How K-pop agencies make money — HYBE, JYP, SM, YG H1 2026

Not investment advice.

Figures from public filings as of Oct 9, 2026. Investment decisions and their results are your own responsibility.

Short answer: for the two big agencies that break their sales down in detail, no single line pays the bills. In the first half of 2026, concerts were HYBE’s largest line (34%), while at JYP, merchandise (104.4 billion won, 28.3%) edged out albums and music (101.7 billion won, 27.6%). YG reports albums and merch as one line, and that line was half of its sales. SM’s half-year report does not give a consolidated breakdown of sales by type.

Everything below comes from the four companies’ half-year reports for January–June 2026, filed with Korea’s disclosure system (DART) on August 14, 2026. Won amounts are converted at 1,541.5 won per US dollar, the June 30, 2026 rate that HYBE’s own report uses — a period-end rate, not the average for the half. The dollar figures are our conversion, not the companies’.

An empty concert hall after the show: a black flight case at the front of the stage holds stacks of blank CD cases, a folded plain T-shirt and a light stick, under a lighting truss with soft spotlights and haze — Records, merch and an empty stage — three of the places K-pop revenue comes from.AI-generated editorial illustration · not an official image of any company.

The four agencies at a glance

All four are listed in Seoul. The numbers are consolidated and prepared under K-IFRS, Korea’s version of international accounting standards.

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Sales	In US dollars	vs H1 2025*	Operating profit	Operating margin*
2,148.3 billion won	~$1,394 million	+78.1%	−25.65 billion won (loss)	−1.2%
628.7 billion won	~$408 million	+17.7%	91.5 billion won	14.5%
369.1 billion won	~$239 million	+3.5%	64.4 billion won	17.4%
274.9 billion won	~$178 million	+37.1%	30.4 billion won	11.1%

*Our calculations: change = H1 2026 sales ÷ H1 2025 sales − 1; operating margin = operating profit ÷ sales.

HYBE is bigger than the other three combined: its half-year sales were about 1.7 times SM, JYP and YG added together (2,148.3 ÷ 1,272.7). Yet it is the only one of the four that reported an operating loss for the period, against an 87.5 billion won profit a year earlier. JYP grew least but kept the highest margin.

Where the money comes from

Each company sorts its sales into its own categories, so the lines do not match one-to-one. The chart and the table put them into rough buckets of our own; the notes under the table give each company’s original labels.

Bucket (our grouping)
Albums & music	598.3 bn won (27.8%)	101.7 bn won (27.6%)	—
Albums + merchandise (one line at YG)	—	—	136.0 bn won (49.5%)
Concerts	736.4 bn won (34.3%)	80.8 bn won (21.9%)	40.3 bn won (14.7%)
Merchandise & licensing	448.0 bn won (20.9%)	104.4 bn won (28.3%)	—
Ads & appearances	108.8 bn won (5.1%)	39.5 bn won (10.7%)	13.2 bn won (4.8%)†
Content	147.6 bn won (6.9%)	—	—
Music services	—	—	43.6 bn won (15.9%)
Fan club & other	109.2 bn won (5.1%)	42.7 bn won (11.6%)	41.8 bn won (15.2%)†
Total	2,148.3 bn won	369.1 bn won	274.9 bn won

Shares are each line ÷ the company’s total sales, our calculation. HYBE’s lines are its own six categories. JYP’s merchandise line is labelled MD; its ads (27.3) and appearances (12.2 bn won) are two separate lines we added together; and its “other” line (42.7 bn won) includes image rights — JYP reports no fan club line. †YG reports ads, royalties, appearances and other income as one “other” line of 55.0 bn won and breaks it down in a note: ads 10.5, royalties 15.0, appearances 2.7 and other 26.8 bn won. We moved ads and appearances into their own row; royalties and other stay in “Fan club & other”. In the chart, YG’s whole “other” line (ads and appearances included) is one grey bar, and HYBE’s content and fan club lines are grey too.

Three things the mix shows

1. Touring is the biggest single line at HYBE. Concert sales of 736.4 billion won (about $478 million) in six months were larger than its album and music sales. At JYP and YG, concerts were a smaller share — 22% and 15%.

2. Merch is not a side business. At JYP, merchandise (104.4 billion won) was slightly larger than albums and music (101.7 billion won). At HYBE it was about a fifth of sales. YG folds merchandise into the same line as albums.

3. Albums and music are under 30% of sales. At HYBE (27.8%) and JYP (27.6%) alike, albums and music were less than three-tenths of sales. With merchandise added, the two lines came to 48.7% at HYBE and 55.8% at JYP ((albums & music + merchandise) ÷ sales). The rest is concerts, ads and appearances, content and other income.

SM: a big agency without a breakdown

SM’s half-year report gives consolidated sales of 628.7 billion won and operating profit of 91.5 billion won, both up from a year earlier (534.3 and 80.2 billion won). But the report does not give a consolidated breakdown of sales by type like the ones HYBE, JYP and YG publish, so we left SM out of the chart rather than mixing in a different basis.

What these filings don’t tell you

Why HYBE’s operating result swung to a loss. We report the number and do not try to explain the swing here.
Year-on-year change by line. In the revenue-by-type tables of these reports, the comparison column is the full year 2025, not the first half, so we can’t show how each line grew. JYP also notes that from 2026 it moved YouTube revenue into albums and music and split out merchandise, so its lines are not directly comparable with earlier years anyway.
Which artist earned what. The reports are by business line, not by act.
The second half. Tour and release timing can shift sales between halves; six months is a snapshot, not a run rate.

These are four companies’ own numbers for one half-year, put side by side. They describe how each business is built, not whether any of the shares is worth buying.

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