"(Fans) worried about the idols, so they bought the albums and went to the fansigns repeatedly. What is this all about? I think the current music market is completely messed up." (ADOR CEO Min Heejin)
Various tricks to increase album sales, and the deformed K-pop system, which blindly follows trends, have been thoroughly exposed. This was revealed through the mouth of a K-pop leader who has been in the industry for over 20 years.
Previously on the 25th, ADOR CEO Min Heejin held a 135-minute-long press conference, where she pinpointed the problems of the K-pop industry. She said, "The industry needs to change one by one now. I wish they didn't do things like random photocards," The photocards mentioned by CEO Min Heejin are one of the strategies in the current industry to increase album sales. Initially, photocards were a revolutionary 'marketing method' and a 'fan service' planning, but now they have taken their place as 'bait items' to increase album sales.
'Random photocards' refer to the method of randomly inserting photos of multiple members of a group into albums to sell records. As a result, it has become common for one fan to purchase dozens of albums, and the problem of 'album dumping,' where fans keep only the photocards and discard the albums, has become severe, leading to environmental issues being pointed out by Gen Z of K-pop fandoms.
A large distribution company official emphasized, "Not only Korean fandoms but also Chinese fans who come to Korea often buy a huge quantity of albums, take out only the photocards, and leave the albums, so much so that there have been cases where hotels contacted us to collect the albums."
The practice where distributors or sales companies purchase large quantities of a group's new album and then the management agency rewards them through fan signing events has also become a serious matter. This has become an established practice in the industry to increase first-week sales, which have become a measure of success in the K-pop industry.
The obsession with 'first-week sales' is also growing among fandoms. The Korean music industry initially did not have a culture of first-week sales. After first-week sales became one of the first indicators of success for K-pop groups, it became established among fandoms as a phenomenon of free consumption. Especially recently, competition among fandoms has become fierce. Fans buy albums with the mindset of "Our group's achievements should surpass that group's," and they buy albums with the expectation that first-week sales should be higher than the previous first-week sales. These sales strategies are now embraced by fandoms, forming a vicious cycle in the K-pop industry. As this strategy is widely used, the schedules for fan signing events for rookie groups have increased significantly.
A music industry insider, who requested anonymity, sighed, saying, "This method sometimes worked well, but since last year, due to the aftermath of high inflation, it hasn't been as effective, so there have been many lucky draw events at fan signing events to deplete first-week quantities." They continued, "For example, a well-known rookie boy group held lucky draws at 75 fan signing events over four months, and there was a girl group that held 92 fan signing events in a year. As a result, fans end up bearing that burden, and it disrupts the market."
-Min Hee-jin never said anything wrong, that's the truth, and it's burdensome for fans
-A famous rookie boy group did 75 fan signs in just 4 months and a girl group did 92 fan signs in a year. Is this really normal?
-Protect the environment.
-K-pop is doomed.
-It's not just small or mid-sized companies, even large companies got caught doing itㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ If they make a million sales through hoarding during the first week, what's the point?
-Do we really have to go this far... What's so important about first-week sales?
-Since when has the music industry in Korea become all about everything but music?
-Please, stop obsessing over first-week sales.
-Who listens to CDs nowadays, anyway? Fans have become way too obsessed over first-week sales...
-Idol groups from small to mid-sized companies do that a lot. They do that to meet their sales targets, raise funds for the next album, release it, do fan signings again, and repeat... And if they can't do it with fan signings anymore, it's time for disbandment...
-The obsession with first-week sales is severe.
-75 fan signs in 4 months is crazy
-K-pop, which only focuses on achievements, has become boring.
-It's been a while since my idol's promotions ended, but they're still doing fan signings... Please, stop it, seriously.
-They're making K-pop boring, seriously. Whenever you see their schedule, it's just fan signings, fan signings, fan signings... Boring.
-My idol had a comeback on December 1st and kept doing Lucky Draws and fan signings until mid-April. It's a serious problem, I think.
