The core members of HYBE who led the global super group BTS to success are taking on a new challenge.

LETOPIA SALON was recently established by HYBE‘s CEO Bang Woo-jung, CCO (Chief Creative Officer) Kim Soo-rin, and COO (Chief Operating Officer) Park Jun-su. They plan to hold a global audition next month to introduce a new idol group.

LETOPIA SALON symbolizes a utopia realized in the real world. Under the vision of ‘Make Dreams Real’, it contains the aspiration to make the passion for popular art go beyond dreams and become a real experience.

LETOPIA SALON is an entertainment company that encompasses artist management and content production, and is currently producing BTS Jin’s YouTube entertainment content ‘Run Seok Jin’.

As a collection of content experts who are differentiated from existing entertainment companies, it is expected to bring about new innovation to the K-pop market.

CEO Bang Woo-jung said, “Letopia Salon aims to create an experience that does not exist in the world with vibrant content. Our first project will be to introduce a boy group that will lead the K-pop market, and we will begin full-scale team formation by starting large-scale global auditions in March.”

CEO Bang Woo-jung, who joined Big Hit Entertainment in 2010, was the former Creative Studio Leader of HYBE Media Studio, where he oversaw the production of various content for HYBE Music Group’s major artists until September of last year.

In particular, he is the person who led fan communication using social media and digital platforms, which is one of the factors behind BTS’s success, and is also the creator of planned, self-produced content, aka ‘Jacon’, which is currently considered the basic grammar for K-pop idols.

His representative works include ‘Run BTS’, ‘In the SOOP’, etc., and these works were recognized for their artistry to the point that they were aired on broadcast stations such as Mnet and JTBC.

CCO Kim Soo-rin is the former VP of Hive Labels Japan. After joining Big Hit Entertainment in 2011, she led fan content for BTS, TXT, and Enhypen.

She was in charge of the visual directing of the artists‘ fan meetings, season greetings, and photo books, and is evaluated as someone who broadened the scope of fan experiences by planning ‘FESTA’, an event commemorating BTS’s debut. After moving to the Japanese corporation, he took charge of local trainee casting and branding.

COO Park Jun-su is from HYBE original content studio SP (Senior Professional) and is famous for directing all of BTS‘s variety shows, reality shows, documentaries, and movies, such as ‘Run BTS’, ‘Bon Voyage’, and ‘Burn The Stage’.

He also directed SEVENTEEN’s ‘In the SOOP’, ‘In the SOOP: Friendship Trip’ starring Park Seo-joon, Peakboy, Choi Woo-shik, Park Hyung-sik, and BTS‘s V, and ‘Backstage: TXT x ENHYPEN Documentary‘.



Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.