The seven members of the South Korean boy band BTS want to take a break as a group and instead focus on solo projects for the time being.

The indefinite hiatus was announced by the popular band on a YouTube video released Tuesday night, showing them at their annual "Festa" dinner celebrating the band's founding anniversary.

The band is now "taking a break," said Suga, 29.

He always thought BTS was different from other bands, said 27-year-old rapper RM, who is also considered a band leader.

"But I didn't know what kind of band we were anymore." He and his colleagues intended to present solo albums.

"I feel like I've become a machine," adds one of the singers.

The joint dinner took place on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the founding of BTS.

Investors are reacting to the break by selling

Known for their meticulously rehearsed dance choreographies, the boy band is South Korea's most successful music export.

The band primarily sings in their native language, but has millions of fans around the world.

In 2020, BTS became the first South Korean band to top the US charts with their English single "Dynamite".

At the American Music Awards in November 2021, the pop stars scooped up three trophies, including the grand prize for artist of the year.

BTS are considered to be the current biggest stars of Korean pop (K-pop).

The abbreviation BTS stands for "Bangtan Sonyeondan", which means something like "Bulletproof Boy Scouts".

The news from the pop stars was not well received on the stock exchanges: the price of the South Korean entertainment company Hybe, to which BTS is under contract and which also owns the Big Hit Music label, lost 27.5 percent on the South Korean stock exchange early Wednesday morning.

The company lost $1.7 billion in stock market value within a few hours.

Hybe price was already under pressure

The course had already given way in the past few months, because a possible break of the band was in the room for another reason.

According to the current situation, the oldest band member, Jin (29), will soon have to do military service of 18 to 22 months, which is compulsory for healthy men in South Korea.

A bill is currently being debated that would exempt pop stars, who have boosted the country's international reputation, from the obligation.

Any member of the group would undoubtedly fall into this category.

In 2021, for the second year in a row, the band occupied the top list of the label umbrella association Ifpi, which always chooses the most successful performers of a year across all formats.

Taylor Swift, Adele and Drake had to line up behind the group. 

BTS are Hybe's main revenue drivers.

While revenue from marketing the group's recordings continues to flow, primarily through streaming, a concert break would be a serious blow.

If so, revenue for the current year could be 25 percent lower than previously forecast, said Lee Hyein, an analyst at investment bank Yuanta Securities.

Deal with Justin Bieber manager

Of course, BTS are not the only successful artists from Hybe's portfolio.

The company also works with the band Seventeen, for example.

Not least in order to reduce dependence on BTS and to position itself more broadly, Hybe also took over Ithaca Holdings from Scooter Braun for around one billion dollars in April last year, who, among other things, acts as Justin Bieber's manager.

In the past, Braun had also bought Taylor Swift's old label, Big Machine Records, and with it the rights to her old recordings.

Together with the largest music company in the world, Universal Music, Hybe also wants to cast and build a new international boy band.

Universal has been acting as a distributor for BTS' factories "in the US and other regions," it said in October.

Hybe signed a deal in 2018 with Sony's Columbia Records label and the company's service division, The Orchard, for the English and Korean language releases.

In turn, Universal had previously been responsible for the distribution of the Japanese-language works.