SM Entertainment's leading producer/musician Yoo Young Jin has spoken up with a lengthy statement, revealing his personal position on the internal friction between the company's founder Lee Soo Man and its current heads of management.
Yoo Young Jin stated on February 10,
"As a musician who has taken up residence at SM Entertainment for a very long time, I would like to deliver my personal position regarding the company's current situation.
I cannot approve of the current management's 'SM 3.0' vision outline, announced on February 3, as the proposal excludes teacher Lee Soo Man from the role of producer for our company's artists. I also express my regret at the prospect that creative producers, one of the most vital participants of content production, will not take part in the content production area in this model. The announcement claimed that the company would follow a multi-(creative)producer model, but in reality, it is one of multi-(mass)production.
After the announcement, I consulted teacher Lee Soo Man on whether or not he was made aware of the management's plans or if any discussion had occurred between him and management, and Lee Soo Man confirmed that he was not informed. Teacher Lee's contract came to an end last year, but he never said that he would retire as a producer.
The fact that the management announced plans for 'SM 3.0' without consulting Lee Soo Man, and that it also publicly dismissed Lee Soo Man as a producer of the company, came as a great shock to me.
The multi-producing system was a model which teacher Lee began preparations for some years ago, as to devise a model and a manual for the company's survival in the post-Lee Soo Man era.
I personally believe that teacher Lee Soo Man is one of the few, if not the only, Korean producer(s) with a deep and precise understanding of patterns in contemporary culture and IT, who can predict the future of music consumption and changes to the industry caused by the invention of new platforms. He has frequently predicted that an era of celebrities, robots, avatars, the metaverse, and NFTs would arrive, and that the industry needed to prepare for it.
SM Entertainment was able to play a leading role in the past and present of K-Pop, as well as begin key preparations for the evolving world of music in the future, precisely because of Lee Soo Man's batting eye, his keen judgement.
Without teacher Lee Soo Man's producing capabilities, SM would not be the true SM. Thus, I, Yoo Young Jin, intend on following teacher Lee Soo Man's decisions by his side. I have already delivered my position to CEO Lee Sung Soo, that I cannot continue to work for SM if the current situation persists."
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