Bang Si-hyuk (C), founder of K-pop management agency Big Hit Entertainment who manage K-pop sensation BTS, poses for a photograph with company executives during the company's initial public offering ceremony at the Korea Exchange in Seoul on Oct. 15, 2020
SEONGJOON CHO/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesHYBE, the agency-label home of BTS that was formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment, is firming its North American foothold and changing up its global C-suite.
At the top of the chain, founder Bang Si-hyuk has announced he is stepping down as CEO in order to focus more on production. He’ll remain chairman of the board of directors. Taking over the top spot of HYBE is Park Ji-won, who joined the South Korean company a year ago to head up operations and management.
The company’s state-side subsidiary HYBE America will be led by Yoon Seok-jun and Scooter Braun, who sold his Ithaca Holdings to HYBE in April. The pair will tackle the "important challenge of transplanting the K-pop business model to the U.S. market, from production to nurturing newcomers and marketing," according to the announcement.
HYBE's purchase of Ithaca married the two companies' diverse range of services, including management, labels and publishing, for a deep roster that includes K-pop supergroups BTS and Seventeen, and U.S. pop stars Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
Braun will continue to lead Ithaca Holdings, the parent of SB Projects and Big Machine Label Group, while also acting as co-CEO of HYBE America. Jaesang Lee, who led HYBE’s acquisition of Ithaca, will be moving to the US as Braun and Yoon Seok-jun's chief operation officer.
Over in Japan, HYBE is establishing a new regional division, HYBE Japan, that will be led by CEO Han Hyun-rok. The subsidiary will focus on signing local talent (a new boyband will be introduced soon) and managing the interests of other HYBE artists.
"This leadership improvement is a reflection of our strong will to take the lead in overall systemic change from leadership to realizing our mid- to long-term business strategy to become a global company," HYBE said. "With the goal of leading aggressively, we have reorganized the scope of powers and responsibilities according to the expertise of each leader."
NEWS
Supergrass are teasing an upcoming announcement with fans, according to a new post.
The British band, fronted by Gaz Coombes, shared a cryptic new post across their social media channels this morning (September 13), suggesting to fans that a new announcement is on the way.
Posted at 9am BST, the post simply shared artwork of the band’s logo in red, alongside next Monday’s date, September 16. In the caption, the band simply wrote: “Sign up now”, alongside a link to their website’s homepage.
Upon clicking the link, the page prompts fans to sign up for future updates, and asks them to input both their email address and the country they live in. Check out the post below.
While details on the announcement remain sparse, the post has already caught fans’ attention, with some speculating that the news could be around the upcoming 30th anniversary of their debut album, ‘I Should Coco’.
Released in May 1995, the release marked the record that first put the band on the map, and contained singles ‘Mansize Rooster’, ‘Caught By The Fuzz, ‘Lose It’ and ‘Lenny’. It also saw Coombes and Co. nominated at the 1995 Mercury Prize, and contained what would soon become their biggest track to date, the Ivor-Novello winning ‘Alright’.
At time of writing, the band haven’t shared any further indication as to whether the announcement is related to the huge upcoming milestone – whether it be an anniversary tour or reissue – nor whether it has anything to do with new music that could be on the way.
The band’s last studio album was ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’, which arrived in 2008. Since then, they have shared remastered versions of both their 1999 self-titled album and their 2003 record ‘Life On Other Planets’.
In other news around the band, last year it was reported that the band’s frontman joined Johnny Marr onstage last month to perform The Smiths‘ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ at Lakefest 2023.
Before then, Coombes opened up about how “nervous” he was about reuniting Supergrass following the success of his solo albums.
Supergrass split up in 2010 but reunited for a series of live shows in 2019. They released a live album in 2020, Live On Other Planets, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and raise money for grassroots venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having got into a flow and the last two albums having done so well, it seemed a bit odd, like a backward step,” he said. “But then I was confident that I could operate both things together and it seems that I did, because I was obviously writing this record mainly during the reunion so I feel like I made best use of both things.”
Coombes’ fourth solo album, ‘Turn The Car Around’, came out in January of last year.
