It Costs Over $1,000,000 USD To Debut A K-Pop Group, Here’s Why

According to JYP Entertainment‘s statistics, it can cost a staggering ₩900 million won just to train a new K-Pop group!

These numbers are based on a hypothetical 5-member boy group. If each of the members trains for an average of 3 years, this alone would cost JYP Entertainment between ₩700 million won and ₩900 million won (or, approximately $845,000 USD).

A comeback for an existing group isn’t much cheaper. A mini-album with three songs costs ₩12 million won to record and ₩15 million won to produce. That’s a total of ₩27 million won, just for three songs!

A single music video can cost ₩150 million won. If the company were to release a music video for every track on the mini-album it would cost them ₩450 million won, plus the album’s jacket shooting cost of ₩20 million won!

… And the price of a mini-album is nothing compared to the marketing costs. Promoting an existing group’s comeback through music broadcasts costs ₩500 million won!

That ₩500 million includes: ₩50 million for choreography, ₩100 million for backup dancers, ₩170 million for stage outfits (worn for 6 weeks of promotions, to 4 music shows a week), and ₩10 million just for stage makeup! Viral marketing costs another ₩150 million, while processing and other miscellaneous costs run up to ₩2 million.

If a group costs ₩900 million to debut, ₩197 million for a mini-album and related costs, and ₩500 million for their first comeback, that comes to over ₩1.5 billion just for one K-Pop group!

K-Pop is, at its core, a wildly competitive and lucrative business. Companies pour funds into their stars because they expect a sizable profit in return.

Idol groups that don’t live up to the company’s expectations can expect to rack up over ₩1 billion won in debt, if they signed with a company other than the “Big 3”.

JYP Entertainment (TWICE, GOT7, and 2PM)…

YG Entertainment (BIGBANG, BLACKPINK, and WINNER)…

…and SM Entertainment (EXO, SHINee, and Girls’ Generation) do not do trainee debt.

For idols who have signed with other labels, the financial stakes are much higher. As if the pressures of success weren’t hard enough on their own!