Scooter Braun has become the sole CEO of HYBE America, Variety has confirmed. He previously shared the co-CEO title with Lenzo Yoon, a veteran of Big Hit (HYBE’s former corporate name), who joined the South Korean company — home of K-pop sensations BTS — in 2010 as head of strategic planning. came. At HYBE, according to a 2021 announcement, Yoon has been tasked with “localizing the K-pop business model in the US music industry.”
Braun’s Ithaca Holdings merged with HYBE in April 2021, giving the company a 100% interest in Ithaca and its properties, which include SB Projects and management clients Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato, and Big Machine Label Group. With the merger, Braun joined HYBE’s board of directors and retained the CEO title for the American business. Bang Si-Hyuk, who founded Big Hit in 2005, resigned from the CEO post in July 2021 and remains chairman.
That gave Yoon, who was instrumental in building BTS’ fan base, a seemingly bigger role. Yoon (full name Yoon Seok Joon) became Global CEO in May 2020 before the company started its IPO on the Seoul Stock Exchange. He then became CEO of HYBE America in July 2021. The US role earned him a spot (alongside Bang and Braun) on Billboard’s Global Power 2022 list. HYBE hasn’t specified what Yoon’s future role might be. And it hasn’t responded to Variety’s inquiries.
The billion-dollar Ithaca-HYBE deal resulted in big paydays for Braun’s employees and clients, including Allison Kaye, president of SB Projects, Grande, Bieber and J Balvin. A $50 million commitment of Braun private stock was made available to acts and employees who have been with Braun since SBP’s inception in 2007. Bieber and Grande each received 53,557 shares — equivalent to about $10 million each — while Balvin received 21,423 shares. Demi Lovato was allotted 5,355. Smaller slices of the pie were distributed to other artists on the label such as Carly Rae Jepsen and Asher Roth, as well as producer Andrew Watt, Migos rapper Quavo, producer Tommy Brown and songwriter Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd, among others. Kaye, meanwhile, received a whopping 26,778 shares — good for $5 million.
Elsewhere in the Braun empire, Bieber just sold its music rights to Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital for over $200 million in a deal that includes Bieber’s interest in its publishing and recorded catalog, Bieber’s interest in its publishing copyrights ( including that of the author) includes performance credits), master recordings and related rights for its entire back catalog, which includes over 290 titles released prior to December 31, 2021.
Although BTS is HYBE’s main client, the company and its subsidiaries are also home to popular K-pop acts Tomorrow x Together, Enhypen, Seventeen and more. HYBE recently debuted a K-pop girl group, Le Sserafim, in May 2022 in a partnership with Source Music. With the release of their second EP, Antifragile, in October, the group became the fastest female K-pop act to debut on the Billboard 200.
HYBE ramped up its sales growth in 2022 and grossed over $1 billion, putting it in the league of a mini-major label. So far this year, the stock is up 10% despite falling 31% compared to last year’s performance. As of January, HYBE has a market cap of $6.25 billion, although that’s down from a peak of $12.1 billion in late 2021.
When BTS announced its “pause” in June 2022, HYBE stock fell 28%, representing a $1.7 billion drop in market value. However, HYBE soon released a statement taking back the word “hiatus” and claiming the word was mistranslated in the group’s Korean-language announcement. “BTS doesn’t take a break. Members will be more focused on solo projects at this point,” the statement said.
That has come true as members RM and J-Hope have both been releasing solo projects since the announcement. The group is also due for military service and will therefore be temporarily inactive, but “looks forward to reuniting as a group around 2025 on their promise of service,” label Big Hit Music said in a statement.