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| ▲This photo, provided by RBW show CEO Kim Jin-woo of RBW Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo provided by RBW show K-pop girl group Purple Kiss. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo provided by RBW show K-pop girl group Mamamoo. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL December 6 (Yonhap) “Due to Covid19 K-pop market has expanded tremendously. End of the pandemic has arrive and K-pop has definitely brought us great amount of profit, however those who are making the money off of K-pop are very limited to small amount of companies.”
“As the k-pop industries grow in size, extreme outliers are furthering apart from one another” representative of K-pop celebrity agency RBW’s representative Kim Jin-woo addressed throughout the interview conducted with Yonhap News agency on Wednesday.
RBW is a mid size celebrity agency with K-pop girl group Mamamoo who successfully rose to their fame after debuting in 2014, Boy group ONEUS, girl group Pruple Kiss and more are included.
In 2021 RBW successfully acquired WM entertainment which is known for the home of K-pop girl group Oh My Girl, and DSP which is known for Kara and Kard growing in size. Also in November of 2021, RBW managed to go through with their initial public offering process.
Recently, representative Kim published a book “25 secrets of the Entertainment industry” (literal translation) with his understanding and personal experience as a representative of RBW Entertainment.
There are a lot of books about the reasons and assumption of how the K-pop industry has skyrocketed, however, it is unique and hard to find a book about the details about the entertainment industry written from the perspective of a representative. Therefore release of the book attracted a lot of interest.
“When we were targeting the domestic market we were stuck with the maximum limit of budget,” adding “However, if we compete against Hollywood or even in a bigger market, it is just natural to increase the quality of the products, which simply means it cots a lot compare to the past.” addressed CEO Kim throughout the interview.
Continuing on, representative Kim Jin-woo stated “For example if it took 50 million won however, nowadays with 300 million won or even 500 million won into production and it might not stand out. Which is why entertainment industries are forced into either being super broke or extremely wealthy, in the near future I think either small entertainment companies will join forces to create productions, or it will be monopolized by big corporations.”
Nowadays first generation of K-pop Idol is represented by H.O.T, second generation of the K-pop groups are represented with Wonder Girls, Girls Generation, Kara, third generation which expanded the K-pop market is represented by BTS and EXO followed by fourth generation of K-pop which has finally bloomed.
When asked of what they wanted to be in the future to fourth generation of K-pop stars, “First Generation of K-pop groups were based on talents, therefore some groups were comparability better than the other in performance, therefore for the second generation of K-pop groups, agencies trained artists of how to sing, and dance” adding “As a result fourth generation of girl group needs to be not only talented, but also they are trained, also they need to have messages and stories behind their music.”
Moreover, CEO of RBW addressed “Messages artists present to listeners are beyond our boundary of control,” adding “If a entertainment industry were to fix and enforce a concept to its artists, the end product will be very odd and it might even look unfitting for the artists.”
Another characteristics of 4th generation artist are their global activities, instead of global activities being a choice, for the fourth generation idol group it has become a mandatory thing.
“Since there has been uncountable number of cultural exchanges between South Korea and Japan, there is a set patter,” adding “Nowadays, expanding the K-pop market into American continent in general is the biggest interest within the industry.” announced CEO Kim Jin-woo.
Continuing on the representative addressed “K-pop is a mixture of Pop music that fits into our Korean taste, therefore the origin of K-pop is rooted in the united states,” adding “Therefore it is important to reach success within the American music industry. American music market has different sales unit price to begin with.”
Throughout the interview CEO of RBW analyzed how the barriers to enter the American market is still very high, also despite of BTS being part of different company, they have done something amazing.”
Within the recently published book, CEO addresses details about artist and repertoire stage to artist management, human resources, how to handle fans, and more.
Moreover, artists which is core asset of the company are human as well, therefore the entertainment industry need to communicate and connect with them. In detailed communication with artists are one of the biggest differences between normal companies and entertainment industries.
When dealing with very emotional artist, it is crucial to continuously communicate with one and connect with them.
“Artists are human too therefore when they are in their teen age they are very sensitive to feelings, therefore there could be unexpected incidents,” adding “To minimize those risks we are teaching artist and manage them to be better artists in the future, this is where management of artists become very important” said Kim Jin-woo, CEO of RBW Entertainment company.
As the K-pop industry expands, there are a lot of fans who knock on the door of entertainment industry, however the reality is very harsh.
For example, if the scheduled release is right around the corner and artists are recording day and night, shooting their music videos, then those who work within the industry will not be guaranteed with 9 to 5 work day.
“Training professional staff members will not only allow us to keep our own unique color in the near future but at the same time important for the future of K-pop. That is why I decided to write the book,” adding “In reality there is only one way to deal with this, you have to work with everyone by finding the middle ground.” addressed the representative of RBW Entertainment throughout the interview.
RBW Entertainment is home to not only Mamamoo, and various artist but also they take in offers to produce tracks for various companies within the same industry, maintaining their overall income despite of their personal releases.
“Collaboratively working on safe and long lasting business while continuing on with big managements is fueling RBW to grow bigger,” adding “Nowadays the scene has changed to a point where one producer who gets picked up my a manager can bring you fame money, and anything, therefore people need in depth understanding of current market trend.” CEO Kim emphasized throughout the interview,.
Representative Kim ended his interview with cheerful comment on everyone who is trying out to become an idol.
“Those who debut as a professional singer or artists are very ambitious, artist are partners of the company who keeps their ambition aside to bring greater future to not only them but also to the company, therefore seeing them debut after harsh period of training makes me feel very proud of them.” Kim Jin-woo the representative of RBW Entertainment addressed towards the end of his interview with Yonhap News Agency.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Joonha Yoo)
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