JYP's All-Member North American Girl Group Project
Park Jin-young Personally Travels to the U.S. to Oversee
HYBE Also Plans to Launch a Girl Group in the Second Half of the Year
Major entertainment companies are intensifying projects to launch idols through 'local nurturing' in the largest music market, the United States. Simply put, they have entered a 'local production' system.
The first to open fire was JYP Entertainment. In partnership with Republic Records in the U.S., they are conducting a global girl group launch project called the 'A2K Project.' The goal is to debut a girl group composed entirely of North American members based on JYP's K-pop training system and producing capabilities. After auditions in five U.S. cities, selected candidates are undergoing a second evaluation in LA. Videos covering the audition process were released again on YouTube on the 18th, following the initial release on the 14th.
At the center of the 'American Dream' is Park Jin-young, CCO (Chief Creative Officer). He moved to the U.S. to personally oversee the project. In the past, Park Jin-young classified K-pop into three generations. The first generation involved exporting Korean content, the second generation involved discovering overseas talent and bringing them to Korea, and the third generation is about nurturing and producing talent directly overseas. He said, "I founded JYP inspired by Motown Records in the U.S.," adding, "Returning to the market where I got the idea is incredibly emotional and hard to believe."
The U.S. is the world's largest music market. Last year, its sales volume reached $26.3 billion (approximately 33 trillion KRW). Especially after the emergence of BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan), the U.S. has become a major consumer country for K-pop. In the first half of this year, nine out of the top ten album sales in the U.S. were K-pop albums. During the same period, in album exports, the U.S. ($25.51 million) ranked second after Japan ($48.52 million), pushing China ($22.64 million), which had been the solid second place, to third. In the U.S. streaming market, Korean ranks third (0.9%) by language share after English and Spanish.
HYBE's U.S. local girl group launch project is also expected to take shape in the second half of this year. HYBE America, HYBE's U.S. subsidiary, is collaborating with Geffen Records, a major label of Universal Music Group in the U.S. HYBE also views 'local production' of idols as a growth momentum.
Analysts suggest that both companies are focusing on girl groups because the lineage of North American girl groups has effectively been broken. In fact, since Fifth Harmony ceased activities in 2018, there has been no girl group gaining widespread popularity. It is also evaluated as an opportunity for domestic entertainment companies to take a step forward. Lee Ki-hoon, a researcher at Hana Securities, said, "The debut of a U.S. girl group is the most important momentum in history," adding, "If successful, the maximum expected revenue per group is estimated to be 500 billion to 700 billion KRW, with an operating profit of about 50 billion KRW."
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