▲ This photo, provided by SM Entertainment, shows Lee Sung-soo(Left) and Tak Young-jun(Right), the co-CEOs of SM Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

 

SEOUL, Apr. 26 (Yonhap) – The CEOs of Korea’s major agencies representing K-pop have been selected as the “International Power Players” that lead the global music industry.

According to the list of “2022 International Power Players” announced by Billboard on Apr. 25(KST), Lee Sung-soo and Tak Young-jun, the co-CEOs of SM Entertainment, Park Ji-won, the CEO of HYBE, and Shin Young-jae, the president of Big Hit Music, were named on the list.

“International Power Players” is released by Billboard after choosing the most influential people in the global music industry excluding the U.S., and it has been announced since 2014.

In terms of SM, Billboard appreciated the “success of metaverse girl group aespa” and highlighted the fact that aespa has its own unique avatar of a virtual world for each member as well as the group’s achievements.

The two CEOs emphasized that SM broke its own record by selling about 18 million albums through Billboard despite the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Billboard also focused on the records of HYBE, where K-pop boy groups BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER belong to.
 

▲ This photo, provided by HYBE, shows Park Ji-won(Left), the CEO of HYBE, and Shin Young-jae(Right), the president of Big Hit Music. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Billboard mentioned regarding Park Ji-won, the CEO of HYBE, “We highly appreciated the point where Park rebranded Big Hit Entertainment into HYBE and challenged new changes in the fields of production and distribution of music, technology, and performances.”

It also introduced CEO Shin Young-jae, who leads Big Hit Music, the affiliated label of HYBE, as a founder of the company that has undergone the process of BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER becoming the renowned pop stars that are recognized worldwide.

Besides the CEOs, Simon Robson, the president of the international Warner Recorded Music of Warner Music Group, and Melissa Thomas, the senior vp international marketing of Sony Music Entertainment, were named on the list of this year’s “International Power Players.”

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Kim Sun Min.)

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