The two oldest members of Ateez (including their leader) have to enlist next year, then five more of them have to enlist the following year. There’s no way for them to avoid the majority of the group being inactive for a minimum of 2 years. There aren’t even any foreign members who could do solo work while the others are gone.
Last year, Hongjoong (the leader) said that the group had run out of pre-recorded music in the vault. Since the group has already had two comebacks this year, it’s hard to imagine how much more material they would have time to pre-record before next year, as their schedule is packed and they don’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
If KQ is planning to release solo albums, they have to keep in mind that none of the members (even San) have proven that there’s high demand for them as a solo act. KQ has been very OT8 in their promotions thus far, but that comes at the expense of the members having strong individual fandoms who would happily buy anything the member puts out, especially if the member is not even around to promote it.
The only other active group at KQ is xikers. xikers is doing okay—their album sales have been modestly increasing—but their latest album still only sold 364k in the first week. For comparison, Ateez’s last album sold 1,885,712 in its first week. xikers alone clearly can’t make up for Ateez’s album sales, and they’re not really a touring powerhouse either.
KQ also has Sohyang, who has been releasing music, but KQ hasn’t done so much as post an IG story to promote it.
I just don’t see what their plan is to keep the lights on for the 2-3 years that their main moneymaker will be inactive. They’re kind of in a similar position to BigHit in 2019, especially since they’ve also allegedly been preparing for an IPO at some point in the next couple years. BigHit prepared for it by buying a bunch of already successful companies, which I don’t see KQ having the resources to do. What else could they do to keep their revenue from cratering?
submitted by /u/eveningsnewestetoile
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