The reason why first-week sales in K-pop doesn't make sense

(TOP 50 First-Week Sales According to Hanteo)

(L-R: Ranking, Release Date, Singer, Album's name, First-week sales)

Top singer Taylor Swift sold 2.6 M copies in the US on the first day of release. Combining sales from all countries, she only sold around 3.3 M copies. 

theqoo

-You can't compare K-pop albums to Taylor Swift's albums, she doesn't have photo cards or hold fanmeetings. 

-Wow, Seventeen and Stray Kids's sales are impressive...

-Taylor doesn't do fan meetings. K-pop is truly crazy.

-While K-pop culture might be strange, it's not unreasonable. It makes sense for fans to buy multiple copies since they have random photo cards.

-To think that a person buys multiple copies of the same album... It just seems insane to me.

-There are idol groups in Japan that sell a million copies just domestically, so I think 2-3 million is possible and still makes sense.

-Are those 5 million copies really being bought by 5 million people?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-It's bizarre. Just bizarre.

-Aren't photocards just... photos? Do people really buy albums just for that? I used to be a fangirl myself, but I don't understand their obsession with stuff like that.

-Honestly, just sell the photocardsㅠㅠ....

-It's going to cause massive environmental destruction... 

-It's really annoying that it's become so natural to encourage fans to buy dozens or hundreds of copies...

-It's a bizarre culture. They're trying to enter Billboard chart and set records with this.

-As a fangirl myself, I realized first-week sales to be meaningless. I have stopped buying physical albums since then.

-Let's stop obsessing over first-week sales nowㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-K-pop is becoming bizarre.

-It would be better if they sold photocards separately and did fan signings with random draws.

-It's both bizarre and environmentally destructive.

Continue reading The reason why first-week sales in K-pop doesn't make sense

TripleS 'Girls Never Die' Melon Daily Ranking Trend

Left to right: Date, Ranking, Number of Listeners

The song reached its highest ranking at 120th place

User count +3818

Songs around 101-120 are referred to as the 'Wall' as many songs cannot climb up any higher from there.

theqoo

-The song is really good.

-The song is so good... The performance is great tooㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-I listen to it every day.

-Girls, fighting.... climb up more.

-I listen to it on my way to work these days, the song is good... and the members are pretty too.

-With 4,000 more listeners, only one rank up?? It's tough.

ㄴYeah, it's really tough. To enter the top 100, it needs over 55,000 streams.

-The song is good, I think it can climb up.

-Climb up!!!

-Wow, the song is good, I should listen to it more often.

-It's impressive to have made it this far!!

-I'll give it a listen.

-The song is so good.

Continue reading TripleS 'Girls Never Die' Melon Daily Ranking Trend

BTS Jungkook and Seventeen's albums discarded on the street

 

Jungkook's album, which set a new record for male solo singer's first-week sales

Seventeen's album, which set a new record for boy group singer's first-week sales

The amount of waste generated by K-POP entertainment companies has increased more than 14 times in 6 years,  "HYBE ranking first, followed by JYP and Kakao"

As for waste disposal fees, as of 2022, 11 music production companies paid over 190 M KRW. HYBE paid the most, with over 130 M KRW, followed by JYP with around 27 M KRW. 

Min Heejin questioned, "If HYBE was confident enough to persuade groups like New Jeans, who already had high album sales without any deceiving methods, to surpass the records of other groups, what about the other groups? This shows HYBE's lack of ethical awareness." She urged, "Although it is already known as a common practice within HYBE's label, I strongly request thorough investigation and transparent handling of any transactions."

theqoo

-Please buy albums moderately... How many people actually listen to CDs nowadays?

-If they're just going to throw those albums away, why bother buying them in the first place?

-Please, just release digital songs and sell photo cards separately...

-The whole K-pop industry is going in the wrong direction now, and it's all because of HYBE. If it wasn't for HYBE, this situation wouldn't have gotten this bad. It's ruining the entire K-pop industry. 

-It's really upsetting to see them treating those albums like trash. Can't they at least buy some garbage bags before throwing them away?

-It's such a waste, the idol culture these days is so bizarre.

-Earth, I'm sorry...

-K-pop is ruined.

-They should stop giving out random photo cards.

-They should get rid of physical albums and just sell photo cards at a higher price.

-Wow, isn't this a waste of resources?

-Increased 14 times in 6 years, that's insane.

-At this point, isn't it the company's obsession with sales numbers that's the problem? I don't think the photo cards are the ones at fault here.

-Unless the government makes new laws about this, I think this will continue to happen for God-knows how long

-The whole world is moving forward, and only Korea is regressing. Ridiculous.

-Seriously, if only this kind of wasteful behavior stopped...

-Random photo cards really need to be eliminated. It's too harmful.

-Environmental pollution...

-What's so special about those damn photo cards...

-How are we going to find a solution for that?

-But why aren't environmental protection organizations speaking out on this...??

-Environmental destroyers.

Continue reading BTS Jungkook and Seventeen's albums discarded on the street

'Lovely Runner' ... Reframing Disabilities as Faults

tvN drama 'Lovely Runner' is a fantasy romance where the protagonist, Im Sol (played by Kim Hyeyoon), receives encouragement and comfort from a famous artist, Ryu Sunjae (played by Byun Wooseok) at a moment when she has lost the will to live. However, her favorite artist whom she has admired for over a decade suddenly dies one day. In the moment of despair, Im Sol travels back in time to 2008, when Ryu Sunjae is still an ordinary high school student and she herself is a 19 y.o student. After realizing the time slip, Im Sol has only one goal: to protect her beloved Ryu Sunjae! However, there's an important aspect to address in this youth romance: Im Sol's disability.

Im Sol becomes paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident at the age of nineteen. This aspect of Im Sol's disability was not present in the original Webtoon, which means that it was purposely added into the drama as it serves a crucial role in the storyline. Before slipping back in time, the drama briefly shows the struggles Im Sol faces in daily life. On the other hand, Im Sol who has returned to the time before the accident, is unstoppable. The drama uses Im Sol's disability to show her 'powerlessness'. In the future of the story, Im Sol's accident will be just as important as Sunjae's tragedy. As viewers speculate, Im Sol might avoid the accident and achieve her dreams that she couldn't because of her disability. 

https://www.khan.co.kr/culture/culture-general/article/202404250600005

Looking at the original post, you might think that Im Sol's disability was unnecessary for the storyline. I didn't bring this up with ill intentions! I brought it up because I have family members with disabilities and there are some aspects in the original post that I can relate to. I hope you don't criticize excessively. 

theqoo

-I also wondered if such a storyline was necessary as I watched the drama. It also reminds me of IU's MV. I wish they would stop portraying going back in time as returning to a body without disabilities. In reality, people with disabilities try to live positively with their conditions. 

-I find it interesting how some people view this drama this way, even when the drama is actually really good.

-There was a similar article before, I thought people would watch the drama first before talking about it. Im Sol wasn't even pessimistic about her disabilities in the first episode. Besides, she didn't go back in time to fix her disability. 

-I also found it a bit disappointing. I think this topic is worth discussing. 

-Honestly, if you had the ability to turn back time, wouldn't you try to make everything better?

-The content of the article is good. It seems they added the disability to the drama, which wasn't originally there, to make it more dramatic. But rather than portraying someone who overcomes discomfort while having a disability, it would have been better if they hadn't made the disability disappear.

-This is exactly the same reaction as when IU's "Love wins all" music video came outㅋㅋㅋ

-The perception that sets disabilities as something to overcome is the problem. Why can't someone just live with a disability?

-I'm annoyed and dislike this drama because of this.

-Ah... seriously, this is too much. I haven't watched this drama, and I don't think I will in the future.

-I don't understand why they keep using disabilities as dramatic material.

Continue reading 'Lovely Runner' ... Reframing Disabilities as Faults

HYBE is in the process of negotiating settlement fees for LE SSERAFIM's plagiarised songs

by Journalist Lee Sunmyung

Not only ILLIT, LE SSERAFIM has also been surrounded by continuous plagiarism accusations three times. We have heard that HYBE, overseas producers, and officials who work with ADOR are negotiating the settlement fees for LE SSERAFIM's plagiarised songs. 

theqoo

-What was he even thinking when he started HYBE?

-They're busy negotiating the settlement fees to cover up the plagiarism issue. So sneakyㅋㅋㅋㅋ I'm glad they're finally caught using money to cover things up.

-Wow, so they've been silencing everything with money...ㅋㅋㅋ

-How many times did they cover things up????? Unbelievable...

-Wow... They're really falling apart...

-They're the epitome of corruption. Just cover-up after cover-up.

-So, is this why the net profit looks so messed up? They're just covering everything up with money?

-So, HYBE is trying to settle by paying overseas musicians now that they're speaking up?ㅋㅋㅋ

-Shameful.

-Using money to silence people. As expected from HYBE.

-There's no way it would've quietly passed by; I knew it... They definitely silenced people with money behind the scenes.

-This is a complete mess...

-So they were secretly silencing people with money?ㅋㅋㅋ How much more disgraceful can you get, HYBE?

-Whoa, it feels good to see it all revealed.

-It's truly chilling, really scary.

-The truth will eventually be revealed.

-They should have known when to stop.

Continue reading HYBE is in the process of negotiating settlement fees for LE SSERAFIM's plagiarised songs

'Using deceptive marketing strategy is a common practice within HYBE's label'

 "Although it is already known as a common practice within HYBE's label, I strongly request thorough investigation and transparent handling of any transactions regarding this matter."

Read more about the 'deceptive marketing strategy' here

theqoo

-Yeah, that's deceiving.

-Wow.. Big news.

-Seriously, K-pop is a mess, damn it.

-Yeah, that's manipulating results. They basically sold a million copies upfront and then used that money for fan meetings.

-I hope everything gets exposed.

-Min Heejin, the hero.

-HYBE's in trouble.

-Can't trust HYBE idols except New Jeans nowㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-HYBE's achievements were all manipulated.

-Shameful, goodbye HYBE.

-I knew it. They've been doing it for a long time.

-HYBE's first-week sales were all manipulated, then...

-Now who's going to trust HYBE's first-week sales?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-With this, it's confirmed that HYBE is manipulating all first-week salesㅋㅋㅋ

Continue reading 'Using deceptive marketing strategy is a common practice within HYBE's label'

Min Heejin reveals that New Jeans firmly rejects HYBE's advise for deceiving marketing method to surpass other girl groups' sales

CEO Min Heejin stated, "The problem with HYBE is that they continue to do unethical behavior without responding to the criticism, while following the bad practices of the industry." She added, "As a leading entertainment company, HYBE is not being responsible. Its structure is not transparent. This has caused continuous damage to New Jeans, both directly and indirectly."

Min Heejin emphasized, "The biggest issue with HYBE is 'Album Pushing.' This is an act that deceives shareholders, members, market, and also fandom. HYBE has already faced strong criticism from public opinion for doing this. HYBE encouraged New Jeans to do this act. During the release of 'Get Up' album, HYBE suggested 'pushing' 100,000 copies, claiming that it could surpass Aespa's first-week sales record. However, New Jeans firmly refused as it goes against ADOR's principle."

Min Heejin stated that New Jeans refused HYBE's advice because the members were concerned that their previous genuine achievements in topping the charts might be tainted and damage various opportunities in the future. Furthermore, she said, "In the future, if this method receives more attention, New Jeans could be misunderstood as if they had participated in it behind all of their achievements, even when they firmly refused to do it."

Min Heejin questioned, "If HYBE was confident enough to persuade groups like New Jeans, who already had high album sales without any deceiving methods, to surpass the records of other groups, what about the other groups? This shows HYBE's lack of ethical awareness." She urged, "Although it is already known as a common practice within HYBE's label, I strongly request thorough investigation and transparent handling of any transactions."

(NB: 'Album Pushing', as described in another article, refers to a method where sellers purchase a specific number of copies to increase the group's sales. These sellers then organize events to sell those albums, like fan signs, until it's all sold out. This method not only exhausts the artists physically, but pressures fans emotionally to repeatedly purchase the same albums)

theqoo

-Their inferiority complex is legendary...

-What the hell, HYBE? They're so obsessed with Aespa, it's pathetic. 

-Not Aespa again...

-It's really disgusting.

-Is 'Album Pushing' the same as Sajaegi?

-Aespa again?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Do you really want to step on them that badly, Sihyuk-ah?

-Aespa again?? HYBE is seriously so obsessed with Aespa. HYBE, you're patheticㅠㅠ

-Min Heejin is so braveㅋㅋㅋㅋ It's amazing that she has the courage to expose that.

-Wow... Their jealousy, anger, and obsession with Aespa are on the next levelㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Wow... This is beyond being obsessed with Aespa.

-Leave Aespa alone, you crazy bastards.

-New Jeans did well by sticking to principles.

-Their obsession with Aespa is crazy...

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ HYBE is damn pathetic...

Continue reading Min Heejin reveals that New Jeans firmly rejects HYBE's advise for deceiving marketing method to surpass other girl groups' sales