State Champ Radio Scooter Braun
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South Korean music company HYBE has made a major entry into the U.S. market by acquiring Atlanta-based QC Media Holdings, the company behind hip-hop label Quality Control Music and a roster that includes Migos, Lil Baby, City Girls and Lil Yachty.
Founded in 2013 by CEO Kevin “Coach K” Lee and COO Pierre “P” Thomas, Quality Control will fall under the HYBE America umbrella and the leadership of its CEO, Scooter Braun. HYBE America encapsulates SB Projects, as well as Big Machine Label Group, which HYBE obtained through its 2021 acquisition of Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.
“Based on hip-hop, QC has been making a strong presence in the American music scene,” HYBE CEO Jiwon Park said in a statement. “With our shared vision, I have high hopes in what we can operate and achieve together.”
In HYBE, Quality Control gets a team with a history of building artists from scratch into global stars. “All of HYBE’s leaders are entrepreneurs with phenomenal combined history [of] finding talent and taking it to the next levels,” said Thomas in a statement.
“P and I are ecstatic about this partnership with Scooter and HYBE and are confident they can get us to our global ambitions we’ve had in our scope since the beginning of the company as nothing means more than our artists impacting worldwide,” Lee added. “Over many years, Scooter and I have cultivated real trust and a common way of looking at the world and culture.”
Quality Control expands Braun’s purview to a genre that has been missing from HYBE’s broad roster. SB Projects clients include Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Kid Laroi. Big Machine’s country-focused roster features Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett and Rascal Flatts. HYBE has dipped its toes into hip-hop with Big Machine’s partnership with Blac Noize! Recordings, the label behind the 2022 summer anthem “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” by Hitkidd and Glorilla.
HYBE dominates K-pop with artists such as BTS, the BTS members’ solo projects, Tomorrow X Together, Enhypen and Seventeen. In December, it launched a new Japanese imprint, Naeco, and signed Japanese singer Yurina Hirate. HYBE also has a joint venture with Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records and is developing an international girl group in the U.S. But the ambitious Korean company had a limited presence in the world’s largest music market until the 2021 Ithaca acquisition. Quality Control, Braun’s first major acquisition as HYBE America CEO, further diversifies HYBE and gives it a premiere hip-hop brand.
Quality Control’s recordings have been distributed through Universal Music Group’s Motown Records, which formed a joint venture with Quality Control in 2015 along with UMG’s Capitol Music Group. A HYBE spokesperson did not comment on the state of the joint venture following the acquisition. Quality Control’s Thomas noted that both companies have a relationship with “the Universal Music Group family of companies [that] makes this seamless,” he said in a statement.
In 2022, Motown/Quality Control’s overall market share rose to 0.97% from 0.90% in 2021. In terms of current market share — music released over the previous 18 months — Motown/Quality Control improved from 1.18% in 2021 to 1.33% in 2022. It had remained part of Capitol’s market share during that period, despite its ostensible status as a standalone entity. Capitol’s overall market share declined from 6.81% in 2021 to 6.40% in 2022 while its current share dropped from 5.64% in 2021 to 4.97% in 2022.
In 2022, Lil Baby had 2.97 million equivalent albums – a metric that combines sales and streams – and 4.3 billion on-demand streams in the U.S. in 2022, according to Luminate. His track “In a Minute” peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 in April and ranked No. 43 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart. Despite not releasing a new album in 2022, Migos had 2.9 million album equivalent units and 4.3 billion on-demand streams last year. Lil Yachty had 424,000 album equivalent units and 637.8 million on-demand streams. City Girls had 251,000 album equivalent units and 361.6 million on-demand streams.
The acquisition also broadens HYBE’s tech portfolio. HYBE built its own social media platform, Weverse, to create a direct connection with its K-pop groups’ massive fan bases. It also owns a controlling stake in AI audio startup Supertone. Last year, Quality Control’s Solid Foundation Management, the company’s artist management arm, invested an undisclosed sum in music streaming platform SoundCloud. “This partnership is a vital part of our plan to innovate the entertainment industry through a diversified portfolio and innovative technologies,” said Bang Si-Hyuk, HYBE’s chairman, in a statement. “We will work together to continue adding to the global depth of hip-hop.”
Additional reporting by Dan Rys.
Scooter Braun has taken the title of CEO, HYBE America, the U.S. division of South Korean music company HYBE.
A HYBE representative confirmed to Billboard that Braun is now the sole CEO of HYBE America. Until recently, Braun shared the co-CEO title with veteran HYBE executive Lenzo Yoon. (Braun and Yoon appeared at No. 18 on Billboard’s 2022 Power List along with HYBE chairman Bang Si-yuk.) The HYBE representative declined to comment on Yoon’s current title or any changes to either executive’s role.
Braun joined the company through HYBE’s $1.05 billion acquisition of his Ithaca Holdings in 2021. Ithaca encompasses SB Projects, the management firm behind Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, as well as the country music-focused Big Machine Music Group. HYBE already had a U.S. presence — the acquisition was made by its state-side subsidiary, HYBE America — but Ithaca gave it the infrastructure and the executive, Braun, to build its presence in the U.S. Today, HYBE America has offices in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville. Braun’s team includes Allison Kaye, president of music, HYBE America and SB Projects; Jennifer McDaniels, president of management, HYBE America and SB Projects; and Jules Ferree, president of brands & ventures, HYBE America and SB Projects.
Yoon has spearheaded HYBE’s efforts to showcase K-pop artists based in the U.S. In a 2021 interview, he told Billboard that the U.S. provided an opportunity to implement the company’s “winning formula” that helped turn BTS into global superstars. HYBE has a joint venture with Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records to search for talent, assemble a girl group and release music. “We will find the most effective way to be successful in this project based on the know-how of the two companies,” said Yoon at the time.
Yoon also said Ithica and HYBE would help one another, but suggested Braun would carve out a distinct role in the organization. “We intend to cooperate in the most efficient way without overlapping in terms of structure,” he said.
Scooter Braun, CEO of HYBE AMERICA and founder of SB Projects, was invited as a special guest to &AUDITION – The Howling – FINAL ROUND, which took place Sept. 3 in Tokyo. The audition program produced by HYBE, the company behind BTS, was conducted in an unprecedented style with the aim of launching a global group comprised of members selected from a mix of contestants from I-LAND (the project that launched ENHYPEN) — K, EJ, NICHOLAS and TAKI — and 11 trainees.
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One new aspect of this audition was that its nature was cooperative and not competitive. Audition programs tend to promote ruthless rivalry, but &AUDITION – The Howling placed emphasis on mutual support and growth among the contestants. Sometimes the mission was designed to evaluate the overall perfection as a group rather than the excellence of the individual. As the rounds progressed, a strong bond was formed between all 15 participants, and when the nine debuting members were announced as the new group &TEAM in the final round, the men who weren’t selected congratulated the winners with beaming smiles in the end — though they did shed a few tears when they first learned the results.
Braun is a prominent executive and manager in the music industry. One of his companies, Ithaca Holdings LLC, merged with HYBE in May 2021 to become HYBE America, making it easier for HYBE’s artists — BTS included — and related businesses to penetrate the North American market. The close association between K-pop stars popular in Asian regions and Braun’s artists in North America can further expand the huge base that both companies have in the future.
Braun’s presence at &AUDITION – The Howling – FINAL ROUND shows his commitment to music and artists in Asia. At the same time, expectations for &TEAM’s global expansion are growing.
Braun had some heartfelt and profound words of advice for the nine debuting members of the new band &TEAM. Speaking from experience working with some of today’s biggest stars, he noted that “every great artist has a story of adversity. All the global stars that I’ve had the chance to work with have heard more ‘no’s than ‘yes’es” and “that’s what makes them great.” With that in mind, he encouraged the new members to overcome any adversity together, emphasizing that “you have a team, you have a family now to fight through that together, so never forget that [and] lean on each other.”
Braun promised he would return to Japan for the group’s first stadium show to cheer them on. He concluded his warm message to the group slated to debut as &TEAM by telling them, “Never, never give up. And when one of you falters, the other one pick him up, OK? You are family now. You got it. Congratulations! You can all smile, you’re here now.”
&TEAM consists of nine members: K, FUMA, NICHOLAS, EJ, YUMA, JO, HARUA, TAKI and MAKI. The brand-new band will drop their debut single Dec. 7. There’s a hopeful meaning behind the group’s name: “& is about bonding – people & individuals, humans & the world, fans & artists, fans & fellow fans, and ultimately bonding between nine members each with their vivid colors. In a constant pursuit for a better self, the members’ energy synthesizes to create one team that continues to excel and break through its limits.” Fans of the group will be collectively called LUNÉ, and the group is set to take on the global stage with LUNÉ’s dedicated support.
—This article by Suhi Yoon first appeared on Billboard Japan
