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K-pop Panel Reveals Market's Worst Tendencies

Love it or hate it, K-pop has struck a major chord with millions of fans around the globe. When introduced to a new region, the genre faces challenges specific to those bespoke markets. Plum Tree Songs' CEO Jong Hoon Chae took to the Otakon stage to specifically shine a light on the differences between the Korean and American music markets. Intimately familiar with the music industry on a global scale, the 16-year Korean market veteran looked to share his unique perspective on these contrasting markets.

But instead of providing a high-level overview that enthusiasts and business-minded individuals could understand, the CEO spoke as though he were speaking at an insider business conference instead of a fan event. While some audience members seemed to be well-informed of the terms Chae had deployed, most terms flew right over my head due to their hyper-specificity.

A former employee of Universal Music Group, Chae left the company eight years ago, seeking to capitalize on the initial global explosion of K-Pop enthusiasm and the return on investment that came with it. The music industry is generally reviled for its anti-artist practices, but I felt a pit form in my stomach as Chae dug deeper into the nuts and bolts of the Korean market's domestic business dealings. He painted the picture of an industry that has supercharged music's worst tendencies toward artists—a distinct lack of artistic freedom, flexible revenue deals, and any control over one's image whatsoever. World-famous artists have more say over their destiny, but based on Chae's observations, BTS might be the only Korean act who carries any sway with their labels—and that's a big “might”.

At first, I couldn't discern whether Chae had attempted to productively highlight his industry's faults as he spoke. However, it gradually sounded as if he was posturing to imply that the K-Pop machine was superior to the music world at large. Especially when he confidently said, “Whatever works in Korea, works worldwide.” While that comment might carry a decent amount of truth at this point, I don't believe that to be a 100% sure thing with any sort of media. This degree of confidence from Chae makes sense, especially when one considers that he's the CEO of his label and directly benefits from the system as it currently stands.

But as he continued, some of the industry veteran's words and actions quickly brought the intentions behind this talk into question for me. While speaking on specific details regarding the handling of artists between oceans, Chae shared an internal UMG document with the audience. Considering that he's been away from the company for nearly a decade, I wondered if he had permission to share this document with the public. That suspicion was highly compounded by the numerous mentions of “NO RECORDING ALLOWED” across many versions of this year's convention schedule.

I wanted to keep giving Chae the benefit of the doubt, but his repeated derision of BLACKPINK producer Teddy Lee added to my apprehension. While Lee has gone through his fair share of controversy, two of Chae's comments created cause for concern in my eyes.

1. A comment in which he said that Lee's acts “BLACKPINK and 2N1E [pronounced ‘twenty-one’] sound the same.”
2. Allegations that Lee takes a huge cut from the revenue of his artists.

The first statement came off as vindictive, especially when K-pop has often been criticized for “sounding the same” across the board. With the second statement, Chae brought a serious issue to light—suits at the top can often strip a successful artist of their hard-earned compensation. But again, Chae's approach to conversation made his intentions questionable. Especially when he continued to say, “I can't name names,” while levying criticism all across the K-Pop machine. Was he trying to actually critique these issues or benefit from playing the industry's game?

The specific combination of not naming names, the repeated criticism of Lee, and his “that's just how it is” approach to addressing the industry's problems could read as overly cautious at best and deeply conceited at worst. It didn't help either that Chae's highly specific industry terminology may have muddied the waters even further in the process. When all was said and done, I walked away weary of puppeteers pulling K-Pop's strings—regardless of any good intentions that might have entered the mix.