For quite some time the manipulation of Korean digital music charts has been a rather quiet taboo topic, but in July things started to blow up. Now the big three record labels have decided to take a stand and uncover the truth.

'Sajaegi,' or the process of manipulating online music sources to benefit lesser known artists so that they may rise to the top of the charts, has gotten a lot of media attention in the past several weeks as the extent to which record companies and group managers partake in the practice has been revealed.

YG Entertainment's founder and CEO Yang Hyun Suk is among the big names in the Korean music industry who are speaking out on the matter.

"Sajaegi is like stabbing K-Pop in the foot," he declared in an interview with Dispatch on August 7.

According to Yang Hyun Suk, there are three major problems that arise when companies use digital manipulation.

First, he points out that the sajaegi system completely prevents fair competition by disrupting the natural process of what is trending and popular among fans. The charts, then, do not reflect what songs are actually being purchased or listened to by people.

Secondly, he says that it damages honest musicians who are producing music they work hard on and are proud of. No matter how good a song is, it and the artist who made it may not get the kind of recognition they deserve because of others' manipulation and sajaegi is thus detrimental to the creative process.

Yang Hyun Suk's final argument is that sajaegi is severely lowering the standards and resulting is poor music quality. He says that the record companies who actively participate in the practice are investing the majority of their money on buying popularity rather than on producing good music. As a result, the quality of the music is getting increasingly worse.

"This is what we call a vicious cycle," he added.