Corseque restaurant, Mapo District, Seoul;
As Jun reached the private dining area, he saw YG accompanied by two strangers that he never met before.
"Hello." He greeted everyone with a bow as he entered the cabin.
"Jun-ah, you are here." YG was all smiles as he stood up from the seat and shook his hand and patted the back of his shoulder. "Here, take a seat."
As he took a seat, YG introduced the other two, "this is our company's CEO, Hwang Bokyung-ssi and this is our HR team leader, Song Sochun-ssi."
"Hello" "Hello"
He stood up from the seat and bowed to them, once again. Jun was really surprised that YG will bring such high-profile people to the lunch. He felt like he should have worn a few nice clothes and shouldn't have come in casual wear.
YG started the talk, "before we start negotiations about the contract, Bokyung-ssi wished to inform you about our company's intentions regarding you."
The woman in her early forties then said, "I'll get to the point directly. We have seen your performances so far and according to YG-ssi, you are suited to become a solo artist.
But, our Genesis is also planning something new. We are intending to launch a four-member group with everyone who also has a solo career simultaneously, right from the debut.
Other than being an idol, we are also planning to recruit you as a songwriter for the company. So, there will be three separate contracts with respective clauses, terms, and conditions. Negotiations are open but in the end, either you will sign three of them or none. I just need you to keep that in mind. Of course, the group contract is non-negotiable because it involves the four of you."
"Here," The man sitting opposite to him took out three separate files from his band and handed it to him.
"Read carefully and take your own time. There's no need to hurry," YG reminded him before starting to order the dishes.
Jun opened the first contract. It was for a group contract for a period of 7 years, starting from March 1, 2018, to Feb 28, 2025.
PARTY A is introduced as Genesis Entertainment and PARTY B is introduced as Han Sung-Jun, along with address, phone number, and email.
Then, he read about the rights of the company about various things like Internet rights, distribution rights, singing rights, income rights, etc…
The idols only hold the singing rights of the song and everything else belonged to the company.
After that, the second most important point of the contract appeared on the contract, the trainee debt.
The debut date is fixed at June 26th. So, until then, the company will provide accommodation, food, a company pass, which is used to buy things at the company's cosmetic store and clothing store. And lastly, as pocket money, a company credit card for the whole group with a limit of 5 million won per month.
Other than that, all of them needed to attend mandatory singing classes, language classes, and dancing classes. The music classes will be optional.
There will be a medical checkup, every Sunday.
All the Expenses they had within the time frame will be totaled and then, will be divided into four. Each one will be informed every week. Thankfully, for the trainees, no interest is on the debt.
That means it wouldn't matter who spends more or who spends less, the debt burden will be shared equally. Of course, there are certain things like for example private music classes, private medical care, etc… The fees for them will burden only the said party, not the whole group.
Once they debut, the trainee debt will be rephrased into Idol debt. Adding on the above facilities, a few more things will be provided like a separate manager, stylists, bodyguards, and a separate PR team. Of course, the company will take care of their salaries but the other expenses for transportation, photoshoot, video making, promotions, etc… All of them will be added to the Idol Debt and will show as a negative balance in your profile.
Thankfully, fees for Choreographer, staff members, songwriters, directors and all, will be taken care of by the company, or else, an idol's head would just blow up in thinking about such massive debt.
There will be a separate accounting team that will manage all the debts and earnings of the group.
After that, finally, a good thing arrived. The most important point of the contract, the remuneration of PARTY B.
Just like the debts, the earnings are also split between the four members. However, unlike the other groups, since this group also contained solo artists and also possess their own separate contracts, only the group earnings are split between them.
Under this contract, an earning is considered a group earning if at least two or more idols of the group participate in activities like concerts, commercial films (CFs), events, appearances in variety shows, etc…
However, before PARTY B receives his income, the earnings will be split into 30 to 70.
That means the company will take the 70% and the remaining 30% will be distributed between the four members. So, that's 7.5% share per each.
And that 7.5% share will be added as a positive balance and reduce the debt. Unless the debt becomes 0, PARTY B cannot receive any money into his bank account.
Finally, the breakage of the contract will cost 1 billion won for PARTY B (~840K dollars)
*****
"So, this is the non-negotiable idol contract, huh!" Jun thought to himself. It was a bit similar to the trainee contract that he had at ZC but that one only contained debts and accommodations, not the earnings.
7.5% isn't that big but he wasn't worried about that. What he focused more on the songwriting contract. After all, the songwriters and producers were the ones who usually make a higher earning.
He closed the file and put it aside calmly and opened the second one. It is a solo contract, which was also a 7-year contract for the same dates as the group contract. But, the debut date is quite near. It's April 24th. That's less than two months away.
In this issue, the agency couldn't do anything. Jun was the one that delayed signing this contract for three weeks.
Here, there was no trainee debt but an idol debt directly. It isn't much different from the group contract except that everything will be shouldered alone.
Perhaps, the only thing that is different is how he was allowed to employ private stylists, managers, accountants, and bodyguards and their salary will be paid by the company, later adding to the idol debt.
Another thing that's different is the profit share. It is surprisingly 80 to 20 with the majority share going to Jun. However, the condition here is all the expenses will be paid by him alone. That includes the salaries of the staff appointed to him.
"They will really regret giving this offer," Jun smirked inwardly as he knew his potential more than anyone. He would never need the help of another songwriter or even choreographer in the future.
Now that he knew that this system is created by his future self, he was even more confident in its prowess.
For Jun, the most satisfactory clause in this contract isn't about the profit share. It is the freedom that he gets. According to the contract, he will have the liberty to refuse anything from concept to appearances in events, if he was uncomfortable.
To break this contract before it expires, he should also pay 100 million won along with any debt he had. On the other hand, the company can terminate it at any time without paying compensation. In that case, his debt will be disappeared.
Jun went on to read the third contract.
This one is completely different from the other two. It was only a six-month contract where he will be considered as a probationary employee and will have a performance-based salary.
There's no minimum or maximum limit. Every song that receives an okay from the management to use for the artists, receives a fixed amount of 4 million won. In return, the copyrights will belong to the company.
Once six months passed, if the company wishes to renew the contract, they can renegotiate the terms.
"This one is a little unfavorable to me." Jun stared at it intently. After a while, he decided to not give them super hit songs of BTS, Twice, BlackPink, etc…
As for negotiation, Jun didn't do it at all and signed it on three of them for he believed that he was yet to prove himself to the world. Once he becomes super popular and earns enough money to break the contract, he will do it then.
Until then, he will follow what they had planned for him.
The three of them are all smiles as the process went extremely smoothly. In fact, they were worried about the second, the most. After all, even though they showed 80 to 20, with the entire expenses bore by the artist, they will not face loss at any moment.
The HR department head thought that Jun might have been too naïve but in reality, he's the one that dug his grave, thinking that Jun is the same as every genius artist.
Meanwhile, the notification sound rang in Jun's head.
*Ding!