HYBE-ADOR: Released documents show NewJeans earned $19M last year

Girl group NewJeans [NEWS1]

Amid the ongoing HYBE-ADOR conflict, it was revealed that girl group NewJeans was speculated to have been paid 26.1 billion won ($19 million) in total last year, according to ADOR’s electronic disclosure.

That means each member of the famed quintet — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein — was paid 5.2 billion won.

ADOR logged an annual revenue of 110.3 billion won in 2023, which is a more than fivefold increase compared to the 19 billion won in 2022. Among HYBE’s 11 labels, ADOR secured the third highest revenue. Big Hit Music, the label that represents BTS and Tomorrow X Together, claimed the top spot in revenue, totaling 552.3 billion won. Pledis Entertainment, behind Seventeen and fromis_9, followed with 327.2 billion won.

The label Belift Lab, home to ILLIT and Enhypen, logged 27.3 billion won in revenue. ILLIT is the rookie girl group that ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin pointed to as a “NewJeans copycat.”

The label’s operating profit swung back to 33.5 billion won from 2022’s 4 billion won operating loss.

ADOR reported expenditures of 29 billion won in commission fees, and 2.9 billion won of this amount was attributed as sales management expenses. The remaining 26.1 billion won can be considered as the amount paid to artists.

NewJeans is the sole artist under ADOR, which means the members are presumed to have received full payment of the 26.1 billion won. The girl group has been storming the K-pop scene ever since its debut in 2022, releasing a string of hits such as “Attention,” “Ditto” (2022), “Hype Boy” and “OMG” (2023).

HYBE, which initially held the entire stake over ADOR in 2022, sold off 20 percent of its stake to Min and ADOR's executives last year. Min possesses an 18 percent stake, and other executives hold the remaining 2 percent stake over ADOR. It has been assumed that Min's stake was acquired as the result of her success with NewJeans.

Despite the debacle between Min and HYBE, HYBE has been adamant that NewJeans will return to the K-pop scene according to its original schedule. The group plans to release a new single in Korea on May 24, with Japanese singles and two concerts at Tokyo Dome scheduled for June.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]