{"id":144804,"date":"2025-03-25T18:07:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T22:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/03\/25\/how-hybes-legal-victory-over-newjeans-njz-could-end-up-costing-the-company\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T18:07:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T22:07:58","slug":"how-hybes-legal-victory-over-newjeans-njz-could-end-up-costing-the-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/03\/25\/how-hybes-legal-victory-over-newjeans-njz-could-end-up-costing-the-company\/","title":{"rendered":"How HYBE\u2019s Legal Victory Over NewJeans\/NJZ Could End Up Costing the\u00a0Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tOn Sunday (March 23), two days after a South Korean court ruled that ADOR, an imprint of K-pop giant HYBE, retains the right to manage the groundbreaking girl band NewJeans<\/a>, the five-member act performed its first and possibly only concert in Hong Kong under a new moniker, NJZ<\/a> \u2014 a result of its attempt to break free from the label. After debuting a new song<\/a>, \u201cPit Stop,\u201d the group announced to the sold-out crowd that it was going on hiatus \u201cout of respect for the court\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pronouncement added another twist to a nearly year-long battle between HYBE-owned ADOR and its biggest act, who allege they were mistreated by the label. (ADOR disputes these claims.)<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"2024<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe 25 Best K-Pop Albums of 2024: Staff\u00a0Picks\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tIt\u2019s a fight that could have industry-wide ramifications. The country\u2019s five largest pop music organizations argued at a press conference<\/a> in February that if NewJeans\/NJZ was allowed to break its contract with HYBE\/ADOR, it could \u201cbreak the K-pop industry from the inside,\u201d according to Seoul newspaper Korea JoongAng Daily<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tA separate lawsuit to determine if NewJeans\/NJZ can legally terminate its contract with ADOR begins April 3, but if the court sides with HYBE\/ADOR and the group refuses to make new music, industry insiders wonder whether a legal win would be a pyrrhic victory for HYBE.<\/p>\n

\n\tHYBE\/ADOR and NewJeans\/NJZ declined to comment on the financial impacts of the disagreement. An ADOR spokesperson said only that its exclusive contract with NewJeans\/NJZ is legally binding and called the group\u2019s performance in Hong Kong as NJZ and its \u201cunilateral announcement of a suspension of activities\u201d regrettable. The members of NewJeans\/NJZ filed an objection<\/a> to the court ruling against its independent activities on Monday (March 24).<\/p>\n

\n\tHYBE is the company behind one of the highest-selling K-pop acts of all time, BTS<\/a>. When members of BTS took time away from the group for military service in recent years, the company sought to diversify beyond its tentpole artist with other acts \u2014 often through imprints like ADOR \u2014 and such acquisitions as Scooter Braun<\/strong>\u2019s Ithaca Holdings<\/a>, Atlanta hip-hop label Quality Control<\/a> and Latin music company Exile Music Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NewJeans<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHow NewJeans\u2019 Rebrand as \u2018NJZ\u2019 Ended Up in the Courts \u2014 and Why the K-Pop Industry Is\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tIn its fiscal 2024, HYBE reported its highest revenue-generating year in its nearly 20-year history, having generated revenue of 2.25 trillion Korean won ($1.58 billion). But operating profit, a financial metric that subtracts operating costs like legal fees from a company\u2019s gross profit, fell 38% from the prior fiscal year to 184 billion won ($128.7 million), a decline the company attributed to BTS\u2019 temporary break, a shift in sales mix due to new debuts, and strategic investments in infrastructure and new businesses.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe controversy with ADOR and NewJeans\/NJZ coincided with a steep decline <\/a>in HYBE\u2019s share price in 2024. HYBE stock was priced at 230,500 won ($172.33) on April 19, the day HYBE launched an investigation into whether ex-ADOR CEO Min Hee-Jin<\/strong> \u2014 who is a defendant in the lawsuit \u2014 usurped management of NewJeans\/NJZ. Min was asked to resign, and in the weeks that followed, HYBE accused Min of trying to take ADOR independent and, with it, NewJeans\/NJZ. On Sept. 23, after a YouTube video of the NewJeans\/NJZ members demanding that Min be reinstated went viral, HYBE\u2019s stock price plunged to a 52-week low of 158,000 Korean won ($112), down 31.5% from that April high.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile its share price has rebounded \u2014 on Tuesday (March 25), it was worth 240,000 Korean won ($163.49), 14.5% from a year ago \u2014 the dispute with NewJeans\/NJZ may lead to sunk costs.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs with A&R across the music industry, the model for producing a K-pop supergroup is costly at the outset. It can cost between 1 billion Korean won ($681,000) to 10 billion won ($6.8 million) up front, according to a K-pop executive quoted in Korea JoongAng Daily<\/em><\/a>. K-pop companies first pay off debt, then investors, before paying the artists. If the artists break their contract to go to another agency before ultimately turning a profit, the agency is left holding the bag, the executive told the paper. Bunnies, the official fan club of NewJeans\/NJZ, criticized this statement, saying the group is seeking creative autonomy and a better deal.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"ADOR<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tA Full Timeline of the Feud Between HYBE & Former ADOR CEO Min\u00a0Hee-Jin\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\tNewJeans announced in February it wanted to go by a new name \u2014 NJZ \u2014 and member Pham Ngoc Han, who goes by Hanni, told CNN<\/a> she hoped the new name would help the group turn \u201cthis rough period into something more exciting.\u201d ADOR requested Billboard<\/em> refer to the group as NewJeans, saying, \u201cThe Korean court \u2026 confirm[ed] ADOR\u2019s status as the legitimate exclusive management agency of the NewJeans members and prevent the Artists from entering into advertising contracts independently without ADOR\u2019s approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe five women in the group \u2014 who perform as Minjin, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein and Hanni \u2014 formed NewJeans\/NJZ in 2022, and they now range in age from 18 to 21. Several have said they are concerned the legal battle with ADOR would define their careers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve known from the start that this journey wasn\u2019t going to be easy and even though we accept the court\u2019s ruling and this whole process, we had to speak up to protect the values that we believe in,\u201d the members said at the end of their hour-long headlining performance in Hong Kong on Sunday, adding it\u2019s a decision they \u201cdon\u2019t regret at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday (March 23), two days after a South Korean court ruled that ADOR, an imprint of K-pop giant HYBE, retains the right to manage the groundbreaking girl band NewJeans, the five-member act performed its first and possibly only concert in Hong Kong under a new moniker, NJZ \u2014 a result of its attempt to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}