The boycott of Synnara Record, which started from Starship Entertainment, is spreading across the K-pop industry.
On March 22nd, WM Entertainment released a notice on the pre-order of Lee Chae Yeon’s new album “Over The Moon” with links to websites for purchases. Pre-order links announced by WM are Hottracks, Aladdin, Apple Music, YES24, Book&Music, and Interpark. Compared to the past, Synnara Records was not included.
Earlier on the 21st, Starship also posted the pre-order notice for IVE’s first full album “I’ve IVE” without listing Synnara Records in the purchase options. As a result, Starship seems to be leading a “boycott” movement against Synnara Records in the K-pop industry.
In addition, Apink’s agency, IST Entertainment, also did not share the website link of Synnara Records in the announcement of the pre-sale of Apink’s 10th mini album “SELF”.
Established in 1982, Synnara Records is one of the major music distributors in Korea that mainly sells idol albums. However, Netflix’s documentary series “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” has recently been pointed it out as a source of income for a religious cult called “The Baby Garden”, sparking a boycott movement. Synnara Records is currently conducting pre-sales for albums of IVE, Apink, and Lee Chae Yeon, but none of the three artists’ agencies directly mention Synnara in their notice.
The majority of Internet users seem to agree with this move.
In particular, netizens on the online community theqoo left comments such as, “Good Good”, “I agree”, “They made a bold decision”, “There won’t be any fansign event with Synnara too, right?”, “The companies are doing the right thing”, “I hope big agencies will join (the boycott)”, “That’s good”, and so on.
On the other hand, Apink will release their 10th mini album “SELF” on the 5th of April. Meanwhile, IVE will return with “I’ve IVE” on the 10th and Lee Chae Yeon will introduce her 2nd mini album “Over The Moon” on the 12th.
“The Baby Garden” is a religious organization founded by Kim Ki Soon in 1982. In the same year, she established the music distribution company Synnara Records. In 1997, The Baby Garden’s leader Kim Ki Soon was sentenced to 4 years in prison and fined 5.6 billion won on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.
After being mentioned in Netflix’s “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal”, The Baby Garden sued the production company MBC for describing them as a “pseudo-religious organization”. They also filed an injunction against Netflix Korea but later withdrew it.
Source Wikitree
