[ad_1]
HYBE is “a half-tech firm.”
That’s how Bang Si-hyuk, founder and chairman of the Ok-pop large, described his leisure firm in a current Q&A session at Bloomberg Screentime occasion in Los Angeles.
Bang was commenting on the huge technological change that the music trade has seen within the almost 20 years since he based Massive Hit Leisure, as HYBE was identified then, again in 2005.
The chairman of the world’s greatest Ok-pop label and artist administration firm reminisced about his youthful years sharing a cramped condominium in L.A. with Park Jin-young, who would go on to discovered rival Ok-pop label JYP Leisure.
“Once I was right here with [Park], we had been dwelling in a room that was so small that if we lay down and reached out, we might put our fingers on one another’s stomachs,” Bang stated by way of an interpreter, in an interview with Bloomberg’s Sohee Kim and Lucas Shaw.
“And now, as you say, I’ve a mansion in one of many nicest neighborhoods in L.A., so life has positively modified externally,” Bang continued. “However I feel these exterior adjustments should not that essential to me. The explanation I bought the home in Bel-Air is I felt it will assist with my enterprise and assembly folks right here. My life, essentially, has not modified.
“I nonetheless take into account music to be a very powerful factor… Then, and now, I’m nonetheless dedicated to discovering the issues which can be mistaken within the trade, and enhancing this stuff and innovating issues, so that everyone within the music neighborhood and trade can have extra alternatives.”
He added: “And naturally, again then, we had been considerably extra distant from the tech sphere than we are actually. Proper now we’re mainly a half-tech firm. However once more I don’t assume the basics have modified very a lot.”
Bang was, in fact, referring to the unbelievable adjustments which have reworked the music enterprise over the previous quarter century, from the rise of digital music sharing and piracy, to the growth in music streaming providers and – extra just lately – the AI revolution that guarantees to vary each music creation and monetization.
HYBE isn’t any stranger to those technological adjustments. The corporate has dived into AI music, releasing a track earlier this year that was sung in six totally different languages, due to tech from Supertone, an AI vocal-generating firm HYBE acquired final 12 months.
The corporate can also be behind Weverse, a fan platform that’s on the forefront of utilizing social media and digital marketplaces to monetize superfans.
However past embracing new tech, HYBE is seeking to make main inroads into the US market, and in his current Q&A session, Bang clearly laid out the rationale for this transfer.
Listed here are three key issues we picked up from Bang Si-hyuk’s Q&A session…
HYBE’s world lady undertaking with Universal Music Group/Geffen kicked into overdrive in August with the announcement of 20 finalists who will compete for a spot within the as-yet-unnamed group by way of a actuality present known as Dream Academy.
For Bang, Dream Academy is an experiment – a “check,” in his phrases – to see how and the way effectively the Ok-pop methodology exports to world markets. It’s additionally a part of an effort to make sure that HYBE has a task within the music trade effectively past Ok-pop – one thing Bang sees as being essential to the corporate’s long-term success.
“Ok-pop is characterised by essentially the most huge degree of consumption within the historical past of music and pop music,” Bang stated by way of an interpreter. “That could be a good factor for HYBE, but in addition a problem as a result of additional growth could also be troublesome.
“That’s the reason the objective was to deal with the US market, the most important music market on the planet, and the remainder of the worldwide market to attempt to enhance our market share and enhance the variety of followers each by way of inner growth and exterior growth.”
By “inner growth,” Bang meant utilizing HYBE’s sources and expertise to create a woman group “fabricated from members who should not Korean or east Asian,” to enchantment to a broader worldwide viewers.
“And externally, by way of this new group we might be capable to have interaction and discover new followers who could not have interaction within the huge consumption that characterised Ok-pop earlier than, however who’re keen to simply accept Ok-pop, or the music of this group, as pop and nonetheless benefit from the music and turn out to be a fan. Dream Academy is the testing of this technique or methodology,” Bang stated.
“I’m nonetheless dedicated to discovering the issues which can be mistaken within the trade, and enhancing this stuff and innovating issues, so that everyone within the music neighborhood and trade can have extra alternatives.”
Bang Si-hyuk, HYBE
Arguably the one most essential acquisition HYBE has made within the US was Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings (now HYBE America), which HYBE bought in its entirety for simply over $1 billion in 2021.
That deal put Braun’s administration purchasers reminiscent of Justin Bieber (however not together with names reminiscent of Ariana Grande) in addition to the Big Machineunderneath the identical umbrella as artists reminiscent of BTS, Seventeen and Enhyphen.
Underneath HYBE possession, Braun has been working to construct a significant new US-headquartered music rights home, notably acquiring Atlanta rap powerhouse Quality Control (aka QC Media Holdings) earlier this 12 months.
Bang made it clear that he sees US growth as crucial, not least as a result of market development in East Asia shouldn’t be what it was.
“It’s true that Ok-pop has seen dramatic development in the US, however in different markets, we aren’t seeing that as a lot,” he stated. “For instance, in southeast Asia, the numbers… are falling. [In] the Japanese market, Ok-pop is rising however the music trade as an entire has not grown up to now 10 years. So we felt that for the continued development of Ok-pop the reply lies in the US…
“After all, I’m not right here simply to pursue the expansion of Ok-pop. Basically, the US is the most important and most essential music market on the planet. And one of many main duties of an organization or enterprise is to develop and proceed to develop. So we’re right here [to] pursue a much bigger market and search for greater and extra alternatives in our quest to, once more, create extra alternatives for the music neighborhood and the music trade as an entire.”
Bang added: “Whatever the success price or failure price of this check [Dream Academy], you’ll proceed to [see us] have interaction in comparable exams with a wide range of budgets and abilities over the following two or three years.”
US and world growth is only one a part of Bang’s plans to construct a self-sustaining firm. One other prong in that technique is a objective for HYBE to not be depending on anyone particular person – be it an artist or an govt – for its success.
“What I anticipate is that – even when a sure IP shouldn’t be profitable, or a undertaking shouldn’t be profitable – that the corporate is steady and sustainable,” Bang stated.
“Plenty of leisure firms are inclined to depend on a single IP loads. So what I anticipate and what I wish to see is that [HYBE] doesn’t depend on only one supervisor or creator and the corporate continues to maintain itself.”
Someplace in there might need been the mildest potential criticism of HYBE’s reliance on BTS, the world’s largest Ok-pop group, presently on hiatus by way of 2025 on account of members’ necessary army service.
“Ok-pop is characterised by essentially the most huge degree of consumption within the historical past of music and pop music. That could be a good factor for HYBE, but in addition a problem as a result of additional growth could also be troublesome.”
Bang Si-hyuk, HYBE
But when there’s any concern there about HYBE’s reliance on BTS, it was largely drowned out by gratitude for the uber-popular boy group – significantly within the wake of all seven BTS members just lately extending their contracts with HYBE past 2025, when present agreements had been set to run out.
“The actual fact we’d like BTS, I feel, is for sure. As a supervisor, as a administration firm, and as a music label, for a corporation like HYBE, for artists with such stature, and nice artists, as BTS to have chosen us once more as their supervisor and as their label is efficacious for our firm and one thing that makes us very, very pleased,” Bang stated.
Nonetheless, Bang’s concern about HYBE placing too lots of its eggs in a single basket goes past BTS – to himself.
“I wish to – if I can – retire in 10 years, not as a result of I’ve no ardour for this work, however truly it’s as a result of… if 10 years later I’m nonetheless operating this firm, and it nonetheless depends on me, then have I, or we as an organization, reached that objective of not counting on a single particular person, a single entrepreneur in attaining sustainability?”
Bang added a clarification: “I’m not asserting my retirement right here… however that is the perfect. The corporate ought to be operating and sustaining itself with out [relying on] any single particular person.”
Requested if his time working with Scooter Braun and HYBE America had highlighted any variations between the music enterprise stateside and in Korea, Bang stated he noticed some “elementary variations” between the 2.
It goes to “the construction of the trade itself,” Bang stated.
“In the US, the artist is actually on the middle and a very powerful factor. The artist is the principle decision-maker and a very powerful decision-maker. The artist will make their choices, after which any earnings or revenues which can be generated from these choices [will be redistributed] within the type of royalt[ies] to the label, or administration or number of service suppliers,” Bang continued.
“Plenty of leisure firms are inclined to depend on a single IP loads. So what I anticipate and what I wish to see is that [HYBE] doesn’t depend on only one supervisor or creator and the corporate continues to maintain itself.”
Bang Si-hyuk, HYBE
“However the trade is essentially totally different in Korea. By way of contracts with the label and administration firms, rights are assured to the artist. However a marked distinction is [that] the artist is a associate to the corporate in making enterprise choices. There may be an understanding that the artist and the corporate [are] working collectively to develop the market.”
Within the Korean music enterprise, “when the choices are made, they’re primarily based not solely on the desire of the artist, however as a enterprise choice… It’s not at all times enterprise [considerations] that drive choices right here in the US.”
All of which brings up an attractive query: Will US-based artists take to the Ok-pop methodology, if it means compromising their imaginative and prescient for a jointly-made “enterprise choice”? Clearly, this is without doubt one of the “exams” that Bang has arrange as a part of his firm’s grand world growth.
It will likely be fascinating, to say the least, to see this check play out.
[ad_2]
[ad_1] Play video content material misSPELLING Tori Spelling is again at it together with her…
Lately, the significance of sustainable residing has turn out to be more and more obvious…
[ad_1] For many years, Giorgio Armani has been eager to maintain a good grip on…
[ad_1] Federal lawmakers are once more taking on laws to drive video-sharing app TikTok to…
[ad_1] Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will not make their massive debut on the Met…
[ad_1] What's the greatest web supplier in Franklin?AT&T Fiber is Franklin’s greatest web service supplier…