Blackpink member Jisoo. Photo Credit: HeyDay
Following reports of rocky contract-renewal negotiations with several members of Blackpink, YG Entertainment has officially signed the K-pop girl group to a new deal.
YG Entertainment, which also serves as the professional home of Winner and Sechs Kies, just recently announced the extended agreement with its most popular act. As of September, with solo releases from individuals behind other prominent K-pop groups continuing to break records, three of Blackpink’s four members had reportedly declined a new contract in favor of setting out on their own.
But earnest discussions and presumably lucrative terms were evidently enough to get these artists, whose “Kill This Love” music video has cracked 1.9 billion YouTube views, to change their tune. Additionally, regional reports have indicated that talks are ongoing as to the solo careers of Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa, and Auckland-born Rosé, who’s poised to drop a holiday-themed photo and gift set on Friday.
(Notably, these members have thus far gone ahead and released their solo efforts, most recently Jennie’s “You & Me,” via Blackpink’s YouTube account – undoubtedly spurring major commercial boosts out of the gate.)
In any event, YG has “signed an exclusive contract for the group’s activities based on deep trust,” the business drove home in a statement. And while the exact details of the pact haven’t been publicly revealed, YG Entertainment stock (KRX: 122870) has turned in a double-digit spike since word of the deal broke.
When trading wrapped today, YG shares were worth ₩60,300 (currently $45.89) apiece – up nearly 26 percent from an opening value of ₩48,000 ($36.53) per share but still down substantially from the 52-week high of ₩97,000 ($73.82) that the stock price briefly touched over the summer.
Predictably, given the many billions of streams and dollars attributable to K-pop diehards, YG Entertainment is hardly alone in working to expand its market presence.
On the heels of a years-long selection and training process for members, BTS agency Hybe and Universal Music formally debuted a U.S.-based girl group called Katseye last month. November also brought the launch of self-described “K-pop powerhouse” Titan Content, which former SM Entertainment CEO Nikki Semin Han founded.
Though 2023 has further seen Hybe successfully re-sign BTS and Kakao Entertainment score a partnership, focusing initially on girl group Ive, with Sony Music, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for key K-pop players.
It was only following a rather public dispute that Exo and SM (the latter of which began the year by fending off a takeover attempt from Hybe) appeared to put a contract-related disagreement in the rearview.
Meanwhile, about six weeks after scoring a multimillion-dollar investment and teasing a new girl group, Attrakt in October said it’d terminated the contracts of the three Fifty Fifty members (of four total) who’d allegedly “slandered and defamed the agency.”
