Big Bang Got Our Cash

Not mine exactly, but yours if you've ever purchased their albums, attended their concerts, or even downloaded their ringtones. Legally, of course. YG Entertainment recently disclosed that Big Bang made a whopping 36,000,000,000 won in 2008, or around 24.5 million US Dollars, making them one of the most profitable groups in Korea. Yep, count the zeros, that is a lot of money! $_$ A good chunk of their income comes from concerts. Their two concerts in Japan, one in Thailand, and the three months of touring in Korea made them more than 5,000,000,000 won (around 3.43 million). Their album and mini-albums totalled 4,000,000,000 won (around 2.72 million). Other than that, being spokesmen and doing advertising for eight top Korean brands also contributed to a big chunk of that cool 24.5 million. That does sound like a lot of money, but when you consider the fact that there are five members, and the artists themselves normally only receive 20% of the total profit, that 24.5 million quickly disintegrates into pocket change. By rough calculations, each of the members will only receive 1,000,000,000 won, or around 680,000 US dollars. G-Dragon, who is in charge of composing as well as some aspects of production will receive a bit more than the others... Tae Yang as well, because of his solo efforts. But you also can't forget about the taxes. It's no secret that Korean boy bands don't make much after their management / company take away the bigger share (upwards of 80%). There were reports that Lee Soo Man gave H.O.T. only 1 cent per album sale... which was the main reason they broke up. But I really feel that they deserve more, since they probably have to work way more than the average person and endure all the other negative aspects of being a star, loss of privacy and such. Oh well, at least Big Bang members are not splitting it 13 ways like the Super Junior boys (with a cheap Lee Soo Man to boot). Now that is no kind of life. Looking at it this way, being a top idol really doesn't get you much. Then again in the big perspective, making a mid to high 6 figure sum before you enter college isn't that bad at all.