HYBE is holding a 2026 edition of its Next New Creator audition, a global search for pop music producers.
Producers who come through the competition will get the chance to work across four of the South Korean company’s labels.
Those labels are Big Hit Music, BELIFT LAB, Pledis Entertainment, YX Labels, alongside its HYBE Japan division.
HYBE has run the Next New Creator project since 2016, though in previous years it has been hosted by a single label at a time.
The company announced the audition on Tuesday (July 7), and, per the report, is seeking track producers who specialize in pop.
The competition is open to applicants aged 19 or older, regardless of gender, career or nationality.
Both individuals and teams can enter, and HYBE is asking applicants to submit demo files that best showcase their work.
Online applications will run from Tuesday (July 14) to Wednesday (August 12), according to the outlet.
Successful applicants will receive a creative support fund of 5 million won (approximately USD $3,270 at current exchange rates).
HYBE says it is looking for producers ready to showcase their “boundless potential and talent.”
HYBE, formerly Big Hit Entertainment, first launched the Next New Creator project in 2016 and says it has since discovered producers in Korea and overseas.
HYBE has described the audition as a search for a producer “ready to step onto the global music industry stage,” and says the project has “provided opportunities for them to present their musical prowess.”
Applicants who clear an internal screening by HYBE‘s producers proceed to a main competition, which can include a song camp, with the winner offered the chance to become an in-house producer.
One earlier entrant, ADORA, was recruited through the 2016 edition and went on to work as an in-house producer at Big Hit Music on records by BTS.
In previous years the audition was run by one label at a time: Big Hit Music hosted the 2021 and 2023 editions, while BELIFT LAB ran it in 2025.
The 2026 edition instead pools the search across multiple labels within HYBE‘s multi-label system.
Those are Big Hit Music, BELIFT LAB, Pledis Entertainment in Korea, YX Labels, alongside company’s HYBE Japan division.
BELIFT LAB, launched in 2018 as a joint venture with CJ ENM, has been wholly owned by HYBE since it bought out CJ ENM’s stake in November 2023.
YX Labels is the Tokyo-based division that HYBE rebranded from HYBE Labels Japan in February 2025, and is home to the group &TEAM.
The rebrand was part of a company-wide reorganization HYBE calls a “multi-home, multi-genre strategy.”
Under it, HYBE has said it is building an “independent multi-label system” in Japan.
HYBE has framed the Next New Creator audition as part of a wider push to build production capabilities across its labels while respecting what it calls their creative autonomy.
HYBE‘s rivals take different routes to developing production talent.
SM Entertainment, the company behind aespa and NCT, runs SM Universe, a fee-based academy it launched in Seoul in 2022 with a major in producing.
A semester at SM Universe reportedly costs up to 10 million won (around $6,550), whereas HYBE‘s audition is free to enter and carries a cash prize.
Some rival agencies fold a dedicated producer track into their auditions, among them KQ Entertainment, the label behind ATEEZ.
HYBE‘s Next New Creator, by contrast, is a standalone search aimed specifically at producers.Music Business Worldwide
