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| Lee Soo-man, the founding chairman and producer of S.M. Entertainment, speaks during a press conference at SMTOWN in Coex Artium, Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of S.M. Entertainment |
By Kim Jae-heun
Lee Soo-man, the founding chairman and producer of SM Entertainment, revealed his five new projects for future hallyu, or the Korean wave, and a new boy band named Neo Culture Technology (NCT) at SMTOWN in Coex Artium, Seoul, Wednesday.
"SM Entertainment has been developing core culture technologies such as casting, training, producing and marketing for the last 20 years and now we have converged and extended them into NCT," said Lee. "This year, we are entering the third stage of hallyu."
Lee explained that the first stage of hallyu was marked by developing cultural content and exporting it, while the second stage saw the rise of collaborations with local entertainment companies. In the third stage, Lee will establish the joint entertainment firm with local companies and pass down his strategy.
SM Entertainment has been casting talented youths in 20 different cities across Asia and putting them through the entertainment company's unique training system.
"SM has a different producing system and it is one of the culture technologies that we are most proud of. SM produces not only music, but also content like fashion, choreography and music videos that lead the world music market," Lee said.
For marketing, SM Established SM C&C, where the company produces actors, emcees and runs video businesses. Lee recently joined up with sports marketing firms and fashion agencies to expand its influence into every aspect of culture in Korea.
SM Entertainment's upcoming new idol group is the epitome of Lee's third-stage plan, or "glocalizing" hallyu. NCT focuses on openness and expandability, in which there is no limit in the number of group members. Lee will make boy bands with different members from various countries under the name of NCT, singing the same song in different languages.
Lee's first NCT will debut this spring as a unit group and perform in Seoul and Tokyo in the first half year and in Chinese-speaking cities the second half. The producer will also debut the next NCTs worldwide in regions like Southeast Asia and Latin America the following year.
Along with SM Entertainment's new boy band plan, Lee suggested future hallyu based on his five new projects.
STATION is a new music channel for digital tracks, where SM will debut new songs every week on particular days. Various artists, producer and songwriters will collaborate to reveal their fruits through STATION.
Lee's electronic dance music (EDM) label "ScreaM Records" will launch an EDM festival with world popular EDM companies like Refune Music and OWSLA. Global EDM producer Skillex will collaborate with SM Entertainers and the song will be introduced through the label. Lee is planning to open the EDM festival in Korea first, then in Asia, and ultimately make Korea one of the world's EDM festival powerhouses along with Miami and Amsterdam.
The third project includes SM's mobile application services such as karaoke program everysing, video-producing-and-sharing service everyshot, and Vyrl where fans can communicate with celebrities all day in 50 different languages.
Rookies Entertainment is another application where anyone can participate to produce a new star. It adopts SM's producing system, and users can experience the company's star-incubating system.
The last project uses multi-channel networks (MCNs), where SM will produce content for its celebrities in every field from radio and TV shows to fashion and beauty.
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