Bang Si-Hyuk, K-pop’s Hit Guru
The hitmaker behind BTS engineered a $1 billion deal in April to combine Ithaca Holdings—the agency that manages Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande—with his Korean empire, bringing K-pop to the center of the U.S. music business.
Bang Si-Hyuk
Photographer: Seongjoon Cho/Bloomberg
In his native South Korea, Bang is known by an English nickname: Hitman. A prolific producer of K-pop blockbusters, he’s indisputably the top mogul in Seoul’s glitzy Gangnam district. Now his management company, Hybe, is making a play for similar influence on the biggest possible stage. Its deal taking control of Ithaca, the company founded by Los Angeles impresario Scooter Braun, puts BTS under the same roof as other bankable stars and marks a new milestone in K-pop’s conquest of the global charts.
After completing the Ithaca deal, which brought Braun onto Bang’s team as Hybe America’s CEO, Hitman announced that he’d be stepping back from day-to-day leadership to spend more time on his first passion: assembling bands and producing songs.