"Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity wasted," A K-pop idol trainer shares his insights and perspective on the FIFTY FIFTY controversy

K-pop idol trainer In Ji Woong recently shared his insight and perspective on the latest FIFTY FIFTY controversy.

On July 6, In Ji Woon appeared on News1 Entertainment TV and broke down the latest buzz circulating the rookie group FIFTY FIFTY. He summarized the controversy explaining, "The group has their original agency, but the outsource producer probably told the girls, 'Even if you get popular, there will be a limit at a small-midsize company' in this way. The girls fell for that and said to their completely good company, 'We want to terminate the contract.'"

In Ji Woong shared that it is difficult for small-midsize companies to receive a lot of investments, and a lot of money is needed to produce an idol group. The idol trainer shared, "There are not that many idols that make it big, so he (ATTRAKT) CEO must have felt he really got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but he was basically backstabbed by the people he trusted the most."

He continued, "The producer who is poaching the girls probably thought that this issue would get forgotten someday if this group releases a good song. But I don't think that's going to be the case right now." In Ji Woong forecasted that this controversy might spread bigger than the controversy surrounding the HYBE-Kakao-Lee Soo Man-SM Entertainment acquisition.

The idol trainer also shared his thoughts on the payout issue that FIFTY FIFTY members are claiming. During the first trial for the provisional injunction to suspend their exclusive contract with ATTRAKT, the girls claimed that "There is a lack of settlement data transparency" and cited that they had not received proper payment for their success.

However, according to idol trainer In Jin Woong, "Cupid" is the only track that went viral, and it has been only about 200 days since the girl group debuted. Hence, the girls are not at a point in their career to receive payment yet since they have to repay the label for all the money initially invested into training and nurturing them.

He further elaborated that there cannot be much profit from a single digital track and shared, "Concerts, merchandise, albums are the ones with actual profit, 1 album costs at least 10,000 KRW (7.63 USD). But for a digital track, it's very ambiguous to calculate the profit allocated from 1 stream. How many were actually involved (in creating the song)? It's going to be divided among the producers, music bands, songwriters, composers, and all those people. So there's not much (profit) that the actual singers can take. Even if they went on the Billboard charts, these girls have no profit except for the digital track because they have no activities."

In Jin Woong also shared his insight on the production cost it took to create FIFTY FIFTY. According to ATTRAKT CEO Jeon Hong Joon, FIFTY FIFTY received lessons in vocals, music theory, rap, dance, English, health and fitness, and even acting. The lesson fees amounted to ~ $23,000 (USD) per month.

Based on Jeon Hong Joon's statement, In Jin Woong shared that the CEO spent the money that a large label would spend on training their trainees. He elaborated, "A small-midsize company spent 1 billion KRW (~ $770,000 USD) in MV production alone? That's not an easy thing to do. He spent about 3 to 4 times as much (compared to other small-midsize companies). If it's 1 billion KRW, that is usually the money spent for an idol group that is already well-established."

The idol trainer also pointed out that "the girls allegedly received individual lessons in their necessary fields but there are almost no small-midsize companies that would give individual lessons like that in Korea." He added, "That's not the treatment a group that flopped their debut album deserves in my opinion. He basically threw in huge amounts of money. So I believe it makes no sense for them to take to the court for the provisional injunction saying 'they didn't treat us properly'."

He also shared, "They could have become the female version of BTS. Because their back story is just like BTS." He elaborated, "BTS also started in difficult times, and together (with their small company), they made it big. Korean people and actually people globally... the reason they like a star is because they like their back story. If they just went together (with their company) they would have done better. I feel they became blinded for a moment's greed."

In Ji Woong also shared his perspective on how ATTRAKT can overcome this time of difficulty. He shared, "They should just push out all the girls and make FIFTY FIFTY season 2. Because the members' faces aren't well known still, only their song is known. The first FIFTY FIFTY was created by a small-midsize company but now, if they recruit trainees, there will be many people applying since it's the group that already went to the Billboard charts. So, if they decide to change out the members, I think there will be a lot of people wanting to take part."

The idol trainer stated, "I think they (ATTRAKT) can just hold hands with Warner Music. Because producer Ahn is now the national traitor. So he is the one who had a close relationship with Warner Music. So if Warner Music breaks their relationship with him, it's no longer Warner Music's wrongdoing. It becomes (The Givers') wrongdoing. So if the (new) song is good. A lot of people would take an interest in that song and if that song is good, the new group would have more popularity than they have now."