SEVENTEEN, Jungkook Drive HYBE's $400 Million Q3 2023 Revenue

HYBE, the leading South Korean music company, has released its financial results for Q3 2023, reporting a revenue growth of 20.7% year-over-year, amounting to $404 million. This quarter's standout achievements for HYBE were primarily driven by three key factors: Albums, Concerts, and Artist-Indirect Involvement.

Artist-Direct Involvement

In Q3, Album sales were HYBE's largest revenue source, contributing $198.46 million, marking a YoY increase of 104.4%. Notably, K-pop stars SEVENTEEN made album-related highlights as they sold 11 million copies of their albums in the first nine months of the year.

SEVENTEEN's contribution also extends to HYBE's Concert revenues, which experienced an 83.9% YoY growth in Q3, amounting to $65.3 million. Their World Tour performances in nine cities across Japan and Asia attracted 515,000 attendees in the Japan tour alone.

Other notable artist achievements hinted at by HYBE include the solo projects of BTS' members. For instance, Jin sold 1 million copies of his solo single The Astronaut, while V sold 2.1 million copies of his album Layover in its first week. Jimin achieved a No.1 spot on the US Hot 100 with Like Crazy and secured a No.2 position on the US albums chart with FACE.

Jungkook's hit song Seven featuring Latto remained atop the US 100 for 13 consecutive weeks and recently set the record as the fastest song to reach one billion streams on Spotify, achieving this milestone in 108 days.

In Q3, HYBE saw huge growth in its Artist Direct-Involvement segment, which emerged as the company's primary revenue driver. This segment generated $287.28 million, representing a YoY growth of 85.4%.

Artist-Indirect Involvement

On the other hand, HYBE's Artist 'Indirect-Involvement' segment, which leverages the name and likeness of its artists like BTS without their active participation, saw a decline for the second consecutive quarter. It witnessed a 35% YoY decrease, falling to $116.77 million from $183.4 million in Q3 2022 and $139.7 million in the previous quarter (Q2 2023).

HYBE's revenue sources have undergone a significant shift post-pandemic. During the pandemic, the majority of its success was attributed to its Artist 'Indirect' business. These activities served as HYBE's primary revenue driver throughout 2021, generating $640 million.

HYBE's Merchandising and Licensing business segment reported revenue of $64.3 million, reflecting a 25.3% YoY decline. Within HYBE's Content business line, revenues decreased by 54.5% YoY to $36.63 million.

However, HYBE's Fan Club revenues showed growth, with a 21.3% YoY increase, amounting to $15.8 million. Notably, the company's fan community app WeVerse expanded its user base to 10.5 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 9.5 million MAUs in Q2.

HYBE also showed a breakdown of its streaming revenue from its Korean labels, Big Machine Label Group, and Quality Control. As previously discussed, HYBE acquired Quality Control and Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings, which encompasses SB Projects and Big Machine Label Group, for $1.05 billion—marking its pursuit to expand into the American market.

According to HYBE, Quality Control accounted for 19% of its overall streaming revenues, while Big Machine accounted for 27%, and its Korean labels contributed 54%.