Bigbang Theory: How K-Pop’s Top Act Earned $44 Million In A Year

Korea’s Pop Export: Bigbang is set to become the first K-Pop act to land on our Celeb 100 list–and, together with YG, offers a blueprint for making money in the music business anywhere in the world.

As record executive Joojong Joe weaved through the packed crowd at the 19,000-capacity Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., there to see Korean boy band Bigbang, he spotted a young Russian woman crying. She couldn’t explain why. Confident that she wasn’t in any actual distress, he moved on.

“It’s like...