HYBE’s Bang Si-Hyuk on BTS, K-Pop’s Future, AI Music and More – Billboard

In March, as he weighed a takeover of certainly one of his firm’s largest rivals, SM Leisure, Bang Si-hyuk determined he may use some privateness.

So to assemble his ideas, HYBE’s 50-year-old founding chairman shut himself in at his home in Seoul, stopped taking calls from mates outdoors his inside circle and made a cautious listing: all the professionals and cons of constructing a possible transfer he lengthy dreamed of that might convey the world’s hottest boy band, BTS, underneath the identical roof as dozens of Korea’s largest artists resembling NCT DREAM, SuperM and aespa.

“After a number of days of being alone, taking inventory of all the things, I reached out to my mentors that I normally search recommendation from — and to be sincere, they opposed the concept,” Bang remembers on a current Friday in his Seoul workplace, a modest area outfitted with a guitar, a whiteboard and a single window, tucked amid a maze of recording studios. After listening to these issues, he says, he recalculated that pros-and-cons listing, however nonetheless pressed forward. “I personally have a tendency to not connect an excessive amount of emotion to enterprise affairs,” he continues, “however there was fairly a little bit of backlash coming from inside our firm, in order that was the tougher half for me.”

The chance had come about in February, whereas Bang was in Los Angeles finalizing a really totally different blockbuster deal — the acquisition of Atlanta hip-hop label and administration agency High quality Management for $300 million. Working on little sleep as he labored throughout two time zones, assembly together with his new U.S. companions by day and speaking with colleagues in Korea at night time, it was amid all this frenzy that SM’s ousted founder and famed document producer, Lee Soo-man, stunned Bang with a proposal to promote HYBE most of his 15% stake in SM, spurring Bang and his board to just accept and pledge they might purchase one other 25% of SM to grow to be its largest shareholder. However HYBE finally deserted its takeover bid after Korean web big Kakao made its personal, a lot richer provide. Now, Kakao controls SM as a substitute.

Weeks later, casually clad in a black T-shirt and his signature spectacles, sipping chilly corn-silk tea, Bang exudes exceptional calm — particularly for a multibillionaire who has simply retreated from a high-stakes company battle that leaves SM a way more threatening competitor and one with equally bold plans to increase in the USA and past. “At this level, I’m fairly glad with the consequence,” he says.

Partially, that’s as a result of HYBE will now pocket round $87 million in revenue from the sale of its SM shares it purchased in February. However Bang additionally notes that his mentors (whom, per Asian custom, he declines to call) had warned him about making such an costly guess in a interval of financial volatility — and as Silicon Valley Financial institution collapsed the day after HYBE withdrew its bid for SM, he felt assured that they had been proper.

Welcome to the action-packed lifetime of the person who’s reshaping the music enterprise one megadeal at a time. Whether or not forging alliances with world document labels and administration giants or looking for gaming and expertise firms that can assist HYBE higher monetize the eagerness of its artists’ followers, the concept is to develop past Ok-pop, which is, as some see it, in disaster.

Regardless of the swelling cultural affect of Ok-pop’s multiplying stars, Korea’s Ok-pop exports have really been declining since 2020. There was 53% much less Ok-pop on the Billboard Sizzling 100 in 2022 than 2021, and Ok-pop consumption is inexplicably shrinking in Southeast Asia, tendencies that “are alarming for these on the entrance line,” Bang lamented in a March speech at a Seoul convention that outlined a three-pronged plan to strengthen Ok-pop’s future. (The first step: develop Ok-pop’s world affect by buying international firms like High quality Management. Step two: construction operations that may “constantly produce superstars.” Step three: increase platforms to monetize fan-artist interplay like HYBE’s Weverse, an app that’s now introducing an array of recent options together with direct messaging, particular badges to reward fan exercise and a digital forex referred to as Jelly.) “I believe it’s time for us to have a way of urgency,” he mentioned.

Bang based Huge Hit Leisure as an company in 2005 and engineered the debut of BTS a decade in the past, assembling the band, writing and producing its music, and overseeing all the things from its advertising to social media content material, although success got here slowly. Decided to interrupt the act within the U.S. market after struggling to take action in Korea, he introduced the band to the 2017 Billboard Music Awards to just accept the High Social Artist award and was touring stadiums world wide with it quickly after, serving to the band crank out half a dozen No. 1 hits on the Sizzling 100 earlier than the members introduced their hiatus as a gaggle final yr so they might full their obligatory navy service. However he has solely not too long ago grow to be a well-known face within the U.S. music enterprise himself: He had only a handful of Zoom calls with Scooter Braun earlier than shopping for his Ithaca Holdings for over $1 billion in 2021, pushing Braun’s internet price above $1 billion as effectively, in keeping with Billboard’s calculations.

“His imaginative and prescient modified my life,” says Braun. (Braun had already offered Taylor Swift’s catalog to Shamrock Capital for a $265 million revenue after shopping for it at a $140 million valuation as a part of his $330 million Huge Machine Label Group acquisition in July 2019. By the point Braun offered Ithaca to HYBE, the value of grasp recordings had ballooned, because of the preliminary public choices of Warner Music Group in 2020 and Common Music Group in 2021, in addition to Tencent Music Leisure’s funding in UMG, netting Braun near $400 million in revenue on the remainder of Huge Machine.) After the deal closed, on Braun’s first go to to Seoul, he purchased Bang and your complete senior government crew Panerai watches, the identical mannequin he purchased for his personal crew within the fanciest watch store he may discover in Atlanta’s Lennox Mall twenty years in the past to have fun the primary hit by his then-client Asher Roth. Folks “assume I’m going to take a look at at any second, however I’m working my butt off due to that man,” Braun continues. “I imagine he’s going to discover a method to construct one thing actually spectacular.”

In 2021, HYBE introduced a strategic world partnership with UMG, splitting with Sony’s Columbia Data (which had launched BTS’ six No. 1s) after UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge and Interscope Geffen A&M chairman/CEO John Janick had gotten to know Bang by their very own common Zoom conferences over the course of the pandemic. HYBE and Geffen introduced auditions for a U.S.-based group to be modeled on Ok-pop’s coaching and growth system and developed by UMG’s Geffen Data (initially deliberate as a boy band however now in growth as a lady group), and UMG mentioned it could discover enhanced direct-to-fan communication for its artists by HYBE’s Weverse platform.

However for all his enterprise savvy, Bang stays a artistic at coronary heart and nonetheless writes and produces: He’s at present out and in of the studio engaged on new tracks and visuals for ENHYPHEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and &Staff.

When High quality Management’s founders, Kevin “Coach Ok” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas, first met Bang for dinner at his residence in Los Angeles, they mentioned the method of placing collectively Lil Yachty’s Let’s Begin Right here with out utilizing a single pattern. “He was actually intrigued by the manufacturing — he knew it, he’d checked it out. He’s a producer,” remembers Lee, who’s getting ready with Thomas to make their first go to to Korea in Could (he has already mastered “good day” in Korean) and preserving in contact with Bang within the meantime on a HYBE-QC WhatsApp group chat. Thomas was taken with Bang’s joyful vitality and notes that “he knew loads about our tradition and our artists — he had accomplished his homework.”

Nile Rodgers, who labored with Bang to provide LE SSERAFIM’s first studio album, says that whereas Bang is acknowledged all around the world because the mastermind behind HYBE and BTS, “what many individuals don’t notice is that he’s a tremendous guitarist and songwriter. The best way he used Morricone’s The Good, The Dangerous and The Ugly theme in our collaboration on LE SSERAFIM’s new single ‘Unforgiven’ demonstrates his musical genius.”

And whereas it’s arduous to completely keep away from the grind that comes with worldwide deal-making, Bang avoids sticking to the kind of schedule a typical document firm chairman would possibly preserve.

“Many individuals say that routines may help you be extra productive, however I get pleasure from enjoyable [and being] as lazy as I can — I really feel like having a set routine on prime of an already busy schedule will take away my time to goof off,” Bang says, noting that his perfect model of laziness entails studying books and comics and swimming when he’s in Los Angeles. “At instances, I fall asleep after I get sleepy.”

From his workplace constructing, whose ethereal rooftop cafeteria overlooks Seoul’s Han River and the sprawling metropolis past it bursting with cherry blossoms, Bang talks at size by a translator (he speaks English to American colleagues with whom he feels comfy, however prefers giving interviews in Korean) about the way forward for Ok-pop and his imaginative and prescient for world domination.

Korea’s music exports to Southeast Asia — certainly one of Ok-pop’s most important markets — dropped 30% in 2022, and in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, Ok-pop’s share on Spotify’s charts fell 28%. Why is Ok-pop’s progress slowing?

The truth that BTS is at present not energetic has an influence. Once you take a look at the surveys concerning consciousness, if you evaluate Ok-pop’s penetration and BTS’ penetration within the world market, BTS tends to have extra penetration than Ok-pop itself. However in relation to the sluggish progress of Ok-pop within the Southeast Asian market, I believe there should be a selected purpose. Maybe there was a small change of their preferences by way of popular culture consumption, or possibly they’re now seeing different cultural content material. Our firm shouldn’t be so certain now. We’re doing energetic analysis into it.

Now that you simply’ve planted your flag in hip-hop with the acquisition of High quality Management, you’ve mentioned you’re centered on discovering companions within the Latin music enterprise. How is that going?

We’ve been assembly with many firms and founders since final yr. And we might want to discover methods to adapt to make boy teams or woman teams work in these markets.

So if you purchase firms that work in different genres, the concept is to use the Korean mannequin to create boy bands and woman teams in these genres?

We don’t plan to essentially apply the pop methodology to these totally different genres. What we try to do is make the most of HYBE’s operation methods in addition to expertise and purchase the highest labels in every style. We’re in search of a synergistic impact. By doing so we search to enhance and improve our presence within the U.S. market. I’m not saying that we plan to create a rustic music boy group — that’s not what we’re in search of proper now. However in pop and Latin music, demand has been already confirmed for boy bands and woman teams. We’re attempting to use the expertise we gained within the Ok-pop business and comply with the native fundamental guidelines of these markets.

Are you able to replicate the worldwide success of BTS, on condition that no different Ok-pop act has come shut up to now?

In case your query is about the potential of creating an artist like BTS once more, the reply is not any. Nevertheless, in case you had been to ask whether or not there can be a Ok-pop artist from HYBE that tops the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart, my reply can be sure. [Jimin became the first BTS member to achieve this as a solo act on April 3 when his single “Like Crazy” debuted at No. 1.] The expertise of managing BTS and working totally different labels gave us entry to highly effective networks, infrastructures and experiences. With these, HYBE can repeat its exceptional outcomes with the assistance of gifted artists.

What different belongings are you looking for?

Our precedence is buying labels that lead of their style and administration firms which have contracts with prime artists based mostly on a stable, reliable relationship. As for the gaming enterprise, we’re prioritizing enticing [intellectual property], enterprise scale and growth capability. As we glance towards metaverse and platform companies, we plan to accumulate extra hidden champions in expertise.

How do you see Ok-pop creating outdoors of the normal boy bands and woman teams which can be at present hottest with U.S. audiences?

Ok-pop’s uniqueness and power is in these multimember, single-gender teams. On condition that, HYBE is primarily specializing in leveraging its amassed experience in managing and producing acts that include a number of members, relatively than solo artists or mixed-gender teams in Ok-pop.

For years, boy bands dominated in gross sales, however now many woman teams appear to be having extra success. Are you able to clarify what’s driving this shift — and whether or not the pendulum will swing again?

I believe the success of woman teams is said to the zeitgeist. When you even take a look at the North American market, there was noticeable success achieved by feminine artists in pop and hip-hop. With the strengthening of the girls-support-girls tradition, feminine followers’ assist for feminine artists is rising quick. HYBE has been locking steps with the pattern by buying SOURCE MUSIC three years in the past and launching a brand new label, ADOR. In consequence, we’re proud and completely happy to have launched excellent woman teams resembling LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans.

We must control the state of affairs as as to whether woman teams will ever surpass boy teams by way of income. I’d like to see woman teams producing as a lot income as boy teams. The streak of success of woman teams simply opened its first chapter, and they’re but to generate income that’s similar to these of the boy teams. And there’s no particular correlation between artists gaining reputation and fandoms’ willingness to spend cash.

Ok-pop’s followers are enthusiastic about buying merchandise and bodily albums. Why doesn’t that enthusiasm present itself to the identical diploma on streaming platforms?

I are not looking for consumption patterns rearranged round streaming platforms. Ok-pop artists have created a simpler income mannequin. I hope to proceed our present progress whereas increasing our share on streaming platforms, however we don’t have to create a devoted technique from the enterprise standpoint. NewJeans broke into the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart with none offline promotion actions in North America, and LE SSERAFIM is rising its viewers on Spotify at an astonishing price.

Do you assume you possibly can construct fan armies as organized and devoted as Ok-pop’s for artists in different international locations and genres?

I imagine that firms and artists can domesticate a big fan base by responding to the wants of the followers, however they can’t arrange or form the fandom.

In a current speech in Seoul, you mentioned that “Ok-pop is sort of a David in entrance of three main firms that resemble Goliaths within the world market,” and that to extend Ok-pop’s bargaining energy towards these world distributors, “we have to attain a sure stage of scale.” Do you see the foremost document firms extra as opponents than companions?

I by no means thought these firms had been our opponents. I solely view them as companions. I’m not saying this simply because Lucian would possibly learn my reply. (Laughs.) Having extra market share is definitely not that significant to me. Gaining extra market share would require buying extra labels and incurring quite a lot of operation prices as effectively. With a view to pay for that, the corporate would possibly have to decelerate on different components of the enterprise, and they’ll require simply an excessive amount of effort and time to take action. That’s not what we’re going for. Our firm is a music-based life-style platform firm. By making use of the expertise and methods and expertise from our Ok-pop enterprise, we wish to improve the dimensions and the affect of our firm within the world market. It could be an exaggeration for me to say that we don’t care in any respect about our share of the worldwide music market, however that’s not the crucial matter.

The quantity of music being uploaded to streaming providers is rising exponentially, which squeezes everybody’s market share. Does that concern you?

As of now, after I take into consideration our firm’s place, we don’t really feel threatened by the rise within the quantity of music or the variety of suppliers or producers. Ok-pop’s market dimension is so small that we nonetheless have room for progress. We’re extra able of the challenger available in the market. Media is changing into very personalised, and there’s a better range in individuals’s tastes. So it’s unlikely that the marketplace for Ok-pop will shrink due to a rise within the quantity of music.

You additionally mentioned that extra negotiating energy may get you higher distribution offers, “which is able to assist enhance the corporate’s monetary efficiency and allow the corporate and our artists to develop.” Why not simply distribute your individual content material?

My perception is that it’s higher to have consultants do what they’re actually good at after which pay the royalties. The three main firms are already doing rather well in what they’re doing. Reasonably than doing it ourselves, it could be significantly better for us to enhance our bargaining energy with them after which lower [the cut we pay them for distribution]. That’s extra worthwhile and higher for us.

Your organization is rising very quick. What’s that like after having run such a tight-knit operation for thus lengthy?

Fast progress is a blessing, but it comes with nice dilemmas. The second a quickly rising firm sees sluggish progress, it has extra influence than it could at a typical firm. The expansion price must be versatile in keeping with the modifications within the atmosphere, however quickly rising firms would not have the freedom of adjusting.

From an worker’s perspective, speedy progress of an organization might influence their high quality of lives. Working at HYBE is like being on the again of a flying rocket, or as we are saying it in Korean, “getting on the again of a working tiger.” So long as the workers endure the velocity, they may develop with the corporate. But when the velocity and alter grow to be overwhelming, they may fall off. Everyone seems to be determined to remain up to the mark. This will typically trigger ache to some staff.

From a company tradition perspective, the speedy inflow of recent staff makes it very tough to keep up ­HYBE’s tradition. HYBE continues to make an effort to carry and share a set of values which can be comparatively well-organized and practical. Regardless of these efforts, it isn’t at all times straightforward to maintain everybody underneath an umbrella of homogeneous values when the workforce doubles virtually yearly. Particularly in the course of the pandemic, it was painful for me to look at our company tradition break down since there was so little face-to-face interactions and we needed to work nearly.

Now that issues have normalized to a sure extent, it’s time to start out trying ahead. We want to revamp our company tradition to satisfy our present wants, making staff’ lives extra fulfilling. The rationale that HYBE’s company tradition has saved its homogeneous worth is as a result of it’s based mostly on widespread human values. We imagine when gifted people who find themselves keen about their work collaborate freely in a accountable method, their shared perception will permit each the corporate and the workers to attain mutual progress.

You speak loads concerning the significance of the “resolution” enterprise, which refers to what we all know in the USA as 360 offers, agreements that give document labels a stake in all of an artist’s income streams. Will you have the ability to strike these forms of offers as you increase past Ok-pop?

I believe in markets like Japan, the place there’s already a longtime system for resolution enterprise, we’re going to velocity up and speed up our resolution enterprise. Nevertheless, in markets like the USA, we might should take a unique strategy.

Some catalog patrons are actually securitizing the rights to the music they personal in order that followers can spend money on their favourite songs and artists. Is that one thing you’ll provide in your Weverse platform?

I used to consider catalogs as belongings — they’re similar to promoting or shopping for bonds — so I used to be not desirous about that in any respect. And contemplating the excessive volatility within the financial state of affairs, the values of catalogs as belongings are literally lowering. Nevertheless, catalogs may very well be actually highly effective securitized merchandise for HYBE. After all we’re desirous about that type of enterprise. We’re contemplating some methods to go about that. However underneath securities regulation, there’s nothing extra I can share now.

How are you getting ready HYBE for the rise of generative synthetic intelligence?

I’ve lengthy doubted that the entities that create and produce music will stay human. I don’t understand how lengthy human artists might be the one ones to fulfill human wants and human tastes. And that’s changing into a key issue for my operation and a method for HYBE. We had been capable of purchase an organization, Supertone, that may clone voice utterly. Not simply tone, but in addition intonation. So for instance, we are able to document your voice after which put or apply Angelina Jolie’s intonation or her speech and make it into a totally totally different voice. And this expertise can even replicate the character of an individual, in any language. You can also make the voice older or youthful. At present we’re working some small-scale initiatives with this firm, and certainly one of them is scheduled to be revealed and rolled out in Could. Inside our firm we name it Venture L. It’s nonetheless within the pilot stage.

Are you fearful that folks may use that type of expertise to mimic the voices of BTS members for revenue?

After all, however that doesn’t preserve us from pursuing it. I imagine laws and establishments should be put in place and social consensus [around AI] must be made as quickly as doable. Not too long ago, Hollywood’s Writers Guild of America drafted a doc to deal with AI writing scripts. Reasonably than preserving AI from writing scripts or not utilizing AI, I imagine it’s a extra acceptable to reply to such change in society.

What’s your working relationship like with Scooter Braun?

We convey quite a lot of private intimacy, belief and empathy to work. There are in fact disagreements typically, however our shared basic beliefs permit us to maneuver towards our widespread targets. Scooter, as everyone knows, is extraordinarily agile at work. I, then again, are typically extra cautious, considering deeply to search out the optimum resolution. I imagine this distinction permits us to attain the absolute best final result for the corporate with the assistance of trusted staff.

The very best factor about Scooter and I working collectively is that we don’t want quite a lot of phrases to explain our mutual belief. Regardless that he and I’ve constructed our careers on totally different continents, our visions for the long run, our attitudes towards artists and our philosophies on life are so comparable that typically we get issues accomplished by belief, even past language limitations.

Who’re some world music executives or creatives you continue to haven’t met that you simply’re most desirous about working with?

Scooter is main HYBE’s U.S. enterprise, and I belief him a lot that I’m completely happy to satisfy with the individuals beneficial by him. Amongst creators, I wish to meet Pharrell Williams. Jimmy Iovine has launched Pharrell to me and we exchanged greetings over textual content. When he turned the artistic director of Louis Vuitton, I despatched him a congratulatory message. However I haven’t had the possibility to satisfy him in individual but.

Which artists have you ever gotten to satisfy?

I first met The Child LAROI within the studio when he was engaged on “Keep.” Since then, we had occasional video calls, and I’ve been to his present. I like him as an individual and respect him as an artist. When HYBE first acquired Ithaca Holdings, I used to be telling Scooter that I might like to work with The Child LAROI, and I bear in mind how pleasantly stunned I used to be when Scooter instructed me he was about to signal him. I’ve had just a few video calls with Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande however not in individual but. I haven’t had the possibility to satisfy different HYBE America artists.

Actually, I don’t assume it’s a should to satisfy artists. HYBE acquired trustful administration and labels who’ve constructed sturdy mutual belief with their artists, so my assembly with them wouldn’t essentially add worth. I’ve open arms if any of the artists request a gathering or ask recommendation, however I don’t assume I’ll provoke sit-downs with artists.

It goes the identical for all artists underneath HYBE labels in Korea. Aside from BTS, who’ve shared quite a lot of intimate recollections with me ever since they had been younger, I solely sit down or meet artists upon their requests since all of them have a powerful, trusting relationship with the leaders of every respective label.

Speak about your touring and live performance promotion enterprise. Is that a chance for progress?

HYBE’s live performance enterprise workplace is a enterprise group that not solely plans, produces and performs live performance content material, but in addition operates as an company and a promoter. This units us aside from different tour manufacturing firms and promoters. We produce content material based mostly on a high-level understanding of the artist, offering an immersive expertise to the viewers with constant messaging. We now have the capability and expertise to plan and produce reveals at numerous scales, starting from small levels to stadium live shows. We’re planning to increase collaboration with HYBE Japan and HYBE America, and we additionally intention to additional increase our live performance and touring enterprise of their respective areas.

We now have been discussing whether or not to develop an in-house ticket enterprise since early 2018, and there may be nonetheless room for dialogue. With the event of applied sciences resembling [non-fungible tokens], HYBE is looking out for modifications as main shifts are anticipated within the ticket business.

You mentioned in your current speech that “As of late, whether or not it’s 5 or 10 years from now, I’m placing quite a lot of effort into getting ready for what comes after Bang Si-hyuk — somebody who can take over my position within the firm.” When that ultimately occurs, what is going to you do subsequent?

I’m not at liberty to consider retirement since I’ve loads on my shoulders. It appears untimely to start out fascinated about retirement. If I had been to remain within the business, I’ll both should pursue a task on this firm till I’m very previous or depart to start out one other firm, neither of that are seemingly. If there’s a utterly totally different possibility, I’d think about pursuing it.

This story initially appeared within the April 22, 2023, challenge of Billboard.