Only a K-Pop label would let a potential smash hit die because it didn't 'fit the original plan'

Quote from mysterikmagick

None of this is actually a satisfactory answer. This all just screams "failure to see reality and adapt." Which is the point of my thread.

And you can drop the tired payola angle -- they have literally not even made it available for airplay, which 16+ BTS songs to date have received. (Check allaccess.com, which archives all this info.) This has been confirmed from multiple sources.

A song that isn't even uploaded for official radio use is at a massive disadvantage. Yet To Come never got an impact date but it was available for airplay and managed to chart. And no, you aren't entering some sort of deal with the devil for uploading your song for radio use, ffs.

It's been proven again and again for decades. Radio industry won't play it, so what if they make it available or not. Even stuff like Waste it on me would be played late at night or in the afternoon. Independent labels (HYBE is considered a mirco label) won't get airtime (UMG being the distributor doesn't matter here). Even black artists from the R&B and Hip Hip genre from big 3 labels struggle to get pop radio time in the states. It's a huge problem here. Even established artist like Ed Sheeran are known to pay a ton for payola and playlisting, but somehow people here think Jimin will easily get covered for free by a small foreign kpop label (kpop labels have no power here)? Payola will always cost more for non big 3 labels and indie artist. UMG is just a distributor, it has no incentive to promote a group of a potential rival they have little to no control over.

I dont think most of us realize how small these supposed "Big Three" companies are, let alone your typical mid tier or nugu Kpop label. Some of these nugu and mid tier labels have one Walmart store's worth of employees, Cube had only 79 total employees last i saw, it's tiny. And if Cube is that size, imagine what the other truly nugu labels are like.

This goes for Big 4 too. I saw that SM had 750 total employees including those involved in their non music operations. Their market cap even with the recent huge runup in stock prices still makes them only a small cap company when compared to US corporations. Even huge multinational Hybe only had 1000 employees or so total, but at least Hybe is valued as a mid cap company.

Compare them to a Big 3 label in the US like Warner or UMG...their music divisions alone had over 8000 employees!!

The labels running Weeknd or Gaga are the biggest in the world, and have the most industry connections, leverage, and money, they can do almost anything for their artists that they want to. Get them on any TV show, any music event, cram them into every radio station in the country, whatever they want, they can do. I dont think the Big 4 Kpop labels can do even 10 percent of that in the US.