Hybe has continued to grow through acquisitions and restructuring, adding multiple subsidiaries. The company announced plans in March to augment its business portfolio to bring people together through music. The music industry heavyweight also aims to enter the international market with its lineup of labels. The firm boasts some of the biggest names in the Korean and global music scene, including megastars like BTS and Seventeen. Here’s a list of seven subsidiaries under Hybe’s

Seventeen will not meet fans in person during its fifth fan meet “Seventeen in Carat Land,” agency Pledis Entertainment said Friday. 　 Through its official fandom channel Weverse, the company announced that it would cancel the in-person meet for the event after the social distancing guideline was strengthened as the country seeks to overcome another COVID-19 wave. 　 The 13-member group was originally planning to host the fan meet events in southern Seoul from Aug. 6-8, both off- a

MSG Wannabe, an all-male act that formed on the popular Korean TV show "Hangout With Yoo," is going strong on South Korean music charts. The eight-piece act is far from a typical K-pop band. The group consists of a comedian, singers and actors -- including two in their 50s and three in their 30s -- and their name MSG Wannabe comes from monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is often derided here for being a junk food ingredient but making food flavorful. Nonetheless, the project group t

Kakao Entertainment announced Thursday that it has decided to merge with South Korea’s leading online music streaming platform, Melon. The decision comes as Kakao aims to secure competitiveness and leadership in the showbiz industry. The two companies jointly agreed at a board meeting held Thursday and attended by both sides. The deal is expected to be finalized through a shareholders meeting on Sept. 1. Under the merger, one share of Kakao will be exchanged with around 7.8 shares of

Another bout of speculation on a collaboration between Coldplay and BTS emerged after lyrics from “My Universe,” thought to be the British band’s new song, was registered on lyrics database MatchLyrics on Thursday. 　 BTS’ label Bit Hit Music, however, said that it cannot confirm the news and asked fans for their understanding. 　 There have been talks about a potential collaboration since April when Chris Martin was reported to be in Korea. Earlier in June a tweet appear

D.O., member of K-pop boy band EXO, on Thursday released the details of his debut solo EP ahead of the album's scheduled release later this month. SM Entertainment earlier announced the singer will drop his first-ever solo release, titled "Empathy" in Korean, on July 26. The eight-track album, which includes six new tracks in addition to two bonus tracks, will be fronted by the main track "Rose," the agency said Thursday. D.O. wrote the lyrics for "Rose," it added

BTS became the top-selling artist in total CD album sales in the United States in the first half of this year, according to Billboard on Tuesday (US time). The K-pop juggernaut sold 573,000 copies of its CD albums from Jan. 1 to July 1, the most by a single music act in the US, Billboard said, citing MRC Data, a music sales data provider. American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift came in next with sales of 414,000 units. In terms of broader physical album sales that took vinyl albums and casset

Taeil of NCT set a world record with his Instagram account, Guinness World Records announced Tuesday in the UK. 　T he idol broke the record for the fastest time to reach 1 million followers on Instagram, as he reached the seven-digit milestone in just one hour and 45 minutes after his first post, it said. 　 He announced on a fandom application that he opened an account on Instagram on July 6. 　 “I never imagined myself becoming a Guinness World Records title holder,” he said after

Superband BTS appeared on the popular American talk show "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Tuesday (US time), putting on its first TV performance of new release "Permission to Dance." The band's seven members appeared holding violet and purple balloons to perform the upbeat track at an indoor stage filled with balloons. Dancers wearing white and orange later joined the band for a group choreography session. It marked the band's first performance of the new song on

K-pop sensation BTS and dozens of top international artists will join Global Citizen Live, a 24-hour broadcast show intended to help fight COVID-19, climate change and extreme poverty in September, the organizer said. Global Citizen, an international advocacy group based in New York, announced details of the global philanthropic concert Tuesday. The epic daylong show will take place Sept. 25, featuring live performances and events filmed in major cities across six continents, including Seoul,

K-pop queen BLACKPINK will be the next act to go on Hybe's growing fan community platform Weverse, its agency said Wednesday. The four-piece act, which already has a massive fan base on YouTube, will join the virtual platform starting Aug. 2, according to YG Entertainment. The move follows a partnership between YG Entertainment and Hybe -- the K-pop powerhouse behind acts like BTS, Tomorrow X Together and Enhypen -- signed in January. The companies, two of the biggest agency-labels in the K-p

The music video for “On the Ground,” the solo debut of Blackpink’s Rose, surpassed 200 million views on YouTube on Tuesday, announced label YG Entertainment on the same day.   　 It has been 123 days since the video’s release. It stormed past 100 million views in about a week, the shortest time for a video by a K-pop solo female artist. The song topped iTunes top songs chart in 51 regions and topped both of Billboard’s worldwide tallies, the Global 200 and Bil

Sony Music Entertainment Japan announced Monday that it would team up with K-pop powerhouse JYP Entertainment to launch a new boy band. The two jointly held an online press conference in Korea and Japan to share their plans for the production of the new group, which will be elected through the survival reality program “Nizi Project.” The upcoming audition show will be aired in the latter half of the year. Park Jin-young, the chief of the label, expressed his excitement about cre

K-pop rookie Enhypen has topped a key daily and a weekly music chart in Japan with its debut Japanese single, music tracker Oricon said Tuesday. "Border: Hakanai" ranked No. 1 on Oricon's latest weekly singles chart, selling over 200,000 copies from July 5 to Sunday, according to Oricon News. The band's first Japanese single also sat atop Oricon's daily singles chart for the seventh consecutive day since its release last Tuesday. Enhypen, which debuted in November, is the first amon

K-pop sensation BTS' summery, up-tempo number "Butter" remained atop Billboard's main singles chart for the seventh consecutive week in the group's best chart record since its debut. ""Butter" is officially No. 1 on this week's #Hot100 chart for a seventh week," Billboard said on its Twitter account on Monday (US time). The septet's second English song drew 10.8 million US streams and sold 108,800 downloads in the week ending July 8, it said. The song also attract