K-pop is more popular than ever, but that isn’t helping agency stock prices

South Korean pop stars are smashing records, performing at premier music festivals in the West and topping charts — but that stratospheric success is not mirrored in the stock performance of their management agencies.

South Korea’s “Big Four” K-pop agencies are all publicly listed. Hybe Corporation is the largest and listed on the blue-chip Kospi, while SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment are on the small-cap Kosdaq. So far this year, Hybe shares have plunged 29%, SM lost 36%, while YG plummeted 37%. The largest loser is JYP Entertainment, which has more than halved since the start of the year, falling 56%.

The declines are puzzling as K-pop artists solidify the industry’s position on the global music stage, breaking records on YouTube, Spotify and even Billboard Charts.

Statistics provided by Spotify to CNBC revealed that since 2018, K-pop streams on the platform have skyrocketed more than 180% in the United States, over 420% in Southeast Asia and over 360% worldwide, as of Sept. 3.

The music streaming service also said that in 2023 alone, South Korean artists were discovered by first-time listeners nearly 2.2 billion times on Spotify.

“Even if you didn’t know my name, you may know BTS and Blackpink,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said to a joint session of Congress in April 2023.

Boy group BTS is the best-selling act in South Korean history, and girl group Blackpink became the first K-pop act to perform at the Coachella in 2019. Blackpink is also the first South Korean band to headline a major U.K. music festival, performing at London’s BST Hyde Park festival in 2023. Rookie group NewJeans and boy group Stray Kids have also performed at Lollapalooza this year.