Shares of YG Entertainment plummeted 16.3% this week amidst hypothesis the company has not renewed the contracts of the members of woman group BLACKPINK. Following a spate of experiences out of South Korea, the corporate’s share worth dropped 13.3% on Thursday (Sept. 21) and one other 4.1% on Friday (Sept. 22). 

On Thursday, Korean information outlet Daily Sports Seoul reported that three members of BLACKPINK — Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa — will depart YG Entertainment and spend simply six months out of the 12 months as a part of the group. In response to that report and the flurry of media consideration that adopted, YG Entertainment issued a brief statement: “Currently, BLACKPINK’s contract renewal has not been confirmed and is being discussed.”

BLACKPINK turned the primary Ok-pop woman group to play Coachella in 2019 and headlined the pageant in 2023. The quartet was additionally the primary Ok-pop woman group — and the third Ok-pop group general — to high the Billboard 200, with its 2022 album, Born Pink. 

Every week in the past, YG Entertainment’s share worth was up 80.8% 12 months to this point and was outpacing its Ok-pop opponents. Following the BLACKPINK information, shares of YG Entertainment fell to 130,300 KRW ($97.56), dropping its year-to-date acquire to 51.4%. That put YG Entertainment beneath SM Entertainment’s 69.9% year-to-date acquire and JYP Entertainment’s 55.6% enchancment.

Overall, the 21-stock Billboard Global Music Index fell 1.9% to 1,330.12 this week, reducing its year-to-date acquire to 13.9%. Eleven shares ended the week in adverse territory and two had been unchanged. Of the eight shares that completed in constructive territory, solely Cumulus Media, which gained 7.9% to $4.80, appreciated greater than 3%.

Music shares outperformed some main indexes, although. In the United States, the S&P 500 dropped 2.4% to 4,345.64 and the Nasdaq composite fell 3.6% to 13,211.81. Overseas, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 7,683.91 whereas South Korea’s KOSPI composite index declined 3.6% to 2,508.13.

Led by Cumulus Media’s 7.9% acquire, the three radio firms within the index had a mean acquire of three.8% — the one section in constructive territory — with SiriusXM gaining 2% to $4.07 and iHeartMedia rising 1.5% to $3.45. Meanwhile, the eight shares masking file labels and music publishers misplaced a mean of 1.1%, and 4 reside music shares fell by a mean of 1.7%. The six streaming firms within the Billboard Global Music Index misplaced a mean of 6.9%. 

Two streaming firms, StayOne and Anghami, had the sharpest declines of the week. Abu Dhabi-based Anghami dropped 19% to $0.68, bringing its year-to-date loss to 57.4%. U.S. music streamer StayOne fell 23.4% to $1.05 and has misplaced 36% of its worth since spinning off its PodcastOne division on Sept. 11 and attracting media consideration over allegations its Kast Media division didn’t pay some promoting revenues to podcasters. The spinoff hasn’t helped the corporate’s mixed worth: Trading underneath the title Courtside Group, the podcast firm’s share worth fell to $2.05 this week, 52% beneath its opening buying and selling worth on Sept. 8. The different streaming shares nearly broke even this week: Spotify, Tencent Music Entertainment, Cloud Music and Deezer had a mean share worth decline of simply 0.2%.  

Hipgnosis Songs Fund rose 2.8% to 0.832 kilos ($1.02) per week after dropping 12.8% on information the publicly traded funding belief plans to sell some catalogs for $465 million. The sale proceeds would fund share buybacks and repurchase debt, which Hipgnosis believes will help the beleaguered share worth and reset the corporate’s internet asset worth. 

Shares of Warner Music Group (WMG) dropped 4.7% to $30.76 this week following the announcement on Monday (Sept. 18) that BMG is taking management of its digital distribution and can now not use WMG’s ADA Distribution (although it’s going to proceed to outsource its bodily distribution). The information didn’t impression WMG’s share worth till Wednesday (Sept. 20), when buyers turned conscious of a report by analysts at Guggenheim that said BMG’s choice would trigger “a staggered reduction in WMG gross revenue” starting Dec. 31 of roughly $250 million yearly. Losing BMG’s digital enterprise gained’t be a serious hit to WMG’s earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), nonetheless: Guggenheim famous that WMG’s income from BMG had an EBITDA margin within the low single digits and would have “minimal free cash flow impact,” analysts wrote within the investor be aware. Perhaps sensing WMG sellers misunderstood the economics of BMG’s departure, some patrons returned to WMG and helped the inventory recapture 47% of Wednesday’s losses over the subsequent two days. The Guggenheim has a $37 worth goal on WMG, which means 20% of upside from Friday’s closing worth. WMG shares