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.
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I’m just surprised you even considered Woollim for the evaluation given they didn’t even get an individual post this year unlike before. But holy shit does it seem like they’re practically defunct atp, unless some sort of miracle helps them turn the tides 🥴
As for Uncore, I appreciate their management and direction for CYE, they did a wonderful job with their identity. And since Uncore is included, do you plan to evaluate Nouer Entertainment (NouerA’s agency)? I believe they are doing just as a wonderful job giving NouerA such a solid discography early on. Hopefully they keep promoting the guys more.
And though they’re not mentioned (dk if you plan to make another post incase of any other agencies left), but I lowkey appreciate PNATION’s work this year, they seem more active. Baby Dont Cry has potential and they seem to gain some attention thanks to their connections with Soyeon, and even Hwasa’s comeback is a sleeper hit domestically. I just wish they promoted TNX more, they deserve so much better 🥴
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Oof! I forgot P Nation. Yeah, they’ve had a better year this year.
Woollim gets a write-up for nostalgia’s sake. It’s a pitiful situation, though… especially as a long-time fan. I hope their great A&R team at least finds work at another agency.
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kinda surprised u didnt feature modhaus in this since they now have 3 active groups
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About UNCORE, it’s no accident that they’ve had a strong creative direction: for CYE’s debut they managed to hire Lee Haein, who had previously handled the creative direction of Kiss of Life from their debut onwards. So now one group is thriving while the other… feels like it has stagnated somewhat.
Kep1er continue to be managed by KLAP Entertainment (while still technically under WakeOne) so I suppose they’re not a priority in that sense… KLAP keeps doing a great job with them I think, for my tastes Kep1er have released some of their strongest material since they took over.
I’d also like to take the opportunity to mention some (multi-artist) agencies that Nick skipped, besides P Nation that was mentioned in other comments:
Modhaus has had a great year and continue to be on an upward trajectory. tripleS released another strong all-members album (with their biggest sales yet), made a Japanese comeback and recently released a mini with the 24 members split in 4 units, plus a Christmas song. They also had two (!) North American tours as well as all-member shows around Asia. ARTMS released an EP in the first half of the year and solos for all members in the second half, and they remain booked and busy as they are currently in the middle of their second (!) world tour this year. idntt are still a work in progress but the first EP of first subunit uneverm8t was well-received.
Beyond the numbers and their wacky schemes, what I appreciate the most about Modhaus is that the music remains front and centre. They consistently release EPs and even full albums that mesh well and are a cohesive listen from start to finish, instead of the usual “random collection of tracks from strongest to weakest” that most agencies favour. The agency has an overall feel to its sound, while at the same time each group maintains its own distinct identity. I’m guessing a big part of this is that they continue to cultivate long-term collaborations with Korean producers (G-High and others at Monotree, El Capitxn and others at Vendors, Artronic Waves, Hymax, BADD, …) instead of relying on song camps. They’re not perfect of course, no agency is, but I’m looking forward to their 2026 output.
iNKODE has managed to give Say My Name a strong musical identity and has otherwise promoted them quite well I thought. Their EP earlier this year passed the 100k sales mark for the first time, and they also introduced a new member for the group which feels like a rarity in K-pop these days — if anything groups are more likely to shed members left and right. (They have another comeback planned for the end of December.) Kim Jaejoong keeps doing his thing of course, his music doesn’t particularly appeal to me but he’s doing a good job catering to his fanbase. And finally new boy group INTHE X is expected to debut in January.
F&F Entertainment is more of a mixed bag. UNIS started the year with a well-received EP, but for the second half of the year all they got was a Japanese single. It feels like they were somewhat sidelined for the agency to focus on the debut of new boy group AHOF, who admittedly have had both great material and strong sales as a result. Growing pains, or a sign of what’s to come in 2026 too? And will UNIS extend their contract to some capacity, or will they come to an end in September? I guess we’ll find out.
Like Nick I deliberately didn’t cover single-group agencies, but anyone else I’m forgetting? I guess EDAM is now technically a multi-artist agency now that it has both IU and Woodz, but I don’t have much to say about them.
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Oh and Nick it’s somewhat surprising to me that 100RED / INB100 / BPM doesn’t seem to be on your radar at all as their combined roster is quite sizeable, though perhaps I wrongly assumed this is the last post of the series and 1 sorts after W?
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i would give 100red an F/D- solely for how they treated haknyeon during his non-scandal as well as enabling the media to slander him and asuka kirara (the woman he was seen talking to)
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why did I think Close Your Eyes was an SM group? Lmao
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