S.M. Entertainment continues expansion with New Culture Technology

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

(S.M. Entertainment)

Since the first wave of idol stars and groups created the musical and social sensation in the late 1990s that has become today’s K-pop culture, one entertainment company has always stayed a step ahead.

The home of H.O.T, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation and EXO and many more household names, S.M. Entertainment has yet to suffer a major failure -- despite legal battles and public entanglements over artistes’ contracts -- since founder and head producer Lee Soo-man established the company in 1995.

Perhaps that is because S.M. is run under the banner of “CT,” or “culture technology,” a term Lee coined to describe the agency’s strategy. At a media presentation at the SMTOWN Coex Artium in Seoul on Jan. 27, Lee told reporters that the concept was most relevant for S.M.’s “artiste development system.”

In essence, culture technology dictates that the development of artistes is undertaken in a technical and formulaic manner, just as new products are developed at information technology companies.

New and innovative groups are carefully planned and produced, rather than discovered.

In the philosophy of S.M., stars are made, not born.


(S.M. Entertainment)

That central idea will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future: Lee said at last month‘s presentation, “Today, right on this stage, I would like to converge and expand S.M.’s four core culture technologies that we have developed over the past 20 years ... and re-create them into a more advanced New Culture Technology, ‘NCT.’”

According to Lee, NCT combines S.M.’s existing method of creating and producing teams with the element of interaction. In fact, interaction is at the center of the five new projects being undertaken by S.M. Entertainment in 2016, from the collaboration-heavy digital music channel STATION to the mobile app Rookies Entertainment.

When taken into consideration along with S.M.’s history of heavy interest in ways to integrate their entertainment content with IT, the projects seem to signify a move to become a vertically integrated media company. In addition to creating and producing stars, S.M. is well on its way to creating its own mobile platforms for the distribution of its content.

On Feb. 11, S.M. Entertainment announced that Chinese online giant Alibaba bought a 4 percent stake for 35.5 billion won ($28.8 million). Although S.M.’s public relations team leader Jung Sang-hee told The Korea Herald that the move is “mostly symbolic” and does not signify any major changes yet, it is undeniable that fostering a friendly relationship with Alibaba is a step toward breaking into the huge Chinese market through Alibaba’s newly acquired video sharing channel Youku Tudou.


Scandals and lawsuits

It is not yet certain how this new open-door policy focused on interaction with fans will affect daily operations at S.M., notorious for its tight control over its artistes. Over the years, the company has been embroiled in scandals and lawsuits filled with accusations of excessive control and unfair profit sharing.


(S.M. Entertainment)

The most public case was concerning Kim Jae-joong, Park Yoo-chun and Kim Jun-su, three former members of boy band TVXQ, who filed a suit against S.M. in 2009 to suspend their contracts. After a very public battle, the two sides reached an agreement in 2011, freeing the three members to pursue a new career as the trio JYJ -- although they allegedly faced some pushback from S.M. in trying to block their appearances on TV.

The uproar over top boy band TVXQ’s split even led to the passage of the “JYJ Act” in the National Assembly, barring TV networks from keeping musical artists off the air without legitimate reason.

Although other contract woes at the agency have not been as drawn out, they have been several more -- most notably with Chinese members of S.M.’s multinational groups.

Hankyung, a former member of Super Junior, also approached the courts to suspend his contract with S.M. in 2009, citing that the contract was for 13 years and required them to follow overly demanding performance schedules.

Similar complaints came from Kris and Luhan, two Chinese members formerly signed with the group EXO, in 2014, and Tao, another EXO member, in 2015. Those cases are still ongoing.

Despite its troubles with a number of overseas artistes, performing abroad and integrating foreign artistes and fans are central to the S.M. strategy.


Pioneering overseas market


(S.M. Entertainment)

Lee Soo-man began formulating plans to take his artistes abroad in the 1990s, eventually landing boy band H.O.T a solo performance in Beijing in 2000 -- the first Korean musicians to do so. Two years later, starlet BoA made history as the first Korean artist to hit No. 1 on the Japanese Oricon charts. In 2011, a group of S.M. artistes known collectively as SMTOWN held a joint performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

These were the points in S.M.’s history that were chosen to highlight the company’s evolution and growth at the start of the New Culture Technology presentation. Today, S.M. artistes perform all over the world on tours and special promotions, often releasing Japanese-language or Chinese-language songs. All of these efforts represented the company’s march toward Lee’s vision of the ultimate end of hallyu: localization.

Since 2011, Lee has espoused a theory of three stages of hallyu, which he reiterated at the presentation.
“We believe that the final stage is possible from 2016,” he said. “From the first stage where we only exported cultural products of hallyu, we advanced to the second stage, where we expanded the market through cooperating with local companies and artistes. Finally in 2016, S.M. will be able to achieve the third stage, as it establishes joint ventures with local companies, and hands down and transfers its culture technology to the local market.”


(S.M. Entertainment)

The achievement of this third stage will be symbolized by upcoming new boy band NCT, which stands for “Neo Culture Technology.” The group is more accurately described as a brand, with members performing the same songs simultaneously in cities all over the world, creating content localized in the style and language of each region. The group will have no limits to the addition of new members, changing the current paradigm of idol groups.

“Through such musical and cultural attempts, S.M. will achieve the true definition of hallyu localization,” Lee said at last month’s presentation. The Seoul and Tokyo units of NCT are set to debut in the first half of this year, with Chinese units coming in the latter half, followed by groups in Southeast Asia and Latin America -- traditional hallyu strongholds.

Although these groups are designed to provide localized experiences, public relations team leader Jung said that the groups are not meant to be seen on equal footing with other local musical artists, but to be understood as products of hallyu. “The important thing is that they were created through S.M.’s system,” she said, “meaning that they will appeal to fans who like existing S.M. artists.”

Flexing muscles

The idea of an S.M. artiste group with limitless members performing simultaneously all over the world and constantly creating content caused apprehension among some K-pop fans who watched Lee’s presentation as it streamed over YouTube.

“From what I can tell, S.M. seems to be driving hard and fast toward a monopoly on Korean entertainment,” said one commenter using the ID “K-Pop Biased.” Another user identified as “S LOR” wrote, “While watching this, why do I feel like this will cause an apocalypse in the K-pop world with one company having too much control?”


(S.M. Entertainment)

S.M. was the most prolific label of 2015, releasing a total of 22 records, and took home nine trophies at last year’s Mnet Asian Music Awards -- the most by any K-pop agency. Despite losing members -- three Chinese members from EXO, Jessica from Girls’ Generation and Sulli from f(x) -- those flagship groups still emerged as the honorees for top year-end music awards, including Best Album and Best Female Group.

The year 2016 is gearing up to be an even busier year, with 52 tracks scheduled to be released on STATION over the course of the year and existing artistes releasing new albums (SHINee’s Taemin dropped a studio-length solo album on Monday), as well as the introduction of NCT and S.M.’s new electronic dance music label ScreaM, featuring collaborations between S.M. artistes and EDM producers.

Meanwhile, S.M. will continue to expand its celebrity-based merchandise and lifestyle brands: Restaurant SMT opened in Cheongdam-dong last year and a convenience store-style store called SUM Market is rumored to be on the way.

“S.M. has now come of age, and is looking forward to taking another leap,” Lee said at the close of his presentation, with a bold proclamation: “We will accomplish the world’s greatest ‘blooming of culture.’”



By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)
source: kpopkherald

long but interesting!

Comments

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

mte, this line particulary made me cringe:
culture technology dictates that the development of artistes is undertaken in a technical and formulaic manner, just as new products are developed at information technology companies
So he basically sees his artists as products.

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

all idol industries follow that logic, unfortunately. it's not unique to SM, or even Korea

[kaninasan.livejournal.com]

S.M. Entertainment has yet to suffer a major failure

ummmm I guess that depends on how you define "major failure" lol.

I'd think 3/5 of their biggest group leaving and suing them would constitute a major failure. (i mean lbr how huge would TVXQ be today if that hadn't happened and SM had let them develop similar to how Bigbang has).
As well as losing the two chinese members of EXO that were their gateway into China.

not to mention all the acts they've basemented and haven't been heard from in years.

Judging from the dehumanizing way they talk about the artists in this article tells you that those aren't considered failures because it's just ~people being lost not money... (although one could argue that there was money lost since keeping these people from leaving would have made SM more money in the long run).

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

i think TVXQ would still be huge, but on soshis level. SM would never go the bigbang route with their artists.

[lizanka23.livejournal.com]

i agree with your point that kpop will never be as ubiquitous as they want it to be. what usually makes kpop attractive besides the music is the culture that comes along with it, like the aegyo, variety shows, and the supposed flawlessness of the idols, where in the us that would probably be considered boring and weird. it's also disturbing how the companies and ceos market themselves as much as their artists to the fans, so fans start to stan companies. i attribute it to ceos and companies having much of the control over the artists rather than in other places where the artists have some advisors but their image and music is not completely controlled by the ceo, so fans feel that their faves would not be what they are without their company. although there are people that stan disney as a company in the us and elsewhere, so maybe i'm wrong that it is only a kpop thing

[kar0n.livejournal.com]

this article really highlights many of the off-putting characteristics of sm for me. it's really hard for me to like any sm group or their songs (with the exceptions of f(x)'s title songs) simply because they're from sm. nothing against the groups/artists under them, but it's hard to support anything that comes out of sm.

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

i honestly don't have much of a stance on this since project since ofc sm would be the one to try and monopolize the industry, but i don't have that kind of knowledge of it or business in general to give a well-rounded opinion. on the other hand, although i could agree that artists are indeed assets to any company, i'm nhf them treating them as such all the goddamn time. when so many of those 'assets' are 'damaged' and not properly taken care of is when something has to change. they really need an internal overhaul before branching out quite so much because they're actually planning to debut a loooot of people and i don't know how they're gonna handle them all? maybe the abroad branches will be more apt and i can see the kr/jp and chinese units doing fine, but outside of the asian market mmmm i don't know. they have the means to do this stuff, but not the will to do it properly, so i wouldn't be surprised if it backfires/fails like it has done before

i just wish srb would just get a normal debut, they deserve that much. i also refuse to believe the group will actually be called nct until it's writen in bold letters under the mv but i guess that's not really related

[kashchanocchi.livejournal.com]

idk how to make myself sound super eloquent but wow this is honestly scary

I know that the entertainment industry very much implies the dehumanization of people into products but this is just seems so cold.

We all know K-Pop is for the most part very manufactured; but SM just has this image of a scary factory (literally like RV's Dumb Dumb lol). They're explicitly referring to their idols/artists as products and we accept it and willingly buy into their marketing. SM is definitely not the only company, but how there is no sugar coating in their words yet they're still successful.

I'm not sure if their plan will work in the West. Part of what makes Western artists so popular is how independent they seem to be. Never have I heard anyone say, "I love Beyonce, Sony Entertainment really did her well", or, "Wtf why won't Atlantic have Bruno Mars release a new album?". I don't think there's a such thing as "idols" in our Western culture, simply because people would often look down upon the lack of involvement or say the individuals have with their careers. People idolize Western artists by what they bring to the table, not what concept their company gave them.

I'm about to go super deep but this just proves the how sad it is that I'm so invested in stanning certain idols knowing full well that they're pretty much mannequins. I won't deny that there's so much good music coming from SM, and kpop in general, but it's depressing knowing that there's such a corporate, money-driven/greed behind the "cool and trendy" people they sell.

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

I agree with your comment apart from the 'no western idols' because I think Simon Cowell and Disney would beg to differ. There are some differences, of course, but you still get hordes of teenage girls screaming at groups of boys who definitely didn't write their own songs. Simon Cowell's acts aren't always synonymous with him, but Disney acts are definitely considered just that, and though it is definitely not to the same extent as Korean artists and def not SM acts, they are highly manufactured.

The Western/English speaking music industry isn't quite as saturated with them, but I think western idols def exist.

[kashchanocchi.livejournal.com]

You're right lol, I forgot about Disney's own idols and their strong influence aha

A lot of major artists we see have come from Disney but then eventually established an image for themselves. So in a sense yes they do start as idols but then once they break free of their Disney contract that's when we see them use their fame from being an idol into becoming a music entertainer (artist)? Examples such as Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. They're known for their initial fame from Disney but they developed into being famous as an individual without the Disney label behind their work.

You're right, One Direction is an idol group too. Very much manufactured.

I was just really emphasizing how labels themselves have so much more control over a group's image/concept if anything.

[pero, like (from livejournal.com)]

I don't think there's a such thing as "idols" in our Western culture

this is where you're wrong when Rihanna is still out here making music

[kashchanocchi.livejournal.com]

I personally refer to Rihanna as an artist but please go ahead and give me more of your opinion to back up your claim instead of just straight up calling me wrong lol

We all have our own definition of what an makes someone an artist and what makes someone an idol.

Rihanna presents herself much like an individual, she doesn't represent a company and still has an input in her activities. Her management doesn't have complete control over her schedule and she is given the freedom to participate in creating the music she puts out (she's apparently the executive producer of her most recent album).

After reading a few pages on Wikipedia (I don't even really follow Rihanna in general sorry), there are multiple instances where isn't listed as a cowriter or producer for many tracks, but she has very much made her own style for herself that she puts out. She doesn't exactly create the music 100% by herself but she does have control over what sound she wants to promote and include on her album. It's not like her company Def Jam is straight-up giving her a role she has to play within her contract.

The user who replied to me earlier gave me good reasons, and thus I changed my opinion and acknowledged my ignorance

[pero, like (from livejournal.com)]

Well IDK where in Wikipedia you're looking but in every single album i check she is minimally featured in producing/songwriting (including her latest album Anti)
She is an idol because the same way kpop fans stan companies people immediately associate her with Def Jam/Jay-Z's company
(her relationship with Jay Z can also be argued to be a similiar relationship of sponsorships)
When she debuted she promoted herself with an "image": a young, island girl. All of her music videos and songs were given this concept.
Like most idols she then suddenly switched her concept to "bad girl" (which would be the same equivalent of the sexy concept tbh) with gggb
Up until 2012, she promoted her music the same way rookie idols do: single after single after single until she developed enough of a fanbase that she can wait years to release mediocre music that her fans would buy any way

Plus, have you seen her audition clip? It literally looks like something out of PD101

The only difference for Rihanna is that she hardly does fanservice

[lizanka23.livejournal.com]

SM is basically just explicitly saying what the other companies are also doing instead of pretending they're a family, which i can respect. their packaging and marketing of idols is definitely impressive and polished, so it's obvious why SM is so successful. however, even if their idols are products to them, they are still investments, so wouldn't you want to take care of them, so you can get the most out of your investment? if i get into their exploitative mindframe then in this way they're wasting time and money on medical bills, hospital visits, and other things. and tbh i don't know how foreign companies will benefit from collaborating with SM since they use a lot of bought foreign songs and choreographers these days, and maybe they would find their human rights abuses cases in the past too sketchy. weren't kris and luhan's lawsuits a big deal in china? also do they mean that the localized groups will have members from those regions rather than koreans? because that would probably turn off the koreaboo portion of their audience (i still remember that some fans were pissed that exo had chinese members) but i don't know how big of a portion they make up of k-pop fans, so maybe it wouldn't be a big loss, and i wouldn't mind those kinds of fans disappearing

[kyokomurasaki.livejournal.com]

although they allegedly faced some pushback from S.M. in trying to block their appearances on TV.
"allegedly" my ass; they're still blocked from tv and that "JYJ Bill" didn't do shit.

It'll be interesting to see how their localized Kpop project will work to say the least, though with their track record of handling their Chinese members I can't say I have much faith in it actually working. The whole thing just seems like a logistical nightmare and "members can leave whenever they want" is definitely a convenient way to dispose of the ones who give them any pushback. I imagine they'll still sue them for any trainee debt they incurred though if it's not all paid back when they leave... which the model doesn't really seem conducive for the artists to actually make any money.

I will say the one smart thing they did is releasing all these individual collabs with artists from other companies; I really like the idea and I wish YG would do something similar.

[miuratenshi.livejournal.com]

S.M. Entertainment has yet to suffer a major failure

Black beat?
Shinvi?
M.I.L.K?
DB5K Disbanding?