Major foreign media outlets, including CNBC in the U.S., Japan’s Nippon Keizai Shimbun, Kyodo News, and Reuters, also reported in detail the battle between Hive, Korea’s largest music agency, and Min Hee-jin, CEO of Adore, an affiliated label and agency of girl group New Jeans.
In particular, they highlighted this incident as a ‘power struggle taking place in the highly profitable K-pop industry’ and raised concerns about the possibility of the situation prolonging and Hive’s performance deteriorating. It was predicted that the ‘multi-label strategy’ that Hive pioneered in the K-pop industry would also suffer a major blow.
In fact, on the 26th, Hive accused CEO Min of breach of trust. Hive’s stock price, which has been falling every day, fell 4.95% on this day as well. After the internal strife was made public on the 22nd, it plummeted 12.58% in the five days leading up to this day. During this period, the market capitalization also evaporated by about 1.2 trillion won.
On the 26th (local time), Reuters introduced this incident as “the latest dispute to hit the lucrative K-pop industry” and predicted that this incident would serve as an indicator of the growth of the K-pop industry. In particular, he relayed the Korean stock market’s analysis that ‘the K-pop industry is experiencing growing pains’ and also quoted the part that said, “This will be an opportunity for the K-pop industry to better protect artists and intellectual property rights.”
Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, “Both sides are strongly criticizing the other. “There is a possibility that the conflict could become mired and affect performance,” he said. It raised the possibility that the activities of New Genes, who are scheduled to release a new single on the 24th of next month, will be affected in some way. Japan’s Kyodo News also reported that New Genes members regard CEO Min as their mother and that “there are voices expressing concern about New Genes’ activities.”
CNBC introduced Hive’s ‘multi-label strategy’ in detail and said that while the representative idol ‘BTS’ took a hiatus due to members’ military service, affiliated labels such as Adore were effective in driving Hive’s profits. However, as seen in this incident, the existing success formula may not work as a family fight breaks out between Hive and the label. American business media outlet Fast Company also commented, “Adore’s unprecedented success has brought Hive to the spotlight on the international stage.”
American music media outlets Billboard and AFP reported CEO Min’s press conference in detail on the 25th. Billboard commented, “CEO Min held an emotional press conference for over two hours,” and “With New Genes’ comeback just around the corner, both sides entered into a war, claiming that it was ‘the best for New Genes.’” AFP also introduced Hive’s criticism that CEO Min received management coaching from a shaman.
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
Reporter Joo Hyun-woo [email protected]
