Why expanding your network is crucial for long-term creative success
Some people are more eager than others to broaden their networks in their quest for success
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A multi-billion-dollar business, whose performing artists are idolised around the world: It’s no surprise that so many people dream of a career in K-pop. But the reality is an incredibly tough industry to break into, no more so than for up-and-coming songwriters. For every global hit performed by BTS or Blackpink, there are literally hundreds of songs penned by an army of freelance composers that are seldom or never heard.
In fact, only 4.1 percent of all songs released in South Korea make it to the top 100. The few songwriters that do succeed have to release an average of 15.5 songs before one becomes their first hit. With most songs created by freelance melodists, lyricists and arrangers working in temporary teams, the strength and size of a songwriter’s network of collaborators plays a significant factor in their survival and long-term success or failure.
The research I conducted with Yonghoon Lee* on the early career of 4,387 K-pop songwriters between 2003 and 2012 suggests that the ones who were more likely to land their first top-100 song were those who ventured beyond their existing network of collaborators. While that was no guarantee of success, those who did not broaden their networks had little chance of creating that coveted first hit.
We had some ideas on why some people are more eager than others to broaden their networks in their quest for success. The detailed information on the K-pop songwriters’ careers and the fate of their songs provided excellent data to test our theories, but we believe that our findings may be relevant to freelancers in other creative fields, to entrepreneurs in the early stages of their ventures, and even to people whose careers evolve in formal organisations.
Life is tough for freelance songwriters, especially those who haven’t yet created a hit song. As they are paid a small fee for their music by the production houses that manage the popular performers, their fate depends on the royalties received if their songs are commercially successful. It’s perhaps not surprising that most of these freelancers have to work a second job to pay the bills.
[This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge, the portal to the latest business insights and views of The Business School of the World. Copyright INSEAD 2024]