HYBE's concerts alone nearly out earned SM, JYP and YG combined
HYBE took almost as much from concerts alone in the second quarter as SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment earned from everything they do, according to filings the four companies published in August.
HYBE's concert revenue was ₩647.7bn, about £350m. The combined companywide revenue of the other three was ₩660.4bn, making HYBE's single live line equal to 98% of their entire businesses, according to Zutter's calculation from the four companies' quarterly filings.
HYBE's total for the quarter was ₩1.45tn, around £784m, or 2.2 times the three put together. Its operating profit of ₩170.9bn was 1.8 times their combined ₩94.9bn.
The three are not in trouble. SM reported consolidated revenue of ₩349.6bn, up 15.4%, with concert revenue up 23.6% on tours by TVXQ, Super Junior, EXO, aespa and NCT WISH. YG reported ₩127.7bn, up 27.2%, on album releases from Babymonster and Treasure.
The second-quarter filings put one revenue line at 98% of three companies' entire businesses. The Big Four framing is finished.
JYP went the other way, reporting ₩183.1bn, down 15.1%, with operating profit down 41.4% to ₩31bn, a quarter in which its biggest acts were between cycles.
The gap is touring and what attaches to touring. HYBE put BTS back on the road, and concert revenue rose 243.3% year on year. Merchandise and licensing, which travels with a tour, reached ₩310.6bn.
A quarter containing a BTS stadium tour is not a structural measurement, and the comparison narrows when the tour ends. The full year is the better test, and it points the same way: HYBE's 2025 concert revenue was ₩763.9bn, up 69.4%, across 279 shows in 53 cities, while its recorded music revenue fell 10.2%.
A company whose live business is growing at that rate and whose records business is shrinking is no longer in the same trade as a label. It is in the trade Live Nation is in, with a roster attached.
Which reframes what the four of them are now building together. HYBE, JYP, SM and YG filed a business combination report with the Fair Trade Commission in April for a joint company to run Fanomenon, a large-scale festival planned for Korea in 2027.
J.Y. Park told a National Assembly audit on Wednesday that each company could earn two to three times more staging its own concerts, and that the four were accepting hundreds of billions of won in forgone revenue to take part.
On these numbers that sacrifice is not evenly shared. For HYBE, pooling a roster means diluting a live operation already larger than its three rivals combined. For the other three, it means access to a touring machine none of them has been able to build.
HYBE's merchandise and licensing line came to ₩310.6bn in the quarter. The entire combined revenue of JYP and YG was ₩310.8bn.
SOURCES (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)RELATED ARTICLES
LATEST
MORE IN:
Human Made's biggest store opened in Harajuku on Saturday with a mobile ordering system designed to keep customers from queuing outside.