| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | KRX: 041510 |
| Industry | Music, entertainment |
| Genre | Pop, dance, electropop |
| Founded | February 14, 1995 |
| Founder(s) | Lee Soo-man |
| Headquarters | Seoul, South Korea |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Lee Soo-man (chairman) Kim Young-min (CEO) Lee Jong-in (CFO) |
| Products | Albums, concerts |
| Services | Publishing records, Entertainment agency |
| Revenue | ₩98,536,225,756 (2010) |
| Owner(s) | Lee Soo Man (27%,2010.06) Neowiz Internet (7.83%,2010.06) 파트너스엠앤에이투자조합(7.35%,2010.06) |
| Employees | 965 (as of March 2010) |
| Subsidiaries | SM TinTin Hall (2000) SM Entertainment Japan (2001) SM Academy (2003) SM Pictures (2007) SM Amusement SM F&B Development SM Entertainment USA (2008) |
| Website | Official Website |
S.M. Entertainment (Hangul: SM엔터테인먼트) is an independent Korean record label, talent agency, producer, and publisher of pop music, founded by Lee Soo-man in South Korea. Initially, "SM" was an abbreviation of the agency founder's name, but now stands for "Star Museum." Once the home to top-selling groups such as H.O.T., S.E.S., and Shinhwa, its current roster of recording artists include top selling artists in Korean entertainment like BoA, f(x), Girls' Generation, The Grace, Kangta, Shinee, Super Junior, TRAX, TVXQ and Zhang Liyin. It is also home to actors like Go Ara, Kim Min-jong and Lee Yeon-hee. SM Entertainment also co-publishes Avex Trax releases for Japanese artists such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, and Koda Kumi, as well as Johnny's Entertainment acts like Arashi and KAT-TUN. The company celebrated its ten-year anniversary with a party on February 15, 2005. It's current CEO is Kim Young-min.
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After graduating from Seoul National University and pursuing his own career as a singer, Lee Soo Man surveyed teenage girls on what they wanted to see in music groups and started the boy band H.O.T. and girl group S.E.S.. Both groups became successful during the late 1990s. Soon thereafter, Lee created Shinhwa, and once again, the band attained the same popularity and success, continuing Lee's streak of producing successful artists. In 1999, Lee created Korea's first R&B duo, Fly to the Sky, with members Hwanhee and Brian, adding to Lee's list of successful groups.
However, problems began appearing in SM Entertainment following the breakup of H.O.T. Some assumed financial issues to be the problem, but the real reasons have never been officially disclosed. S.E.S. disbanded a year after H.O.T. and a few years later in 2003, SM Entertainment would see the departure of Shinhwa as well, though the group shifted toward a new management instead of breaking up and continued its success outside of SM Entertainment. In the following years, some of its newer ventures, such as Isak N Jiyeon and Black Beat, failed to attain the popularity achieved by earlier SM artists.
The agency later found new successes with many other acts. SM Entertainment debuted a solo singer BoA in 2000, a five-member boy group TVXQ in 2003, a four-member rock band TRAX in 2004, a four-member girl group The Grace and a thirteen-member boy group Super Junior in 2005, a solo singer of Chinese descent Zhang Liyin in 2006, a nine-member girl group Girls' Generation in 2007, another five-member boy group Shinee in 2008, five-member girl group f(x) in 2009, four-member ballad project group S.M. the Ballad in 2010 and upcoming boy band EXO, which is divided into subgroups EXO-K and EXO-M for Korean and Chinese markets, respectively.
In February 1995, SM Entertainment set up its capital fund at ₩50,000,000. In January 1996, SM Entertainment purchased land for a recording site and manufactured its contents for broadcasting companies like KBS, SBS, HBS, KMTV, M-NET. In April 1997, the head office was transferred to the Yadang ri Kyoha myon Paju Kyungki do part of Seoul. In October 1998, Kim Kyoung-wook was awarded the position of CEO. In August 1999, a paid-in capital increase of ₩25,000,000 (5,000 shares) and free issue of 225,000 shares (₩112,500,000) occurred. In that same year, SM Entertainment built a branch office in Apgujung dong Kangnam gu, Seoul.
In early 2000, SM Entertainment agreed to share the split from 5,000 won to 500 per a share. In mid-2000, the company was approved and listed in KOSDAQ as 041510. Late that year, SM Entertainment and Avex Trax signed a contract for music licensing and an Asia agency. In December 2000, SM established an affiliation with Fandago Korea. In January 2001, SM Entertainment established an overseas joint-venture corporation as SM Entertainment Japan Co., Ltd. They are also preparing to establish a new headquarters in Beijing, China.[1] SM Entertainment will also set up its Asian headquarters in Hong Kong.[2] In March of the same year, Kim Kyoung-wook was appointed the company's third CEO. In May of the same year, SM Entertainment spent 10 billion won to organize its first joint-venture investment fund in the music industry. SM also established subsidiaries BM Entertainment and Cid.K Entertainment for girl groups M.I.L.K. and Shinvi, respectively, but now defunct upon the groups' disbandment. In April 2002, an additional 1,341,180 shares was added, and in June 2002, the third-party paid-in capital increased another 61,048 shares. In late-2002, SM Entertainment was awarded the Grand Prix of Ministry of Culture and Tourism for the Culture Contents for Export Award in music. In 2003, it established its affiliation with the Starlight Corporation Ltd and was awarded a prize for the best music contents in Korea. In February 2004, the third-party paid-in capital increased another 271,428 shares. In April of the same year, the head office moved from Paju, Kyungi to Apgujung dong,Kangnam gu, Seoul. A month later, it established its affiliation with C-Cube Entertainment Corporation. In May 2005, the fourth CEO came on board, Hur Dah-shin. In August 2010, Kim young-min took office.[3] Kim Young-min (born April 13, 1970 is a graduate of Korea University majoring in Sociology. In September 1999, Kim Young-min joined SM Entertainment as a team leader of overseas business, and during 2001 to 2005, he was the CEO of Fandango Korea.[4] On October 21, 2008, the company announced its plans to debut BoA in the United States under SM's new subsidiary label, SM Entertainment USA.
SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, KeyEast, AMENT and Star J Entertainment will be joining forces to create a huge Asian management agency named ‘United Asia Management‘. This joint investment corporate body was created in an effort to develop an industry that will push ‘Hallyu’ to ‘Asianlyu’. United Asia Management aims to pioneer a global market, and all artists under the six agencies will be under a database system that manages intellectual property rights. A new contents production system will be utilized as well for movies, dramas, and other media. UAM will also be acting as the global agency for artists planning to advance, or currently promoting, overseas. UAM was officially established as of April 2011.
On August 16, 2011, SM has established their first international joint venture with Thai media company TrueVisions Group called "SM True." Artists Kangta and Shinee are present in the event, as well as SM's CEO, Kim Youngmin. Kim said that the joint venture will help "quickly and more effectively distribute [SM's] contents" and that this will create a "positive synergistic effect."[5][6]
Last March 2010, KMP Holdings was established via a joint venture between S.M., YG, JYP, Star Empire, and other companies like Medialine, Ken Entertainment and Music Factory. KMP is the official distributor of releases from these companies. KMP stands for Korean Music Power.[7] The firm's first distributed release from SM was Super Junior's fifth studio album, Mr. Simple and since this release, SM is not self-distributed any longer.[8]
In late July 2009, three of the TVXQ members; Hero, Micky and Xiah, submitted an application to the Seoul Central District Court to determine the validity of their contract with SM Entertainment.[9][10] Through their lawyers, the members stated that the 13-year contract was excessively long and that the group's earnings were not fairly distributed to the members.[11] Early termination penalty of their contract will cost them 2 times the profit that the group is estimated to earn for the rest of the contract period (over ₩11 billion, or around US$9.2 million).[12] The news was enough to cause SM Entertainment's stock price to drop over 10% on the KOSPI.[13]
The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of the three members. They have claimed that the contract was unfair and the members were left out of proper profit distribution.[14] In response, SM Entertainment called a press conference and claimed that the lawsuit was a fraud, stating that the lawsuit was not about unfair contracts or human rights but a scam motivated by the three members’ greed over their cosmetics business. The three members remained silent except to say through their lawyers that they hoped SM Entertainment would respect the court’s decision.[15]
In response to the lawsuit, 120,000 members of TVXQ fan club, Cassiopeia, filed a petition against SM Entertainment’s long-term contracts with the Seoul District Court.[16] Cassiopeia also filed for compensation from SM Entertainment for the canceled SM Town Live Concert, as both SM and TVXQ initially stated that the concert would go on as planned; the concert was canceled a week before its scheduled date.[17] It was later announced in early May 2010 that the three members of TVXQ (Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu) will return to the stage as a sub-group. Their group is called JYJ representing the first letter of each of their names.[18][19][20]
On December 21, 2009, five months after the three TVXQ members filed, Han Geng of Super Junior followed suit. The following day, December 22, 2009, Han Geng's lawyer released the reasons for the contract termination: it contained provisions in SM Entertainment's favor, the 13-year contract length was unlawful, it would take an unfair sum of money to end the contract, he was not allowed to request to revise his contract, he was forced to do things that were not in his contract, he was forced to do things against his will, he was fined if he disobeyed the company, missed any events or was late, and there was unfair profit distribution. Along with this, it was disclosed that because of SM Entertainment's refusal to give him a day off in over two years, he had developed gastritis and kidney disease.[21]
Han Geng's best friend and now current manager, Sun Le, also submitted a statement to the Korean courts citing SM Entertainment's violation of Han Geng's rights. This statement was later leaked to the public via the Internet. Though many suspected the statement to be fan-created, it was later confirmed as true.[22] Sun Le's statement contended that: Han Geng was forced to wear a mask due to SM Entertainment's ill handling of the visa issue, SM Entertainment purposely discriminated against Han Geng and his family, including financially, SM Entertainment refused to cooperate or listen to any of Han Geng's suggestions, SM Entertainment purposely turned down individual activities for Han Geng (including Ariel Lin's "Fireflies" music video, which later starred two other Super Junior members,) and SM Entertainment treated Han Geng's potential endorsers poorly.[23]
SM Entertainment has released an official statement regarding the contract revisions demanded by the Fair Trade Commission. SME officials clarified on the 23rd, “The FTC only ordered us to revise the contract of one of our trainees by removing the three years added onto his contract. We complied, thus making every contract under our agency to date as ‘fair.’ BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, The Trax, and other celebrities under our agency have already been acknowledged as fair contracts by the FTC.”
They continued, “As leaders of the industry, we have been cooperating closely with the National Assembly and other related bureaucracies in order to protect the rights and interests of our celebrities, and to aid in the advancement of Korea’s entertainment industry and the Hallyu wave.” After numerous discussions with the FTC, SME drafted a new contract earlier this year with the changed terms mentioned in the previous article. All artists re-contracted with the agency under the new terms, which were acknowledged by the FTC to be fair. The representative continued, “We fully complied with the recent request by the FTC regarding our contract with a trainee. With the help of the FTC, we will be developing better contracts for the progression of Korean culture and contract customs.”
Prior to the show, SM Entertainment announced that they will be boycotting the M.net Asian Music Awards, questioning the validity of the award ceremony.[24] The boycott however has ended, and SME artists with their songs have started appearing in MNet.
SM Town, which started in 1999, is the project name for SM Entertainment's summer and winter vacation albums. SMTown albums consist of current SM Entertainment artists. Each SMTown album consists of one SMTown song and a song from each artist or group.
(per 23 December 2011)
| Debut | Name | Hangul/Hanja | Number of members | Leader | Gender | Fanclub name / Official color | Disbanded | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | TVXQ/DBSK | 동방신기 / 東方神起 | 2/5 | Yunho | Male | Cassiopeia /Pearl Red | Originally a five member group but three members filed a lawsuit against SM and left the group. Currently the No. 1 boy band in Korea | |
| 2004 | TRAX | 2/4 | Typhoon | Male | TRAXIAN / Pearl Cobalt Blue lightsticks | Debuted as a 4-member group. Rose (No Min-woo) left the group in 2006 and became an actor. Attack (Kang Jung Woo) left in 2007 to pursue other interests. | ||
| 2005 | The Grace | 천상지희 / 天上智喜 | 4 | Dana | Female | shapley / Pearl Pastel Pink | Originally introduced as the female TVXQ during the early debut period. They went on a hiatus after member Stephanie suffered from back pain. Now promoting as a duo, Dana & Sunday. | |
| 2005 | Super Junior | 슈퍼주니어 | 12/13 | Leeteuk | Male | E.L.F(ever lasting friend) / Pearl Sapphire Blue | Debuted as a 12-member group. In 2006, Kyuhyun was added as the 13th member. In 2009, Han Geng filed a lawsuit against SME to terminate his contract; and has since returned to China to pursue a solo career. Exactly a year later, the court ruled in favor of Han, making his contract terminated officially. One of the most popular boy bands in the Korea and a leader of the Hallyu wave. | |
| 2007 | Girls' Generation | 소녀시대 / 少女時代 | 9 | Kim Taeyeon | Female | Sone (Stylized as S♡NE) / Pearl Pastel Rose | Known as Korea's resident girl group.The group became the face of Korean tourism in 2011. | |
| 2008 | Shinee | 샤이니 / シャイニー | 5 | Onew | Male | Shinee World (stylized as SHINee World, shortened as Shawol) / Pearl Aqua | Woo Jiho left before debut and was replaced by Choi Minho. | |
| 2009 | f(x) | 에프엑스 | 5 | Victoria Song | Female | aff(x)tion / Pearl Light Periwinkle | Member Krystal Jung is the younger sister of Girls' Generation's Jessica. | |
| 2012 | EXO | 12 | Male | SM's newest boy band, with Korean and Chinese members. The group will be promoting in two units at the same time - EXO-K (Korean) and EXO-M (Mandarin). Two teaser videos were released by SM Entertainment introducing members Kai and Lu Han. Other members will be revealed in the similar format. |
| Debut | Name | Hangul/Hanja | Gender | Fanclub name / Official color | Disbanded | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Kangta | 강타 | Male | Club K.I.T / White | ||
| 2000 | BoA | 권보아 / 權寶雅 | Female | Jumping BoA / Pearl yellow | ||
| 2002 | Iconiq | 이아유미 / 李亞由美 | Female | |||
| 2006 | Zhang Liyin | 장리인 | Female | Chocolate / Gold | ||
| 2007 | J-Min | Female |
| Debut | Name | Hangul/Hanja | Number of members | Leader | Gender | Fanclub name / Official color | Disbanded | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | H.O.T. | 에이치오티 | 5 | Moon Hee Jun | Male | White Angels / White | 2001 | Jang Woo Hyuk, Tony, Lee Jae two formed a group called jtL and the rest of the team members were separated. |
| 1997 | S.E.S. | 에스이에스 | 3 | Bada (Sea) | Female | Friend / Pearl Violet | 2002 | SM's first girl group |
| 1997 | Shinhwa | 신화 神話 |
6 | Eric Mun | Male | Shinhwa Changjo / Orange | Legends of K-pop. Known as the best dancers of K-pop with amazing vocal, dancing and variety skills. On hiatus, but will be making a comeback in 2012 | |
| 1999 | Fly to the Sky | 플라이 투 더 스카이 | 2 | - | Male | Fly High / Sky Blue | 2009 | Legendary R&B duo with all-rounded talents, known exceptionally for their amazing vocal skills. Credited as Korea's first R&B duo. Went on hiatus to focus on solo activities. |
| 2001 | M.I.L.K | 밀크 | 4 | Park Heebon | Female | Milky Way / Pink | 2004 | |
| 2002 | Black Beat | 블랙 비트 | 7 | Lee So Min | Male | Soul Black / Pearl Black | 2007 | |
| 2002 | Shinvi | 신비 | 3 | Yoo Soo Jin | Female | 2004 | ||
| 2002 | Isak N Jiyeon | 이삭N지연 | 2 | Lee Jiyeon | Female | N/A / Pearl Wine | 2004 | Jiyeon is now a member of CSJH The Grace as Lina. |
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