2024 K-pop Year in Review Big 4 Company Scorecard

As I mentioned in my year-end check-in post, I'm never quite sure what I want to accomplish with this newsletter, but I keep working on it. I could write yet another newsletter about the messiness of the business and legal sides of K-pop last year, or go on about trends we saw last year, or major moments that deserve way more thoughtful discourse than we've seen before (topics like BIGBANG's return, PLAVE's ascent, the response to the new Fifty Fifty, etc.) But... Instead... I'm going to try something new: I'm going to give K-pop's biggest companies a score.

Last year was an interesting one for K-pop, as 2024 was both turbulent for companies, artists, and fans, but also an immense moment for quality music. K-pop's edge ebbs and flows regularly, but last year when I was looking back I realized that the quality of releases - whether they be from rookies, hitmakers, or nostalgic acts making returns - were all really, really good. It almost feels like the music leveled up in a way to offset the surrounding tumultuousness. So it was a mixed bag, and I want to look at things methodologically.

A friend, Peter Lo of the Kpopcast, gave me this idea a while back for a regular scorecard or check-in for the state of K-pop companies. I have been thinking of doing it ever since, but never really got around to it. I'm thinking of making these scorecards a quarterly article and may expand to other companies, but for the moment I wanted to try it out by ending the year off reviewing the so-called Big 4 of K-pop, in alphabetical order. I think the math is right and if not... sorry, I'm a writer not a... mather? Why is mathematician not shortened? Anyhow... Please leave a comment if you like this format or not, and why or why not. I'd really appreciate people's thoughts!

Although these ranking will, of course, be subjective, the rubric is as follows* :

Music Quality - Based on my personal preferences and perception. This will be a score of the quality of a company's musical releases.

Music Impact - Based on public and critical appeal, awards charts, etc. This will be a score of how well the company's musical releases fared. There are different metrics of album sales, so there may be some discrepancies, but generally the acts who sold a lot sold A LOT regardless of how it was reported.

Company Reputation - Based on general public perceptions of the company. This will be a score of the company's brand value.

Company Value - How the company is doing financially. This will be a score of the company's financial worth.

Hybe

Music Quality- It was a pretty good year for Hybe sonically, with many rookie and mid-career acts continuing to carve out their niches with popular singles.

I absolutely loved many of the singles put out by Hybe's artists this year, with Enhypen's "XO (Only if You Say Yes)", Seventeen's "Maestro", NewJeans' "How Sweet", Le Sserafim's "Crazy", and many others really finding a special place in my heart this year. (Check out what I had to say about ILLIT's "Magnetic" for NME's end of year list and Katseye's "Touch" for Pop Excellence's.) Seventeen ended up in the top 5 of my end-of-year Apple most-listened to acts for the first time after years of being Carat-adjacent as a casual lover of Seventeen and supporting all the Carats in my life. I guess I too am one of those people supporting the over 6 million albums Seventeen reportedly sold in 2024.

But I did feel like a lot of it was Very Good and Very Solid trend chasing, and by the end of the year it didn't really feel like a lot of fresh releases from Hybe. This was probably because of release shifts in the company but also it may be because I listen to albums more than playlists and Hybe is really not a fan of full albums in 2024, with EPs and singles dominating. This is an industry trend at most companies nowadays, but it was a bit of a disappointment for me personally due to my listening habits.

It felt like it was a lot of bite-sized tastes of most acts, especially with only a handful of Hybe's talent (mostly prominent boy bands) releasing full-length albums. I am in a big believer of albums because I'd always rather a meal than a snack, and hope that we hear more of them next year from Hybe artists. Though if someone just came out with a 100 songs like "1-800-hot-n-fun" I'd probably be just as happy.

Music Impact- Hybe released a lot of solid hits this year, kicking off with ILLIT's "Magnetic" and TWS's "plot twist" in early 2024 going viral and becoming soundtracks of the year. Pretty much every active artist under Hybe's many branches and affiliate companies - Tomorrow X Together, Le Sserafim, Seventeen, Enhypen, fromis9, BTS's soloists, Boynextdoor etc. - all released music, mostly to popular success. Even Gfriend made a comeback, returning at the end of year with an album coming.

As such, Hybe saw a lot of hits top charts, and multi-millions of albums sold: among the top 50 best-sold Korean albums of 2024 according to the Circle Chart (formerly Gaon Chart), almost 20 were from Hybe artists. Though K-pop physical album sales are generally down, that's still a lot of album sales, and Seventeen had the top TWO best-selling albums of the year in Korea.

From where I'm sitting, RM's Right Place, Wrong Person album was the most acclaimed album this year coming out of Korea from the artsier side of music writing, exploring and praising approach of RM and his collaborators. I wasn't able to see the accompanying documentary in theaters, but I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to watch.

That said, while the album sales were solid for Hybe this year overall, it felt a bit like the first half of the year had some great singles but there was a bit of a slow down on that front in H2, with plenty of releases but few really big moments.

Company Reputation- As solid as the music was, on the brand reputation side of things... Well, it may be a bit too much to say that 2024 could be renamed "Hybe and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year" when it comes to its brand awareness, but... Not really sure how far off that is?

I feel like there's so much to say that I will 100% overlook something here, but let me try...

The biggest story of the year is undoubtedly that NewJeans is now attempting to leave Hybe after a year of drama between producer Min Hee-jin and Hybe, which led to NewJeans' members giving the conglomerate an ultimate and ultimately left it. Aside from infighting between Min Hee-jin, former founder and head of ADOR - the now former home of NewJeans -, and HYBE, which ultimately led to both Min and NewJeans leaving the company, the year witnessed mass concerns about the company's international push, the impact of Bang Si-hyuk and Scooter Braun, and legal investigations that resulted in us all becoming aware of Hybe's regular, apparently pretty nasty, industry reports.

Girl groups were generally a problem for Hybe, in that netizens turned on many Hybe acts this year for allegations of lack of professionalism and copycatism, and fromis9 has now disbanded. Rookies were also a bit of a rough point, with TWS accused of chart-rigging (though it increasingly seems unlikely given its success) and Boynextdoor came under controversy for a bit of bad behavior re advertising contracts, which didn't become a major thing but was an interesting one for the business side of K-pop.

There was also - and perhaps the most notable artist-related news this year beyond ADOR and NewJeans - Suga's drunk driving scooter incident, which was exacerbated initially (though grew wildly out of control quickly) because Hybe issued an erroneous press release about the incident. In general PR was a bit of a disaster, such as the Hybe working with the PR company in the US that is now part of the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni lawsuit drama. However, international girl group Katseye also has been doing quite well after the push of a Netflix reality show, so... mixed bag!

It will be fascinating to see what 2025 brings Hybe, but likely will be a better year considering that BTS members are back and in business, with the year beginning strong with the announcement of a j-hope solo tour.

I gave it a 2 because it wasn't all terrible, but honestly... Maybe -2 would be more accurate in some sense?

Company Value- Hybe is a strong stock regardless of the volatility this year, which gives it a powerful scorecard rating in my book.

Hybe started the year around 230,000 KRW stock prices and ended it just under 200,000. Which isn't a major drop, and it's still far ahead of all the other K-pop companies that are public by over 150,000 KRW. But Hybe is progressively going downstream ever year, a few small ups aside, ever since the shares hit a high in 2021 with just under 400,000 KRW stock prices.

In April, Bloomberg reported that Hybe's internal strife with Min Hee-jin wiped out $873 million, and investors have been opting out by requesting early redemption of bonds, resulting in Hybe having to pay some nearly $300 million in early November. However, in 2025 things may look better with the return of more BTS members and more solo activities.

JYP Entertainment

Music Quality- Please don't attack me, but I wasn't enthralled by JYP's music this year by and large. It was an okay year but not so many Amazing moments, and honestly... I don't even remember most of the singles by some artists. So solid 3 here, because it was good and not terrible, but not my personal favorite this year.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought this year wasn't Stray Kids' or NMIXX's most interesting, even though it was still a good one for them: NMIXX's Fe304: Break was an exploration of where the group may be going now that they're not necessarily digging so hard into the experimental mixx-pop they previously did ("Dice", the song you are to me...), while Stray Kids' Mixtape HOP was refreshing, as always when they go the mixtape route.

But the JYP songs I enjoyed the most this year were ITZY's "Imaginary Friend" and TWICE's "Rush," both originally B-sides (and "Rush" remained that way). Vcha had some fun pop moments, Xdinary Heroes and Day6 filled the pop-rock void of my heart, but... That's really all I have to say about JYP this year? Sorry, JYP Ent. Maybe 2025 will be your year for me?

Music Impact- Day6, the heroes you are... This year was your year, and the year that Xdinary Heroes started to really gain some traction with their niche of heavier rock music.

On the poppier side of things, Stray Kids continued to dominate, and "Chk Chk Boom" was a big flex. Twice did well, particularly in Japan with Misamo going to Tokyo Dome, and NiziU continues to thrive. But.... name the biggest JYP hit of 2024? Can you? I don't know if there's a definitive one. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

On the physical side of things... This year belonged to JYP: Stray Kids' not only sold over 30 million reported albums, but Ate was the No. 2 best-selling album in the US this year.

Company Reputation- Of all the major K-pop companies, JYP had the best 2024 simply by Not Being Part of Major Drama. The most "bad" I saw on my feed about JYP for most of the year was cuts of founder J.Y. Park's sermons.

But then in December, after months of the group's hiatus, KG of VCHA announced she was leaving the North American JYP girl group, due to a variety of workplace abuses. Her lawsuit included reference to another VCHA member attempting suicide, and also called out JYP America staff for lying on the record (actually in an interview with me) about following minor labor laws in the US. VCHA is JYP's attempt at the glocalization (global localization) of their K-pop acts, like how they've done with NiziU to great success in Japan. But VCHA isn't exactly clicking, and this lawsuit is likely to become a bellwether for many other entertainment companies eyeing bringing the K-pop model to the success.

Company Value- 2024 was a good enough year for JYP, with it's stock going up and down pretty evenly, ending starting around 84,000 and ending just under 70,000. This dip is a general trend for K-pop companies in 2024, so nothing too crazily concerning for JYP in particular. It remains to be seen whether there'll be a boost in 2025, though Stray Kids' continued success keeps interest high in JYP.

SM Entertainment

Music Quality- This was such a good year for SM musically, it almost made me feel hopeful in a year of bleakness.

This was certainly aespa's year commercially, but also personally I loved their singles, which put kitschy sci-fi drama front and center via "Supernova", "Armageddon", and "Whiplash". Their albums were good too, as were their solos.

The same could be said about NCT, with NCT 127's Walk album and single being some of my personal favorites, and the solo albums from the 127 absolutely killing me, particularly Jaehyun and Yuta's. NCT Dream and NCT Wish's albums were also very good (more on that in another piece if I ever write it...)

And "Cosmic"??? Red Velvet, the queens you are...

Riize's singles also were fun and addicting, and so were EXO's solos and just like... There really wasn't a moment this year where I thought "wow, SM is disappointing". So... Give their A&R some raises!

But, and this may surprise absolutely every single person reading this, my personal underrated favorite album from SM this year was Key's Pleasure Shop. This album is so good; even though I know a lot of people felt the single was too bland on its own, in the EP it just works for me.

If you're interested in my thoughts on aespa's "Supernova", Red Velvet's "Cosmic", and NCT 127's "Walk", I wrote about them for the Pop Excellence end of year list.

Music Impact- aespa slaeyd and kept doing so this entire year. They and Riize really raised SM's brand reputation as chart-topping hitmakers, which was really needed after a few years when SM acts simply didn't top charts in Korea (last year no SM act made it into the Circle Chart's EOY top 10). These girls really laid claim to 2024's K-pop laurels, and few others were able to compare.

NCT Dream was SM's biggest album seller this year, with over 3 million albums tracked by Circle Chart, while aespa became a rare female act from SM selling over 2 million albums.

But rookie group RIIZE also gained a lot of attention this year, beginning with "Love 119" going to the top of Korean charts and then a series of other singles impressing both casual listeners and critics, with "Impossible" ending up on many end of year lists. NCT Wish has also done quite well, and a new girl group planned for 2025 was announced right at year's end, raising expectations as the first larger than five-member girl group SM has debuted since Girls' Generation.

As for soloists, there were a lot of them that were very well received but nothing compares to Taeyeon who landed a Top 10 hit with To. X (even if SM kinda seems to be pissing her off lately...)

Company Reputation- Hybe and SM really should thank one another for giving audiences a ping-pong relay of where to look in 2025 away from each company's variety of drama. At SM, the most visible drama, and perhaps long-lasting for a rising act's career (pun intended), was the return and then departure of Seunghan to RIIZE.

But the company has faced bigger struggles than ensuring RIIZE's longevity: in early 2024, I wondered if SM Entertainment could even survive the year. I think the answer was a resounding yes regarding the company's brand, largely due to aespa's success, but on the business side of things Kakao's takeover has become a major problem: Kakao Entertainment wanted a bigger share of the entertainment industry, after already being on top of many firms including Starship Entertainment, and taking over SM was a big coup. It was also an exceedingly apparently illegal one, with Kakao's founder charged with stock manipulation and concerns the company may have to sell its bank due to regulatory concerns.

There's also the ongoing disputes with artists, including SM's dispute with EXO CBX continuing from last year, while plans around the company's 30th anniversary concert had some people, specifically Taeyeon and Wendy, expressing upset with the way things ended up so that they weren't able to participate. The SMTown concerts are a big event whenever they're held, and the 30 year one is meant to be a festive of the biggest scale... But it's just causing a lot of concern due to things like not a single female artist being included in the upcoming 2025 LA concert, and Lee Soo-man, the ousted founder of SM, didn't attend after allegedly being sent an invite. (Honestly... I get that given the messiness, and his plans for a new company, A20.)

On the plus side, however, SM launched Mytro, a rare older (20s and 30s) boy band focused on the Korean pop music subgenre trot, which has had a resurgence in recent years and become particularly financially succesful among older, primarily female, audiences. Such a smart decision, honestly, and as someone in my 30s it's really nice to see people of my generation getting to debut.

Company Value- Like other Korean entertainment companies, SM's stock was more or less downwards in 2024, and faced some mid-year drama but started the year around 90,000 KRW and ended it in the 70,000s. Not great, but a major improvement from the year's low in August when the stock price neared 50,000 KRW, when there were reports that Kakao would sell SM. Hybe did sell its stake in the company, which really is only important because the Hybe vs. Kakao battle to takeover SM as SM's execs took over the company was really the impetus of a lot of changes in K-pop over the past few years.

YG Entertainment

Music Quality- For me, YG's best moments this year came from BabyMonster's DRIP album and Rosé's "APT." with Bruno Mars. Treasure's "Last Night" was a surprising pleasure. And ... That's pretty much all of the music YG put out this year? Which is... crazy. (Read what I had to say about "APT." here.) Lisa and Jennie also released solos but... Not quite sure if those count as YG releases so I won't be addressing those here, sorry.

So I may have made it sound like YG did nothing in 2024 musically, but that's not quite true. Aside from Rosé finally getting a chance to shine with her solo album, there were a few other releases, like from AKMU and Lee Seung Hoon of Winner. Taeyang also appeared on G-Dragon's, but really a Bigbang song, with Daesung, "Home Sweet Home". but Taeyang and Rosé are both from subsidiary Black Label, not YG proper.

And then there's also Meovv, another Black Label act, the new girl group, whose "Body" I think more people should be listening to!

Both Meovv and Babymonster did really well last year, and I think 2025 will be a make or break it year for YG and Black Label to prove that they once again have the staying power for girl groups because while both Meovv and Babymonster had addicting, trendy songs I don't know if the 2NE1 and Blackpink style still really works as well as it once does. People are, to put it bluntly, tired of YG's one trick pony, and after years of girl groups eventually being burned with few releases it's hard to imagine the acts will have staying power. I do think Meovv has earworm-y staying power, but as I said earlier I really do think albums are needed to judge a K-pop act, so hoping we hear more from them in 2025.

Music Impact- I am sure everyone at The Black Label, and thus YG, are thanking all things holy that Rosé stayed with YG when the other three Blackpink members have moved on for their solo management. Rosé has always been my personal favorite vocalist in Blackpink, and I am so excited that the entire world seems to be recognizing her glory with "APT." with Bruno Mars becoming one of 2024's biggest hits, including debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, which is absolutely momentous.

Beyond that, I think this was the year that made many have some hope for YG to get its act together, since all of its currently active K-pop acts, namely Treasure, Babymonster and now Meovv, released good music.

That said... aside from Rosé plus Babymonster's "Sheesh" and interest in Meovv's debut, and to a lesser degree Treasure's one-off song,there wasn't much commercial or acclaimed success for YG in 2024. Maybe it's a matter of scale, but I think AKMU is usually a surefire hit and that didn't hit, so I think maybe... it's just a matter of everything feeling a bit tired at YG except someone, like Rosé, who has been working on her stuff for years and finally is getting the chance to let loose. And that landed her a major milestone on And even then, rosie the album didn't feel entirely refreshing overall, and reviewers took note. I think YG's A&R teams need to do some soul searching, personality.

Company Reputation- So, at this point you're probably wondering... What The Fuck, Tamar? Because I haven't mentioned 2NE1 yet. But that's because 2NE1 didn't release any new music this year, though they did rejoin 2NE1 and launched a tour. And it was glorious, as was the return of BIGBANG at the 2024 MAMA Awards, with Taeyang and Daesung joining G-Dragon's performance. (GD is no longer signed to YG but seems like the association will stay).

These two moments alone kicked up YG's reputation a lot this year, but I'm not sure if nostalgia is a win or just a sad sign of how little impact most of YG's artists had in 2024's K-pop scene.

Company Value- This is a hard one to rank because YG is the least financially succesful of the K-pop companies by far, but YG Entertainment is perhaps the only act on this list to not have major downward trend in 2024. After mid-year chaos leading to a dip, it rose up and pretty much ended exactly where it began: January 2024 saw the company's stocks around 45,000 KRW and 2025 arrived at the nearly identical spot. I think that's honestly pretty impressive, considering how quiet the year was for YG, but Rosé definitely helped. Last year it did sort of feel like YG may be ebbing out of the Big 4 and we may go back to a Big 3 standard, but we'll have to see what 2025 does with the uptick of some artists from last year.

But coasting isn't enough at all right now to put YG in a good place: YG Entertainment reported an operating loss last year, and is now ending its actor management division, which leaves the company relying on its music acts so... We'll see what 2025 brings (lots of tours, which can be moneymakers or money pits), but it may be the end of YG as we know it iuf 2025 doesn't lead to a revitalization of YG's glory days.

That's a lot, but I think that's more or less a reckoning of the major K-pop companies in 2024. If you think I missed something, major or minor, please feel free to flag in the comments.

*This rubic is inspired by how The Bias List does it for song releases. Slso check out Nick's EOY ranking of the companies, which I've avoided reading as I've worked on this but am eagerly looking forward to reading his perspective. I totally forgot Nick does these before I sat down to write this, but hope readers enjoy both of our perspectives out!