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Posted by Sophie-Ha Thursday, September 15, 2022

SM Entertainment looking to terminate their producer contract with Lee Soo Man

AKP STAFF

SM Entertainment is considering whether to terminate the production service contract signed with executive producer Lee Soo Man, who was the one behind the production of SM's leading artists, such as H.O.T., BoA, and Girls' Generation.

On September 15, SM Entertainment announced, “We are considering whether to terminate the production contract with Producer Lee Soo Man’s personal company ‘Like Planning’ early.” The agency continued, “Music executive Lee Soo Man has expressed to SM that he wants to terminate the contract early by the end of this year. We plan to discuss in depth with key stakeholders the impact of an early termination of the production contract, how it will affect our business and to summarize our position on the future direction and announce it at a later date.

Lee Soo Man founded SM Entertainment in 1995. He was a member of the SM's board of directors until 2010, when he stepped down but maintained a role in management and production. 'Like Planning' is the personal company of executive producer Lee Soo Man and the largest shareholder of SM Entertainment. SM has outsourced the production to Like Planning and paid tens of billions of KRW (millions of dollars) in royalties to Like Planning every year. Align Partners Asset Management, which owns a 1.1% stake in SM, pointed out that SM has paid 142.7 billion KRW (102 million USD) in royalties to Like Planning since its listing on the stock market until the third quarter of last year.

There is also an interpretation that this announcement is intended to alleviate the opposition and pressure of shareholders, such as Align Partners Asset Management, against SM's excessive royalties paid to executive producer Lee Soo Man's private company.

  1. Lee Soo Man
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eldershawol
eldershawol3,937 pts Thursday, September 15, 2022 13
Thursday, September 15, 2022

good! i think a lot of people forget (or new kpop fans don't know) that lsm was once wanted by interpol, and part of the reason kpop contracts are limited to 7 years now is because sme used to impose "slave contracts" of 13+ years on their idols. get this guy out of the business for good.

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pinupgirl158
pinupgirl1583,287 pts Thursday, September 15, 2022 3
Thursday, September 15, 2022

Great! As an old KPOP fan, people are forgetting that even if SM produced the biggest names, they’re also the biggest crooks. They started the slave contracts for idols, and they used to not pay the artists properly that’s why DBSK/TVXQ got divided because they were the top idol then and they weren’t getting paid right that JYJ sued them. They started the trend of because they felt bad, they banned their old artists in regular broadcasts like JYJ & Jessica. I won’t forget that day, when they decided to remove Jessica cause of Tyler Keon Lee Soo Man’s wife literally died like a few days after. It was crazy.

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