Apart from Big Hit Music, all domestic labels under HYBE are paying HYBE various fees, including music distribution and service fees, which are seen as a form of 'tuition' for nurturing their artists. ADOR, which debuted NewJeans in 2021, paid over 15.7 billion won (11.3M USD) last year, more than five times its internal transaction revenue of 3.1 billion won (2.2M USD). Source Music, home to LE SSERAFIM (debuted in 2022), paid about 11 billion won (7.9M USD) in "tuition," which is roughly three times its internal transaction revenue of 3.5 billion won (2.5M USD).
In contrast, Belift Lab, which debuted ENHYPEN in 2020 and I-LAND's ILLIT earlier this year, paid 14.4 billion won (10.4M USD), which is relatively close to its internal transaction revenue of 9.3 billion won (6.7M USD). While Belift Lab's artists are more recent, it benefits more from its collaboration with HYBE compared to ADOR and Source Music.
The revenue generated by these labels varies. ADOR, in just three years since its founding, recorded sales of 110 billion won (79.4M USD) last year, a significant leap from 18.6 billion won (13.4M USD) the previous year. Despite this rapid growth, including NewJeans surpassing BTS in music revenue within HYBE, ADOR had the highest ratio of internal transaction payments compared to revenue.
Source Music saw its revenue grow sharply to 61.1 billion won (44M USD) last year, up from 22.9 billion won (21.5M USD), but this was still only half of ADOR’s. Nevertheless, HYBE paid more in internal transaction revenue to Source Music (3.5 billion won) compared to ADOR (3.1 billion won), and took less in fees from Source Music (11 billion won) compared to ADOR (15.7 billion won).
Belift Lab, reflecting ENHYPEN's activities in its revenue, recorded 91.3 billion won (65.9M USD) in revenue last year, a substantial increase from 59.9 billion won (43.2M USD) the previous year. Though its performance was behind ADOR's, Belift Lab engaged in more collaborations with HYBE, resulting in higher internal transaction revenue.
An industry insider explained that HYBE recognizes revenue from providing various services to its labels, such as album production and sales, and also pays the costs for using the labels' artists in its projects. Since BTS from Big Hit Music has achieved unparalleled success, dominating the Billboard charts, HYBE appears to pay higher costs for utilizing BTS in its business.
However, some argue that this label structure could hinder the overall growth of the group. Due to the heavy reliance on Big Hit Music, labels that have achieved high performance have received relatively fewer opportunities at the group level.
ADOR's Tuition 15.7B / Internal Revenue 3.1B
Source Music's Tuition 11B / Internal revenue 3.5B
Belift Lab's Tuition 14.4B / Internal revenue 9.3B
1. They need to get tax audited and get all cleaned up
2. What even are these "tuition fees"?
3. Let's get tax audited
4. What is a tuition fee... it's not even a calculated service cost. You can see how f*cked up this company is
5. Wasn't Lee Sooman forced out of this????
6. They are taking so much money from NewJeans just to use it for negative virality against themㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ crazy f*ckers
7. I'm just waiting for the day they get tax audited
8. Just wow
9. Wow they are just getting exposed more and more
10. Insider trading ㅋㅋㅋ ㅋㅋㅋ Even big companies don't do it that blatantly.
