Few can claim as much influence over the history of K-pop as
SM Entertainment, which, over the past 30 years, has birthed a legion of huge acts and built a multi-faceted business empire. Ahead of this month’s SMTown Live arena show in London, Music Week meets
co-CEO Daniel Jang to ask what the UK can learn from this uber-reliable talent machine and find out why K-pop is much more than a genre...
WORDS: KAREN BLISS PHOTOS: SM ENTERTAINMENT D
aniel Jang hasn’t been co-CEO of South Korea’s SM Entertainment very long, joining the K-pop talent machine in 2022 as CFO and climbing to the top position by March 2023, quicker than the time it takes the company to create and unveil a new act. Now running the show alongside co-CEO Dmitry YJ Tak, who was promoted from COO in March last year, Jang has worked primarily as an accountant, spending over a decade at PWC, before serving at wellness and fitness company Bodyfriend and cosmetics brand Skinfood. But, as he sits down to celebrate SM Entertainment’s 30th anniversary with Music Week, you would think he’d been with them for his entire career – thorough, informed, passionate, he knows every area of the business.
As the smartly dressed exec sits at the desk in his office, it comes as a surprise to learn he grew up a fan of Judas Priest and the Sex Pistols. Now, he is a fully fledged ‘pink blood’, the term SM coined for dedicated fans, based on its logo.
As SM celebrates its 30th anniversary, buoyed by a history of K-pop successes like Aespa, Boa, Red Velvet, NCT 127, NCT Dream, Riize, Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, Shinee, Exo and more, the company is set to bring SMTown Live 2025 to The O2 in London on June 28.
Top of the K-pop: SM Entertainment c0-CEO Daniel Jang
52 | Music Week
“Throughout SM Entertainment’s 30-year history, we feel we have achieved major moments in the history of K-pop itself,” Jang says, speaking through a translator. “We want to continue the legacy and we want to make sure the artists are ready.” Marking SM’s first European event since 2011, the show at The O2 features a 16-strong bill including newly launched girl group Hearts2Hearts and DearAlice, its first UK act and the winners of last year’s BBC talent show Made In Korea. SM is working with the group in partnership with the LA-based
Gamma as well as Kakao Entertainment, also from South Korea.
“We’re really hoping for DearAlice to set great milestones in the UK market,” says Jang. While the company has yet to hit the same heights in the UK as it has done in its homeland, that may just be a matter of time. The industry here is increasingly involved with SM, with songwriters including Karen Poole and LDN Noise (see panel, p57) among those working with its acts. While Jang says platforms such as YouTube are to thank for rising K-pop consumption in Western markets, SM’s own growth remains impressive. The business reported a 5.2% increase year-on-year in group revenue for the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, it has recently invested more than four million US dollars into its publishing subsidiary Kreation Music Rights, and increased its stake in fan engagement- focused company DearU Co to 45.1%. The organisation is making these moves under Jang and co-CEO Tak’s vision for SM under their leadership. They created a slogan – ‘the culture, the future’ – as a banner for their ambitions. “We created our new slogan for our 30th anniversary,” Jang explains. “It represents the past 30 years of SM Entertainment, and also it is about looking into the next 30 years and beyond.” On that note, it’s time to quiz Jang on the past, present and future at SM Entertainment, and hear his take on K-pop’s impact in the UK and beyond…
You’ve had a fast rise to become co-CEO at SM. What do you bring to the role?
“I was into rock and heavy metal in my teens and of course K-pop was an established genre when I arrived here, but it wasn’t until I came into SM that I learned about the full process of how a song is created and released. My focus is on how to create
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