Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Due to a combination of the weekend, Elon Musk trying his best to destroy Twitter, and focus on the Queendom Puzzle behemoth, I have fallen a few updates behind on the FIFTY FIFTY contract mess. And the debacle is certainly debacle-ing at the moment.
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Back on June 29, SIAHN and his content creation group The Givers announced their intention to answer ATTRAKT‘s criminal complaint with a countersuit for spreading false rumors.
They started by detailing their role with FIFTY FIFTY and ATTRAKT.
“The Givers began participating in the FIFTY FIFTY project in June of 2021, after being requested planning, production, and management services by CEO Jeon Hong Joon of ATTRAKT. After playing a role in FIFTY FIFTY’s successful debut and unprecedented success, The Givers brought all services to an end, transferring all production and management duties to ATTRAKT on May 31, 2023. As of now, The Givers is only working with Warner Records for FIFTY FIFTY’s global promotion, per ATTRAKT’s request.
On June 27, CEO Jeon Hong Joon reported The Givers to the police, simultaneously publicizing the report to media outlets.”
They also gave a short recap of events that have already been covered.
Anyway, not only do they deny trying to poach them, they claim they tried to mediate things when FIFTY FIFTY filed suit.
“The Givers would like to clarify that this company made no attempt to interfere in matters between ATTRAKT and FIFTY FIFTY in any way, and any rumors of ‘poaching’ have nothing to do with this company.
Since ATTRAKT’s very beginning until now, The Givers has earnestly fulfilled all services requested by the client per business contract. Even when ATTRAKT received a legal notice from the members of FIFTY FIFTY requesting for the suspension of their exclusive contract, CEO Ahn Sung Il of The Givers, accompanied by his legal representative, met with CEO Jeon Hong Joon of ATTRAKT in order to play a mediator role between FIFTY FIFTY and the group’s agency. Knowing all too well all of the above, CEO Jeon Hong Joon nonetheless chose to spread false information about The Givers, severely defaming the company’s name and obstructing operations.”
They then also denied using underhanded techniques to secure the rights to “Cupid“, and conclude by announcing legal action.
“The Givers obtained its copyright claims to FIFTY FIFTY’s songs through a fair, legal process. In particular, the song ‘Cupid’ was a song that was in possession by this company long before the FIFTY FIFTY project.
The reasons given by ATTRAKT as to why a police report was filed against The Givers are completely false. The Givers has thus far maintained a neutral stance in the dispute between ATTRAKT and FIFTY FIFTY. However, in order to respond to CEO Jeon Hong Joon and ATTRAKT for the malicious spread of false rumors, The Givers has hired law firm HWAWOO and will now proceed with legal action.”
For a few days, things seemed to have ended there, but apparently ATTRAKT was working on their case against The Givers, as ATTRAKT released an audio clip of company CEO Jeon Hong Joon talking with Warner Music Korea’s executive director from back on May 9.
Warner Music Korea Executive Director Yoon: “I have one thing I want to check.”
ATTRAKT CEO Jeon Hong Joon “Yes, yes.”
Executive Director Yoon: “I previously offered CEO Ahn Sung Il a 20 billion won (approximately $15.3 million) buyout.”
CEO Jeon Hong Joon: “I haven’t heard of that.”
Executive Director Yoon: “You haven’t heard of that?”
CEO Jeon Hong Joon: “Yes.”
CEO Jeon Hong Joon: “What is a buyout?”
Executive Director Yoon: “No, that label.”
CEO Jeon Hong Joon: “What about the label?”
Executive Director Yoon: “That is, we normally express it as we take over the kids. [That is] what we talked about.”
CEO Jeon Hong Joon: “No, no.”
What ATTRAKT say this proves is Warner Music Korea has been working with SIAHN to buy FIFTY FIFTY from the company.
Obviously that seemed pretty damning in terms of showing that Warner Music Korea and The Givers were at least in discussion about making an offer on FIFTY FIFTY, and that the members filing for contract termination wasn’t coincidental because those two entities were in their ear.
The Givers recently responded to this, essentially claiming the audio was selectively edited to not tell the whole story.
“ATTRAKT is distorting it as if Ahn Sung Il, our company’s CEO, had a discussion with Warner Music Korea about the future of the FIFTY FIFTY members out of his own will, but this is not true.
Warner Music Korea made a suggestion about structuring a ‘label deal’, and a source from Warner Music wanted to discuss it with ATTRAKT CEO Jeon Hong Joon, so the two companies were connected.
We passed word of Warner Music Korea’s proposal onto them because we thought it would benefit the company and artists in the long run.
CEO Jeon Hong Joon expressed his intention to reject Warner Music Korea in hopes of listing ATTRAKT. We are not a decision maker and have not played any unnecessary role in this. ATTRAKT claimed that the company is plotting behind-the-scenes out of dissatisfaction due to them not accepting the Warner Music Korea label deal, but that isn’t true at all.”
Their explanation is essentially that Warner Music Korea approached them about buying out ATTRAKT as a label, presumably making them a subsidiary or something, but it was rejected. They go on to say that ATTRAKT is currently ruining the group’s reputation with their claims, have asked them to stop the selective framing, and have threatened to take legal action if it continues.
Unless I’m missing something, I’m honestly not sure how that’s much different from what ATTRAKT are complaining about, as it effectively creates the same picture of a company trying to acquire FIFTY FIFTY from ATTRAKT in some capacity, failing, and seemingly being waiting in the wings for the group to hopefully win their contract termination.
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It makes sense to wait for everything to shake out as things continue to develop, but it’s also not looking great for The Givers, Warner Music Korea, and FIFTY FIFTY in terms of public perception about proceedings at the moment. Though I suppose at this point nobody is realistically going to exit this winners, as some damage has been done across the board no matter how this is resolved. A real shame, honestly.
