After taking a look at K-pop’s biggest agencies, I’d like to turn my attention to the smaller (but still important) players in the K-pop game, three at a time.
Disclaimer: As with my write-ups on K-Pop’s biggest agencies, this is written from an outsider’s perspective. I’m not privy to any business-related financial information beyond what any other fan would know. The purpose of these articles is to examine how well these agencies are serving their artists and the general K-pop fan-base.
UNCORE ENTERTAINMENT
I don’t generally feature labels with only one artist under their roster, but I wanted to touch on UNCORE because I’ve been impressed with their promotion and creative direction for Close Your Eyes this year. Being a group spawned from a survival series, you’d expect the music and concepts to be pretty generic. Instead, UNCORE has consistently leaned into creativity, whether that’s in the form of visuals, music or even physical album design.
Throwing all their weight behind a single idol group helps keep things focused, and makes UNCORE feel like a cool boutique agency. I’m a bit worried how they see Close Your Eyes’ music going forward, as their recent comeback felt slightly more generic than I’d like, but overall they’ve done a great job this year.
A-
WAKEONE ENTERTAINMENT
This is a tricky one. Many fans are angry at WakeOne for ZEROBASEONE’s inevitable disbandment, but it’s not like we didn’t know this was coming since their debut so it’s not as if the agency lied to us. However, a recent two-month extension of their contract seems to confirm a “grand finale” before the group fractures. It’ll be interesting to see if some members stay with WakeOne for a smaller version of the group, similar to what has happened with Kep1er.
For my part, I found ZEROBASEONE’s material to be uneven this year. They started very strong but WakeOne dropped the ball with their first full album, giving them so-so material when they should have been knocking it out of the park. Sales remain remarkably high.
Though Kep1er is a diminished force since their reconfiguration, they released music in both Korea and Japan this year and seem to be trying out new sounds. I’m glad they’re still promoting, even if they don’t feel like a priority for the agency. Instead, newer girl group izna have been given more of a push. I also find their material uneven, but WakeOne was smart to pair with trendy Black Label producers to give the group a definable sound. Their music is steadily improving, though sales are pretty stagnant. Meanwhile, soloist Jo Yuri is more notable as an actress these days. She released one mini album this year to limited fanfare.
WakeOne’s 2026 prospects will largely rest on the success of new boy group ALPHA DRIVE ONE. They haven’t gotten off to the best start, with a dull pre-release that hasn’t exactly sparked excitement, but we’ll see what sound and style the agency will give them next month when they make their actual debut.
C+
WOOLLIM ENTERTAINMENT
Oh, Woollim. I used to devote an entire post to my once-favorite agency, but now I can barely muster a few sentences. The problem is, Woollim doesn’t feel like an agency anymore. New music from any of their artists is so infrequent that it hardly even registers. The only artist who actually promoted in 2025 was Kwon Eunbi with a digital single in the spring. Golden Child’s Joochan released a solo track but never took it to music shows. Woollim pushed members of DRIPPIN onto Boys II Planet to little avail. It doesn’t seem like a group comeback is anywhere on the horizon. I hate to say it, but I’m afraid Woollim might actually be defunct. They didn’t even release enough material for me to give them a grade.
