All about Hybe Corporation, the home of BTS, TXT and Co!

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When Bang Si Hyuk founded Big Hit Entertainment in 2005, he probably never imagined that he would go on to produce one of the most famous boy bands in history. Thanks to BTS, Big Hit is now one of the biggest and most successful entertainment companies in South Korea and Bang Si Hyuk himself is a trillionaire! The label has gone through some changes over the years. Among other things, it is now known as HYBE Corporation. Although HYBE is still primarily known for BTS, it can now count several other popular artists such as TXT, Enhypen and, more recently, Le sserafim to its family.

Entertainment in South Korea has been shaping the history of K-Pop since the 1990s and has significantly influenced the development of the genre. Although Big Hit Entertainment was only founded in 2005, it can compete with the Big 3 - SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment & YG Entertainment - and is now often mentioned in the same breath as these three giants who are known for continuously producing hits. If you're interested in the history of Big Hit Entertainment, you've come to the right place! First, let's get acquainted with the person who started it all:

Bang Si Hyuk - Founder of Big Hit Entertainment

Bang Si Hyuk started working as a composer and songwriter while he was still in college. In the 1990s, when he was 20, he met Park Jinyoung, his age, who would later become known as the founder of JYP Entertainment. The two often wrote songs together. When Park Jinyoung founded his own label in 1997, which was then called “Tae-Hong Planning Corp”, Bang Si Hyuk joined the company as a composer, songwriter and producer. In the same year, the two worked together on the debut album of the boy band g.o.d, which was produced by the label EBM (now SidusHQ). Bang Si Hyuk later arranged other songs from g.o.d. like “One Candle” or “Road”. The boy band became one of the most successful and best-selling K-pop groups of the early 2000s. Ever since her success, Bang Si Hyuk has been known as a “hitmaker”. He produced many more songs over the years for artists like Rain, the Wonder Girls, 2AM and of course BTS. Specifically for his success with BTS, Bang Si Hyuk was awarded the "Best Producer Award" at the Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2016 and the "Songwriter Award" at the Melon Music Awards. He still lives up to his title today!

In 2005, Bang Si Hyuk left JYP to start his own label: Big Hit Entertainment!

The first artist that Big Hit signed was the vocal trio 8Eight, which consists of two male and one female members. The trio debuted in August 2007. A year later, Big Hit Entertainment signed a management deal with JYP Entertainment. From then on, the two labels were jointly responsible for the management of the four-piece ballad group 2AM, which JYP had formed in the show “Hot Blood Men” in early 2008.

In 2010, 2AM's Lee Changmin and 8Eight's Lee Hyun debuted as a project duo called “Homme” under Big Hit Entertainment. That same year, Bang Si Hyuk laid the foundation for his future success by recruiting Kim Namjoon, now known worldwide as the RM of BTS!

But before the boy band took its first steps, Big Hit Entertainment first founded its first-ever girl group “Glam” in 2012. For this, the label collaborated again with another entertainment company : Source Music was founded in 2009 and managed Glam's activities. It was also the first girl group for Source Music.

The group disbanded in 2015 after just three years. The reason for this was a scandal involving one of the members: Dahee. In 2014, it emerged that Dahee, along with a model named Lee Jiyeon, blackmailed actor Lee Byunghun with a compromising video. The two women demanded 5 trillion won - about $4 million - and threatened to release the video if the actor didn't pay. In January 2015, the court sentenced Dahee to one year in prison. However, at Lee Byunghun's request, the sentence was changed to two years probation. On the same day Dahee was sentenced, the other members of Glam ended their contracts with Big Hit and Source Music and the girl group officially disbanded.

Fans believe Glam's messy ending is the reason Big Hit Entertainment didn't debut a new girl group for the next seven years.

2013 - 2019: BTS & TXT take the stage

Two years before the end of Glam, in 2013, the new boy group BTS made its debut. The first songs and albums didn't stay in the charts for long, but BTS still won several newcomer awards at the end of the year. With "Skool Luv Affair", the boy group topped the Korean Gaon Album Charts for the first time in February 2014! From then on, things just kept going uphill. In 2015, BTS won a music show for the first time with the song "I Need U" from the album "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life", and in 2016 the boys sold a million copies of an album (Wings) for the first time! In the following years, BTS also enjoyed international success and is now probably the most famous boy group in the world! At the beginning of their career, BTS attracted attention primarily with profound song lyrics and even today they don't shy away from taboo topics.

Big Hit Entertainment announced plans for a new boy group back in 2017, but it took almost two years before they were put into action. In March 2019, the time had come: the five-member boy group TXT debuted with the album “The Dream Chapter: Star”. Since TXT was Big Hit Entertainment's first new group since BTS' debut six years earlier, fans had high expectations in advance. These were even exceeded! The debut album topped the Korean Gaon Album Charts and the American Billboard World Album Charts. With the title song “Crown”, the boy group also took first place in the Billboard World Digital Songs Charts. No K-pop group before them had achieved this so quickly after their debut!

Coinciding with TXT's debut, there was a change in leadership at Big Hit Entertainment. Yoon Lenzo, who previously served as the label's chief business officer, was named co-CEO alongside Bang Si Hyuk. He focused on the business aspects of the company and Bang Si Hyuk concentrated on the creative processes from then on.

2019 - 2021: Acquisitions & Partnerships

Just a few months later, in mid-2019, Big Hit Entertainment acquired the video game company “Superb” and another label it had previously worked with: Source Music. Around the same time, Big Hit Entertainment also developed Weverse, a Korean app and platform that provides a variety of exclusive digital content and facilitates communication between the label's artists and theirs fans possible. There is also the Weverse Shop, where Big Hit sells fan items and subscriptions for exclusive content on the Weverse platform. The content includes, for example, educational and entertainment videos and updates from the label.

Big Hit's efforts to expand the company had already begun a year earlier. In the second half of 2018, the label formed "Belift Lab" with CJ E&M, an entertainment and mass media company. Belift Lab is a joint agency owned 48% by Big Hit and 52% by CJ E&M. Artists under Belift are thus jointly produced by both companies. In 2020, Belift organized a survival show in which 23 talented trainees competed for a place in a new boy group. The seven winners debuted as Enhypen in December of the same year! Enhypen was able to show success very quickly. For example, the boy group sold more than 310 thousand copies of their debut album "Border: Day One" in just one day. It became the best-selling debut album of the year! Enhypen had thus rightly earned the "Next Leader Award", which they received just two weeks after their debut at "The Fact Music Awards".

In May 2020, Big Hit took over another label: Pledis Entertainment. It continues to operate independently, but its artists - including Seventeen & fromis_9 - have since been supported by Big Hit and increasingly marketed outside of South Korea. Just a month later, Big Hit also acquired KOZ Entertainment, home of rapper, producer and songwriter Zico.

In 2021, Big Hit Entertainment faced a major restructuring. But before that happened, the label acquired almost 18% of YG Plus, a media and advertising agency owned by YG Entertainment. For this, YG’s artists joined the Weverse platform. Big Hit also announced a strategic partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), a Dutch-American multinational music conglomerate. As part of this partnership, the two companies want to work together in the areas of music and technology. One of the biggest goals is to debut a global boy band together. The group is being put together as part of a talent show that is scheduled to air later this year. Big Hit will select and train the talent, while UMG will produce and distribute the music.

2021: Change - Big Hit Entertainment becomes Hybe Corporation

In March 2021, 16 years after Big Hit Entertainment was founded, the label was renamed "Hybe Corporation". The new name makes it clear, among other things, that Big Hit has evolved and now encompasses many more business areas than before.

Hybe Corporation acts as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production company as well as a music publisher. Hybe also has several subsidiaries under its umbrella. In April, the corporation founded a new subsidiary: the Big Hit Music record label. In doing so, Hybe has, so to speak, transferred the label business to the subsidiary. So Big Hit Music is responsible for BTS and TXT.

To make the change really complete, the company also moved: to the newly built headquarters in Yongsan. Yongsan is a district in central Seoul. In June 2021, founder Bang Sihyuk stepped down from his position as CEO to focus more on producing music. However, he is still the chairman of the board of directors.

Even after the restructuring, Hybe took over other companies and formed partnerships. For example, Hybe is working with the Japanese streaming platform “Showroom” to, among other things, improve services in Japan.

2022: The Seraphim

In January of this year, Hybe released a series of comics on the Webtoon platform centered around boy bands BTS, TXT and Enhypen. The BTS comic was viewed more than 15 million times in the first two days!

Just recently, in May 2022, the six-member girl group Le sserarfim made their debut. It is managed by Source Music and is therefore part of the Hybe Corporation. This makes Le sserafim the company's first girl group since Glam disbanded in 2015! There was great anticipation not only because of this, but also because of the members, some of whom were already very familiar to the public. Kim Chaewon and Miyawaki Sakura were previously members of the project group IZ*ONE. IZ*ONE was created in 2018 through the popular survival show “Produce 48” and was extremely successful until it disbanded as planned in 2021. Hundreds of thousands of fans mourned IZ*ONE and eagerly waited for the members to debut again, this time in permanent groups. That's why there was great excitement when Chaewon and Sakura were confirmed as members of Le sserafim. Another member, Huh Yunjin, was also featured on the survival show Produce 48 and had already caught the attention of a lot of K-pop fans there.

Le sserafim debuted with the album “Fearless”. Over 380,000 copies were sold during the pre-order phase and another 175,000 on the day of publication! On May 10, eight days after their debut, the girl group won a music show.

However, the success was marred by a scandal a short time later. Member Kim Garam's former classmates made bullying allegations against the singer. Kim Garam stepped away from all activities and has been on hiatus ever since. Hybe Corporation and Source Music denied the allegations against Garam and stated that she would not leave the group. We can only wait and see what happens next.

Despite the ongoing scandal, Lesserafim is a successful addition to the Hybe family that will continue to grow in the future. Today, thanks largely to the success of BTS, Hybe can compete with the leaders of the entertainment industry. In fact, Hybe Corporation's sales figures exceed those of the Big 3. This is one of the reasons why some K-pop fans even talk about the Big 4 instead of the Big 3: SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment and Hybe Corporation. Others believe that the Hybe Corporation cannot yet keep up with the long history of the Big 3, which began in the early 1990s. But everyone agrees that Hybe is at the top of the Korean music industry and is making a huge impact not just in South Korea but around the world.

Departments & Subsidiaries

It's easy to lose track of Hybe's many stores. That's why we've summarized all of the corporation's departments and subsidiaries for you here. The following list shows how broad Hybe Corporation is. The company has almost built a small empire for itself!

Hybe Corporation is divided into three divisions: Hybe Labels, Hybe Solutions and Hybe Platforms.

Hybe Labels supports all record labels that belong to Hybe Corporation. These are Big Hit Music, Belift Lab, KOZ Entertainment, Pledis Entertainment, Source Music and the label ADOR, founded in 2021. The latter has no artists signed yet, but is preparing for the debut of a girl group in 2022.

Hybe Solutions specializes in video content, learning and games. Two subsidiaries are currently supported by Hybe Solutions: the gaming company Superb and HYBE Edu. HYBE Edu creates educational content to support fans who want to learn the Korean language and learn more about the culture.

Hybe Platforms is the technology department to which the subsidiary “Weverse Company” reports. This takes care of the Weverse Platform, the Weverse Shop and the live streaming platform “V Live”. V Live was founded in 2015 by Naver Corporation and transferred to Weverse Company in March 2022.

In addition to the departments and subsidiaries, there are also the branches Hybe America and Hybe Japan, which take care of Hybe's foreign business. This also includes, for example, the artists' activities in Japan and America.

Social-Media

Hybe Corporation has a YouTube channel where all music videos and other content from its artists are published, as well as a Twitter account with news:

Youtube   //   Twitter

Currently (July 2022) Hybe Corporation has the following artists under contract:

Big Hit Music: BTS, TXT & solo singer Lee Hyun (formerly a member of 8Eight)

Belift Lab: Enhypen

Source Music: Le sserafim

KOZ Entertainment: Zico & Dvwn

Pledis Entertainment: Seventeen, fromis_9, two former members of NU'EST (Baekho & Minhyun), two former members of Pristin (Yehana & Seungyeon), Bumzu and Nana (formerly a member of After School)