Create Your Dream K-Pop Company

    Hello, I feel like the title is self-explanatory enough. Basically, if you ran your own K-Pop company, what would it be like? By this, I mean:


    * Funding (I know the Korean government gives you a bit of money if you start your own business, but probably only enough to cover start up costs, how would you pay for monthly costs like paying the bills, food, housing and water for the trainees, employee paychecks and so on? If you had to make budget cuts, what would you cut first?)

    * Mission (what would be your goal as a company?)

    * Rules (what rules and guidelines would you have for your trainees and staff? Why would these rules be in place? What would you do if they were broken?)

    * Size (about how many boy and girl trainees/staff would you have at any given time?)

    * Stand Out Factor (There are more than 2,000 entertainment companies in Korea, what would make yours different and stand out?)

    * Traditions (What traditions would people at your company do/which ones would you start?)


    And anything else you can think about to discuss! Answer as many or as few of my questions as you want in any order you want and in as much detail as you want to. I'll answer my own questions to be fair and in case you are/were curious what my company would be like:


    Funding: I would try to work a second job at night so that money can go towards my company. If that's not enough, I'll see if I have any relatively well-off friends, I could ask for money from and see if they would be willing to help me out. I would hate cutting any expenses to be honest, but if scarifies must be made, it comes out of my personal paycheck first (not anyone else's, only mine), then from the "fun"/tradition budget and then we get into a danger zone budget wise and that is no good.


    Mission: My goal as a company would be to put the artists physical and mental health first and not put them on extreme diets, overwork them to the point of passing out or berate them. I know there are other companies with noble goals, but as discussed repeatedly on this forum, all companies have their pros and cons.


    Rules: I know there are more than just four, but my brain is dead, so I'll probably add more when I think of them. If they are broken once or only a couple times, I'll probably just give a warning, but beyond that, there will probably have to be further consequences.


    *The trainees cannot go on any diet of any kind (whether someone in the company wants to make them or it's their choice) unless they consult the dietitian first, discuss their plan with me (so I know they actually went to see said dietitian and are being honest about it) and stick to what their dietitian told them to do.


    * The staff cannot raise their voice at the trainees without a justifiable reason. If they are feeling irritable and fear they might take it out on the trainees, they can take an hour break (provided they don't abuse the privilege) to calm down and another coach can step in to help until they come back.


    * If there is any conflict in the company (between, two trainees, two staff members or a trainee and a staff member), it must be fully and completely resolved within an hour, or I will step in (or the counselor if I am busy). No bullying will be tolerated. You don't have to love everyone, and small conflicts are normal and expected, but bullying isn't allowed.


    * Trainees are allowed to keep their phones and use them whenever they want as long as it is not disturbing anyone else (while trying to sleep for example) or during practice and you can balance your cell phone use and your training. They can have social media and post on it, as long as they prove they are incredibly responsible with it and keep the account private, just to be safe.


    Size: I would want a small company (at least at first) to save money and so I could be close to everyone. I think eight staff, including myself would be fine (myself, a receptionist, a driver, a dietitian, a counselor/therapist, a vocal coach, a dance coach and a rapping coach). I can always double up and teach English to the trainees if I ever decide doing that would be a good idea. As for trainees, I think somewhere between ten to fifteen trainees (about half girls and half boys) would be ideal. I'd probably branch out my company if it ever gets more popular, but you have to start somewhere.


    Stand Out Factor: Prioritizing the health of my trainees and idols, as well as getting the trainees to have fun and loosen up once in a while. Trainees will also be educated on cultural appropriation and what to do and not do when it comes to other cultures by those who are from that culture.


    Traditions: Decorating Easter eggs once a year, playing Just Dance once a month against each other, playing Kahoot! to help them review English, allowed to wear costumes to practice on Halloween and on Christmas Day, I fly in all their parents and pay for their tickets, so they can perform in front of their families and show off their hard work so far.


    I think that's everything so far. So, how would your dream companies be? Have a great day/night!

    and ghostings method of getting rich?


    sounds like a plan to become rich :pepe-notes:

    * Funding (1/2)

    Early funding

    - Investing rounds would be a good secondary boost but!

    - I would ideally like to have a new soloist or a new group ready to train/make content. Investment is nothing without the bread and butter of the company! Fluff content like practice videos, random twitch lives (ya heard that right imma use twitch instead of vlive), Most of this kind of content is to establish a base of real funding before our first debuted idols. We could even make our own youtube series doing a sort of idol school slice of life kinda thing.

    - Worst comes to worst, I'll take on a huge, low interest loan to generate a starting capitol.

    - Budget cuts would start from myself, but also Budget cut investments are going to be on the list!

    ---- if the budget is trending tighter but not tight yet, there is things like installing motion sensor lights instead of normal switch type, water saving fixtures, solar panels, etc. anything to squeeze a buck out of operating costs.

    - The first thing I might cut from actual content production, however, is likely budgets for props of music videos, and new equipment acquisition.

    ---- Having worked a tech staff position for a highschool tells me that equipment, no matter how outdated, still can go toe to toe with modern stuff. (windows 2000 machine running win 10 without a hitch).

    - A cheeky sort of funding is to buy a couple of vending machines and place them where they are allowed. Who doesn't want some idol keychains or idol branded water?(lmao) a squad of three could drive around and collect the money to be deposited at the bank haha.

    - Once we have some good cashflow I would consider creating an investing department; hiring guys on to grow money via investment.

    - We can also hire out production teams, rent out props and sets, sound stages, producer desks (provided consent with the pd, etc) and we will host tutor classes for dance and singing, granted the company is big enough and can handle it.


    Late stage funding will be rather interesting.

    - Each group/solo will have their own semi-autonomous department acting as a subsidiary. Investors can buy bonds or stock directly from each department, supporting that group/soloist only. Donation boxes will be done in this fashion as well, giving each group their own donation box. Merch sets are standard, specific to each group, etc.

    - The main overarching company will retain all recording rights. All songs, videos and such that are made under the company is copyright to the company and we will collect royalty on that. Choreo, lyrics, melody, backing track etc, fall under composer rights and will be under the ownership of the idols. I want to give them an exit plan. (this bit is inspired by taylor swift lol)


    - I would like to do survival shows as well! This is, hopefully, going to be a fixed version of the produce series. Its a really good show and it was a genuinely good thing. I would like to leverage a different strategy of implementing voting however.

    ---- Crypto( and I can already hear your eyes roll) will be central but not in the way that you think. Ultimately Crypto currency is based off of a decentralized verification. Mostly its used to track how much and where crypto is, but it can be co-opted to count and verify votes as well.

    ---- Corridor digital has this "greenlight" system that they use for viewers to greenlight ideas by pre-subscribing. I would like to do that but with crypto mining in a sense. A proposal website will be erected that shows all the applicants and their application videos. People will download an app on their computer or phone (hopefully computer) and RSVP to participate in voting with their first round of votes stored in their app; the vote for who participates.

    ---------The app works like the Folding @ Home program where you can opt to donate your computer's or phone's off-time or unused time to verify votes and then recieve crypto as a reward. When enough computing power has come online and no one is poised to start a 51% attack, the show will start. Votes will be counted and the first round of crypto distributed to the miner/verifiers. Votes after that will be bought with crypto up to ten votes per day, as part of the ongoing popularity vote like how PD had it. (also one vote free per day)

    ---- Crypto can also be exchanged for merch and merch specific to a certain participant will have a percentage of the proceeds land in that participant's paycheck. (<< if participants weren't part of a company yet, they are considered temp workers and receive a living wage and a bonus dependent on their popularity and a smol other bonus decided by judges. Participants that were in the company already will have that bonus tacked onto their existing bonuses and participants from other companies will be directly cut a check.)



    In this way, the company or any other entity cannot engage in vote rigging whatsoever and crypto can be used as a proper currency; used to buy merch or votes. (votes bought by crypto will actually have that much crypto deleted to prevent inflation) Crypto can be bought from the company for more votes according to a live exchange rate. Crypto cannot be sold for money but is transferrable between users.


    (Likely this survival show will start by consisting mostly of independant participants and trainees from the idol school that the company runs. )


    (One of the 6 idol group spots will be reserved for the outcome group of the survival show. )


    The other thing is that the idol school.

    - The idol school is a small privately run highschool that conforms to the education standards of a proper high school.

    - It is a for profit school that charges tuition but (took this bit from the military) if the idol is assessed to be well on their way to being a proper idol and they don't want to pay tuition, a scholarship can be granted to waive tuition.

    - Food and housing can be waived too, depending on just how well they are doing.

    - Those who gain a spot onto the survival show will be switched on to a living wage plus a bonus but tuition remains for both education and idol training.

    - Those who are hired on as trainees will have their idol training tuition automatically waived and are automatically reviewed if their education tuition can be waived as well, due to academic prowess. A living wage plus a bonus for 90% of earnings from content made under the company name will be given. the ten percent is because the company will set them up with a basic set of equipment to be a youtuber, livestreamer, etc.

    - The school cafeteria will instead consist of something similar to a university cafe where there are multiple restaurants around where it can accept cash or can accept the school's food card based on a meal plan.

    ----There will be a normal cafeteria as well that only accepts the company food card

    ----Idols on a vountary diet can pick up curated meals at the cafeteria, charged automatically to the food card.

    funding 2/2

    The company will also have a subscription service website to watch exclusive content on top of all content ad free.

    - The subscription is pay-per-channel; the price of the subscription is based on the channels you follow, not just a umbrella subscription.

    - Moderation issues will be easily handled; the company will set up a face to face meeting to discuss content violations and stuff moving forward instead of dreaded john cena banhammer.

    - The greenlight system is also implemented here but with subscriptions here. if someone wants to start out a tv show or something the company will fund the first three episodes, the pilot, and the trailers. The pilot and the trailer would be there to get people to subscribe to the show/project and once enough funding has come through subscriptions, the project will fly.

    - Survival show episodes are also available on this platform free with ads, exclusive content from the show will be under the first tier, second tier subscription will allow also opportunities to interact with your favorite participants, and the third tier will allow verified and vetted creators will be allowed access to raw footage, cannot re-release raw footage thou, nda ofc. The access to raw footage will allow third tier subs and fans to create and consume an "alternate" version of the survival show. Tier two subscription sales for the survival show will naturally close at the end of the show's duration. t2 subscribers will be given an option to upgrade to tier three or downgrade to tier one.

    - Creators that exit the online media platform will have the option to exit but the company will reserve the right to continue showing the content under license for an extended period of time. The creator will naturally be able to re-upload content on youtube or smth and will collect a royalty based on the retained license ofc.



    (To build all of this infrastructure, I think that a subsidiary construction company will handle it, using contract funding and bonus funding from company bonds, external contracts, and the aforementioned investment office. )


    TL;DR: the company will start like any normal label company would by debuting an idol, but will lean heavily into an investment parent company, then a development sister company, and then also detach into multiple subsidiary companies based on idol groups. It will then start an idol school to beef up its ranks and build out a good training program and develop a good online personality training platform dependent on the school and the content its students can build out. Last but not least, it will throw a survival show when the opportunity arises to accelerate nugu idols, trainees, and just people into being an idol.


    I would like to take things a step further and create a medical clinic that specializes in health issues that idols specifically run into. It will still be a normal hospital but most of the R&D will be directed towards the welfare of the idols in the company. A small percentage of the annual budget will be invested into the hospital no questions asked. research grants will be given, etc. but ultimately the idea is to have a giant fund to waive the treatment costs of all those attending idols school as well as all staff, and idols.

    The rest


    * Mission

    I would like to grow groups that are invested in their own ideas; if a group of idols came to us with a pitch, we'd hire them on if they could prove a good idea! Ultimately I would like to have idol groups be self-directed in their own production, image, choreo, etc. However, I will let my staff step in if its going to be culturally, socially, or physically problematic.(economically, well that's up for review) I enjoyed seeing stars and idols being recognized for their creative talent and I will hire on tutors and teachers for them. Being an idol also does not get you the free card from proper education. I will make sure they all get up to their high school diplomas. I ultimately would like to have the company be a good foundation for self-directed, confident individuals, rather than a good soldier told what to do. I would let them keep their composition rights, and rights to their brand, and let them buy themselves out if they feel the company is no longer a good fit for them. But mostly this is to create a foundational company that nugu people can use to accelerate out and into their dream career.


    * Rules

    Always have respect for each other. We are all team members on this boat to idolship and albeit some of us are under-deck workers, all of us run the ship. if you have an idea, voice it. If you've suppressed an idea, pay for it. I will not tolerate slander. if there are rumors, and this is late stage enough for the company( being that the company can afford it) I will create a private splinter watchdog company for investigating rumors. Legal action would be the last resort against slander and I will give a chance to drop the libel before I threaten with law. Anyone can be friends, but please do not conspire against our staff or idols. bullying will only be given one warning and after that the company will have nothing do to with you. also your classics: no 18+ magazine shoots, if ya need money just ask, we can figure out financing. etc. DO NOT START FANWARS. YOU ALSO HAVE A DUTY TO TRUTH! DO NOT SPREAD MISINFORMATION!


    * Size

    Each group will have their own subsidiary; they are essentially mini-companies within the overarching company. Idol school and training will be a separate subsidiary. At most, there will be six groups and 4 solos one sunbae and hoobae for bg, gg, co-ed, female solo, male solo. That is the hard max limit. after that its going to be a mess. (11 subsidiaries sounds like a doozy already) Ultimately this company IS compartmentalized. Each subsidiary operates largely independent of the company and of each other but that does not restrict interaction between them. They can be as dependent or as independent as they want on each other and on the company. Idol school and training will be retained as under the direct command of the company. The media subscription service from the idol school will also be managed by the main company. The company, as such will hire and retire independently of each department; each department decides how big they wanna get and whether or not they can afford it. A temporary committee will be erected each time a survival show is going to be held.


    * Stand Out Factor

    I want to be a company that idols feel safe in and can grow out what they want to grow out. I would want to help idols keep safe, healthy, and creative above all. If their ideas didn't work and they cannot make money off of it, I'll leave them on a pension until they can get to a good job or can come up with another good idea. I'm not there to screw over idols. There are exit plans available for the idols. Ultimately I want the company be the supportive parents, rather than the tyrannical child-bearers. I would also like the company that slowed down and did things right. none of that sabotage a group/idol shizz. Defend against falsities, hold accountable actual transgressions, Support the idol, discourage shitty people (idols included), and most of all, find the diamond in the rough. because this is going to be a massive enterprise by the end of it, I'd imaging it'd probably be the first kpop company to build out a whole company town to support the whole operation by the peak of its operation.


    * Traditions (What traditions would people at your company do/which ones would you start?)

    I would like to do a tradition where each debuted idol will get their investment share in their department and the slice of the pie from the main company. Its their home, and as they work harder, their shares will become more valuable. if they sell it then so be it, but giving them shares of the company hopefully lets them know that, we're all in this together and the company from then on will be, even if to a small degree, a product of their hard work.

    Another tradition I would like to instate is that they would do a certain number of community service hours or hold a small job outside the company. Work ethic is key.

    Third but not last, I would make it the signature move of the company to release a celebratory (yes you'll roll your eyes) rewind video each lunar new year. like youtube rewind but the internal company ver.

    Because the third is not last, I would make it a tradition for each and every part of the company from parent to subsidiary to be open and transparent. when fans ask a simple question it should not be hard to respond with the correct answer.

    and fourth was not labelled I think that the kpop company should have a company festival tour. All acts of the company will be displayed in a company only concert! outside artists can apply or be invited on to be included tho.

    Relevant information:


    • Cost of creating a Kpop Music Video = estimated ₩100 million KRW (about $88,200 USD). (source) This is for big company MVs, for groups with lots of members (since separate sets need to be built for each member's individual shots in the MV). So you could reduce this by maybe 40% to ₩60 million KRW (about $50,000 USD) if you have a low-budget MV (outdoor neighbourhood / empty field shoot rather than built sets) or lesser group members.
    • Cost of trainee living expenses and training = estimated ₩30 million KRW (about $27,000 USD) per month. (source)
    • Cost of sending groups to a single music show program = estimated ₩100 million won (approximately $90,000 USD) per month. (source)
    Quote from dizzcity

    Relevant information:


    • Cost of creating a Kpop Music Video = estimated ₩100 million KRW (about $88,200 USD). (source) This is for big company MVs, for groups with lots of members (since separate sets need to be built for each member's individual shots in the MV). So you could reduce this by maybe 40% to ₩60 million KRW (about $50,000 USD) if you have a low-budget MV (outdoor neighbourhood / empty field shoot rather than built sets) or lesser group members.
    • Cost of trainee living expenses and training = estimated ₩30 million KRW (about $27,000 USD) per month. (source)
    • Cost of sending groups to a single music show program = estimated ₩100 million won (approximately $90,000 USD) per month. (source)

    Thank you! This is actually very useful and relevant information. That is simultaneously more and less than I expected the costs to be in all honesty. Have a great day/night!

    Quote from dizzcity

    Cost of creating a Kpop Music Video = estimated ₩100 million KRW (about $88,200 USD). (source) This is for big company MVs, for groups with lots of members (since separate sets need to be built for each member's individual shots in the MV). So you could reduce this by maybe 40% to ₩60 million KRW (about $50,000 USD) if you have a low-budget MV (outdoor neighbourhood / empty field shoot rather than built sets) or lesser group members.

    That's a terrible gamble then! if one were to release an MV on youtube then, for a nugu idol like youra or group like minimani, they'd not even make a thousand bucks back on their MV's despite the 50k investment!


    its an advertisement then....


    conversion source


    not even spotify stream revenue can readily offset MV costs even for big groups! <in the first year>(gg ver)

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