BTS Sales Lead HYBE to 79% Growth

HYBE, home to K-pop stars BTS, overcame a continued touring stoppage and improved its revenue by 79.3% to 278.6 billion KRW ($244.1 million) in the period spanning April 1 to July 1, according to the company’s second quarter earnings report released Thursday (Aug, 5). Operating profit did, however, slip 6.2% to 28.1 billion KRW ($24.5 million).

Sales of the BTS, The Best compilation released June 16 as well as Seventeen’s Your Choice and Tomorrow x Together’s The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE pushed album revenue up 105.4% from the prior-year quarter and 96.2% from the previous quarter.

With touring at a standstill, album sales accounted for 38.4% of HYBE’s total revenue in the quarter — a far higher proportion of revenue than a normal year. (In 2019, concerts accounted for 32.5% of total revenue to albums’ 18.4%.) Now, with live music’s immediate future still uncertain, HYBE is considering holding “hybrid” concerts that would mix in-person and live-streaming experiences, although company executives did not elaborate on their exact substance or timing.

But HYBE — which changed its name from Big Hit Entertainment in March — depends less on BTS’ touring business after it purchased Ithaca Holdings, the Scooter Braun-led conglomerate, in April. Ithaca Holdings contains SB Projects, the artist management home of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, and Big Machine Label Group. Ithaca’s results after May 6 helped drive a 76.9% increase — 9.4 billion KRW, or $8.2 million — from the previous quarter in HYBE’s “ads, performances and management” category.

HYBE diversifies its business with its online social platform, WeVerse, which attracted 5.3 monthly average users, up 9% from 4.9 million MAUs in the previous quarter and 3.5 million from Q2 2020. The group BlackPink was responsible for 1 million new MAUs in Q2 2021. The company expects WeVerse MAUs “to increase considerably” after integrating with V Live, a streaming platform HYBE will acquire following the approval of Korea’s Fair Trade Commission in May.

Album sales increased 105.4% year over year to 107 billion KRW ($93.7 million) and 96.2% from the previous quarter. Tomorrow x Together’s album The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE sold 780,000 copies, a 55% increase from its previous album, and the highest ever sales total for a third-year K-pop group, according to HYBE. A repackaged version of The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE also sold 390,000 pre-orders that will count toward Q3 sales when they ship.

HYBE’s slate of upcoming titles includes the debut of a multinational boy band in late 2021 or early 2022 that will be released through HYBE Japan. In the second half of 2022, HYBE’s Source Music Group will debut a new girl group and its joint venture with Universal Music Group will produce a new boy band that will showcase “K-pop’s full production system encompassing not just music but performance, fashion, video and fan communication,” CEO Park Ji-won said during the earnings call.

HYBE has transformed itself since its IPO on the Korean Exchange in October 2020. In July, HYBE named Park Ji-won its CEO, replacing founder Bang Si-Hyuk, who remains as chairman of the board. Yoon Seok-jun and Braun lead HYBE America, for which Jaesang Lee moved to the U.S. to be the chief operations officer. Braun continues to lead Ithaca Holdings.

On Tuesday, news broke that HYBE has bid against Kakao Entertainment and CJ ENM for a nearly 20% share of Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment, a hybrid business that combines record label, talent agency, concert production and music production businesses. SM Entertainment’s largest shareholder, founder Lee Soo-man, is selling his stake at a $2.2 billion valuation.

In March, HYBE changed its name from Big Hit Entertainment and restructured itself into three segments: Big Hit Music houses the labels BELIFT Lab, Source Music, PLEDIS Entertainment and KOZ Entertainment; HYBE IP and HYBE 360 encompass HYBE Edu and Superb; and WeVerse is HYBE’s social media platform

The below metrics are provided in Korean won (KRW) and converted at 1,141.61 won to $1.

Financial metrics:

  • Revenue: 278.6 billion KRW ($244.1 million) in Q2 2021 — up 79.3% from 155.4 billion KRW ($136.1 million) in Q2 2020; up 56.2% from 178.3 billion KRW ($156.2 million) in Q1 2021.
  • Operating profit: 28 billion KRW ($24.5 million) in Q2 2021 — down 6.2% from 29.9 billion KRW ($26.2 million) in Q2 2020; up 23% from 22.8 billion KRW ($19.9 million) in Q1 2021.
  • Net profit: 20.8 billion KRW ($18.3 million) in Q2 2021, up 9.9% from 19 billion KRW ($16.6 million) in Q2 2020; down 8.5% from 22.8 billion ($19.9 million) in Q1 2021.

Revenue streams metrics:

  • Albums: 107 billion KRW ($93.7 million) in Q2 2021 — up 105.4% from 52.1 billion KRW ($45.6 million) in Q2 2020; up 96.2% from 54.5 billion KRW ($47.7 million) in Q1 2021.
  • Concerts: 0 KRW in Q2 2021 — down 100% from 1.4 billion ($1.2 million) KRW in Q2 2020; even with Q1 2021.
  • Ads, performances and management: 21.6 billion KRW ($18.9 million) in Q2 2021 — up 96.5% from 11 billion KRW ($9.6 million) in Q2 2020; up 76.9% from 12.2 billion KRW ($10.7 million) in Q1 2021.
  • Merchandise and licensing: 50.1 billion KRW ($43.9 million) in Q2 2021 — down 12.5% from 57.2 billion KRW ($50.1 million) in Q2 2020; down 22.7% from 64.8 billion KRW ($56.7 million) in Q1 2021.
  • Content: 91.3 billion KRW ($80 million) in Q2 2021 — up 236.9% from 27.1 million KRW ($23.7 million) in Q2 2020; up 145.6% from 37.2 billion KRW ($32.6 million) in Q1 2021.
  • Fan clubs and other: 8.6 billion KRW ($7.5 million) in Q2 2021 — up 29.8% from 6.6 billion KRW ($5.8 million) in Q2 2020, down 10.8% from 9.6 billion KRW ($8.4 million) in Q1 2021.

Additional information from the earnings call:

  • BTS 2021 Muster Sowoozoo, an online fan meeting to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the first BTS album, attracted 1.33 million viewers from 195 countries over two days.
  • Nine artists joined the WeVerse platform in Q2. In Q1 WeVerse had 18 artists.
  • HYBE expects to release a new game in early- or mid-2022 that was developed by an in-house team.

Stock market:

  • Market capitalization on August 5, 2021: $11.66 trillion KRW ($10.2 billion).
  • Year-to-date change in HYBE’s share price: 88.8%
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UK Live Industry Gets Long-Demanded Government-Backed COVID Insurance

LONDON – For more than a year, the U.K. live music industry has been campaigning for a government-backed insurance scheme to help festival and concert promoters get back on their feet. On Thursday (Aug. 5), those calls were finally answered when Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak unveiled a 750 million pounds ($1 billion) insurance scheme covering the cost of festival and concert cancellations resulting from COVID-19.

The “Live Events Reinsurance Scheme” enables event organizers in the United Kingdom to purchase cover for government-enforced cancellations, alongside standard commercial events insurance.

Backed by Lloyd’s market insurers Arch, Beazley, Dale, Hiscox and Munich Re, the insurance be available for a 12-month term beginning sometime in September. (The Exchequer, when contacted by Billboard, was unable to say exactly when the scheme will begin.)

The government says it is one of the only insurance schemes in the world to cover such a wide array of live events and not put a cap on costs claimed per event.

Denis Desmond, chairman of Live Nation U.K. and Ireland, says the government-backed protection is a vital intervention that “offers certainty to artists, concert and festival promoters in the live entertainment market.”

“While the new scheme won’t cover all our risk, this intervention will help protect the industry that we all know and love,” says Phil Bowdery, chairman of the Concert Promoters Association.

The program follows the establishment of similar government-backed insurance schemes in a number of other European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Denmark. They provide a much-needed safety net for promoters committing non-recoupable upfront costs for future events amid the uncertainty of a pandemic.

“As the economy reopens, I want to do everything I can to help events providers and small businesses plan with confidence right through to next year,” Sunak says in a statement.

In the event of cancellations resulting from coronavirus restrictions, the government will pay between 95% and 100% of costs accrued with insurers paying the remainder. (Promoters and event organizers will need to pay an agreed excess fee, as per standard insurance deals).

While live execs unanimously welcomed the news, some expressed anger that the government didn’t step in sooner to support the country’s struggling live sector in the way it did for the film and TV industries. A 500 million pounds “Film and TV Production Restart Scheme” has been in place since July 2020 and has provided insurance cover to more than 600 independent film and TV productions to date, says the HM Treasury.

“It is devastating that the timings of this scheme could not have been earlier,” says Michael Kill, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association. He points to the large number of U.K. festivals that have been forced to cancel over the past year — many citing the lack of insurance as a determining factor.

According to the Association of Independent Festivals, more than half of all U.K. festivals scheduled to take place in 2021 have been cancelled this year because of the pandemic. Big-name casualties include Glastonbury, BST Hyde Park, Download and Kendal Calling.

Paul Reed, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals, says the introduction of COVID-19 cancellation insurance was a positive development for the industry. But he cautioned that it doesn’t cover events needing to reduce capacity or cancel due to social distancing restrictions being reintroduced.

Nevertheless, British execs are cautiously optimistic that the tide is now turning for the beleaguered live industry and that better times are ahead.

The U.K. lifted its last remaining COVID-19 restrictions on July 19, opening the door for full-capacity shows, nightclubs, and festivals to return. Latitude Festival, held in Suffolk July 22-25 and headlined by Bastille, Bombay Bicycle Club, Wolf Alice, and The Chemical Brothers, was the first major music event to take place since the end of lockdown. It was attended by around 40,000 people as part of the COVID-19 Events Research Program.

Tentpole events scheduled to take place later this summer include the 185,000-capacity dual-site Reading and Leeds festivals headlined by Liam Gallagher, Stormzy and Post Malone, and the 70,000-capacity Creamfields, which features David Guetta, deadmau5, Alesso and Martin Garrix.

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EXO Vocalist D.O. Releases Romantic Solo Album ‘Empathy’

After D.O. released his first-ever solo album Empathy to wide critical acclaim last month, the EXO member is proving that he is in a class all by himself.

Throughout his prolific nine-year career, D.O. (birth name: Do Kyung Soo) has been a lead vocalist of one of K-pop’s most decorated groups and has also proven adept in television, film and theater. D.O.’s breakout role in 2014’s Korean drama series That’s Okay, It’s Love led to him scoring award-winning performances in the blockbuster My Annoying Brother as well as 2018’s top-rated TV series 100 Days My Prince. His first solo single, “That’s Okay,” released in 2019, was solid proof of his potential as an all-around performer.

Over his beautifully arranged, eight-track album, D.O. flaunts his affinity for storytelling over a melodic mix of acoustic R&B and pop productions and lets the power of his delicate-yet-full-bodied vocals and emotive lyrics shine over stripped-back ballads like “My Love,” the confessional serenade “I’m Gonna Love You,” and the breezy folk-pop single “The Rose.”

D.O.’s vocals handle a range of tasks on Empathy, coming in as profoundly relaxing as they interweave with gentle guitar strums on the hypnotic “It’s Love,” while “I’m Fine” lets him effortlessly soar between his gorgeous falsetto and soulful low notes.

Bolstered by the success of EXO’s latest album, Don’t Fight the Feeling, which has become one of 2021’s biggest K-pop releases with more than 1.2 million copies sold and a music video earning 80 million views on YouTube since its release in early June, D.O. finally released his solo album, which lets him flourish as a star vocalist but also showcases his songwriting and language skills.

Notably, D.O. is credited with writing “Rose” and “I’m Fine” on the album while also offering a Spanish-language version of “It’s Love” as well as an English version of “Rose.”

To date, Empathy has sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide and topped the iTunes Top Albums chart in nearly 60 countries, while the music video for “Rose” has amassed more than 9 million views since its premiere. “I’m Gonna Love You” debuted at No. 90 on the K-Pop Hot 100, while “Rose” came in at No. 91. “Rose” also entered the World Digital Song Sales chart at No. 16, while the album peaked at No.14 on the World Albums chart. In addition to all the impressive numbers, D.O. seems to have found his musical identity as a solo musician, and Empathy is only the beginning of what is sure to be a fulfilling solo career.

–By Jessica Oak

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Hear Alessia Cara’s New Song ‘Feel You Now’ in ‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ Opening Sequence

On Thursday (Aug. 5), Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alessia Cara previewed her new song “Feel You Now” via the title sequence for the animated TV series Blade Runner: Black Lotus.

Crunchyroll and Adult Swim will launch the series later this year, which follows a young woman named Elle who wakes up in Los Angeles 2032 with no memories but with all the willpower to seek revenge on the people who wronged her as well as find her own identity.

“This little light I found/ Take it in and breathe it out/ A little drum that’s beating loud/ In my chest I hear the sound,” Cara whispers over a mysterious, heart-thumping melody that suddenly morphs into a percussion-driven electro-pop beat. “I can feel you now/ I can feel you now/ I can feel, I can feel you now.”

Cara and producer Michael Hodges co-wrote “Feel You Now,” which soundtracks Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ opening title sequence. The song will be released this fall via ASG/10:22 PM/Def Jam Recordings.

“I am so thrilled to be part of this show in any way, but I’m especially thrilled to have been able to write this song for it,” Cara says in an official statement. “To think that I made something that will be consistently attached to a show as legendary and innovative as this one feels super fulfilling. I wrote it with Michael Hodges remotely over the course of the pandemic, which is why the lyrics to ‘feel you now’ feel so striking to us. It’s not only about Elle searching for an existential understanding of what it means to be human, but also the trials we’ve all been put through in the last year and how much we relied on human connection and feeling to get us through. Michael and I both felt like it struck the right nerve in us and we’re so glad the Blade Runner team was on the same wavelength.”

Adds Hodges: “The song felt like a breath of fresh air mixed with a little hope of feeling connected again to people. Although we understand Blade Runner at its deepest levels and the nostalgia it encompasses, Alessia and my collaborators on this (co-writers Kayla Morrison, Gerald Trottman & Ghian Wright) all felt like the message of this song really connected to our current state of mind and Elle’s as well. We all need connection.”

Listen to “Feel You Now” below.

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Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts Exits 2021 U.S. Tour

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts will likely miss the band’s upcoming U.S. tour to allow him to recover from an unspecified medical procedure.

A spokesperson for the musician said the procedure was “completely successful” but that Watts needs time to recuperate. The Stones are set to resume their No Filter tour with a stadium show on Sept. 26 in St. Louis.

“With rehearsals starting in a couple of weeks it’s very disappointing to say the least, but it’s also fair to say no one saw this coming,” a spokesperson for Watts said in a statement.

Watts, 80, said in a statement he did not want his recovery to further delay the tour, which is set to visit several U.S. cities including Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. “For once my timing has been a little off. I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while,” Watts said.

Watts successfully underwent treatment for throat cancer in 2004. He will be replaced by understudy Steve Jordan, who has played with Keith Richards for years.

The Rolling Stones — No Filter Tour 2021 U.S. dates

Sept. 26 — St. Louis, MO @ The Dome at America’s Center
Sept. 30 — Charlotte, NC @ Bank Of America Stadium
Oct. 4 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Heinz Field
Oct. 9 — Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
Oct. 13 — New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
Oct. 17 — Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium
Oct. 24 — Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium
Oct. 29 — Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium
Nov. 2 — Dallas, TX @ Cotton Bowl Stadium
Nov. 6 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium
Nov. 11 — Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Nov. 15 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
Nov. 20 — Austin, TX @ Circuit of The Americas

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