Cube Entertainment Founder Speaks Out Against Chart Manipulation

Cube Entertainment founder Hong Seung Sung has publicly voiced his concerns about digital sajaegi (the manipulation of music charts and streaming numbers by an artist or agency).

On February 15, Hong Seung Sung took to his personal Twitter account to speak up about the issue. In a series of tweets, he posted the following message:

Hello.
This is Cube Entertainment’s Hong Seung Sung.
Everyone has been suffering a lot of emotional distress these days because of the coronavirus, right?

Even in these troubled times, the news of director Bong Joon Ho’s Academy Awards and BTS’s unstoppable popularity is shaking up the world.

I’m writing this message because, aside from this happy news of things to be celebrated, there is also grim news.

K-pop, which has been built by the hard work and passion of all musicians, is racing towards the center of the world, and yet our domestic music industry is suffering an embarrassing regression.

The digital music charts, which should be standing at the forefront of the music industry, have become the puppets of chart manipulation, and they have now become “sajaegi [manipulated] charts.”

As a musician, I can’t simply stand by and watch, so I humbly make this request.

To the prosecutors and the police,

For the sake of the development of Korea’s 100-year-old music industry, I urge you to please lend an ear to our small voices.

안녕하십니까
큐브 엔터테인먼트 홍승성입니다.
요즘 코로나 바이러스로 인해 마음고생이 많으시죠?

힘든 와중에 들려온 봉준호 감독의 아카데미 수상 소식과 방탄소년단의 식을 줄 모르는 인기는 세계를 뒤흔들고 있습니다.

축제 분위기의 뒤엔 암울한 소식도 있기에 이 글을 올리게 됐습니다.

— hongseongsung (@S2Ent_hong) February 15, 2020

The Cube Entertainment founder previously spoke out against digital sajaegi more briefly last November, after Block B’s Park Kyung jump-started a national conversation about the issue by accusing several artists of the practice on Twitter.

Top Photo Credit: Xportsnews