Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
SM Entertainment has announced that all eight members of EXO will continue group activities under SME, but confirm EXO-CBX have their own company for individual activities (plus D.O. with Company Soosoo).
Going forward, all eight members of EXO will continue activities together as EXO. In addition to showcasing new music and performances, they plan on greeting fans without change through EXO’s fan meeting scheduled for April as well as through various activities.
In particular, exclusive contracts with the members who renewed their contracts are still in effect, and D.O. (Doh Kyung Soo), whose exclusive contract expired, agreed to partake in EXO activities, and we are continuously in discussion regarding future activities. In the case of Chen (Kim Jong Dae), Baekhyun (Byun Baek Hyun), Xiumin (Kim Min Seok), we agreed to make it possible for the artists to proceed separately in the case of individual activities under the exclusive contracts mentioned above.
This came after it was revealed that Chen and Xiumin would be joining Baekhyun at his new company, INB100.
Following the launch of Baekhyun’s new company, it was reported that I&B 100 will be mutually cooperating with SM Entertainment going forward. I&B 100 will manage the individual activities of Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen as well as their unit activities as EXO-CBX, while SM Entertainment will manage their group activities as EXO.
A source from I&B 100 shared, “The CBX members, who are entering their 13th year of activities this year, repeatedly pondered and asked various questions about the future. Several initiatives have continued regarding the rapidly changing global K-pop environment as well as plans of life as artists after their 20s, and the start of this label is based on long-standing deliberation and aspirations of the members.”
They continued, “We plan on further highlighting the members’ musical individualities and colors, and going forward, we will play the role of the starting line for the members to take on creative challenges and experiments to communicate with fans in various directions and for their video production and music production [activities], which have been their longtime dreams.”
An interesting agreement considering it was EXO-CBX who had their contract dispute with the company less than six months ago, and now they’re all joined at the same company, but I guess this was the idea of settling that amicably. Also, not that it should’ve been in doubt, but SME mentions EXO as an eight-membered group, which obviously excludes Lay (who left the company in 2022).
Between this and BLACKPINK’s agreements with YG Entertainment, it seems like we might be entering a new era for groups on their second contracts. Rather than just let them go like in the past, it seems companies have seen the value of keeping popular groups on their roster and reuniting them semi-regularly, but also letting them do whatever they want individually. We’ll see how that turns out.
Update
Profile photos of EXO-CBX from their new company are here.
