"Good morning everyone, we have put together this press conference on such a short notice and we are pleased to have so many of you show up and tune in to the live streaming at the last minute. Following the questionable announcement of the split up of Mi•Mi, their manager and respected label executive Anniken Dahl-Smith is here, representing her clients and setting the record straight, readying herself to reveal details about Mi•Mi's experience with SM Entertainment and where everything goes from here. After her presentation, there will be no questions answered for the press nor further comment on the topic. Mrs. Smith, would you like to take the stage?"



Anniken Dahl-Smith: [she walks up to the podium and pulls out a bunch of files] In 2009 there was a contractual dispute with JYJ, former members of TVXQ, in 2009 there was a contractual dispute with Han Geng of Super Junior, in 2010 there was an investigation by the Fair Trade Commission ordering immediate revision, in 2011 they were sued and fined by the Fair Trade Commission for price rigging, in 2014 there was a contractual dispute with Kris Wu of EXO, in 2014 there was a contractual dispute with Lu Han of EXO, in 2015 there was a contractual dispute with No Min-woo of TRAX, and in 2015 there was a contractual dispute with Tao of EXO. That makes 8. In the last 6 years, SM Entertainment has been sued 8 times, 7 of those legal disputes surrounding around their ridiculous contracts and unfair treatment of their signees, particularly, their groups. Let's just keep this in mind for the next few minutes.

[she turns around and points over to the girls sitting behind her] Meet Kim Mi Sun, Lee Mi Kyung, Geum Mae Na and Geum Dae Na. They are the members of Mi•Mi and they have been under the care of SM Entertainment for the last 12 years. When they were all 9, each of these little girls were scouted by SM Entertainment and placed within their trainee program. Mi Sun and Mi Kyung, were signed to the label almost immediately following, becoming child models and beginning to record for early projects that never happened. Mae Nae and Dae Na remained under training during this time period. Years later, in 2013 to be exact, I came into the picture and got Five Pesky Kids involved in a joint contract and Mi Sun and Mi Kyung debuted as Mi•Mi. Eventually Mae Na and Dae Na were rushed into the mix because SM Entertainment thought they'd be easier to promote as a girl group and Five Pesky Kids didn't mind, even though they had a few concerns. So here there they all are, 4 young women finally getting the chance to pursue their dreams. Little did they know the deal they had just gotten themselves into.

Anybody from a mile away could've told you Mi•Mi were getting played. I remember first getting the call to the meeting in Korea and after I looked at their contract, I immediately wanted to run. The contracts their parents signed when these girls were 10 were one of the worst I had ever seen. They had a huge 5 billion won advancement but there was only 8% in royalties, no creative control--which is always a bad sign--and to top it all off, when the label finally had plans to debut them, they were to be signed under the label for 18 years which I am pretty sure is illegal, especially for artists who were in talks with labels while minors. From square 1, I knew this label was no good and through the years I have tried the best I could to stop them from taking full advantage of these girls. I got Five Pesky kids on board to represent them in the Americas and Europe solely so that Mi•Mi would have a better deal for the biggest music markets, knowing they'd still miss out big time on only getting 8% from half of the top 20 global music markets. I asked for a revision of their contracts numerous times and they've set up meeting after meeting and let me waste my breath begging for a better contract for Mi•Mi and every time they refused.

I mentioned earlier that in 2010 there was an investigation by the Fair Trade Commission ordering immediate revision in all of their contracts which claimed they were "unfair". That year, they had to revise the contract of every artist on their label and reduce them to at least 12 years, which is still ridiculous but somehow they got away with it. But that was 2010, why was my client signed into an 18 year contract in 2012 if the Fair Trade Commission had already sued, fined and fixed the problem? SM Entertainment are back at their old tricks again, and I fear for the career of everyone still involved with the label.

Just recently I've informed the members of the group that the profit distributions are unfair and unbalanced but I've known this since the new additions to the group, it's something I've been forced to keep quiet about because as their manager I have to keep the peace but it's something I've grown weary of over the years. Mi Kyung gets 45%, Misu gets 30%, Mae Na gets 15% and Dae Na only gets 10%. Remember, they only get 8% as profit in the first place. If Mi•Mi perform at a venue right now and make $10,000 do you know how much they earn? $800. Mi Kyung gets $360, Mi Sun earns $240, Mae Na will hold $120 and Dae Na is left a mere $80. Out of 10,000 hard earned dollars, Geum Dae Na leaves with $80 in her pocket. And that's just me implying that there was a profit for them at all. Most of their expenses are completely out of pocket all due to their ridiculously low royalties, which doesn't come out of their pockets because even with the help of Five Pesky Kids, SM Entertainment has left them relatively broke, the money to fund what SM Entertainment refuses to, comes out of my pocket when it comes to their Asian and Oceanic expenses. Ideally, we wanted to throw them on tour whenever we found it possible but tour plans always fall through due to SM Entertainment refusing to cooperate or pay for Asian and Oceanic venues when my clients obviously don't have the money too, nor should it be of their expense in the first place. Their 5 billion won advancement--as ordered by their contract--has been locked away in a trust fund that the girls will only get access to once they turn 21. They have spent the last 9 years on this label, 3 years passing since they've officially debuted and yet they will only get their advancement in 3 months when all of the members are 21. That's not even an advancement anymore, that sounds like a huge check that SM Entertainment has been putting off for a full decade.



When In Our Youth, their debut album, didn't do the numbers SM Entertainment expected--which is completely their fault because for whatever reason they held the album back and gave them a release during the Christmas Freeze--they wouldn't allow Five Pesky Kids to release any more singles from the album. We went ahead and released Reckless as a single in America anyway but we had to quickly pull it from radio and iTunes after SM Entertainment threatened to sue. They halted all promotion of the album in Asia an Oceania and suggested Five Pesky Kids do the same. This left us, the manager and her clients, to fund whatever promo spots we could. Eventually the album stopped selling prematurely and the girls ended up having to sell all of their condos and move in together into my New York home because they could barely afford basic living expenses and I had to take on the role of their fairy god mother. The whole situation is completely ridiculous.

Since SM Entertainment still wouldn't agree to a tour, the best thing for Mi•Mi was to go back in the studio and ready themselves to put out more music. They quickly came out with an EP, Pretty In Pink. Everything was set up in place and ready to be shipped. There were official dates announced and everything, but you know what happened at the last minute? SM Entertainment shelved it, claiming there wasn't enough hype to release an EP with no promotion when they knew they wouldn't give us money to promote. So at the last minute, everything was scrapped and we instead went forward to prepare an album for later that year. We were in the early later stages of the album that had came to us rather quick and we sent them the demos of the songs planned to make the album. Five Pesky Kids responded the next day, telling us how much they loved it and were excited to see what we could do with the album. SM Entertainment didn't respond until a week later, telling us that they didn't think it fit Mi•Mi's sound or brand and that we should start at square one again. We had no choice but to listen to them because unfortunately, Mi•Mi's parents signed a contract when the girls were 9, one that does not have creative control. We began work on yet another album and we take a completely different direction this time, spending a few more months on it before sending demos to the labels again. Just like before, Five Pesky Kids responded well, only suggesting that we try to include a bit more English because this time around Mi•Mi decided they wanted to tend to their Korean roots a bit and more than half of the songs were in Korean. We were fine with that, we could make a few alterations, it was a rational request. How did SM Entertainment respond? They told us that Mi•Mi wasn't a Korean group, just a Korean based group and therefore there should be as little Korean in their music as possible. They told us that we should start over once again but they were going to keep the demos to give to some of their other artists. We couldn't refuse because Mi•Mi's parents signed a contract when the girls were 9, one that does not have creative control. None of the girls of Mi•Mi are listed under their roster as composers, writers, or singer-songwriters and yet they have been the ghostwriters of numerous Korean hit singles and #1 albums. Why? Why have my clients been stolen from, why aren't they credited or compensated for their work?

Eventually we got stomped trying to think of Mi•Mi's FOURTH album, even though only one has been released. So they gave us a hint of what they were looking for. In their words, they suggested that Mi•Mi's image is a bit too "clean-cut" and that we should strive to make it more "mature". They weren't recommending that our girls make a more serious album or better music. After not showing one real ounce of interest in furthering Mi•Mi's career for the better, they suddenly demanded they be sexualized because they are quote, "older now and therefore they should target their audience". We had to agree and take up their suggestion because Mi•Mi's PARENTS signed a contract when the girls were 9, one that does. not. include. creative. control. When we finally got a move on the no-Korean-speaking-sex-crazed album, they were finally excited and motivated to do something with Mi•Mi. They threw the girls in a few short interviews talking about how thrilled they were to finally be liberated from their good girl image when the complete opposite is occurring. For some reason this was something they finally felt was worth promoting. We finished the demos for the album and sent them to the labels. Five Pesky Kids absolutely adored the album. SM Entertainment liked everything but 2 songs. What You Like and Take It Off, oddly enough the songs Mi•Mi wrote about SM Entertainment. They wanted us to scrap them and find 2 more songs. We couldn't refuse because Mi•Mi's parents signed a contract when the girls were 9, one that doesn't include creative control. Instead Mi Kyung took a bold step and leaked Take If Off. As a punishment, SM Entertainment pushed the album back and demanded that we remove What You Like and Take It Off from the album. We couldn't refuse because Mi•Mi's parents signed a contract when the girls were 9, one that doesn't include creative control. Instead we leaked 20 second teasers of each song, confirming the track list and forcing them to finally start the era and give the girls at least one small chance to express themselves. He Say She Say was released, so were a bunch of singles from it and it was a massive success for the girls. Since then, things seemed to have been relatively easier regarding the label. It stopped feeling like we were in a constant war with them but we still looked over our shoulders.



Unfortunately, we have approached our last straw. After SM Entertainment finally felt like caring about the artists signed under their label, they finally finally, gave Mi•Mi the chance to tour. It was agreed to be a huge world tour and if we could push out an album during the first 2 quarters of 2016, it would be carried out for 2 years, which were initially our wishes. But during the filming of Kick It, their only music video from the era, Dae Na fell off the bleachers on set during a last take and it ended in her getting hurt bad enough that we had to drive her to the hospital after filming. They gave her the chance to rest during August 2015, surprisingly willing to cancel all promotion for the month. Sounds to good to be true, right? They only suddenly cared because the tour was supposed to start in mid-September 2015. The only problem was that when September arrived, we had realized that the injury turned out to be a little more serious than we all thought and after getting a second opinion from a doctor, it was suggested that Dae Na was put on immediate bed rest until October and had avoided dancing or any other serious physical activities until a physical therapist approved after ideally 4 months of treatment but at least 3 months. We told Five Pesky Kids and they were more than willing to push back the tour and push out a few more singles and wait. But when it came to SM Entertainment, they recommended getting a third opinion from a doctor of their choice before they made any official changes. We happily got a third opinion and when their doctor said the exact same thing as the second, they refused to push back the tour any further than November. In October, in no way was Dae Na feeling any better so we knew we couldn't go further with the tour if one of the four girls were in extreme pain, not even starting on the fact that the other 3 girls had barely practiced. Finally, SM Entertainment agreed to push the tour back until mid-January, but only if we got rid of our dead weight and kicked Geum Dae Na out of the group.

Instead of being considerate of the fact that this young girl was in pain, SM Entertainment wanted to push her out of Mi•Mi because she dared to ruin their tour plans.

Mi•Mi's parents signed a contract when the girls were 9, one that doesn't include creative control. Legally, Geum Dae Na will no longer be apart of Mi•Mi after the 3rd album. Strike one. On December 25th, Mi Kyung made a comment about finally finding a partner--a female partner at that--on Instagram and later confirmed after a few comments on Twitter. It became it's own sort of scandal in Korea and due to SM Entertainment's ridiculous "love ban", Mi Kyung was fined $50,000. Strike two. Somewhere in here we announced Mi•Mi's third album would be their last album on Instagram. SM Entertainment was pretty confused about that comment because they knew Mi•Mi had 15 more years on their label. They called me more than a few times, I didn't answer. We just sent them finalized tracks of the third album on January 1st, 2016. SM Entertainment felt that the album was outwardly disrespectful to their label and therefore absolutely refused to release it. We expected that but still, strike three.

As of today, Mi•Mi are taking legal actions against SM Entertainment. These 4 women should not be enslaved under a contract their parents signed when Kim Mi Sun, Lee Mi Kyung, Geum Mae Na and Geum Dae Na were all 9 and had no idea what they were getting into. Mi•Mi will NOT continue as a trio. Lee Mi Kyung will NOT pay a $50,000 fine for being gay. Their third album will NOT be censored. When the girls of Mi•Mi are inevitably liberated from such a vile excuse of a recording label, we wish that all other artist being wronged by SM Entertainment get their own justice as well. We all know this isn't the first time the label has had a problem with giving their artists basic rights, it hurts to know this probably wont be the last.

However, this is the last time Mi•Mi will be victimized. Thank you all for listening. This is all we have to share until further notice and I'm sure we've already shared too much.