It was recently announced that Taemin of SHINee parted ways with embattled company Big Planet Made Entertainment today.
We would like to inform you that our exclusive contract with Taemin has concluded.
We ask for your continued support and interest in Taemin’s future activities even after the contract’s termination.
Normally, I’d just put this into a Bullet Points article or something, but this felt especially notable because of the circumstances.
Obviously a lot of the discourse recently has revolved around the enforcement of contracts, and so in a vacuum it’s seem odd that a company would willingly part ways with one of their big fish less than two years after signing him away from SM Entertainment.
Well, apparently they didn’t have much of a choice, because they were in violation of said contract and they knew it.
According to an insider familiar with the situation, CEO Cha Ga Won was in a position where she had little choice but to accept Taemin’s request. As previously reported by The Fact, not only had settlement payments been delayed, but Cha also reportedly committed a serious error by signing a contract with an external company without Taemin’s consent.
That’s a two-for-one violation right there, and they have much bigger issues on their hands. No idea if Taemin can be compensated later for what he’s owed or if he just preferred to clear himself of this mess and move on.
The reason for all this is basically can’t pay their artists, much less support them, likely stemming from One Hundred CEO Cha Ga Won ongoing fraud allegations (which is a whole other mess I’ll try to cover later).
They also reportedly can’t even pay their staff, who quite frankly likely need wages more than the idols do, and so thankfully it was revealed that Taemin helped staff out by paying them out of his own pocket when the company did not.
After the initial report, it has been confirmed to have personally covered some staff salaries in recent months. According to Sports Chosun, during the contract termination process, which involved various uncertainties, Taemin continued working with his existing staff and supported part of their wages out of his own pocket.
Within the industry, some interpret this as a response to instability surrounding staff working conditions amid ongoing settlement delay allegations linked to Big Planet Made Entertainment, suggesting Taemin stepped in directly to provide support. The decision is seen as an effort to keep his team intact, reflecting his sense of responsibility and loyalty toward staff members he has worked with for many years. Netizens have nothing but praise for the young star.
Good on him for taking care of his people, obviously, but that paints an extremely bleak picture of the current finances at the company and hope for anybody associated with them to get paid at all, much less anytime soon.
That likely spells trouble for other artists at ONE HUNDRED and BPM, as well as those under Million Market and INB100.
English (US) · 