It just hit me how terrible Kpop companies have been with managing solo artists over the years

    If you think your favorite group has been wronged by the company, well first of all you're probably right, think about all the solo artists they've screwed.


    YG - Lee Hi and One

    JYP - Joo, Baek A Yeon, Baek Yerin and Park Jimin also know as 15& duo

    SM - jinho later known as Pentagon's Jinho

    Cube - Roh Ji Hoon


    The most painful fo me in this list is Lee Hi. Amazing debut album, commercial and critical success, had all the chances to become IU level huge, in fact I'd say was for a brief moment and then nothing for 3 years. Came back in 2016, people thought she's done for but, surprise, another success. At this point anyone with half a brain would think for a second: "damn, we put her on hiatus for 3 years and she still came back strong, maybe we need to do more with her" but nothing for another 3 years. Peak YG dumbassery.

  • AllKill VIP

    btw even being in AOMG Lee Hi has that 'YG work ethic' in terms that she doesn't release music often and has long hiatuses


    also do you know you coincidentially listed top 3 of Kpop Star? xD

    Baek a Yeon, Park Jimin, and Lee Hi were top girls!


    also all three of them managed to top charts


    sadly these days it sometimes looks that you first need to debut in a group, then be there for some time and maybe after disbanding or debuting solo during 'group contract being still active' period you can do well

    but that said you still need to be from very big group, and have good song to add to it

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  • AllKill VIP
  • AllKill VIP
    Quote from Dreamer95

    Not true man, she literally cried about being on hiatus. She always wanted to do more.

    ah I never said she wanted to do nothing

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  • AllKill VIP
    Quote from sveznalica

    Not even close. The moment she left YG she had 4 singles out and like... 15 or so features

    yeah I know about feats with rap stars, and guests in Show me the Money because I was watching it :)


    this year there isn't really that much, unless she is currently working on something

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    Quote from bartkun

    yeah I know about feats with rap stars, and guests in Show me the Money because I was watching it :)


    this year there isn't really that much, unless she is currently working on something

    Well she is not kpop idol, she is r&b singer under smaller company. They don't have as many albums as kpop idols, they drop albums/EPs here and there and mostly do collabs. They have different system for themselves. She is kinda doing more than most. AOMG is in good place but they are not idol company so they also operate differently.


    Either way she is definitely much more actove than before, it can't even be compared.

    I think the problem with the solo artists are that they don't sell albums. Even if they do well digitally in Korea, you don't make much money from that in Korea. They are not profitable enough for companies to keep pumping out music. You got to be big enough to sell albums and big enough outside of Korea to hold concert/tours to be profitable.

    Quote from supa

    I think the problem with the solo artists are that they don't sell albums. Even if they do well digitally in Korea, you don't make much money from that in Korea. They are not profitable enough for companies to keep pumping out music. You got to be big enough to sell albums and big enough outside of Korea to hold concert/tours to be profitable.

    That is true, but then why sign solo artists who are not in a successful group when you have no intention to actually help them?

    Digital success is fleeting af in Korea for soloists. People make fun of Sunmi or Chungha for being flops but IU is literally the only soloist that is guaranteed to not flop. And as we can see from countless examples including BTS, Twice, BP, even being a member of the very top tier idol groups is no guarantee of consistent digital success.


    Another problem is, there is no money in digitals. Nowadays, 300M Gaon points is considered bigtime, and that only amounts to 300M Korean won which is like 240k in USD. And this is the cream of the crop. Most songs wont even make top 100 on Gaon, and even the ones that kinda end up in the middle of the Top 100 probably peak at 100M Gaon points if lucky, that's 80k USD, just literal pennies. After paying off expenses for the song, will the singer even see any money from this amount of digital revenue?

    Quote from BlackpinkHouse

    240k in USD.

    But it is a huge money for a soloist. You get the half of it, the other half goes to studio and congrats you're 120k USD rich. Average salary in Korea is 3k, so you get 40 times of that. And money they make from performances, like take Eunbi as an example, her songs aren't necessarily hits but she gets to perfom a lot on various events. That adds up to a pretty good sum.


    Also I don't know if there is something like this in Korea or not, but for example in many middle eastern countries singers' main source of income is performing on rich people's weddings. Also in Russia. Some Russian billionaires even had Hollywood celebrities attend their birthday part for couple of millions.


    So overall, even if it might difer in Korea, what I am trying to say is that celebrities have a lot of income sources, not only the common ones like streams, album sales and tours.

    Not 100% sure but didn't Seo In Guk leave Jellyfish cause he was not allowed to sing? I mean sure, he had joined them as actor but when he released his first album in 2016 he stoped all of a suddon and was just acting and a few years later he had left Jellyfish and started to sing again

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  • AllKill VIP
    Quote from supa

    I think the problem with the solo artists are that they don't sell albums. Even if they do well digitally in Korea, you don't make much money from that in Korea. They are not profitable enough for companies to keep pumping out music. You got to be big enough to sell albums and big enough outside of Korea to hold concert/tours to be profitable.

    Festivals are typically the bread and butter of soloists

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