I saw an article about the stock prices of HYBE, JYP, YG and SM (lowest drop) dropping even though their top artists are still huge globally. It details how these companies are performing and how much they rely on specific artists and IP especially with groups like BTS, BP and STRAY KIDS. I know stock can go up and down due to different factors but a mega group dependence is still worth discussing regardless.
With JYP, Stray kids are the biggest example of this right now. They’re JYP’s top revenue act with their large-scale world tour playing a major role in the companies concert revenue. Twice is also an important established act although there is uncertainty around future activities. Stray Kids and Twice are major established acts while the newer groups are meant to be the next stage of growth. The issue is that newer IP takes many years to reach or even come close to the scale of Stray kids and Twice. That leaves JYP very dependent on their biggest existing groups for now.
With YG, BP is still by far the most important group for the company. They’re a massive global act, and a lot of YG’s results are from them. Babymonster is growing quickly though, especially through performances and sales, while Bigbang and Treasure’s activities are still part of the wider portfolio. You can see how much one group can carry once it gets to BP’s level. Other artists can be doing well, but building another act to contribute at the same level is difficult and can take years.
SM stands out from the other companies, Aespa is still a major IP for the company , But SM has multiple groups that can contribute to it overall rather than having one act carrying a huge percentage of the revenue. This gives them more stability than companies that are heavily tied to one group.
HYBE is the most obvious case of this. Bts were fundamental to the company’s growth and what it eventually became. Since then HYBE is now a much larger multi-label system with a wide range of artists and businesses under it. Even with all that expansion , Bts is still by far the most important IP as they’re still at a scale that is difficult for other groups to replace.
The dynamic can change quite a bit once a group reaches mega status. Bts, Bp, Skz and Twice are huge brands with their own global audience, and huge commercial value. At this point they can have a level of bargaining power that most artists simply don’t and their name and continued involvement are extremely significant to the company itself.
Labels are naturally going to put more investment into newer groups because those are the artists they that need to build an audience/fandoms for. They need to keep diversifying their roster and for publicly traded companies, there are shareholders and investors who expect it to keep growing.
For groups at this level, there’s also the question of whether there could actually be more to gain from having their own independent label for the group or if remaining under a huge label/corporation is still more advantageous. Big labels can offer infrastructure, distribution, marketing, industry connections and access to bigger resources, but these groups have a huge amount visibility and demand. I’d like to think moving to their own independent label would not have a major impact on their popularity and global reach. Their existing brand and name recognition still carry a lot of weight. The question is whether big labels can still offer enough additional value to make staying worth it when the group has reached a level where they can generate that kind of demand on their own.
I’m not saying these groups have to leave their labels, and I know some are happy where they are now. I also know there are pros and cons to having your own independent label too. I’m more interested in the hypothetical of what would happen if a group at this level would make that move. Will it change much in terms of popularity, reach, profits over the long-term. Can big labels still offer these groups enough value that they can’t realistically get on their own and if that advantage gets smaller when the group is this big.
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