Industry Entertainment Headquarters South Korea Acquisition date 2005 | Founder Min Yeong-bin Number of employees 361 (as of October 2016) Total assets 303.8 billion KRW (2014) | |
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Native name 주식회사 로엔엔터테인먼트
(full)
(주)로엔엔터테인먼트
(shortened) Type Public Jusikhoesa (J.H.) Traded as KRX: 016170
KRX 100 Component
KOSDAQ 100 Component Genre K-pop
Dance
Pop
Electropop
R&B
Hip Hop
EDM
Trot
Rock
Contemporary Christian music
Traditional Korean music Stock price 016170 (KOSDAQ) ₩ 83,500 +500.00 (+0.60%)9 Mar, 3:32 PM GMT+9 - Disclaimer Founded 7 July 1982, Seoul, South Korea Parent organizations Kakao, Affinity Equity Partners Artists BTS, IU, AOA, Seventeen, Infinite Profiles | ||
Loen entertainment
LOEN Entertainment (Hangul: 로엔 엔터테인먼트), formerly Seoul Records (Hangul: 서울 음반), is a South Korean entertainment company established by Min Yeong-bin in 1978. It is headquartered in Tehran Boulevard, Gangnam, Seoul. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production company, and music publishing house.
Contents
- Loen entertainment
- History
- Company name
- Logos
- Catalog numbers
- Price fixing
- Incredible promotion conflict
- MelOn Biz
- Contents Biz
- Production Biz
- Artists
- Musicians
- Actors and actresses
- Studio artists
- Current trainees
- Former Artists and Trainees
- References
As of 2015, LOEN is the leading record company in South Korea by net revenue according to the statistics compiled by the Korea Music Content Industry Association (KMCIA) through the Gaon Music Chart (30.4%); it is also the second leading company in terms of album sales (25.4%). Since January 2016 LOEN has been a subsidiary of Kakao.
Online music sales account for most of the company's profit, with 93.9% of revenue coming from online music sales. The label also distributes CDs of some other entertainment agencies in South Korea through its branch LOEN Music, but makes less than 5% of its revenue through them.
History
LOEN Entertainment was founded as Seoul Records in 1978 by Min Yeong-bin as a subsidiary of YBM Sisa, a company mainly involved in creating language-learning tapes. The company was officially registered in 1982, and in 1984 it began to produce and distribute records of classical and traditional music. It was registered as a venture capital company in 1999, when it began to sell albums while operating an online shop. In 2000, the company's name was changed to YBM Seoul Records and it began to operate on KOSDAQ. The company joined the IFPI in 2003. Korean conglomerate SK Telecom bought a 60% share of the company in 2005, and YBM Seoul Records subsequently became part of SK Group. As of 2008, the company has been known as LOEN Entertainment.
LOEN took charge of SK Telecom's online music distribution service, MelOn, in 2009. MelOn is currently the most used online music sales site in South Korea.
In 2012, the company signed a deal with streaming site Viki so that content from their artists (such as IU, Brown Eyed Girls and Drunken Tiger) would be featured on their site.
In August 2012, the recording artists under LOEN collaborated to release a collaborative EP titled LOEN Tree Summer Story under the collective title 'LOEN Tree'.
On July 18, 2013, Affinity Equity Partners, through its subsidiary Star Invest Holdings Ltd., bought 52.56% of LOEN's shares, leaving SK Group with only 15%. Five months later, Star Invest Holdings acquired RealNetworks, Inc.'s 8.83% stake in the company. The company was reorganized to include two labels: "LOEN Tree" (Jo Yeong-cheol) and "Collabodadi" (Shinsadong Tiger).
On December 18, 2013, LOEN acquired 70% of shares in Starship Entertainment, making it as an independent subsidiary of LOEN.
On January 11, 2016, LOEN was acquired by Kakao Corporation.
Company name
The name LOEN stands for:
Logos
The company's first logo was the two small letters s and r (SR, for Seoul Records) combined. At the bottom of the logo was the English name (SEOUL RECORDS), while the Korean name ((주)서울음반) was at its right corner.
Catalog numbers
As of 2015, LOEN currently uses two types of catalog number codes for its releases: the L10000**** series (now at the -5000 suffix) and the L20000**** series (now at the -1000 suffix).
Price fixing
2011
LOEN, along with then-parent SK Telecom, was one of the 15 companies fined and sued by the Korean FTC for price rigging in 2011. The company was fined $9.6 million for its role in the scheme.
2016
On October 9, 2016, the Supreme Court of South Korea handed out a 100 million-won fine each to LOEN and its closest competitor KT Music for colluding in price fixing, dating back to a case filed in 2008. Co-CEO Shin Won-soo, who was the sole CEO at the time being, was also sentenced to pay 10 million won.
Incredible promotion conflict
In 2013, LOEN made a deal with C-JeS Entertainment to promote and distribute Junsu's second studio album Incredible. Days before the album's release, C-JeS was reportedly notified by LOEN that they would distribute the album but had scrapped plans for promotional marketing and broadcasting Junsu's upcoming showcase on MelOn, although they would be able to broadcast it on LOEN TV. Promotional banners regarding the album's release on MelOn also disappeared from LOEN's social media accounts. C-JeS subsequently threatened to remove mentions of LOEN from Junsu's upcoming showcase and to file for a civil appeal to the Fair Trade Commission and Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.
In response, LOEN stated that they were still in discussions regarding the album's promotion and that nothing had been confirmed prior to the relevant article's release. They pointed to the showcase event page on MelOn's homepage still being up as evidence that promotions were going ahead as planned. C-JeS responded saying that they had begun receiving pre-orders for the album and entries for the showcase event without response from LOEN.
Following media attention, the two companies met on July 8 and resolved the dispute. Incredible was promoted and distributed by LOEN as planned.
MelOn Biz
MelOn Biz is LOEN's online music service division, operating MelOn, short for 'melody on'. MelOn is the most popular music service in Korea, with 59% of all users in South Korea as of November 2013. That year Soompi ranked MelOn as the third most influential entity in the K-pop industry.
Contents Biz
Contents Biz is responsible for LOEN's content production division 1theK, which was known as LOEN Music before February 2014. The name '1theK' indicates its aim of creating one source for worldwide K-pop content. According to LOEN it distributes over 300 titles per year, working with independent agencies to invest in music production.
Production Biz
Production Biz is LOEN's artist management division, formerly known as Artists Biz. LOEN Entertainment manage their artists with separated into house label LOEN Tree and Collabodadi, established in September 2013. Collabodadi artists was moved to LOEN Tree in September 2015 and later LOEN Tree renamed as Fave Entertainment in February 2016.
In 2015, LOEN acquired independent label Starship Entertainment and Plan A Entertainment now also belongs to this division, as well as King Kong Entertainment (which Starship acquired in 2015).
Artists
All artists under LOEN Entertainment are collectively known as LOEN Tree.
Musicians
Groups
Soloists
Actors and actresses
Studio artists
Producers
Lyricists