The Complete Family Tree of Entertainment Companies
News of SM Entertainment taking over KEYEAST has grabbed people’s attention. In this way, large entertainment companies are growing larger by the day. Here are the family trees of the top 4 Korean entertainment companies.
1. SM Entertainment
Beginning with SM TOWN, SM Entertainment has continued to join forces with various other companies to become the SM Entertainment they are today.
The three directly-related, public companies under SM Entertainment are SM C&C (actors and entertainers), FNC Add Culture (affiliate of FNC Entertainment), and KEYEAST(agency for actors).
Meanwhile, companies that have a strategic partnership with SM include Mystic Entertainment, ESteem and Galaxia SM. Due to SM Entertainment’s takeover of FNC Add Culture, FNC Entertainment is also listed as a strategic partnership.
One of the newest companies to strike a strategic partnership with SM Entertainment is Million Market.
Some of the artists under Million Market Entertainment are Suran, Penomeco, Woo Taewoon, and former Boys24 member Doha.
Suran, Penomeco, and The Rest Of Million Market Artists Are Now Under SM Entertainment
Speeker is a joint venture between ESteem and SM Entertainment, which manages Lee Si Eon’s artist friend Kim Chung Jae from I Live Alone. Another affiliate not shown in the tree is Label SJ, which is an exclusive team created for Super Junior.
2. YG Entertainment
YG Entertainment’s representative affiliate is YG KPLUS, which was launched in 2014 after merging with a model agency. Labels under the entertainment agency include HIGHGRND, The Black Label led by Teddy and PSY’s own label, PSYG. YG also has many other affiliates outside of the entertainment business including in fashion, cosmetics, restaurant, finance, and merchandise.
Since Psy’s departure from YG there has been no official statement on the future of PSYG, as Psy didn’t sign any new artists to his label. However, YG Entertainment did add one high-profile name too, with Jeon Somi joining The Black Label after leaving JYP Entertainment.
HIGHGRND also saw the departure of Tablo as their CEO and is now under YGX — a new YG Entertainment subsidiary with Seungri at the helm.
YGX merged with Seungri’s DJ label NHR and will also manage YGX Dance Academy.
Tablo Resigns From Position As Head of YG’s sub-label HIGHGRND
LOEN Entertainment is a comprehensive contents company that holds Melon. After being bought out by Kakao, their name was changed to Kakao M. The 6 companies under LOEN are managed as labels.
The largest, Starship Entertainment, took over actors agency King Kong Entertainment and also holds Starship X and House of Music. LOEN has essentially gained 4 labels by taking over Starship Entertainment.
Other labels under LOEN include IU’s Fave Entertainment, Apink’s Plan A Entertainment, The Boyz’s Creker Entertainment, the indie label Mun Hwa In which manages Lena Park, and E&T Story which is the exclusive management team for Kim So Hyun.
4. Stone Music Entertainment (CJ E&M Music)
Stone Music Entertainment, formerly known as CJ E&M Music, is an entertainment company under the conglomerate CJ Group‘s subsidiary CJ E&M. In addition to its various labels, CJ E&M also works closely with the production company Studio Dragon and JS Pictures.
Their divisions include Minzy and Baek Ji-young‘s The Music Works, VIXX and Gugudan‘s Jellyfish Entertainment and hip-hop labels Hi-lite Records, AOMG, and Amoeba Culture.
Wanna One’s Kang Daniel & Yoon Jisung‘s MMO Entertainment and Eric Nam’s B2M Entertainment are currently subsidiaries of Stone Music Entertainment.
