ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin‘s relationship with HYBE‘s subsidiary label, SOURCE MUSIC, has sparked anger among international fans.
Amid everything going on with Min Hee Jin and HYBE, talk has also turned to SOURCE MUSIC, home to LE SSERAFIM and the company of GFRIEND, before they chose not to renew their contracts.
Back in 2021, it was revealed that Min Hee Jin was joining forces with Bang Si Hyuk to create a new girl group under a new label, but it was due to be a collaboration with SOURCE MUSIC.
[ 📰 #ARTICLE ]
Since joining Big Hit, CBO Min Hee-jin has been in charge of creative directing of the labels under Big Hit excluding Big Hit and she also led the launch of a new girl group aiming to debut in 2021 by collaborating with Source Music.https://t.co/D4aAyWoxGs pic.twitter.com/5PD3RZqta2
— 플러스 업데이트 🔎 (@plus_updates) January 8, 2021
On the Korean forum Instiz, an OP traced the timeline of this process.
According to the post, when doing the auditions for the new group, which included current NewJeans member Minji who trained under SOURCE MUSIC, all of the auditions, trainees, and costs were charged to SOURCE MUSIC. After all the auditions, the members were chosen for NewJeans and began their training under ADOR.
Yet, it was the sixth and seventh points that revealed that once ADOR had been established, some of the staff moved to the new company, and the costs/operating funds were divided by SOURCE MUSIC.
At the same time, the group meant to debut under SOURCE MUSIC was disbanded, which added to the deficits of the company, and it was after that when GFRIEND chose not to renew their contracts. With the company in a deficit, the LE SSERAFIM project was started with staff from BIGHIT MUSIC.
With time running short and funds running low, they had to pick the best trainees they could to debut quickly, which is why the members’ trainee periods were so short, although many of the the members had previous training.
When the piece was shared online, it quickly got a hot and heated response from international fans.
According to netizens, they believe that with everything explained in the text from the timeline, Min Hee Jin was the reason behind GFRIEND disbanding and shared their anger. Many believed the lack of money and resources for SOURCE MUSIC after it was shared with ADOR had contributed to the sudden disbandment and the members not renewing.
so gfriend disbanded bc of ador and they were all jumping lsfm for no reason pic.twitter.com/srkMLyGqjF
— ★🇵🇸 (@chaesmart) April 23, 2024
so gfriend disbanded because of ador/mhj
source employees were given to ador
source was devoid of man power but since bang pd already had a concept in mind, bighit employees were transfer to source to help them🤔🤔
— (ia)ksxxh FIMCHELLA 🏜️ (@godzuha) April 23, 2024
ador caused gfriend to disband but lsf got all the lashings for two years holy shit min heejin open the fucking door! pic.twitter.com/o6MAJUAGKp
— coco 𐙚⊹ ࣪ (@fimtannies) April 23, 2024
In the article, there was no direct link between Min Hee Jin’s creation of ADOR and GFRIEND’s disbandment.
All of this is speculation by fans after looking at the timeline and finding connections. It could be a coincidence that GFRIEND disbanded, or it could be in line with netizens’ opinions on SOURCE MUSIC’s lack of funds, but with Min Hee Jin and her future plans with ADOR in the public eye, it’s not surprising that it’s gaining a lot of attention.
Source: INSTIZ
