Korea's top entertainment company JYP Entertainment has released statistics on the costs of training, debuting, and developing a Kpop group.
It can cost up to 900 million KRW (about 672,000 USD) just to train a new group.
Entertainment companies have to spend a lot of money on training, making music products, investing in image... for a music group.
Accordingly, these figures are based on a hypothetical boy band of 5 members. If each member trained for an average of 3 years, it would cost between 700 million KRW (about 522,000 USD) and 900 million KRW (about 672,000 USD).
Meanwhile, each “reappearance” of a group also costs a lot of money for the management company. Specifically, a mini-album with three songs costs 12 million KRW (about 8,950 USD) to record and 15 million KRW (about 11,200 USD) to produce. Thus, the total cost for just three songs is 27 million KRW (about 20,100 USD). Meanwhile, currently, most mini-albums of Kpop groups are around 5 songs with beats.
For music videos, it also costs around 150 million KRW (about 112,000 USD). However, nowadays, many entertainment companies invest heavily in their artists' music videos. Even with an album, companies also make multiple music videos, increasing the cost.
Not to mention the cost of taking album cover photos costs at least 20 million KRW (14,900 USD). In particular, the cost of marketing and promoting a current group's comeback through TV music shows costs companies 500 million KRW (about 373,000 USD).
This includes: 50 million KRW (37,300 USD) for choreography, 100 million KRW (74,600 USD) for backup dancers, 170 million KRW (127,000 USD) for performance costumes (which artists wear during 6 weeks of promotions and 4 music shows a week), and 10 million KRW (about 7,460 USD) just for stage makeup.
Companies also have to budget for other expenses incurred during the promotion process, estimated at more than 150 million KRW (over 112,000 USD).
Music groups are often trained by entertainment companies for several years before debuting to the public.
Thus, for a 5-member Korean boy band, in addition to 900 million KRW for debut, 197 million KRW for a mini-album and related expenses, 500 million KRW for musical comebacks, the total investment is up to nearly 1.60 billion KRW (about 1.19 million USD).
According to Koreaboo, Kpop is a lucrative and fiercely competitive business. Companies pour money into artists only because they expect to make a “huge” profit.
Idol groups that fail to meet their companies' expectations can end up with debts of more than 1 billion KRW (about 746,000 USD), especially if they sign with a company other than the top 3 largest entertainment companies in Korea.
For idols who have signed contracts, financial issues are always a pressure. Therefore, they are under even more pressure to try to succeed in order to have enough money to pay off their debts.
Source
Comment (0)