It’s recently revealed that the upcoming ‘SMTOWN LIVE in TOKYO SPECIAL EDITION‘ concert will be shared with SM Town fans from all over the world through SM Town’s Facebook page!

The concert will be held from September 2nd to the 4th at the Tokyo Dome concert hall, and will feature performances from your favorite SM Town artists.

Fans will not only get to see airport photos of SM Town artists like Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, and f(x), but they’ll also get to view photos from backstage and from concert performances as well.

SM TOWN’s Facebook page will also share videos containing the opening ceremony and highlights from the concert, and updated news about the event will also be announced in English and Japanese.

SM Town’s Facebook page from ‘SMTOWN Live in Paris‘ received a total of 80 million hits, so it’s expected that this new concert will reach just a figure that’s just high, if not higher.

via allkpop
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Labels: BoA, F(x), Facebook, Kangta, SHINee, SM Entertainment, SMTOWN, SNSD, Super Junior., TVXQ

A ton of interest has been simmering around SM Entertainment’s old idol group Black Beat (active during 2000-2008), after it was revealed that these former idols are still an active part of the entertainment industry. They’ve swapped out their idol titles for behind-the-scenes roles as choreographers, vocal trainers, and DJs.

In the case of Black Beat’s lead vocalist, Jang Jin Young, he’s currently working as a vocal trainer for numerous idol groups and SM trainees. He stated, “Right now, I’m training one of SM Entertainment’s new groups, who are preparing to debut; I’m also training the members of rookie idol group, Boyfriend.”

Jang Jin Young holds quite an impressive history as a vocal trainer, as he’s known to have worked with SM Entertainment’s SNSD and SHINee, and featured for solo artists DIA and A-mi.

In addition, the singer finally released his first solo album after completing his military services last June. His album’s title track, “Oh, My God“, is about a man’s joy and his heart-fluttering moments after meeting his eagerly awaited lover.

Meanwhile, fellow members Sim Jae Won and Hwang Sang Hoon have revived in the industry as a DJ performance team called BeatBurger. The two members are also working in SM Entertainments as choreographers and dance trainers for idols like TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, BoA, and f(x).

Performance-wise, BeatBurger has been actively performing at night clubs, and were included in the lineup for this year’s “Jisan Valley Rock Festival 2011“. They will be collaborating with guitarist of rock band Schizo, Joo Sung Min, who will be accompanying the duo’s expert dancing with his live guitar.




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Labels: A-mi, Black Beat, BoA, Boyfriend, DIA, F(x), SHINee, SM Entertainment, SM trainees, SNSD, TVXQ

SM Entertainment, in a consortium along with two real estate development companies, Fides and M Studio City, have been selected as developers of a new visual-cultural-recreational complex (yeah man, seriously, that’s what they named that thing), titled “Jo Kam Do“, literally meaning, “Bird’s Eye View”.

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Now here comes the wall of text about basic info of the place: City of Munkyung in Northern Kyungsang province, where the complex will be built, selected the three companies for development of its ambitious project. The complex will cost Munkyung 43 billion Won ($40 million U.S.) and the total area of 888,168㎡ will be divided up into three sectors; Sae Jae, Ga Eun, Ha Nae, with construction of Sae Jae beginning this year. The first sector, planned to be complete within the first half of 2012, will include indoor and outdoor filming studios, recreational facilities such as spa and water park, visual section with stages for performances and facilities for autograph sessions, and so on.

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Now is the more relevant part for those of you that are wondering where SM comes into all of this.

Since this park is being built in the countryside far away from Seoul, Korea’s capital that is famously holding close to half of the national population in its area, it needs to differentiate itself from other theme parks and recreational complexes in order for people from Seoul to travel down there and keep the area alive by feeding it cash. That, is where our friends in the idol business come in; as they provide the complex with the contents of their company. Different zones named after their celebrities, including, but not limited to, SNSD, TVXQ, Super Junior, SHINee, f(x), and BoA, will be offering fan meetings and autograph sessions.


There is also a plan to have the stars stay at the hotel in the complex and then name the e that they stayed in after them, so that their fans would want to stay in the same room their idol did.

Might sound a bit weird or creepy, but hey, there are people out there that are willing to spend extra just so they can sleep in the same bed that Changmin or Yuri did. In short, SM’s involvement is to spice the complex up with some flavour of its idols.

SM is not the only entertainment industry representative in the game though; movie director Kang Jae Kyu is to take part in this project as a shareholder and shoot his movies in the studios in this complex. Mr. Kang was the director of Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, the 4th highest-grossing film in Korean history, so I guess we can say he is pretty famous… making him a strong ally.





The city of Munkyung doesn’t really have many tourist attractions, and the complex is planned around the concept that it will create itself; that is, unlike the traditional method of putting hotels/restaurants/bars where a tourist attraction already exists (like a beach or a hot spring), they’re building the tourist attraction themselves along with all those other things – like a Disney Land.

In this case, the major attraction isn’t Mickey and Snow White; it is what SM has to offer. It is really up to them to get people down there and spend money. Will Jo Kam Do become a major attraction and a centre of hallyu wave, or will we end up studying about it in business class as a case of complete failure? Whatever the result may be, I look forward to writing about this baby in future.

Can’t wait for them to finish building it. Can you?

Labels: BoA, F(x), SHINee, SM Entertainment, SNSD, Super Junior., TVXQ

SM Entertainment has released an official statement regarding the contract revisions demanded by the Fair Trade Commission.

SME officials clarified on the 24th, “The FTC only ordered us to revise the contract of one of our trainees by removing the three years added onto his contract. We complied, thus making every contract under our agency to date as ‘fair’. BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, f(x), The Trax, and other celebrities under our agency have already been acknowledged as fair contracts by the FTC.”

They continued, “As leaders of the industry, we have been cooperating closely with the National Assembly and other related bureaucracies in order to protect the rights and interests of our celebrities, and to aid in the advancement of Korea’s entertainment industry and the Hallyu wave.”

After numerous discussions with the FTC, SME drafted a new contract earlier this year with the changed terms mentioned in the previous article. All artists re-contracted with the agency under the new terms, which were acknowledged by the FTC to be fair.

The representative continued, “We fully complied with the recent request by the FTC regarding our contract with a trainee. With the help of the FTC, we will be developing better contracts for the progression of Korean culture and contract customs.”

Labels: BoA, F(x), SHINee, SM Entertainment, SNSD, The Trax, TVXQ