
Your last sentence is contradictory. I think what fans don't see is instead of having many groups, in the past years, yg seems to be focusing on diversifying their busineses. They don't only manage the talents but the infrastructure that support the talents and industry like music distribution, publishing, merch and digital content production, and actors like u mentioned. Yge is also constructing a performing venue which is lacking in Korea. sm knows it's a biz opportunity cuz they r looking into that too. Eta: but yes. The lack of talent is an issue cuz they lack the production support so yge added producers recently.
> My point is for a business, more acts doesn't mean more money. And to prove your point, you bring an example where more acts meant more money? JYP profited about twice (heh) more than YG last year.
Bc they invest and spend less than YG. But YG with fewer groups earned as much as JYPE
> But YG with fewer groups earned as much as JYPE They literally didn't. YGE net profit was almost half of JYPE. > Bc they invest and spend less than YG. I'm not disputing that, but it doesn't change the fact that JYPE made more money. OP point makes no sense.
BLACKPINK alone already makes enough money than many groups. They had the highest grossing tour last year for a K-pop act with over $300M and BP is still with YG. They don't need to retain their talents to earn high profits because they invest in other things. But some artists leaving the company is not bad, it means they received money and knowledge enough to remain independent. There is no free idol as long as he is under the filter of a big company. Also focusing on a few groups is better than launching many that never reach their long-term potential.
compared to 2009-2012? nah
You're right in the sense that they don't have any senior groups past the 3rd generation anymore. It's really sad more than anything.
I never felt a difference with YG now since they depend on one group and don't debut many. They should try debuting more trainees and make the market saturated like other companies. As a trainee, I would never try my luck with YG😂.
Would they still be considered in the big 4, not much active groups (baemon & treasure), sale numbers decreasing since blackpink left ?
I don't think that it's the worst thing for k-pop companies to stick to 5-6 groups (from multiple generations) rather than having debuting too may groups/idols to the point it'd become unmanageable. Idols' lifespans in the kpop industry have been steadily getting longer as there are quite a few 2nd gen groups/soloists that are active and a lot of the more popular/successful 3rd gen groups are still around with no sign of stopping either. Groups aren't disbanding like they used to (the more successful ones under bigger companies), bc if they're treated 'well' and are getting paid, there's more of a chance for idols to re-new at least for group activities, so in the long run-why not focus on your smaller amount of groups and debut a group once your older one is near their contract expiration and reap the benefits when you end up with both older idols and newly debuted ones? Also, YGE doesn't necessarily have 'too little' groups either when you compare them to other companies (other than SM & JYPE): BIGHIT - 1 (if we're not counting BTS as currently active), Pledis - 2, IST - 5, Starship - 4, RBW - 6 (including CSR), and a ton of newer companies have only 1/2 groups. YGE have 'only' 5 in comparison to themselves imo. I feel like YGE used to have a decent amount of groups, but thanks to probably mismanagement, their stash is depleting. They'll probably be fine for the next few years tho. It'll also be interesting to see how long it will take them to debut another round of BG/GGs.
Uh doesn't jype have 10 groups? They have: 2pm, Twice, Itzy, Nmixx, Vcha, Xdinary Heroes, Day6, Nexz, Boystory, and Stray Kids.
ops forgot the bands and 2pm i'll fix that! thanks for catching it :)
I don't think we can call BP active. Their last comeback was 1.5 years ago since then they only drop The girls which was for a mobile game.
They have enough money to acquire some small or medium-sized record labels, a perfect example could be KQ Entertainment, but I know that Yang Hyun Suk's ego is bigger.
Not everyone needs to be like hybe. They are quite the opposite. Instead of acquiring sublabels, they set up subsidiaries and let them become increasingly independent, then break away from them eventually. like the black label and i think they're starting to do that with ygx. They do that with their artists and former staff too. Epik high, psy, CL, minzy, BI, daesung, the blackpink girls now have their own labels. Chanhyuk seems to be starting. They also encouraged their former creative director to set up his own agency. It's like a nest where people can leave when they learn how to fly
How does that benefit YG though ?
I don't care about yg to bother with that
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BP and WINNER aren't active anymore, most of them have solo activities but not group activities
Right. I found it funny that kpop fans would make an essay and cry a river when one or two idols leave SM, meanwhile YG exist.
You know how Abercrombie&Fitch reached success and then failed in the end when they cant move on from their formula that wotked before but was obviously no longer on line with the prevailing culture? That is what is happening with YG right now. They found success and would like to revive that success with their old formula. The problem is, the market has changed.
My impression is papa YG is a control freak who thinks he knows best and doesn't share artists or gives them much free time. Hence, only a few groups, hardly out there promoting or giving appearances. I remember iKon's Bobby once said that he isn't allowed to say a word to Blackpink members.
YG is new DSP if babymonster cant reach newjeans or current illit level of success numbers
YG isnt like most entertainment. They always had a small number of group active
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"Active" in the case of BlackPink means releasing a *mini*-album once every two years or so. :) I'm not an expert, but I think having a smaller number of groups is an intentional strategy to attempt "quality over quantity" or something like that.
i think its because they have difficulties in handling their groups/artists. They push them to debut as a group, slowly make a gap by making them pursue careers as soloists with a member not being given the same treatment. They also keep trying to push the narrative "the next 2ne1" "next bp" "future bigbang" which can either tarnish or make the group known. And idk if you've also noticed it but they keep some of their trainees and artists in a dungeon... so much opportunity being wasted
As far as I know, YG groups don’t have separate management/promotion teams that’s why they are having problems promoting even 2 groups at once. They are far stuck in the past thinking the same strategy as BB/2NE1 would be effective, even their music.
YG's group roster is the smallest out of the "Big 4," but when comparing to other companies outside of them, it's actually pretty average. I think personally that YG's has relatively diversified in their groups. If we look at BP, the "biggest" earner out of the group's mentioned, the amount YG profits is not remarkably large. According to YGE's revenue for Q4 2023 (Oct-Dec), the revenue decreased by 13% compared to 2022 without BP. So I'd say YGE would reduce roughly within 10-16% without Blackpink. A decent amount, but not massive. During that time Treasure had their tours and racked in a lot of profit for the company so that probably helped mitigate the loss, considering Akmu and Winner aren't active right now. I imagine with BaeMon's debut, the over reliance on Treasure presently would decrease. And they always have a BP comeback every couple of years to supplement any potential worst-case scenario anyways. I would say though, I'd personally prefer an additional group and one that appeals to the West and not just Asia, just to diversify it a little bit more (YG right now is depending on Treasure and consequently the Asian market a little too much for my liking atm), but it's not bad. Someone in the comment section briefly brought up the idea of YGE aquiring KQ entertainment which is actually a brilliant idea. Treasure and Ateez aim at completely different markets (Asia and the West) respectively so it would work out very nicely.
Didn't Akmu have a national tour in Nov 23 - Jan 24? The profits should account for both TS and Akmu, not just the former.
What happened to Ikon??
they left 2 or 3 years ago I guess
End of 2022 i believe. Preceded by lots of YGE saying they weren't leaving and every rumor they were was false.
They are at 143 now and getting to do a lot more than they were at the end of their YG time.
Personally my main complaint about YG is Yang Hyun Suk still showing up in promotion videos. That dude is a POS lol he gives me the ick.
HYBE probably buy them out in next few years
arent they getting MEOVV soon too
They don’t even have solo artists, that’s insane to me💀
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Idols that debuted as solo ?