Source: Hankyung
The chaos inside SM is deepening following Lee Soo-man's "resignation" from the company.
On the 10th, representative producer Yoo Young-jin separately issued a statement following actor Kim Min-jong's email to staff. Below is his full statement leaked to media.
"As a musician who has been with SM for a longtime, I would like to express my position regarding the current situation at SM.
It's difficult to agree with the part where Lee Soo-man's production was excluded by current management from the SM 3.0 vision announced on the 3rd. It's also regretful that the producer's role, which is the most important factor in content production is missing. The presentation was called "multi-production" but the content was about a "multi-production system."
After the announcement, I asked current management if they had discussed anything about producing and he confirmed that there was no such thing. Also, teacher Lee Soo-man's contract with the company ended last year but he never said he was retiring as producer.
It is very shocking to me that they unilaterally announced the SM 3.0 plan without consulting teacher Lee Soo-man and just publicly announced their goodbyes with him.
The multi-producing system is definitely something teacher Lee Soo-man would've prepared in advance for. He said the production know-how needs to be manualized first so that the company can operate without problems.
Teacher Lee Soo-man is the only producer that can clearly understand the flow of culture and IT and predict how music will be consumed and changed in future platforms. He had said before that the world of AI-dols and celebs would come and has long been telling us to hurry up our world of avatars, metaverses, and NFTs.
Teacher Lee's pioneering mind played a huge role in SM's ability to lead the past and present of K-pop and also preparing SM in the past few years for the changing future of K-pop."
SM without Lee Soo-man's production is not SM. I, Yoo Young-jin will stand by teacher Lee Soo-man and follow his wishes. I also conveyed my opinion to CEO Lee Sung-soo that I cannot work together in the current situation."
- [+601, -32] Well, this aside, Yoo Young-jin himself needs to quit producing music. His music style is too outdated.
- [+183, -11] I'm seriously curious what he truly thinks is the reason behind why SM has flopped in the past few years? Five years ago they might've been doing fine but they're behind the trends these days and are the ones outdated now.
- [+173, -16] No.. both Yoo Young-jin and Lee Soo-man should've quit together...
- [+130, -5] If your contract is over, it's over. I don't understand this mindset where he thinks he's entitled to producing rights even after his contract expired. If he wanted to do that, he shouldn't have stepped down from his position. Didn't he sell his shares and got money from it? So he wants money and management rights at the same time too?
- [+75, -34] I honestly don't like any of the SM groups at all.
- [+38, -4] In a break up there's something called common decency. So just because he's the founder he's allowed to ruin the entire company?
- [+32, -1] When your contract is over you have to leave. What does he mean by producer work left? Grandpa Kim Min-jong and Yoo Young-jin don't seem to understand the concept of a publicly traded company and how it works.
- [+24, -0] If Lee Soo-man hadn't thrown in Chinese kids all over EXO and aespa, SM wouldn't be in this position right now.
- [+17, -1] Isn't Yoo Young-jin the one responsible for the ridiculous lyrics in SM songs right now?
- [20, -5] You worked hard but it's time to leave for Kwangya now, goodbye. There are so many talented composers and lyricists in our country, overseas too. I'm sure the Board, Kakao, and HYBE are hoping you leave. And leave these statements for your handwritten letters to Soo-man.