SM Seeks Further K-Pop Globalization with Latest Acquisition of Indie Label Baljunso

[footballfina.livejournal.com]

Many eyes are on SM Entertainment with its latest business move.

On February 28, the major label is in the spotlight for investing stocks into new indie label Baljunso. The former director of Can Entertainment, Kang Byung Yong, founded Baljunso in 1991. Some of the artists in the indie label include Kim Jong Seo, Jang Hye Jin, Park Sang Min, and Can.

CEO Kang Byung Yong stated on February 26, “Rather than the mainstream K-Pop scene that’s currently lead by idol groups, our main goals at Baljunso is to revive the non-mainstream scene including hip hop and band music.”

He continued, “SM Entertainment, who is leading the Korean Wave, invested shares [into Baljunso] to help globalize the diversity of K-Pop and plans to establish distribution, marketing, and additional business ideas within Korea and abroad with a cooperative relationship with Baljunso.”

“I’m aware that there are talks about how the indie scene is not doing well,” he went on. “We’re going to create a system where indie musicians will not have trouble with music production and promotional activities.”

Meanwhile, Baljunso plans to show the diversity of K-Pop through its “Baljunso Worldwide Promotion” event on March 4 in Hongdae, Seoul. The event will be streamed live through SM’s official channels Genie, Ustream, and YouTube.

Source: soompi

Comments

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

lmfao @ this old guy playing cute.

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

“We’re going to create a system where indie musicians will not have trouble with music production and promotional activities.”

If this is actually what they actually do great.

[e-bone (from livejournal.com)]

SM can't even promote their own artists properly so these indie groups should have no issue continuing on as they were.

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

I just hope they let them keep their creative control.

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

I think you wrote YGE* wrong.

[e-bone (from livejournal.com)]

No ma'am, I did not.

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

i never heard of the label, are there more artists under them bc i don't know thos? :0

[e-bone (from livejournal.com)]

This reminds me of when major US labels started taking interest in punk/indie bands and swallowed all the smaller labels. The really popular bands got the most attention while the not so popular ones got shafted and eventually dropped. It'll be interesting to see how this goes tbh.

[footballfina.livejournal.com]

I think this is awesome, and seeing as how Nell just released a quality as fuck album that continues their long line of fantastic releases, it's obvious SM is letting their sub labels have full creative control.

Diversifying is always good for business so hopefully this means more money for my faves :)))

[countingcr0ws.livejournal.com]

RUIN MORE LIVES, SM. DO IT. actually I guess it'll be like yahoo acquiring tumblr. Like there's still autonomy and erm don't ruin lives of people, sm. You'll make little kiddies cry. :(

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

there you are fotballfina i wondering where you went

[footballfina.livejournal.com]

lol it was my 21st this week and when I came back shit had hit the fan, I don't have time for a rehash of 2009 *sigh*

[elastchik.livejournal.com]

I can't find anything about Baljunso, their website is terrible (I'm so amazed at cultural differences in web design) and it says that they have like 6 bands or something. Also, I thought Kim Jong-seo was part of NH Media (I've just checked and Wikipedia agrees with me)... I'M CONFUSED
But I like the idea. K-pop is really changing these days, it's exciting.

[luvey.livejournal.com]

when it first popped up i checked YT .... http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEVWBQnWMpDPydE_vGN7-1g and listened to a few of the artists.

i'm curious why SMe picked this label. the YT account seems to be started Jun 26, 2013, and the number of subscribers is only 244 - which i guess increased a bit when SM announced it.

while i'm happy SMe is diversifying the artists under their label, i'm really curious as to how/why this particular indie label was picked up.

[luvey.livejournal.com]

i've been saying for a while now that SMe needs to diversify it's musical genre and create more labels....so they bought one instead, overall. it is nice to see them doing so. KPop won't last forever....and it is just a smart move to have others in your stable. maybe even bring some fresh sounds in production to the kpop side. (i'm hoping that this means SMe will let the kids experiment more and more with their own talents and not just focus mostly on the "expert" in house producers/composures.)

now i can hope they will still create a label for Kangta to really work with soloist.

[lainmyownworld.livejournal.com]

will bands be able to actually play their instruments???

[eesor.livejournal.com]

i hope they debut indie bands by this year ;__;

recently, although i'm not sure if yerim can be counted as/and mystic 89 isn't really baljunso, i've been enjoying lim kim's goodbye 20. it's so whimsical and pretty.

please sm release a soloist like iu, or yerim~

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

I don't think this is a big deal? It's not like they bought out Pastel or something, adding some money to produce afew indie acts and getting them airplay is good tbh. If these groups started coming out with Sexy, Free and Single then I'd be alittle worried, though really the indie scene has been struggling somewhat recently imo.

[pumpkinskin.livejournal.com]

lol omg Pastel
what happened to their artists? They use to be everywhere on OSTs.

[pumpkinskin.livejournal.com]

I kinda wish they bought up Fluxus so I could get some Clazziquai x SNSD collab