BLACKPINK's Four Solo Empires Test YG’s Hold on Its Top Act

• BLACKPINK's group contract with YG, renewed in December 2023, is believed to expire this year. All four members run solo careers through separate labels outside YG's control.
• The Deadline EP drops Feb. 27 with no confirmed full-group promotional schedule, a first for any major BLACKPINK release.
• YG has already lost direct access to BIGBANG's three remaining members, meaning a BLACKPINK departure would strip the label of both its flagship acts.

When BLACKPINK renewed its group contract with YG Entertainment on Dec. 6, 2023, the label's stock jumped more than 25 percent in a single trading session. Two years later, the arrangement that kept investors calm is nearing what many in the industry believe is its expiration date, and the four women at the center of it have spent the interim building solo businesses that no longer need YG's infrastructure to function.

The group's third EP, Deadline, arrives on Feb. 27. It is the first BLACKPINK album with no confirmed full-group promotional itinerary. The Korea Herald reported Monday that insiders view the release as potentially the group's last under its current deal, citing the difficulty of coordinating four members whose individual schedules now span Netflix sets, Grammy stages, and variety show tapings across multiple countries.

BLACKPINK: Four members, four labels, one scheduling problem

The 2023 renewal was for group activities only. Each member separately declined to re-sign individual contracts with YG and instead built independent operations: Jennie launched Odd Atelier and later signed with Alta Music Group for U.S. management; Lisa founded LLOUD; Jisoo established Blissoo; and Rose joined The Black Label and Atlantic Records.

That fragmented structure has made coordinating a standard comeback cycle nearly impossible. Jisoo begins promotional events this week for her Netflix series Boyfriend on Demand (known in Korean as Monthly Boyfriend), which premieres March 6. Jennie is a fixed cast member on the MBC variety show The Secret Friends Club, now in its fourth episode. Rose opened the 2026 Grammy Awards alongside Bruno Mars with a performance of "APT." and continues to travel between Seoul and Los Angeles for international commitments.

Deadline's 33-date stadium tour and a title track in seven languages

BLACKPINK wrapped the Deadline World Tour on Jan. 26 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium. The 33-date, all-stadium run covered 16 cities across three continents, including two sold-out nights at London's Wembley Stadium that made BLACKPINK the first K-pop girl group to headline the venue. The tour built on the commercial scale of Born Pink, which grossed roughly $330 million across 66 shows in 2022-23.

On Feb. 23, the group released a teaser for its title track, GO. The clip featured cosmic visuals and displayed the song title in seven languages, including Hindi (titled Chalo), Korean, Spanish, Thai, English, Chinese, and Japanese. YG described the album as capturing "irreversible peak moments." The five-track EP also includes Jump (prereleased in July 2025), Me and my, Champion, and Fxxxboy.

What a BLACKPINK exit would mean for YG's balance sheet

The business case for concern is straightforward. BLACKPINK's group projects are YG Entertainment's most powerful revenue source. In 2024, a year without full-group BLACKPINK activities, YG posted an estimated operating loss of 23.9 billion won ($16.4 million) on revenue of about 365.8 billion won, according to financial projections compiled by NH Investment & Securities. It was the label's first-ever annual operating deficit.

The label's other marquee franchise offers a cautionary parallel. BIGBANG is set to perform at Coachella in April to mark its 20th anniversary, but all three current members (G-Dragon, Taeyang, and Daesung) left YG's roster between 2022 and 2024. The label granted permission to use the BIGBANG name for the festival, though the group now operates independently. If BLACKPINK's contract lapses without renewal, YG would lose direct ties to both of the acts that defined its commercial identity for two decades.

K-pop's standard renewal window for group contracts runs about three years. The December 2023 signing puts that window squarely in the second half of 2026. Whether BLACKPINK renegotiates, restructures, or walks will say less about the group's bond and more about whether the traditional K-pop label model can hold together when every member in it has already outgrown the building.