Sudden huge news.
BigHit, aka: the BTS company, has just acquired Source Music, the GFriend company.
These companies were already somewhat close to each other. Here’s an infamous school uniform commercial they made together back in the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3tfGe2HH70
The thing is, even though BTS is #1, BigHit doesn’t have any other groups. They just came out with their second group ever, which is TXT, and they are ok I guess. Doesn’t look like they will become BTS 2.0, though.
Source Music is in a similar boat. Their first group ever, GFriend, was a big success (though, not as big as BTS obviously) and they have nothing else. No other groups. They had some male trainees on the latest produce season, and those trainees will probably benefit greatly from this merger.
Not only is it a great benefit for both companies, but it also changes the KPop landscape entirely. Up until now there were “the big three”. SM, JYP, and YG. These three companies were the ones able to produce several hit groups. YG is currently falling due to scandals. CUBE had made a few great groups, but then had a huge collapse.
All the other successful KPop companies that aren’t just small insignificant potatoes have only been able to produce a handful, but usually just one successful group. By having BigHit and Source combine, they are now indisputably one of the top companies up there with SM and JYP.
There is a rumor they might even merge another one in there, and I think they should. I say they should also bring in RBW, since GFriend and MAMAMOO have history together, and RBW has not been able to produce any other successful groups despite several tries.