The Korean wave is helping singers like Girls’ Generation and BIGBANG make big bank.
Your favorite K-pop stars are making bank and largely have their international fans to thank for it.
According to a recent report by South Korea’s National Tax Service, the average annual income for Korean singers rose to 46.74 million won (about $43,000) in 2013. That’s more than 72 percent rise since 2010 when the average earnings totaled around 23 million won (or $21,000).
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The report says experts largely attribute the jumps to growing overseas activities that generate more international album sales and tours — 2014 saw the most K-pop concerts ever in America.
It’s good news for Girls’ Generation and BIGBANG, the K-pop groups who placed at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on Forbes Korea’s 2014 Power Celebrity 40 list.
But if those numbers still seem low for celebrity standards, that’s because they sort of are. The report notes that K-pop acts give a large chunk of their earnings to their managing agencies (some of whom house and feed the acts) while groups split earnings among band members.
Meanwhile, Korean singers surpassed actors and TV personalities who earned an average of 37.18 million won in 2013 — a 12 percent increase from the 26.42 million won in 2010.
Debonair
@JD The top stars make pretty much what American top stars make. Girl Generations, Big Bang, and 2NE1 members have each made millions. Kpop deals are like 360 deals on steroids though. Standard contract is like 7 years. The agency get like 50% of everything from movie roles, commerical endorsements, tv appearances, touring and record sales. Now the Korea agencies do big time artists development on these acts. They might have been in training for 5 years before they debut the agency might have spent a million dollars before the debut. . It’s common for groups to have 5-9 members. So you can see how the money is low. In 2014, it was a lot of lawsuits of acts trying to get out of these deals though.