Follow Up: Idol groups and equal income distributions

Article: "Even the most popular members share their income" What's the secret behind idols and their income distribution?

Source: Newsen via Nate

Industry associate, "Most idols contract for an average of seven years. Recently, it's changed to five years. For the most part, idols will equally distribute their income for at least half of the duration of their contracts."

For the first half of their contracts, idols will share their income no matter how many individual activities they have. For the second half, they'll usually get to keep what they make for themselves.

Another associate said, "It'd be a lie to say that there isn't any discord within idol groups over this. Contracts are coordinated this way, however, to set the mindset of them being a team and prioritizing the team over themselves. If we let the more popular member keep everything that he/she earned right from the beginning, there's a bigger chance for discord. We go for an equal distribution to prioritize team cohesion."

1. [+743, -110] I can understand variety or music promotion income being distributed equally between the four miss A members but they have to be thieves to think of taking money from Suzy's drama activities... Why would you ever accept that money? I'd be too embarrassed to

2. [+685, -83] When Suzy promotes as an actress, she's promoting as Bae Suzy, not miss A's Suzy... She should not have to share that income.

3. [+597, -86] So it seems most contracts share at first before dividing it up later on in the contract... But if miss A had a conscience... I'd be really pissed, though. Suzy practically promotes all by herself and yet they all receive equal pay ㅋㅋ Probably the same for her recent drama too

4. [+70, -14] I don't get why everyone is hating on the other members??? They never signed the contract thinking that this would happen. They all trained for longer than Suzy so I'm sure they thought they'd be more popular than her. If you remember what Jo Kwon said, the longer you are a trainee, the more money you have to pay back to the company. I'm sure the remaining members want to be out there making money too.. Who would be happy sitting back and watching Suzy promote solo on all the shows?

5. [+52, -13] What's up with the best replies? They all signed the contract together without knowing at all who would achieve fame or popularity first. I see it more as the group sharing the risks that come with their debut (not being successful). It could've happened in any which way, like another member blowing up in popularity over Suzy. The other members don't deserve hate for it tsk tsk

6. [+49, -6] From Suzy's perspective, yeah it's not fair... but I think it's more the agency's problem than anything because they're the ones showing bias and only promoting one or two members at a time. The other members are probably just as stressed.. They don't deserve to be hated on for something out of their control.

7. [+36, -2] The contract itself is fine and makes a lot of sense if you think about the time that they're signing it. They're rookies with no guarantee at all for their futures so they're sharing the risk of failure because you're going to at least be making some type of money even if all four members don't get popular together...

8. [+34, -2] Well you could think about it from the perspective of the other members... When Suzy's out promoting alone, miss A can't promote as a group so it's unfair for them as well.

-