Pledis Entertainment Wins Netizens’ Favors For Excluding Synnara Record From SEVENTEEN’s Official Distributor List
After the Netflix docu-series In The Name Of God: A Holy Betrayal unveiled the ugly truth behind some of the most notorious cults in South Korea, people there have found a renewed interest in weeding out such quasi-religious criminal groups from society. One such attempt is being made by K-Pop fans by putting a cult-affiliated distribution company, Synnara Record, out of business.
“They Killed A Child.” — Fans Boycott A K-Pop Album Distributor For Its Cult Affiliation
Synnara Record is directly linked to Aga Dongsan or “Baby Garden,” given that its founder is Kim Gi Sun, the cult’s leader. It is believed that the cult uses the slave labor of its members to sell albums at staggeringly low prices. Though Kim was sentenced to prison in 1998, K-Pop fans recently discovered that Kim is still allegedly the chairman of Synnara Records, and multiple of her cult members hold important positions in Synnara. Consequently, the call for boycotting the company grew more robust.
The first K-Pop label to consider fans’ demands was Starship Entertainment. The label excluded Synnara Record from its official pre-order announcement about IVE‘s album. Though fans could still place pre-orders through Synnara if they wanted to, the fact that Starship excluded it from the lineup of distributors it mentioned in the notice was deemed worthy of praise by netizens.
Now, Pledis Entertainment has followed suit. SEVENTEEN is returning soon with their tenth mini album FML, and the pre-order notice was posted on Weverse recently. The notice listed all the official distributors for the album, which didn’t include Synnara Record. The nine distributors mentioned by Pledia are Weverse Shop, YES24, Aladdin, KTOWN4U, Soundwave, Music Korea, Music Plant, Qoo10, and Hot Tracks.
Synnara was listed as one of the official distributors even up until Second Wind, the single album by SEVENTEEN’s subunit BSS.
Netizens feel that this apparently small step will lead to a big blow to Synnara Record since there is a possibility that all HYBE subsidiaries will follow suit. They praised Pledia and hope that the boycott grows industry-wide.
- “Oh, oh, does this mean there’s a possibility that all HYBE idols will pull out?”
- “It will be a really big blow if all HYBE idols leave.”
- “Good, good.”
- “Even if you can’t stop the actual sales, taking the name out of the notice like this will also have a big impact, especially since HYBE sells a lot of albums. Synnara should at least be hit slowly like this.”
- “Oh, I like it!”
- “Does that mean they won’t be considered for stuff like fansigns and exclusive photocards? If that’s the case, then there’s really no reason to buy.”
