[xlkathelx]

Well I was just wondering how much korean singers make if they are BIG stars or just stars...
and how much is it in USD?? I bet its not even as much as singers in the US. I think Korean singers should make as much as the singers in the US :DDD

[LastRain]

I heard somewhere that SM really under pay their artists. Like DBSK for example, they say they get paid 3 cents for every album they sell. So their income completely depends on album sells. Things like promotion activities get them nothing. All the money they make goes back to SM, including concert tickets... But I have serious doubt in my mind now. Not only DBSK, but H.O.T and Shinwa... But they might be rumors.
Jaejoong from DBSK drives a BMW, Xiah Junsu from DBSK donated 300 000 won to his brother's university... so I'm doubting what I heard now...

[apple-snapple-YUM]

hmm there was some info bout this a while ago...i really doubt i myself can find it...but anyway-i dont think korean singers make as much as american stars...

ok. there IS an article, or some kind of information on this...
but i know that korean stars usually dont get payed well...but yes, if a singer is really popular, like lee hyori, then you get payed alot.

[1TYM On My Mind]

hmm there was some info bout this a while ago...i really doubt i myself can find it...but anyway-i dont think korean singers make as much as american stars...

ok. there IS an article, or some kind of information on this...
but i know that korean stars usually dont get payed well...but yes, if a singer is really popular, like lee hyori, then you get payed alot.

LoL! Hyori is the highest paid Female Korean Artist in Korea. I read that somewhere in a Soompi article. But yeah, I do wonder how much all the Korean artists get paid.....
I heard they don't get paid much too, but they do commercials for products and stuff like that for extra money too though....

[` k s]

I heard somewhere that SM really under pay their artists. Like DBSK for example, they say they get paid 3 cents for every album they sell. So their income completely depends on album sells. Things like promotion activities get them nothing. All the money they make goes back to SM, including concert tickets... But I have serious doubt in my mind now. Not only DBSK, but H.O.T and Shinwa... But they might be rumors.
Jaejoong from DBSK drives a BMW, Xiah Junsu from DBSK donated 300 000 won to his brother's university... so I'm doubting what I heard now...

3 CENTS? That's ridiculous if that's true. And 300,000 won is only like 250 dollars which is nothing. I remember there was an article a while back about how artists wanted their paychecks raised for appearing on music shows and I think they were getting at the least $1000 per appearance (???) which isn't THAT bad. But still, I wonder about those artists that sell like NOTHING and have all these backdancers and stuff. They must be brrroooke. Although not a singer, my friend from Korea said MC Yoo made 10,000 dollars (or was it 50,000, I forget) for every X-man episode. Wowzas.

[itrayya]

i doubt that they dont get pay well.
i mean... chae yeon bought her mom a house. (park myung soo said so on x- man)
and DBSK is hella popular... i doubt that they will not be as rich as top stars.
but i do think that korean stars get lower than american ones. my opinion. only.

[uruchai]

I heard somewhere that SM really under pay their artists. Like DBSK for example, they say they get paid 3 cents for every album they sell. So their income completely depends on album sells. Things like promotion activities get them nothing. All the money they make goes back to SM, including concert tickets... But I have serious doubt in my mind now. Not only DBSK, but H.O.T and Shinwa... But they might be rumors.
Jaejoong from DBSK drives a BMW, Xiah Junsu from DBSK donated 300 000 won to his brother's university... so I'm doubting what I heard now...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Junsu donated 30 million won to the university. now try and convert that to dollars!

[genna]

The rumors say that Korean singers are underpaid, which I do believe to some extent, but surely the majority of the singers make more money than people with regular jobs.

[SeungHye]

yeah~~
they most definitely don't make a lot
my cousin is a producer in korea and said that singers in korea are like slaves
they only listen to their manager....he said being a producer is better

[elavndrc]

wow...then imagine how much money Super Junior makes...split it into 13... O.O that really sucks...maybe that's why they have radio shows and act for other sources of income?

[kpfanatic]

i always knew korean artists didn't get paid as well as U.S.' artists.
I know many U.S. artists get paid as low as 75 cents a album depending on which label...so I'm guessing Korean artists get paid much lower than that. Most of these bands have to share rooms. Even a few Shinhwa members share a house together and they'be been making hits for quite awhile now.

[Soteeda]

I heard somewhere that SM really under pay their artists. Like DBSK for example, they say they get paid 3 cents for every album they sell. So their income completely depends on album sells. Things like promotion activities get them nothing. All the money they make goes back to SM, including concert tickets... But I have serious doubt in my mind now. Not only DBSK, but H.O.T and Shinwa... But they might be rumors.
Jaejoong from DBSK drives a BMW, Xiah Junsu from DBSK donated 300 000 won to his brother's university... so I'm doubting what I heard now...

artists DO NOT make that much money from album sales. especially with the lack of ppl actually buying albums these days, artists usually have to resort to other means to really get paid. most money from record sales go the label, management, publishing, producers/songwriters, etc. in most cases, the artists are the LAST to get paid.

concerts, for example, generate ALOT of income for artists (sure the label gets some of this money too, but its less ppl to pay off when an artist does concerts and such) and other things such as endorsements, tv appearances, ringtones. etc are the other ways they get paid. artists truly rely on multiple streams of income in order to really make a living. if anyone thnks that they make money off the record sales, ur horribly wrong....

[BishieAddict]

I think they probably are upper middle class.... DBSK has nice cars.... and BoA... makes so much money (i think some posted before that she was the highest paid korean star... made well over a $1 mill US last yer.. i think it was like 40 Million?)

oh found it:

17 December 2006
Who earns the most money?

Who is the Korean star who earned the most money in 2006? The mega star Rain or his arch rival Se7en? Is the star the king of ballads, Shin Seung hoon? Sad to say, but they're not the ones who earned the most.

According to the recruitment agency Saramin, the Korean star who earned the most money this year is BoA, the 20 year old pop singer. The agency estimated that she earned 40 billion won. This is thanks to the sale of her albums and commercials which she worked on in Korea and Japan.

Next to BoA was actor Bae Yong Jun with a little more than 38 billion won. Bae played the lead role in the drama series "Winter Sonata". The success of the series abroad made him one of the most popular Korean actors in Asia.

After Bae Yong Jun was Jang Dong Gun with 12.5 billion won. He starred in various movies like "The Coast Guard" by Kim Ki0duk, "Taegukgi" by Kang Lee-gye and "Typhoon" by Kwak Kyung-taek.

Saramin inidcated that the agency had calculated the incomes of the 3 stars based from the information available in the media and that there could be slight differences between the estimates by the agency and amount of money the stars really earned.

Source: KBS World Radio + kpopper.com + jayce_gal@bww2

[bitter SOOweet]

yeah prolly much less than american celebs
well i think we can all sorta tell???


it's prolly more than an average business man cuz i mean look at the houses some of these people live in

[smoothieex3]

Although not a singer, my friend from Korea said MC Yoo made 10,000 dollars (or was it 50,000, I forget) for every X-man episode. Wowzas.

he makes around 1000 dollars per episode. i read it in an article somewhere. something about how he gets around 200,000 us dollars a year just on his shows. which isnt bad, but its definetly no where even close to american stardom.


plus, you often see korean stars wearing things like hollister, which i bet most american stars wouldnt want to be caught dead in.

[pwenzi]

eh. i think they are underpaid as compared to US artistes definitely. but they are still paid more than average people ie non-stars. haha. but 3 cents for per album is seriously too sad to be true. lol. but im still curious how much they are paid for each show they goes on for promos.

[stellabella]

They are actually NOT underpaid compared to US artists. Think about it. Korea's population is around 40 million while America's population just hit 300 million a few months ago. With those numbers, I would say they are probably pretty equal in pay because the people are their employers. If Korea's population was 300 million, they'd probably get paid about the same.

[hyuksu]

he makes around 1000 dollars per episode. i read it in an article somewhere. something about how he gets around 200,000 us dollars a year just on his shows. which isnt bad, but its definetly no where even close to american stardom.
plus, you often see korean stars wearing things like hollister, which i bet most american stars wouldnt want to be caught dead in.

I think most of the brand name clothes like Hollister, Abercrombie, etc. come from fans.

I remember this article someone posted a long time ago stating that BoA made arond $.25 per CD?

[dongwans]

they DON'T get paid well, trust me >w<
H.O.T was paid like, 30,000 DOLLARS each for their contracts ;x 30K or 50k, around there.

[angelfightrJ]

They are actually NOT underpaid compared to US artists. Think about it. Korea's population is around 40 million while America's population just hit 300 million a few months ago. With those numbers, I would say they are probably pretty equal in pay because the people are their employers. If Korea's population was 300 million, they'd probably get paid about the same.

well, still. there's illegal dloading going on and i think that it's a more severe problem in asia than america even though america has illegal dloading too....right...? im not sure, actually. if im wrong, someone feel free to correct me. so basically it doesnt really make a difference how many people populate an area if a lot of people download illegally and dont even bother buying the album because its easier to dload it and you dont need to pay. i mean, if there was more people in one area, and a smaller population in another area but the problems of illegal dloading and not buying the albums are much more severe in the area with more people and the problem is significantly smaller in the other area, it's possible that the people from the smaller populated area could earn more money you know? ^^

D: $.75....$.25....$.03!!!!??? whoa....thats a real small amount D:! couldnt believe my eyes at first. :/...wow...i know other people put in a lot of effort into albums, but i would think that the artists would deserve more than that! o_o.