BIGHIT MUSIC, the HYBE label home to BTS, has opened a global audition to scout male talent.
The 2026 BIGHIT MUSIC GLOBAL AUDITION pairs an online application process with in-person auditions in 15 cities across North America, Asia, and Oceania.
It is open to any male born in or after 2008, regardless of nationality or place of residence, the label said on Monday (September 14).
BIGHIT MUSIC has set no restrictions on performance categories and says applicants can pick whichever discipline they want to be judged in.
Online applications will be accepted through the official audition website from September 14 to December 5.
The in-person auditions run from October 3 to December 5 and require no prior registration.
They will be held in Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Vancouver, Toronto, Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Jakarta, Taipei, and Seoul.
“We welcome all applicants who are pursuing their dreams. We hope for active participation from people who can show their own individuality and talent across a range of fields,” BIGHIT MUSIC said in a statement translated from Korean.
BIGHIT MUSIC is the label behind BTS, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and CORTIS.
It is one of the HYBE MUSIC GROUP labels run by HYBE, which was itself called Big Hit Entertainment until 2021.
“We welcome all applicants who are pursuing their dreams. We hope for active participation from people who can show their own individuality and talent across a range of fields.”
BIGHIT MUSIC
CORTIS, a five-piece, debuted in August 2025 – the label’s first new boy group in six years.
The group has passed 5 million cumulative album sales across its first two mini albums, according to HYBE’s Q2 2026 earnings release.
The second of those, GREENGREEN, has sold more than 3 million copies and reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200, HYBE said.
BTS returned in March with its fifth studio album ARIRANG, which ranked No. 1 in US vinyl and CD album sales in the first half of 2026, according to Luminate’s 2026 Midyear Report.
HYBE said albums by its artists accounted for five of the 10 best-selling CD albums in the United States over the same period.
The company posted revenue of KRW 1.45 trillion (approximately USD $967 million) in the second quarter of 2026, in what it said was a record result driven by the BTS WORLD TOUR ‘ARIRANG’.
The BIGHIT MUSIC search lands during a run of talent hunts across the K-pop business, as previously reported by MBW.
HYBE opened a nationwide talent search in India on March 31 to assemble a new girl group, taking applications until July 31 from girls born between 2005 and 2011.
RETOPIA SALON, a company set up by former HYBE executives, announced auditions across 18 cities in April for a boy group it plans to debut in 2027.
SM Entertainment, the company behind aespa, NCT, and RIIZE, has been running a 2026 global audition spanning 21 locations worldwide after its South Korean leg.
HYBE has been exporting the training-and-development model behind BTS into other markets.
KATSEYE, its first Western girl group, was assembled with Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records through the Dream Academy audition, which drew 120,000 applicants.
Through HYBE Latin America, the company has also produced a Latin boy group, SANTOS BRAVOS.
Separately, HYBE opened applications for a 2026 edition of its Next New Creator audition on July 14, a global search for pop producers spanning several of its labels in Korea and Japan.
Applications for that search closed on August 12.
The BIGHIT MUSIC announcement does not say whether the audition is tied to a specific debut.Music Business Worldwide
