Min Hee-jin Establishes OOAK Agency: A New Beginning After NewJeans
The entertainment industry's attention is once again focused on the name 'Min Hee-jin'.
After a lengthy legal battle with HYBE, she has announced a new venture, and this time, she's standing at a completely new starting line.
Former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin has established a new agency, 'OOAK (One Of A Kind)'.
The company was registered on June 16th, and its business objectives include a broad range of entertainment activities such as music production, management, concert planning, copyright publishing, and overseas distribution.
It has been about a year since she stepped down as CEO of ADOR that she is facing the world again under her own name.
And coincidentally, this timing overlaps with the first trial verdict in the lawsuit between NewJeans and ADOR on October 30th, causing even greater repercussions.
Min Hee-jin has chosen the new name 'OOAK'.
It stands for 'One Of A Kind', meaning 'the only one of its kind'.
The music, visuals, and philosophy she has created have always been praised as 'unique'.
As news of the new agency's establishment spread, industry insiders commented, 'It's a name that suits Min Hee-jin,' and analyzed it as 'an expression of her will to build her own world once again'.
The establishment of OOAK is not just a simple restart.
It is because the name 'Min Hee-jin' itself is becoming independent as a brand.
Currently, she is in the midst of a legal battle with HYBE.
HYBE claims that Min violated the shareholder agreement and is asserting the 'right to terminate the contract and claim stock purchase price', while Min Hee-jin is countering that 'the contract is still valid'.
Even in this complex legal dispute, Min Hee-jin has not backed down and has established a 'new corporation'.
This has a meaning beyond simply establishing a company.
It is also a declaration to stand again as a 'creator', not within a legal framework.
Her new nest is located in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
And she is quietly but firmly preparing for a new beginning.
The industry's biggest concern is, of course, the future of NewJeans.
Currently, a lawsuit is underway to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract between NewJeans and ADOR, and the court's first trial verdict will be announced on the 30th.
Depending on the outcome, there is a possibility that the NewJeans members may leave ADOR and move to Min Hee-jin's new base, OOAK.
Previously, the NewJeans members responded to the request to return to ADOR, saying, 'It's like telling us to go back to a place where the perpetrator is'.
This statement is not just an expression of emotion, but is read as a firm trust in the leader they believe in and follow.
If NewJeans joins hands with OOAK,
it will not just be a 'transfer of affiliation' but another turning point in K-POP history.
Min Hee-jin is a producer who values 'sense' and 'identity' more than anyone else.
The brand she created, NewJeans, has become not just an idol group but a 'cultural code'.
Her sense, which encompasses advertising, fashion, and visual art, is such that she is called 'the person who made K-POP into art' even overseas.
Now she is trying to unfold that sense again entirely in her own space.
The new agency OOAK is known as a creative hub that combines 'music + video + fashion + technology'.
She is already expanding her business scope not only to music but also to performance, publishing, and digital content distribution,
preparing for the 'Entertainment 2.0 era'.
Currently, there is speculation in the industry about 'who will be OOAK's first artist'.
While the possibility of NewJeans moving is still uncertain,
there is also the possibility that a new artist or a new project group will appear.
Some rumors say that 'Min Hee-jin is already unofficially conducting global auditions'.
There are also stories that emerging creators who follow her style are naturally gathering at OOAK.
Therefore, this new corporation can be said to be a reboot of Min Hee-jin's worldview, not just the 'establishment of an agency'.
Min Hee-jin's name has always been at the center of controversy.
But at the same time, she has always been at the center of novelty.
Her vision was always one step ahead,
and that one step expanded the boundaries of K-POP.
Now she is back in the 'creator's seat'.
Like the name OOAK,
she is still walking a unique path.
In the end, at the end of all these controversies and trials,
the only sentence she will leave behind will be one.
'I design the world in my own way.'
Min Hee-jin, and OOAK.
Everyone's eyes are on what kind of culture that name will create in the future.
Source :https://blog.naver.com/yooju0913
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