Lee Soo-man, the founder of SM Entertainment, is returning to the Korean music market by launching a boy group and a girl group at the same time under his new label, A2O Entertainment. A2O Soul and A2O Lite were scheduled to hold a global debut showcase on Monday, followed by the release of their digital singles, Superstar and Neon, at 6pm on Tuesday. The move brings Lee back to the market he helped build, after several years focused on projects aimed at audiences abroad.
The launch is Lee’s first domestic music project since his three-year noncompete agreement with Hybe expired in February. He left SM in 2023 after selling his stake to Hybe and, while away from the Korean market, set up A2O Entertainment with its headquarters in Singapore. In 2024 the company introduced girl group A2O May, which was aimed at overseas audiences including China and the US.
The double debut breaks with the usual K-pop practice of building one rookie group’s identity and fanbase before launching another. A2O plans to link the two acts’ music, performances and stories through a shared fictional universe while keeping each group’s identity separate. The concept was to be revealed at the showcase, titled Welcome to Soulite From A2O Soul A2O Lite and streamed worldwide on M2 and Mnet Plus, where Lee was also due to outline A2O’s production vision and its plans to use new entertainment technology.
Music and performance production for both groups is led by Yoo Young-jin, Lee’s longtime collaborator, who spent 28 years at SM as a senior producer and nonexecutive director. His credits include aespa’s Next Level and Black Mamba, NCT 127’s Sticker and NCT Dream’s Hot Sauce. Lee founded SM in 1995 and built a system for finding, training and producing idols that launched H.O.T., S.E.S., TVXQ, Girls’ Generation, Shinee, Exo, NCT and aespa. He also helped popularise interconnected fictional universes in K-pop and introduced NCT’s expandable multi-unit structure, which challenged the fixed line-up model.
In an interview released by A2O, Lee said the company’s name is short for Alpha to Omega and stands for a continuous creative process rather than a fixed start and end. He said what the company makes is “something modified from what already exists”. Asked about the direction of the entertainment business, he said: “The future is technology and humanity.”
