Fans Speculate HYBE’s Manipulation of NewJeans’s Album Sales After MV Age Restrictions Controversy

On May 24th, ADOR, the agency representing NewJeans, released their latest song “How Sweet”at 1 p.m. KST on all music streaming platforms. The music video for the song was also released at 4 p.m. on the same day. Within just 4 days, the music video surpassed 8.6 million views, solidifying the widespread popularity of NewJeans. Unfortunately, the video was suddenly subjected to an age restriction.

HYBE clarified that they do not impose any age restrictions when uploading music videos to YouTube. According to YouTube’s guidelines, the classification of a video as age-restricted is based on their own standards. HYBE has already contacted YouTube to investigate the specific criteria that resulted in the age restriction for this particular video.

Despite HYBE’s clarification, netizens persisted in speculating about the ongoing dispute between HYBE and ADOR’s CEO Min Hee-jin, with many theories being shared in online communities and in the comment section of the “How Sweet”music video.

Netizens expressed their thoughts on the “How Sweet”MV and shared their opinions, with some speculating that HYBE had directly applied restrictions themselves. Others questioned if the restrictions were only targeted at NewJeans and wondered why HYBE was taking this action against them. There were also comments about notifications being turned off for the new video, and comparisons were drawn to previous incidents where comments had been deleted on the “OMG”music video. Some even suggested that the restrictions may have been imposed due to potential indirect criticism of HYBE in the music video.

Despite the lifting of the age restriction for “How Sweet”music video on May 29th, the comment section continues to be filled with theories surrounding HYBE and ADOR’s conflicts rather than reviews about the actual music video.

As the debate surrounding the issue of unfair treatment for NewJeans grows, a netizen shared their opinion on an online community, stating that they believe NewJeans’s latest album will sell at least 1 million copies, instead of the reported 810,000. However, even days after the album’s release, albums purchased from the Weverse Shop have not been shipped. This is concerning, as HYBE, known for promoting album sales, has not taken action to ship NewJeans albums. These actions by HYBE are deceitful and malicious.

Despite claims that this is a unique issue for NewJeans, several netizens have countered this statement by pointing out that other HYBE artists have also faced similar problems. Comments such as “I haven’t received my BTS RM album either”, “This is a recurring issue for all HYBE artists”, and “HYBE has a history of poor management”have further highlighted the need for improvement within the company.