Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
11 people have been indicted for their involvement in a sajaegi case, including a former CEO of an entertainment company. Prosecutors believe the ex-CEO repeatedly played 15 songs on music sites using 500 virtual computers, mass-purchased IP addresses, and 1627 illegally-acquired IDs for a total of 1,727,985 streams from December 2018 to December 2019. The ex-CEO used a broker to take sajaegi requests, taking in between 30 million to 160 million won per song. However, the prosecution says the impact of the scheme was minimal, so some of the money was returned.
The Chosun Ilbo reported specifics, saying three agencies (other than the ex-CEO’s) participated in the ex-CEO’s sajaegi scheme, and among the 15 songs are Young Tak‘s “Why Are You Coming Out From There“, KCM‘s “Between Love And Friendship“, and NATURE‘s “OOPSIE“.
It’s already known that Young Tak’s former company Milagro Entertainment was involved because the CEO admitted it three years ago. However, NATURE (n.CH Entertainment) and KCM (Urban Works Entertainment, at the time) are new, at least to me, and unfortunately puts all of their artists under suspicion as well. Young Tak himself was previously cleared in a sajaegi investigation, with police saying he wasn’t aware of anything taking place, and prosecutors deciding not to indict him. The investigation for this case has been going on since October 2022.
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Unless there’s bigger names in there, it’s unlikely to have much of an impact on the industry, especially since the biggest name’s involvement was already previously known. However, it’s just a reminder that these kinds of things can and are still being done.
Also, speaking of bigger names, it’s always interesting to me that most of these busts are done on smaller outfits despite bigger companies being under even more pressure, as they have literal billions at stake in terms of pleasing stockholders with “line go up” news due to being publicly traded. Probably all on the up and up!
