K-pop idols are often decked out in luxury clothes from brand deals, but the reality of their careers may look pretty grim.
Hyebin, the leader of the six-member girl group Momoland, took to Instagram this week to dispel the illusion that every K-pop idol is rolling in cash.
“It has already been more than 10 years since I became an idol,” she said in a video posted on Monday. “Many people probably wonder how much money idols actually make. It may seem like they earn a crazy amount of money, but they don’t.”
Hyebin started the video with an explanation about how many idols — especially those who debut in midsize or small agencies — start their careers with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Costs mount during the trainee period that all K-pop stars must go through before their debut, including lessons, food, and housing to practice room rentals. It’s all “billed straight to you after debut” like a “post-paid system,” she said.
Hyebin added that reaching the top of the charts or being part of a popular group could mean an idol is “still poor.”
“In general, idols split all expenses 50-50 with the agency,” she said. Releasing a song means buying a track worth thousands from a composer. Music videos cost money to make, too, and the idols shoulder the cost out of pocket.
“Every time we shoot a music video, tens of thousands of my own money vanishes,” she said.
Even active idols who are constantly doing events and activities may not be raking in cash. The average booking fee for an idol event is around $38,000, she said, but the company takes a 50% cut. Then there’s manager salaries, gas, and the necessary event prep, like hair and makeup that the idols need to pay part of the cost for, too.
And after all that, the profit is split among the band members. Momoland had nine members at one point. Some bands, like Seventeen, have 13 people.
“Every time I do an event, I walk away with around 2 million Korean won,” she said. That’s around $1,300.
“The money you worked your butt off to make, it sits in a pile and then goes straight into investing in the next music video,” she said. “Then, boom, you’re back in the negatives.”
“It’s a literal infinite Dormammu loop,” she joked, referring to the “Marvel” villain. “I’m telling you, the money made a U-turn before it even touched my bank account.”
Hyebin acknowledged that some idols get rich, but the chances are minuscule. Only 1% of people who try to become K-pop idols make it to debut, and only the top 1% of those who debuted make “any real money,” she said.
K-pop is a multibillion-dollar global industry. In April, Hybe, the mega K-pop label behind BTS and their peers, Seventeen, reported its highest-ever first-quarter revenue of 698.3 billion Korean won, or around $473 million.
Hyebin’s Momoland was a top girl group in 2018. It disbanded in February 2023, when the members’ contracts with their previous agency, MLD Entertainment, expired. In 2025, six members of the group, including Hyebin, reunited to work together under a new label, but with the same band name.
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