Intercollegiate association supports amateur artists
Song Jun-ho, front, co-president of Proteurment, poses with fellow members. Proteurment is an intercollegiate club association that discovers, supports and manages amateur artists. The management is based at Soongsil University in Seoul. / Yonhap
By Kwon Ji-youn
Akdong Musicians, the brother-sister duo, Lee Chan-hyuk, 16, and Lee Soo-hyun, 13, placed first in the audition program, K-Pop Star 2.
But behind Akdong Musician’s success was Proteurment, an intercollegiate club association that discovers and supports amateur artists. The management is based at Soongsil University.
Proteurment discovered Akdong Musicians on YouTube before they took part in the survival singing contest.
“We search for, support and provide opportunities for talented amateurs who hope to debut as professional artists,” said Song Jun-ho, 22, co-president of Proteurment.
According to Song, Akdong Musicians are the first artists under their management to enter into the major entertainment industry, but are definitely not the only talent that Proteurment supports.
As a management business, it finds gigs and performance opportunities for their artists and hosts street shows every week. It stays true to its compound meaning of bringing together professionalism, amateur artists and management.
The management also searches for prospective artists by surveying YouTube and by networking.
“I felt regretful about the fact that so many talented artists cannot fulfill their dreams due to a lack of time and money,” Song said. “I wanted to help those people.”
Instead of signing contracts with their artists, Proteurment signs a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with them. Song calls them “collaborative artists” rather than affiliates.
“Instead of training our artists, we find prospective performance opportunities for them,” said Choi In-koo, co-president. “We hope they will then be given the chance to spread their wings.”
Akdong Musicians recently signed a contract with YG Entertainment, one of the three top entertainment businesses in Korea.
Proteurment dreams of one day paving a path that will help artists debut without the help of major entertainment businesses or audition programs.
“We want to carve a new tunnel,” Choi added. “Our place in society is to show the public what else is out there.”