During this digital era of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I do not think the average K-pop artists’ career is financially sustainable. We always hear about the sky-rocketing success and the international impact of the Hallyu Wave; for instance, the K-pop market reached “US$323 million in 2011, a 25.5 percent increase from the previous year” (Kim 2018: 161) - however, when examine how much the artists actually earns, we find the results to be quite shocking. Oh Ingyu and Park Gilsung's value chain chart shows that artists earn the least amount from the K-pop market in comparison to writers, composers, producers, choreographers, MNEs and Google. In addition to taking the smallest cut paycheque, artists do not start generating personal profit until a few years of a well established career. For example, Oh and Park stated that SM Entertainment spent roughly US$3 million in training their solo artist, BoA. Even with a successful debut, she did not receive payment until her debt was paid back (2012: 380). Another example is AOA, who struggled for the first two years in making a scene in the spotlight, took roughly three years from their debut to fully pay off their debt. Producers believe that the low compensation of artists is justified by a large investment paid for initial training (Oh and Park 2012: 380). In addition to taking the smallest cut, K-pop artists are also victims of being overworked with hectic schedules. For example, Girls’ Generation and Kara both had three live shows in different countries that they had to fly back and forth to within a 12 hour period (Oh and Park 2012: 380). Thanks to social media, what “was simply unimaginable during the periods prior to the current period of social media explosion” (Jung 2015: 84) had turned K-pop into both an influential and global phenomenon. With the aid of this technology, such as YouTube, which acts as a tool with both “promotional and distribution functions” (Oh and Park 2012: 372), K-pop has spread internationally at an incredible rate. Social media has aided the artists in diffusing their music through the international boundaries and have simultaneously increased the chances of establishing the careers of K-pop idols in these foreign markets. Technology has also given artists such as G.O from MBLAQ a platform to share his personal experience of the behind the scenes in the entertainment industry. G.O revealed in a video claiming that agencies would keep the breakdown of their pay transparent to the artists and that the rookie idols would be the first to be the targets of these kinds of scams. He also revealed that a well-known K-pop group barely made US$300 a month during their peak year (Koreaboo 2018). Overworking and underpaying our K-pop idols have forced the artists do the unthinkable just to be able to reach financial sustainability. For example, indie artist, Yi Rang sold her music award to pay for her monthly rent. Lawsuits against SM Entertainment over unfair contract agreements from JYJ and Han Geng in 2009 and EXO-M’s Kris in 2014 are just a few examples of artists' voicing their entitled rights against these companies for their unfair work ethics. Overall, I do believe that it is now easier for a K-pop artist to get their music exposed with the perks of social media in this digital age - however, for the average idols, they are still not getting paid the deserving pay cheques they should be getting to have a financially sustainable career. ReferenceJung, Eunyoung. “New Wave Formations: K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave” In Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media, edited by Lee Sangjoon and Abé Mark Nornes. 73-89. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015. Kim, Sukyoung. K-pop Live: Fans, Idols, and Multimedia Performance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018. “MBLAQ’s G.O. Reveals That Most Idols Are Scammed By Their Own Agencies.” Koreaboo. https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/mblaq-go-reveals-idols-scammed-agencies/ (accessed on 10/15/2018). Oh, Ingyu, and Park, Gilsung. “From B2C to B2B: Selling Korean Pop Music in the Age of New Social Media.” The Korea Observer 43, no. 3 (2012): 365-97. AuthorHan Zhang
7 Comments
CedarBough Saeji
10/15/2018 02:57:46 pm
Han, this is -really- nicely done. I feel like after writing this and thinking through these ideas that you've really educated yourself in depth about this sad state of affairs. The only thing I want you to change is to include the (in-text citations) before the . at the end of the sentence.
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Kristy Lin
10/15/2018 11:53:53 pm
I agree with everything you have to say! I also wanted to add that, with the new digital and social media era, new careers are constantly being made and people nowadays can make a living solely by being a social media influencer and celebrity. One of the top Youtuber, PewDiePie, was said to have made $15 million in the year of 2016. I have always been intrigued with the idea of generating income from social media, digital marketing, and everything to do with this new career path surrounding modern technology. I wanted to talk about this in comparison with K-pop artists because I can see many similarities between what they are both doing on platforms like Youtube and other streaming websites, but the K-pop artists are not earning even a fraction of what others can earn by generating views and collaborating with company sponsorships. I think that this happens because all of the social media presence of K-pop idols are controlled by their company. Although I think companies are being more and more lenient with social media usage and content control, the accounts are still being monitored by companies and I'm not sure if idols can even have their individual accounts to earn profit from. There is no doubt that videos about certain idol groups, and with the idol groups in them, can generate lots of views on youtube, which translates into revenue. But a majority of all these earnings are not going to the idols, which is a little sad to think about.
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Aneet
10/16/2018 12:45:20 am
I feel technology has helped to improve financial sustainability for K-pop idols. For example, if there are enough followers on an idol’s Instagram page, they will earn some money off of their posts. In addition, platforms such as YouTube has allowed artists to promote solo work and ventures, such as releasing personal song compositions, choreographies, and music videos. In these cases, the solo idol won’t have to split the earnings with their other members, and if they take part in the work that was done (ex. composing the song, etc.), they will earn more than they would as just an artist solely singing.
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Ariel
10/19/2018 12:58:50 pm
I think that the digital age has definitely helped the companies financially, but for the artists', not so much. The digital age gave artists bigger exposure and gave fans easier access, but because of the contracts that the artists have signed prior to joining the company, artists essentially have no financial freedom and no matter how hard they work, their income is dictated by a small fraction of what the company makes off of their works.
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Clara
10/17/2018 08:53:21 pm
I feel that the rising digital age has provided multiple platforms for artists to share their music and talents. With that, it allows for more audiences to access it.
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Vanessa
10/19/2018 06:34:35 pm
Training debt! I think I've read an article about it and that is actually how artists' salaries work. It's the same concept as student loan. Most artists take 2-5 years to train with the companies paying for them, once they debut, the companies earn back the "loan" by reducing their salaries. I wonder if this is a valid reason for cutting artists' pay, though.
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Aneet
10/20/2018 02:30:40 am
What amazes me is that HyunA has been under Cube Entertainment for longer than their current CEO, and yet it was ultimately this CEO's decision to kick her out of the company. There really does seem to be a huge disparity in treatment between male and female idols. Leave a Reply. |
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