HYBE’s Recent “Mistake” Sparks Criticism For Its “Multi-Label” System

It isn’t the first time a mistake like this has happened.

HYBE Labels, a giant in the Korean music industry, works as an umbrella company that has many sub-agencies that all work independently to manage their artists when it comes to creating and promoting music. The various subsidiaries under HYBE include BIGHITMUSIC, ADOR, Pledis Entertainment, SOURCEMUSIC, and KOZ.

BTS is under BIGHIT MUSIC | @bts_bighit/X

LE SSERAFIM is under SOURCE MUSIC | @le_sserafim/X

SEVENTEEN is under Pledis Entertainment | @pledis_17/X

Yet, a recent social media mistake has caused netizens to criticize the multi-label system, including BIGHIT’s TXT and KOZ’s BOYNEXTDOOR.

On September 13, netizens shared a screenshot showing that a recent BOYNEXTDOOR video was shared on TXT’s official X account.

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Netizens pointed out that it wasn’t the first time a group’s promotion was done on another account, including an ENHYPEN video placed on a Jungkook promotion for Weibo and BOYNEXTDOOR schedule posted on ENHYPEN’s Japanese X account.

| theqoo

| theqoo

When the photo was posted, netizens criticized the mistake.

Netizens explained that if all the labels were meant to work independently, it should mean that each company handles the promotion for their group and only has access to the accounts pertaining to their company. Some netizens even wondered if they were struggling to maintain this system, asking if it was that hard to have different staff rather than one person handling everything regarding social media.

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• Isn’t this practically lying to the shareholders? The independent label isn’t running smoothly, and it seems like the staff numbers are heavily inflated. A lot of money must be going under the table.
• It’s not the first time, lol. There are a lot of different groups too, lol.
• Wait, why are they being managed like that when they’re under a different agency? I don’t get it.
• It’s supposed to be a label system, so why is one entity handling everything?
  If it were the same company, people wouldn’t be saying anything.
• Isn’t it a completely different label? It’s not even the same label, this is absurd.
• It’s not like SM, where divisions are under one company. Each label is practically a separate company, right?
• Why is it so hard to get more staff? How can one person handle everything?
  And if it’s like this, there’s no point in talking about having an independent label system.
• If this has gotten worse recently, is HYBE really struggling? It’s funny how they make such mistakes even though the agencies are different. They said KOZ was separate, but it doesn’t seem like it at all.
• Lol, they said it’s an independent multi-label system, but is it actually not?
• No matter how you look at it, this isn’t a label system. It’s just one big HYBE group.
• This is supposed to be a multi-label system? Lol.

It’s not the first time the system of HYBE has come under criticism, and you can read more below.

When It Rains, It Pours: Has HYBE’s Multi-Label System Become Toxic?