Rising costs of debuting an idol group

Article: Agencies spend an average of 2 billion won to take a trainee to debut... the war of money

Source: Herald Econ via Naver

1. [+4,962, -73] At least big agencies guarantee that you'll get spotlight as long as you debut. And even if they don't get spotlight, they still get more fans than most rookies would.

2. [+3,783, -193] Agencies must feel so angry whenever they see idols complain about slave contracts and filing lawsuits to terminate all the time. They make agencies look bad without realizing that it took 2 billion won to get them where they are but as soon as they debut and get popular, they start complaining about how much they're paid when they haven't even started turning a profit yet..

3. [+2,559, -49] Huk.. imagine spending all that money and never getting popular, it'd be so sad ㅜ

4. [+2,352, -55] 2 billion won... the loss is tremendous if your group flops

5. [+1,696, -49] Costs a lot more than I thought..

6. [+494, -7] Well you have to manage their bodies, make their stage outfits, hire managers, contract with hair and make up salons, get them dance and vocal training... everything from 1 to 10 costs money. That's why third rate agencies always put out poor quality idols, they just don't have the funds for all of it.

7. [+316, -11] That's why getting into a top 3 agency at least guarantees that you'll break even, although I'm sure it requires a lot more effort.

8. [+311, -17] I remember Girlfriend's agency being in a lawsuit with two members who left before their debut. It made me wonder how much money they invested in them that they were going that far with a lawsuit to get it back. 2 billion won is a lot of money, the CEO could've just bought a building and taken it easy for the rest of his life but he chose to invest it in them. Imagine investing all of that into a group and two members decide to screw you over and leave. That's a huge gamble with 2 billion won.

9. [+234, -8] That's why smaller agencies can't do experimental things like bigger agencies can since they don't have the funds for it. They have to follow what's trendy and put out what the public wants.

10. [+182, -9] It's why there are so many idol groups with a lot of members nowadays. Instead of investing all that money into one person at a time, just dump it all at once in a group, debut them, and then see which members stick in which area. Then you can cut down on expenses on what doesn't work and keep supporting the kid who's good at singing or the kid in acting or the kid in varieties...

11. [+167, -5] It's not only the idols suffering, imagine the emotional stress the agencies go through to debut just one idol group with all these expenses

12. [+163, -9] Agencies invest all this money into the idols but once the idols debut and get popular, they act like they got there on their own and start complaining about slave contracts to leave

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