Hi guys! This week we’re coming at you with the second episode of our company-specific series where we dive deep into South Korea’s entertainment agencies.
Episodes:
With all that said, today we’re focusing on JYP Entertainment, and JYP the man.
Listen here:
– Founded on April 25, 1997 by Park Jinyoung
– Current CEO: Jung Wook
– Major owners: JYP with 15.20% and National Pension Service with 7.25%
– JYP benefitted from Burning Sun Scandal as Koreans placed more trust in the company
– In August 2022, JYP Entertainment promised no more physical CDs to become more sustainable… but since then they’ve sold physical CDs for: Twice: Ready to Be, SKZ: The Sound/Maxident, Itzy: Cheshire/Blah Blah Blah, Xordinary Heroes: Overload/Deadlock, NMIXX: Espergo/Entwurf
– JYPE tried to go public, LOEN blocking, almost went bankrupt.
Park Jinyoung, the man and his scandals
- Married 2 times, 2 kids
- 1994 solo debut
- BFFs with Bang PD
- Prolific producer
- Dropped a song with Conan O’Brien
- Blackface scandal – background dancers in blackface (very hard to find footage of this)
- Accused of sexualizing minors based on the concepts given to Miss A, GOT7, Twice, etc. in their early debut days.
- Cult allegations – Dispatch has a lengthy report showing why they assert that JYP is part of a cult, however, JYP condemned dispatch for “telling lies” and hurting his company.
- ‘Groove Back‘ controversy – JYP took to his Instagram to repost fans that were partaking in his challenge for the song he dropped in 2022… but adding unnecessary and sassy criticism as if they were auditioning for his company or approval. Who does that?!! Not to mention they were mostly international fans…
Controversies & Scandals @ JYP Entertainment
- JYP’s mistreatment of boy groups (particularly GOT7)
- HyunA‘s parents got her out of JYP because they were scared for her health (or so they say)…
- 2PM – quoted saying “JYP doesn’t trust us even though we have a musical background.”
- Jamie Park – complained about not being given opportunities to sing
- Momo’s diet – “Ate” only ice for over a week to lose enough weight to be allowed to debut.
- JYP Entertainment’s preferred age for trainees is for them to be below 15 and then train them for 5 to 7 years before debut.
- Kimberly Chen says that this way they can control the growth of the trainees, she says they gave her slimming pills
- Jay Park and his departure from 2PM
JYPE Branches/Businesses/Divisions
We pulled most of this info from Wikipedia in May of 2023 and modified some parts based on further research.
Branches (where they do business)
- JYP Entertainment (building in the Gangdong District)
- JYP Beijing Cultural Exchange Ltd (JYPE China): The Chinese division of JYP, and the company’s first official external branch in China. It was opened in 2008 and has two subsidiaries:
- Fanling Culture Media Ltd
- Beijing Shisung Ent. Ltd (joint venture with Tencent)
- (NCC) New Creative Culture
- JYP Entertainment USA Inc: The American division of JYP. It was established in 2008.
- JYP Entertainment Japan Inc: The Japanese division of JYP. It was established in 2009.
- JYP Entertainment Hong Kong Ltd: The Hong Kong division of JYP. It was established in 2017.
Businesses (what types of businesses do they have?)
- JYP Publishing Corp: An affiliated company of JYP founded in February 2008 which houses record producers and songwriters under the label.
- JYP Foods Inc: JYP Foods Incorporated was founded in 2010.
- Studio J Bar was created on June 2, 2016, as a collaboration between JYP and Y1975, a well-known bar in the Chungdam District.
- The Street is a brunch café owned by JYP. It has two branches: the main branch is located nearby the JYP Entertainment office building, and the other branch is located in the Gyeongridan area in Itaewon. The café is mostly used for interviews or meetings held by J.Y.Park and other artists under JYP.
- JYP Actors: The company’s acting division which was founded in 2011 and was led by JYP vice-president Pyo Jong-rok. As of September 1, 2019, JYP Actors has become defunct with its actors moving into a new start-up company established by Pyo Jong-rok called Npio Entertainment.
- JYP Pictures: The company’s film and TV drama production division that was founded in March 2011 along with other subsidiaries.
- JYP Pictures Co., Ltd Korea, established in 2013. It became defunct as of September 1, 2019
- JYP Pictures Co., Ltd China, established in 2014.
Divisions (musical act management houses within JYP Entertainment)
It’s almost like they have sub-labels, without calling them that. Each management team is responsible from top to bottom for everything related to that specific artist or group:
- DIV 1: 2PM, Stray Kids, NiziU
- DIV 2: ITZY
- DIV 3: Twice, JYP
- DIV 4 (SQU4D): the 4th division established by JYP Entertainment in 2021 exclusively for the girl group NMIXX. It’s managed under Lee Ji Young, the company’s first female CEO. Rumored to only count on 9 staff members.
- Studio J: DAY6 (Even of Day, Wonpil, Young K, Dowoon), Xdinary Heroes (and formerly Bernard Park).
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With the selling of the actor division, JYP lost all of the actors they managed. they currently manage idols who act, not actors. People speculate that Taecyeon and Suzy left JYP because they wanted to take their career more into acting than singing.
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To watch us talk about all of this in greater detail, check out our YouTube channel:
MIA2K: A K-Pop Podcast 
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