"That's literally a copy" - Fans call out Stray Kids for allegedly plagiarising NCT DREAM's timetable concept for their album comeback, ATE

On Thursday, June 20, Stray Kids released the promotional schedule timetable for their upcoming album release, ATE. Their ninth mini-album is scheduled to release on July 19 and while netizens were thrilled to see the schedule for the upcoming album, the design of the timetable soon struck familiar to many.

The schedule was presented in a vending machine format. Following the announcement, NCTzens stepped in to express that the concept looked exactly like NCT DREAM's timetable for their previous comeback, their studio album, ISTJ. Given that the concepts and designs were too similar, netizens called out Stray Kids and JYP Entertainment for their alleged plagiarism.

Moreover, the vending machine concept was also followed by another K-pop group, The KingDom, for their eighth mini-album release, REALIZE. Given that too many similar designs and overuse of the concept were executed by K-pop artists, netizens also criticized JYP Entertainment for the lack of a fresh layout and their reuse of an older design.

Here's how netizens reacted to Strat Kids' timetable design for their comeback, ATE.

"and straykids still copies nct dream . where are you going ?" - said a netizen on X.

"Give the credit where it’s due. everyone wants to be her so bad omg," - added another netizen.

"No hate to the artists but why do the creative team think that they can get away with this?? even blind people can see the similarities," - said an X user.

More fans continued to criticize and call out JYP Entertainment for allegedly copying NCT DREAM's concept. Some fans even pointed out that the entertainment agency had a history of allegedly copying other group concepts.

"They do be denying the copying of concepts as if jyp hasn’t had a loooong history of copying from other groups," - said an X user.

"I usually dgaf about nct dream but this is an obvious plagiarism," - added another netizen.

"Close enough! welcome back ISTJ," - added another fan on X.

---

Stray Kids under fire for allegedly plagiarizing NCT DREAM ISTJ's vending machine concept for their album comeback timetable, ATE

Recently, Stray Kids announced that they'll be rolling out their ninth mini-album, ATE. The album is scheduled for release on July 19 at 1 PM KST, and the pre-order for the physical copies has already kickstarted. In the commencement of the promotions for their comeback, the group released a trailer for the album timetable.

However, this erupted accusations of alleged plagiarism. NCT DREAM's ISTJ had a similar concept for their timetable, which was also inspired by the shape and structure of a vending machine. The only difference between these two timetables was the usage of colors.

While Stray Kids' was black, white, and grey, the NCT DREAM schedule release used more bright colors such as pink, yellow, green, blue, etc. Regardless, since the base concept was the same, the group was accused of allegedly plagiarizing NCT DREAM's content.

Given that the group has previously put forth promising tracks and comebacks, the album trailer further excited fans about what the members have in store with ATE. The recent timetable revealed that Stray Kids will release teaser and concept images from June 21. The first music video teaser is scheduled for July 12 while the second one is scheduled for July 15.

---

On the other hand, the group also hinted at another comeback to follow the release of ATE. Though specific details about the same have not been revealed, the timetable showcased that the promotions for the second comeback will kickstart on July 21 and the music video for the unrevealed comeback is scheduled for August 7.