Geffen Records Issues Apology for Executive's Remarks About BTS's Jimin Upcoming Album Inquiry from Fan

Geffen Records has issued a formal apology following controversy sparked by a social media post from one of its executives. The incident began earlier this week when a BTS fan inquired on X (formerly Twitter) about Jimin's upcoming pre-release single, "Smeraldo Garden Marching Band," which is set to debut tonight. The fan tagged Geffen Records (BTS’s U.S. distributor), its parent company Universal Music Group, and Ray Kurzeka, the senior vice president and head of streaming at Geffen, asking, "Where are the iTunes pre-orders for Jimin’s ‘Smeraldo Garden Marching Band’ out next week June 28th? Also, provide a EU version with no random inclusions in order to have a bigger impact on the UK Album Chart."

In response, Ray Kurzeka linked to Gracie Abrams’ song “us.” featuring Taylor Swift, and commented, “song of the year…” This reply was met with backlash from BTS fans, who felt it was dismissive of their inquiry about Jimin’s new release.

RT + REPLY

.@GeffenRecords and @bts_bighit please look into this extremely unprofessional behavior of @raykurzeka,the head of Streaming in Geffen Records.We request you to stop ignoring our demands and please promote your artist properly!

GEFFEN APOLOGIZE TO JIMIN pic.twitter.com/LhQNYKwHt0

— Carolyne🌱⁷⁼¹ (@mhereonlyforbts) June 23, 2024

Geffen Records has since apologized for the executive's remarks, aiming to address the concerns and reaffirm their commitment to supporting Jimin and his music.

The statement read,

An employee of our label issued a single post on his personal social media account in response to an inquiry from fans of Jimin. This was made by mistake and in no way reflects either the views of the employee or those of our company. Both he and the company are deeply sorry that this happened. The post does not comply with the company’s social media policy.

Our compliance team is addressing this with him directly and implementing enhanced controls across the company to assure that it never happens again. As we address this matter, we request that fans refrain from any personal attacks.

We wish to assure you that the scheduled release of Jimin’s second solo album, “MUSE,” will proceed as planned without any impact.

Statement from Geffen Records. pic.twitter.com/T0RPKE1ML6

— Geffen Records (@GeffenRecords) June 27, 2024

Fans reaction to the apology

"Made by mistake" you wanna say that by mistake.

• he opened the twitter app then,
• he switched his account to
personal twt
• he copied pasted the link
• he typed "song of the year" &
posted it under same twt where
we were asking to Geffen for pre
orders. https://t.co/axv9KCGzdN pic.twitter.com/ED2cPlHhDZ

— sai (@joonstalk) June 27, 2024

geffen ignoring more than 500k tweets, kmedia articles, national news and only issuing an apology after billboard published news about it. lol these people never fail to show they don’t care unless the west gets a hold of it.

— MUSE (@yvesaintbarbie) June 27, 2024