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CJ E&M buying Pledis: evolution of K-pop or...?


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I've read news about CJ E&M acquiring 51% of Pledis Entertainment, so decided to think about it thoroughly. If I made any mistakes or wrote Incorrect information, please feel free to correct me. Thanks.

 

Why do I feel like Pledis is selling not its stakes, but own idols???

 

If I'm not mistaken, since the spring some YouTube channels received copyright strikes from CJ E&M. The funniest thing is, CJ E&M was once sued cos of copyright infringement laugh.pnglaugh.png

 

Stone Music Entertainment belongs to CJ E&M and manages Wanna One. Guess what? Recently W1 fansites received warnings that they have to remove W1 videos due to copyright issues. (btw Stone Music also manages IN2IT, Heize and Minzy, Roy Kim and Eric Nam).

 

Mnet actually belongs to CJ E&M, and they're collaborating with 48 family from Japan for Produce 48. May be that copyright thing was inspired by Japan music industry???

 

CJ E&M also has strategic alliances with AOMG, Hi-Lite Records, B2M Entertainment and may be others, I really don't remember.

 

CJ E&M itself belongs to korean chaebol CJ Group. So we can say that korean chaebols saw that K-pop can be quite profitable, and decided to enter the market. So era of independent companies like SM, YG and JYP is now ending. By saying K-pop i mean idol industry. (K-pop doesn't mean whole korean music market.) Cos CJ E&M was an entertainment company from the start. Yep, in the past CJ E&M had attempts to be participant of K-pop game through its subsidiary Core Conten Media = MBK Entertainment, managing T-ara. But after Produce series, it seems like they had finally found a formula of success. I.O.I., Wanna One are the proof of how effective is said formula.

 

You can read very good written article here, author expressed everything better than me: http://odiegotablog.com/t-and-t/te/is-k-pop-headed-for-a-monopoly-after-all/

 

But CJ Group isn't the only chaebol in korean music market. We have another one here: SK Group. This group once had owned Loen and Melon, but now these companies + Fave Ent. belong to Kakao. Btw Kakao and Naver Corporation represent new model business structures, cos they considered as independent companies, i mean, independent from chaebols.

 

When Loen belonged to SK Group, it was Big Hit's distributor. Now Big Hit (as well as SM and JYP) has a new distributor: iRiver. Btw Big Hit + SM + JYP + SK Telecom together will establish new online music store. (In the past SM+YG+JYP together with KT Corporation (another chaebol) established KT Music / Genie Music and Big 3 consortium still has about 7% stake). And guess what? Yep, SK Telecom belongs to SK Group.

 

It seems like independent companies (Big 2 + Big Hit) are trying to make strategic alliances with SK Group against CJ Group. And I think they're doing right, cos monopoly is the worst thing to happen.

 

But it seems like CJ E&M starts to do the same with smaller companies. If Hi-Lite and AOMG were only strategic partnerships, now Pledis is going to directly belong to CJ E&M. I don't know if CJ E&M already took over other agencies. But I know other agencies were taken over by Kakao M (former Loen): Plan A, Starship, Fave Ent, Cre.Ker Ent.

 

So in conclusion, from now on K-pop game gonna be hella complicated and boring 0u0plz.png

 

+++ But still Big Hit manages to have a good relationship with Mnet and CJ E&M, and it's also smart move. Who knows how the game will change tomorrow??? And btw Big Hit's stake holder Netmarble (private company) once was CJ E&M's division, but now it's independent company. But still CJ E&M owns like 22% of Netmarble.

 

Also now we shouldn't be fighting against Big-3, cos we have bigger danger like chaebols, so in the face of greater danger we must support each other smile.pngsmile.png

 

P.S. I can understand why Big Hit chose LG over Samsung. Once Samsung and CJ Group used to be one company. And at the moment LG Corporation is the 4th largest chaebol in S.Korea, and it's only logical that 4th most influential agency Big Hit made a deal with LG. Btw If we look carefully at BTS endorsements like Smart uniforms, VT Cosmetics or Line (BT21) all of them are independent companies - representers of "new model business", except SK Telecom and LG, but those 2 belong to SK Group and LG Corporation, Big Hit's strategic partners against CJ Group.

 

Sorry for long-as* post, I was just writing a flow of my thoughts and didn't notice how boring my post became. Don't hate me, please ohdearplz.png

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Can someone explain to me why CJ E&M and Loen Entertainment arent considerd to be Big 3 or Big 5? Arent they one of the biggest entertainment companies in Korea?

 

Sent from my Lenovo P2a42 using Tapatalk

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Can someone explain to me why CJ E&M and Loen Entertainment arent considerd to be Big 3 or Big 5? Arent they one of the biggest entertainment companies in Korea?

 

Sent from my Lenovo P2a42 using Tapatalk

 

I think Big 3 isnt only about big entertainment agency or company. But also influential in music industry as whole. Not only in business sector. That is why CJ E&M and Loen Ent arent part of it.

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Can someone explain to me why CJ E&M and Loen Entertainment arent considerd to be Big 3 or Big 5? Arent they one of the biggest entertainment companies in Korea?

 

Sent from my Lenovo P2a42 using Tapatalk

i think the big 3 label is a lot about the companies being known for their influence and impact within kpop. like you have many kpop fans (and some/a lot of the gp depending on the company) waiting for the next groups from sm/yg/jyp because of their previous groups while they don't really care much about the groups from loen/cj e&m or companies they have shares in/partnerships with. 

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CJ took over jellyfish last year, seeing the trend now they are probably aiming for monopoly over the prominent pd101 entertainments.

 

Honestly, for fans, it wont matter much, if any at all. The acquired companies will still likely be independent labels much like Plan A, starship etc. It's mostly all down to profits on the market side. The only downside i see, that is with CJ acquired groups is that it will be very hard to replicate their contents, that includes reaction videos and subbed videos as well. 

 

From how i see it, it will be very hard to stop the oligopoly of the already established big companies, if they have the intention to acquire any upcoming strong competitors. The fact is these companies have the power now over almost all forms of main media, be it broadcasting stations or music streaming. The only way around it is to create a group or groups powerful enough to negotiate with these powerful companies, at the level of lets say BTS, IOI or W1, which is going to be increasingly difficult as these bigger companies try to eat you up before that happens

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Can someone explain to me why CJ E&M and Loen Entertainment arent considerd to be Big 3 or Big 5? Arent they one of the biggest entertainment companies in Korea?

 

Sent from my Lenovo P2a42 using Tapatalk

The big 3 are independent entertainment companies which are the most successful and influential in the kpop industry. CJ E&M and KakaoM(previously known as Loen) are more of businesses that own multiple platforms including their own entertainment companies, but they arent an entertainment company at core. If you want to compare their entertainment company counterpart, stone music entertainment under CJ and Fave entertainment under Loen, those are still pretty much nothing compared to SM, JYP and YG. The company closest to becoming the 'big4' now would be Bighit if that makes sense. 

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Actually I was sad about BigHit going to be public company. But now I'm agree that it is the good decision. That way Big Hit can avoid chabols trying to lay their hands on it. Netmarble went public last year and it was quite successful, so I'm sure that Big Hit also can do well.

 

It seems like going public is the best solution, if even it's not the most perfect one.

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Didn't know about CJ E&M buying Pledis.

Yep, I read this theory about chaebol's aiming to control kpop and to decide who is gonna be allowed to be popular and who isn't, still was interesting to read it again, thank you)

That theorist you linked actually have a lot of interesting thoughts and theories. I remember they wrote while award period that while we all were concerned about who's gonna get daesangs EXO or BTS, they found interesting how mnet pushed Pledis and their artists a lot.

And yeah, Bighit + 2 Big3 is doing their best to survive and remain to be independnt.

I wonder what's about YG though, don't remember clearly about their position in those power games.

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The thing so that it's still not confirmed if cj e &m bought the 51% stake in pledis or not. Plus you also have some that say it's about intellectual property rights and such so right now it's not wise to assume that they did indeed get the 51% share. Just wait a bit until either party confirms what actually happened.

 

Also in case cj e & m do come on board as a shareholder then the artists in pledis stand to benefit from access to better platforms and promotional opportunities.

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wow, this is a good read. thanks for compiling all of these information.

 

I think 'evolution' of Kpop is already begun since the success of IOI. the traditional method is training for years under the company, and then pick the best trainees for debut. this is done internally within the company. and this method require a lot of money for training purposes. 

 

and now, big entertainment company (who own idol agencies, recording company, music distributor and media) will just create a overly hyped idol survival shows. eliminating investment for training, allocating that budget for marketing purposes. we are all aware that Kpop is mostly a trend. so, to make the most profit, contract between 1~3 years is a wise decision. and this is the shady part, since they using their own broadcasting station, the result for survival shows can be arranged. to favor idols from within that big entertainment company (it's agencies under that company). this way, the profit will go back to them. 

 

perhaps in the future, Kpop industry will be monopolize by one Huge entertainment company who own hundreds of idols agencies. 

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Wow! This is very interesting. Thank you so much OP fD4JAZe.png

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I wonder what's about YG though, don't remember clearly about their position in those power games.

they have genie music's stocks already otherhand melon&loen and yg really close. yg's stockholders are naver and tencent(one of world's biggest company and china's biggest). they had too much connections. cj cant touch them tbh.

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I think what CJ E&M plan to do is called backward integration.

They merely plan to secure the "supplies" it needed to produce its products (in their case: entertainment & media contents).

By having their own contents' performers (idols, musicians, actors/actresses, MCs, comedians, models, etc), they can increase their efficiency in producing and distributing the contents as they no longer have to (purely) rely on the planning & actions of their entertainment agencies' partners.

I will be more concerned if they plan to not only acquire majority in Pledis but one or all of the Big 3. Right now just seem that the industry is consolidating from Big 3, bunches of mid-sized agencies, and tons of small ones to maybe Big 5 plus few mid-sized agencies.

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