What the year-long scandal means for Ok-pop’s international growth

The largest scandal in fashionable Ok-pop turned one yr outdated final Friday – and should have formally reached a decision. To recap: on November 28, 2024, Ok-pop lady group NewJeans introduced they had been terminating their unique contract with ADOR, citing a breach of belief and failure to fulfill requests for rectification (per The Korea Herald). What adopted was a drawn-out battle between the group and their firm, with ADOR submitting a lawsuit towards the group and stopping them from pursuing impartial actions. On October 30, 2025 – almost 11 months after the lawsuit was filed – the Seoul Central District Court docket dominated that NewJeans’ contract with ADOR was legitimate (per The Korea Herald). At time of writing, all members have introduced their intent to return to ADOR, successfully ending the dispute.

The NewJeans / ADOR case rocked the Korean music trade. Nevertheless, this isn’t the primary time Ok-pop artists have terminated contracts with their label – so what units this case other than the others?

The primary distinction is the timing. Different Ok-pop authorized disputes, like JYJ’s lawsuit towards SM Leisure in 2009, came about when Ok-pop as an trade was nonetheless creating inside Korea. The NewJeans case, alternatively, comes at a time when Ok-pop firms – particularly ADOR mother or father HYBE – are aiming for worldwide growth.

Exporting the “Ok-pop methodology”

Spurred by Ok-pop’s explosion on the worldwide stage, current years have seen Ok-pop firms try and carry the “Ok-pop methodology” (i.e., rigorous coaching or give attention to a extremely polished efficiency) to different nations. Total, this technique has been profitable, with teams like KATSEYE – a worldwide lady group created by HYBE and Geffen Information – receiving a Grammy nomination. Nevertheless, the NewJeans case highlights doable points with a wholesale export of the Ok-pop framework.

The Ok-pop construction is constructed on a model of the “360 deal”, through which the leisure firm gives live performance, administration, model partnerships, merchandise, and different expanded rights help to the artist together with the usual music manufacturing help. A bonus to this mannequin is that it helps construct a cohesive artist model that may develop past music – spreading income throughout a wide range of sources relatively than counting on one section particularly. Nevertheless, it additionally signifies that the corporate has a stake in each side of an artist’s profession, making it tough to extricate oneself from a deal ought to an artist need extra inventive management.

The return of the “360 deal”

“360 offers” gained prominence within the 2000s, however fell out of favour for quite a few causes, with some artists discovering them to be exploitative. Nevertheless, as expanded rights grow to be a significant driver of recorded music income development, these offers are re-entering the dialog – particularly as Western music firms get wind of the success Ok-pop is discovering with its all-inclusive artist growth mannequin. Many Western artists are reluctant to relinquish their expanded rights to a label, making it tough to realistically implement the Ok-pop “360” framework within the West. So, how does a enterprise mannequin that depends on full inventive management thrive in an surroundings that doesn’t need to hand over that management?

Whereas the court docket dominated in favour of ADOR ultimately, the NewJeans case known as into query many facets of the Ok-pop enterprise mannequin which were accepted as unchanging truths. We’ll by no means know the way profitable NewJeans would have been as impartial artists, however it’s simple to know why they had been barred from pursuing impartial actions. Much like how US artists have pushed again towards label management, it’s doable that the group’s independence would have led to Ok-pop artists demanding a extra equal footing with label administration. In the long run, the most effective technique could lay in a hybrid mannequin that blends the independence that Western artists worth with the built-in method that has led to Ok-pop’s success.