They Should Get More

Have you ever imagined to be a big star? What comes in your mind when you imagine about that? Popular? Talented? Successful? Rich? Yep, most of American stars are rich, but Korean stars are not, especially K-Pop stars. I think K-Pop stars don't get their salaries fairly, they deserve to get more salaries, and these reasons show why: they lost their privacy, the companies pay them very low, and they do a lot of works.

First, they lost their ordinary live. They have to live in a dorm, together with other members of their group (imagine, 13 members sleep in one room). They only visit their family twice in a year. They can not go outside the dorm without any permission from their manager. They are allowed to have their own car, but they can not use it, because the fans will easily spot them. They even have to leave the school, because their schedule is so tight. Also, some companies do not allow their artists to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, because it might cause the artists lose their popularity). And of course, paparazzi is ready to take your pictures, or reveal your dark past.

SHINee's Dorm- Five members share one room

The second reason is the companies pay their artists very low. JYP Entertainment (Jay Young- Park Entertainment) takes 50 % of the artists' income. The artists get 50%, and this 50% has to be share among the members. The more members in the group, the less money you get. For example, if you are a member of a group that consists of 5 members, you will get 50% divided by 5 =10%. Imagine if there is a group consists of 10 members, each of them will only get 5%. SM Entertainment (Soo Man Entertainment)- the biggest entertainment company in Korea- takes more. Many people said SM pays the artists really low. You can read TVXQ's contract:

Below is what the court has presented as the content of the members’ contracts. The contract has been modified 5 times since their debut, so this is the overall review.

    1. TVXQ has received $0 from their album sales till July 2008, and a very small amount after.

    Before the fifth modification that the company made with their contract, it stated that the profit from albums and singles with sales less than 500,000 copies would go 100% to SM Entertainment, which left the members with nothing. There has been no Korean album that have exceeded 500,000 album sales between the time of TVXQ’s debut and their 4th album Mirotic, which was the first album in Korea to sell over 500,000 albums for a long time.

    On July 1 2008, the company changed the contract so each member would get 1% from album sales that exceeded 200,000 copies. For albums that are below that number, they are paid 0.6% to nothing. Through these terms, TVXQ has not earned a single cent since February 2009.

    2. TVXQ has received $0 from sales of concert DVD’s and albums with recordings from concerts.

    The contract stated that the members are not entitled to get any profit from concert DVD’s and “live” albums.

    3. TVXQ received $0 from their appearances in TV programs.

    In the contract, the members do not have a right to receive the shares made from appearances on television programs if they are featured in only one episode or if their appearance is temporary. SM has kept all the profit from TV shows where TVXQ were guests.

    4. For other ways of getting profit, SM subtracts the total amount with all the expenses that the company has paid for them, including clothing, salary of company staff, stage preparation, rent, food expenses, and etc., which only leaves a fraction for the members of TVXQ.

Source: allkpop.com

TVXQ- three members (Xiah, Micky, and Hero) left SM Entertainment because of the contract problem

The next reason is, they do a lot of work. Usually, K-Pop stars have a tight schedule. Super Junior,for example, is booked until March 2012 for concerts, variety shows, live performances, radio guest activities, and so on. Besides that, if they have no schedule, they have to practice their choreography and their performances. usually a K-Pop star spends 10 hours to practice everyday. This schedule is going tighter and tighter if the star release a new album, he has to promote his album in at least, 5 different TV stations per week. Let me show you SHINee's schedule from December 2010 to January 2011. They had a really tight schedule, even in the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

 SHINee's Schedule

04 Dec 2010 (Sat) [Live] PM 03:50 MBC-TV Music Core! – MC Onew*Minho

05 Dec 2010 (Sun) [Performance] PM 00:00 The First Story of Oh Joonsung ‘Drama Concert’ – Guest (Seoul, Peace Center, Kyung Hee University)

 11 Dec 2010 (Sat) [Live] PM 03:50 MBC-TV Music Core! – MC Onew*Minho

26 Dec 2010 (Sun) [Overseas] PM 05:00 SHINee – The 1st Concert in Japan (Tokyo, Japan Yoyogi National Stadium 1st Gymnasium)

29th December 2010 SBS Gayo Daejun 2010

31st December 2010 – 1st January 2011 MBC Gayo Daejun 2010

 1 Jan 2011 (Sat) [Concerts] PM 00:00 SHINee – The 1st Concert in Seoul – 1 (Seoul, KBS Gymnastics Gymnasium)

2 Jan 2011 (Sun) [Concerts] PM 00:00 SHINee – The 1st Concert in Seoul – 2 (Seoul, KBS Gymnastics Gymnasium)

SHINee has to practice their choreography everyday, in order to make a great live performance.

Those three reasons really show that K-Pop stars deserve to get more salaries. They lost their privacy, the companies pay them very low, and they do a lot of works. See? The company should be wise and treat their artists better, because they give big contributions to the company. They should be treated as humans, not as robots which can earn money 24/7. That is my opinion. How about you?

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