The Korean Entertainment industry is seeing a shift in the accepted path towards idol-dom, being led by two of the biggest entertainment companies.

In the future, 2014 may be recognized as a monumental turning point in the Korean entertainment industry. SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment each recently debuted a new idol group, Red Velvet and WINNER respectively. However, neither group was entirely composed of new faces, but instead contained members that had already been introduced to K-Pop fans through various channels. This is a complete turnaround from traditional K-Pop debuts.

The old model for K-Pop debuts kept trainees in near seclusion. Idol groups with high profile members (child actors, for instance) may make that member's name public prior to the group's official debut, but many groups would keep the idol's faces and names secret until the very first promotions. Teaser images and videos were often the first time that fans got to know the members of idol groups.

Survival shows were occasionally popular, favored particularly by YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment with shows like Hot Blood and Big Bang Documentary that had trainees to become members of 2PM, 2AM, and Big Bang. Smaller companies also have used the pre-debut show as a way to gain popularity, including MyDol, which showed the formation of VIXX. However, out of the big three Korean entertainment companies, SM Entertainment favored secrecy and teasers rather than revealing their trainees before debuting them.

Even though revealing members of idol groups before debut isn't unheard of, the trend is changing to where idol groups will be more popular based on having pre-debut recognition. YG Entertainment and, surprisingly, SM Entertainment, are leading this shift in the paradigm.

As mentioned earlier, YG Entertainment already used pre-debut promotions to help Big Bang gain popularity. But over five years after debuting Big Bang, YG Entertainment hadn't debuted another boy band until Who Is Next, pitting two teams against one another. WINNER, Team A, debuted, and fans clamored for Team B's debut.

 The response, rather than YG Entertainment debuting Team B or the members going to other companies (as BEAST's Hyunseung did when being cut from Big Bang Documentary,) YG announced that there would be another survival show, Mix and Match, where Team B and trainees would compete to debut as iKON. But, three of the Team B members were safe, and would merely appear on the show.

In essence, YG Entertainment wants to follow up WINNER's debut by doing the exact same pre-debut promotions. These heartfelt survival programs endear trainees to fans, and gains media attention for upcoming talent. Which means that YG Entertainment, and many other entertainment companies, will decide that pre-promotion is better.

SM Entertainment is also moving towards pre-debut promotions. The first obvious example was EXO's debut, where the entertainment company released multiple teaser videos featuring individual members. This still falls in line with typical promotions, as they were technically video teasers, but at the same time EXO was introduced in a way that no other idol group was before.

SM's new pre-debut trainees contingency, known as SM Rookie, is an even further step in the direction of promoting idols prior to debut. Members of SM Entertainment's latest group, Red Velvet, were introduced in SM Rookie videos, and SM Entertainment continuously releases videos featuring trainees performing, particularly male ones.

There are rumors that SM will debut a new boy band in relatively near future, and it is likely that the SM Rookies members will be part of that group.

As two of the three major companies formally promote idols prior to debut, it is likely that smaller companies will also shift their trainee paradigm, making promising trainees more accessible to fans in order to build up the fanbase and build up hype long before groups debut.