Recently, management company RBW announced that girl group Purple Kiss will disband in November this year.
The standard contract of Kpop idol groups is 7 years, so the disbandment of a group after only 4 years of operation was shocking. In particular, since their management company is RBW, which once owned the famous band MAMAMOO, this is even more unusual.
Although RBW did not specify the reason for Purple Kiss's disbandment, the industry believes that this is the impact of the declining Kpop market.
According to data from Circle Chart, sales of the top 400 Kpop albums on the album chart reached about 42 million copies, down about 9% over the same period last year. Compared to the 54 million copies in the first half of 2023, album sales in the first half of this year decreased by 22%.
An official from an idol management company said: "Due to the increased cost of staff during the MV filming, choreography, hair and makeup production, the album must sell 100,000 copies when released to cover production costs. However, actual sales are decreasing, so more and more companies are having difficulties.
The growing gap between idol groups from large and small companies is adding to the industry's concerns.
The top spot on the album sales chart was largely swept by the groups of the Big 4 (the four largest Kpop companies in the industry) - HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment.
TripleS is a rare case of not being a big company but still selling more than 300,000 copies with the album released in May.
A representative of the media company said: The huge difference in production and promotion costs between large and small companies makes it extremely difficult for small companies to attract fans. That is the reason why many trainees from small companies rush to participate in survival programs.
Experts say that to avoid the phenomenon of "unification" and loss of diversity in Kpop, it is necessary to have more small companies nurturing music groups with different music and strategies.
Pop culture critic Kim Heon Sik pointed out: The fact that some big companies hold many small companies is causing Kpop to lose its diversity, contributing to the current crisis.
Currently, no small company group has repeated the success of BTS - idols who originated from a small company (Big Hit Entertainment, later HYBE) and became a global group.
It is time to consider policies to support the development of idols from small and medium-sized enterprises.
Critic Kim also mentioned the recent case of producers from The Black Label company (led by Teddy) involved in the production of Netflix's hit cartoon soundtrack album "K-pop Devils hunter", and said: "New efforts and approaches suitable for the changing music environment could become a new source of energy for K-pop".
