Is SM Entertainment Finding It Harder To Manage LargeGroups & Artist Desires For More Career Control

[torontok.livejournal.com]

Industry experts are weighing in on the string of idol departures among SM Entertainment groups - the latest being EXO member Luhan filing a lawsuit for contract nullification - and they suggest the agency is facing an uphill battle in handling large groups and artist career demands.

"Analysts say SM is increasingly battling with the challenges of managing groups with large numbers of singers, as well as increasing desire among artists to more actively decide their own career paths," says the Wall Street Journal in a news report about Luhan's lawsuit filing.

The Wall Street Journal report explains that the reason SM and other K-Pop labels create groups with large numbers of members is to allow them to more easily deal with the absence of individuals, such as through illness or mandatory military service for men.

This observation is best exemplified by the case of Super Junior where several members of the original SM male idol group - Kangin, Heechul and Leeteuk - have gone on to complete their mandatory service but were able to rejoin the group afterwards to promote.

But with many among its ranks leaving, there is now doubt on how well SM can manage their large groups, with fans expressing their frustration, calling to give artists more respect and civil rights.
In May, the popular 12-member male idol group EXO lost Kris, the leader of Chinese subgroup EXO-M, after he filed a lawsuit citing health reasons. Now they are down to 10 promoting members with Luhan's departure.
Even SM Entertainment's longstanding groups did not seem to be immune. Girls' Generation parted ways with member Jessica, with the agency claiming that she wanted to leave to focus on her business while she insists she was forced out of the group.

Investors meanwhile have been losing confidence in SM Entertainment as well with the agency's stock reaching a more-than-a-year low following news of Luhan's lawsuit.

source: kpostarz

Bow to iamtheliquorr for that edit

Comments

[tree-star123.livejournal.com]

i love the edits for ludakris

[darlingwendy5.livejournal.com]

I'm putting down a vote for Wu Han Clan

[rey.livejournal.com]

[jayene25.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be pissed with Luhan news eventually gets banned from Omona for being "too Chinese" or whatever. I live for these edits!

[tokyocinema.livejournal.com]

wait what?
is that what happened with all the kris updates?

LMAO THAT EDIT

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

(http://i.imgur.com/aVcgUZb.gif)

[happydirections.livejournal.com]

SCREAMING AT THAT EDIT
that's a netflix series i'd watch.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

OMG that edit! What kind of perfection!?! This EXO drama just keeps on giving! Anyhow SM really need to change how they manage their idols.

Also I'm praying that someone really creates a drama based on SM 'cause so much potential: Backstabbing girl group members, oreo getting it on, exo's quick rise and fall, Sulli dating a big dick, etc.

[msweetie913.livejournal.com]

a kdrama wouldn't do justice to all the dirty juiciness we've gotten out of SM this year

[stoppedclock321.livejournal.com]

That edit, amazing. Though I half-expected it to say 'an omona original'. And...didn't they leave the same way?

As for SM, yes? I mean, think about the logistics of managing all of their artists. They keep debuting new ones and expanding the careers of the ones they have (e.g., solos). Considering that their older groups are still very much active, it must be unbelievably hard to try to coordinate everything between group promotions + touring + individual activities (which is why SJ-M has been so shafted since like 2011).

There's obviously an issue if so many artists have been leaving, I'm definitely not saying SM's doing great or anything. But it's just an interesting thing to think about.

[iamtheliquorr.livejournal.com]

Well, seeing as I'm an omona member, it can be one 😋 (yes, I made it)

[honeebs.livejournal.com]

lol luv it!

[cafetin99.livejournal.com]

Bless the edit!!! Absolutely fabulous!!! ♥

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

Bless that edit

[lovejae23.livejournal.com]

i don't think it's large groups per say (look at dbsk/f(x), if anything it's better to have large groups so if you lose a member it's easier to carry on with promotion) but how they treat foreign artists and just the very basics of how they run their business is shady.
i mean paying people without an itemized deduction? what fucking age do you think you're in sm?

that edit is A++ though i want to see ludakris in a drama together fighting over the same girl until they realized they actually loved each other and then running away

[pbutterlion.livejournal.com]

lmao i actually want to believe that poster is a promo for a real series

[yuzuruhanyu.livejournal.com]

i wonder if this will actually have any effect on sm in the longterm or will they even change anything. It's been 5 years since JYJ and Hangeng, if nothing has changed then, I'm holding a lot of doubt.

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

omg that poster.

[babyonions.livejournal.com]

Here for the edit, damn lol

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

only here for the edit

[oppameansit.livejournal.com]

"Analysts say SM is increasingly battling with the challenges of managing groups with large numbers of singers, as well as increasing desire among artists to more actively decide their own career paths"

this is the smartest observation anyone has made tbh

[springsky.livejournal.com]

LOL

[kaninasan.livejournal.com]

LMAO that edit hahaha

I don't think it's just a problem with the large groups, look at what happened to DBSK. SM is just generally shitty at managing their artists. If a group of theirs has a huge hit SM just stops trying with them and rely on their giant fanbases to give them money (see Sorry Sorry, Gee, Growl).

It also must be so frustrating for the more stablished artists that there's seemingly zero chance for them to branch out into solo careers. It boggles my mind that neither Yunho and especially Changmin have had solo albums, and the fact that Taemin was the first from SHINee to get a solo album is just.... idek. And then there's ofc the alleged abuse of trainees/idols and that foreign idols get treated even worse. It's not surprising at all that their artists keep suing them.

YG is also shitty but what he does seem to realise is that his artists are the assets the company is based on and they should be kept happy. I always wonder if SM had swallowed their pride when it came to JYJ and negotiated a new contract for them, and let them go into a direction more focused on solo activities where the members have more say in what they do. DBSK could have remained as five with a career similar to what Bigbang have rn.

IDK i think that SM needs to evolve if they want to keep their spot as the biggest company in kpop, currently YG has overtaken them bc SM's stocks have fallen so much... SM seems to be stuck in the past and thinking that the company is bigger than their artists, when in reality it's the artists that ARE the company.

Oop sorry for the novel, i guess i have a lot of feelings.

[fullmoon-secret.livejournal.com]

everything you said +10000000

SM don't think their artists have any talents. Rather than picking kids with outstanding talents, SM pick kids who they can mold. To them, these kids will not survive anywhere else if not for SM to groom them, hence explained their entitlement issue.

If you look at SM's favorite, they often share the characteristic of : docile, believe in the company, mediocre talents but works really really hard. (i.e. suho, yunho, leeteuk)

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

idk, i feel like either sm doesn't learn its lessons (very likely) or it's that we just happen to see chinese members leaving because korean ones can't leave even if they want to. like chinese members who leave sm know they'll be more successful in china, but what are korean members gonna do? especially sm holding a grudge on jyj after so many years.

sm stans keep claiming that things have changed since jyj and that the working conditions are better now but i doubt it since we had way too many instances of sm being sued over contract issues - i don't know so much about the discrimination between chinese and korean members cuz i feel like they would've experienced it during the rookies days if they had any and would've decided to flee then - and i'm sure korean members in exo-m could've faced similar discrimination in china etc.
some people's ideas are somewhat xenophobic, claiming that chinese value their comfort over loyalty with others, but like, i don't see how keeping loyalty to your members at the expense of your health is any good. idk, i saw some people claiming that if luhan were really leaving just because of health reasons he would've just retired or pulled sulli rather than break contract with sm and i feel like that's valid. it's kinda shitty to quit your job when you have a contract that's valid and understandable.

overall i think it's sm being shitty + luhan/kris have somewhere else to go and i guess it's up to the audience to decide what's more important, personal success or loyalty.

[turdferguson.livejournal.com]

i don't see how keeping loyalty to your members at the expense of your health is any good.

i agree and this should be plastered on the walls of SM. i'm sure people can "endure" hardships and IV drips but being in SM is also not the end-all/be-all of a person's entertainment career

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

DAT EDIT LMAO!

[rivaille-levi.livejournal.com]

I think its also party because with the expansion of kpop through internet, these artists now know that there are other markets that they can fall back into once they exit the group.

Like, it took Hangeng almost three years before he sued SM. If the internet is bigger back then, he'd probably sue sooner once he realized how big of a fanbase he has in china.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

also every time something like this happens (with kris and with luhan) there's the obligatory "VICTORIA SONG SHE'S OUR HEROINE" wave going around everywhere and i don't know why but it's amusing and uncomfortable. i do wonder why she never left, isn't she like super popular in china? and f(x) has been screwed over more times than exo had.

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

Maybe her leader/mom role is a factor to consider

[overflowers.livejournal.com]

OMG that edit.
SM can't even manage their smaller groups properly, so.... #justiceforfx

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

yaaaaaaas that edit. I'd binge watch the hell out of that series.


I think one problem is the way they treat their foreign idols.

Another problem is imo related to payment (if I'm not mistaken JYJ, Kris, Luhan cited this as a reason for their lawsuit??). And it's not only how much they earn compared to how much the company keeps, but also lack of transparency when it comes to making those payments (I remember reading the statement from Kris' lawyers and it mentioned this: "Upon distribution of profit, they were only shown a document with calculations that SM had made, and were not offered any detailed explanation or documents concerning pay".).

And of course there's also the fact that SM feels the need to control every aspect of the idol's life, disregarding their safety (no security in airports, encouraging sasaeng behaviour), health (overworking, insane schedules on little sleep), and general well-being. So it's not surprising to see that some want to leave.