In the era of per capita, the K-POP group is keen on cheap?

Author | Editor Ding Qianwen | Fan Zhihui

Under the situation of struggling physical records, K-Pop artists seem to have not been affected in the past two years.

In June of this year alone, the SEVENTEEN sold 2 million pieces first, and then the pre -sale volume of AESPA's new album exceeded 1 million. The NCT DREAM was a successful ending with a score of 3.61 million. It is not difficult to find that the K-POP artist seems to have found a password for opening millions of physical records.

After these beautiful sales data, the biggest hero is "cheap."

The sales volume of cheap woven weaving is prosperous

In the past two years, the situation of the Korean physical record market has basically been led by "cheap".

According to statistics from the Korean GAON Chart rankings, the sales volume of Korean physical albums in 2021 flies all the way, an increase of 36.9%compared with 2020. Among them, the total sales of the top 400 physical albums ranked about 58 million, an increase of 31%year -on -year. To put it bluntly, the sales volume of physical albums in 2021 is the sum of the sales volume of physical albums from 2015 to 2018.

At the same time, compared with only 6 real albums in 2020, the sales volume exceeded one million, and 10 in 2021. If calculated by artists, in 2021, there are 11 groups of artists (Note: Team NCT 127 and NCT DREAM Costuring Group NCT) cumulative total sales exceeded 1 million, only 8 groups in 2020.

According to KOREAN SALES statistics, just over half this year, there are already artists such as BTS (Note: Old Specialty), NCT DREAM, TXT, Lin Hero, Seventeen, Stray Kids, and other artists to create a new myth of sales of new albums.

It is predicted that the growth of physical album sales in South Korea in 2022 is expected to continue to rise. It can be said that the Korean physical record market has not shown a slump after the epidemic is coming. Instead, it has entered a period of prosperity. The popularity combination refreshes its own records to become the "Million Sales Club".

However, from the perspective of sales, this prosperity is behind the large -scale "cheap" income in 2021, which leads to the "moisture" that leads to bright sales.

The so -called cheap plate, which is a low -cost physical album, is officially called Jewel Case, the so -called plastic shell packaging record. Of course, this is not a fresh concept. In the K-POP context, compared with the conventional physical albums composed of rich content such as CD, Photobook, Small Card, and Poster, cheap plates have a simpler configuration and workmanship. A small card with a portrait of an artist attracts the purchase, and the cost is often lower.

The reason why it emphasizes "cheap" is because the price of cheap disks is usually only half or quarter of conventional albums, or even lower. For example, the women's group FROMIS9 has achieved the lowest cheap and cheap market of about 29 yuan. This also means that the price of only one album can be used to buy one album, which can be purchased. Two or more quantities can be purchased. In the case of the original budget unchanged, the sales volume will be increased to several times.

According to music first, this seemingly relatively speculative approach is a pioneer from Kai, a member of the group EXO, a member of the SM Entertainment.

At the end of November 2020, KAI launched a total of 7 versions of the first album "KAI (Kai)". In addition to one special version and 3 conventions, there are also three cheap versions. Under the stimulation of new gameplay, the album "KAI (Kai)" sold about 260,000.

Immediately after May 2021, EXO reached a million -dollar sales for the sixth time, the album also included cheap options. Since then, in addition to SM Entertainment, brokerage companies such as Hybe, JYP Entertainment, Starship Entertainment have also followed up to launch cheap disks. Most of these companies test water in their men's groups, and they are divided into multiple single versions according to the number of members. For example, NCT2021 has more than 20 single -person cover cheap disks.

In addition, JYP Entertainment chose to sell cheap sets for a week after the regular album was released. Generally speaking, the K-POP album sales often place orders in the first week, and will decline sharply from the second week. Choosing a low -cost sale on the second week can not only ensure that the initial sales volume (first week of sales) records do not mix any other moisture, but also ensure that there are still high sales after the second week to get a song for the artist to get a song program. Provide high scores. For example, the new album "Oddinary" released by Stray Kids in March was one week after the launch of the conventional album, and once again launched the cheap price of 8 members' personal versions, and the final sales exceeded 1.63 million.

Not only that, this new sales method is also very popular in overseas markets. According to statistics from the Korean Customs Department, the export volume of the album in 2021 increased by about 50%compared with 2020, and exceeded $ 200 million for the first time. Among them, there was also cheap contribution.

However, although the cheap market has pulled the growth of the Korean physical record market, it is also questioned that it is disrupting the market. Many fans believe that cheap discs are both in the same place to play "water injection" to YouTube, and calculate it to the total sales of the album with the unrepreyed artist's entity sales in the market ranking, lacking justice.

In addition, the cheap market was also accused of interfered with the production capacity of the factory, which then affected the preliminary sales of conventional albums. It is reported that when cheap sales continue to rise, the Korean physical record factories will give priority to stepping up to deal with cheap orders. If an artist who publishes albums during the same period, there are only more complicated and cost -effective conventional albums for sale, which will be largely expensive after the pre -sale form is completed.

This also means that if the conventional album is sold out, it may not be able to make up for the goods, affecting online and offline sales. For example, the Korean singer Lin Hero sold out after nearly 900,000 pre -sale volumes, coincided with the return of multiple artists who sold low -cost disks, which caused the album to be newly entered into the library for many days, which had affected its initial achievements.

It can be said that in the era of sales of millions of physical albums created by low -cost disks, a dose of stimulants have been injected into the Korean physical record market, but the two -sided nature of cheap disks cannot be ignored.

But in the final analysis, cheap markets are also the product of the times.

Who is giving birth to a cheap market?

Although the current CD has gradually lost the function of being used to listen to music, due to the needs of calculating rankings and awards ceremony, the sales of physical albums still occupy important positions in the Korean music industry.

Generally speaking, the sales of a K-POP physical album are the sum of the conventional albums under a series of multiple versions under a series.

The price of a single conventional physical album ranges from more than 100 yuan. Although the desire to buy fans is strong, it will also cause sales elasticity because the price is relatively retained. For example, the physical album "BE" released in November 2020 was priced at nearly 240 yuan. Although the sales volume in the first week reached more than 2.27 million, it was far lower than the first physical album of about 120 yuan pricing. Nearly 4 million records.

And this is also the disadvantage of the conventional album of commercialization compared to the cheap market.

The pricing of physical records will only get higher and higher with the increase in investment costs, and most of them have excessive packaging, which will also lead to weight growth. What is easy to be ignored is that high and heavy will affect the floating of freight, so it is also unfavorable for overseas exports. After all, the main reason for fans to buy albums is to collect small cards. Other complicated contents (generally referring to Photobook) are not so valued, more like buying albums.

Under many influences, it has also emerged as a cheap market. It is essentially to continue to tap the fan economy and induce repeated consumption. Because for fans, the album is not a way to get music, but to collect goods or complete the products purchased by the sales task.

In addition to commercialization, the market scale brought by demand growth is also a major reason. As we all know, the influence of K-Pop is radiating the world, but under the restrictions of the epidemic era, it cannot meet the needs of fans in various countries. Therefore, the physical album as a product directly linked to the artist is more popular with global fans, so revenge will occur. Formation consumption.

This is coinciding with the duplicate purchases that entertainment companies want to see, and cheap disks to better serve the concept of serving. The essence is that there are many card surfaces, large quantities, and low prices.

For example, the regular six -series album released by the Hybe Men's group Seventeen set more than 2.23 million physical sales records in May, of which about 38 yuan and a total of 13 versions of cheap markets have a certain proportion. The cheap configuration of the 13 versions is deeply implemented with a strategy of stimulating duplicate purchases: Random 13 members in the form of a blind box. In addition to fixed 24 small cards, there are 52 dual versions of 52 cards. There are 4 small card configurations in the small card, and there are 28 artists small cards in a cheap plate.

In contrast, it is the regular second follow -up album released by TXT, another male group of HYBE. There are only two versions of cheap. This does not stimulate fans to buy desires, so that only about 100,000 copies are sold, and the total sales volume of physical sales has just exceeded 500,000. This looks more like "invalid and cheap".

In addition, improving the "popularity" of artists also requires a cheap injection. The low price is low in price and a variety of card surfaces. To a certain extent, it can attract non -this artist fan group to purchase at high prices of conventional albums. It may not only be converted into fans, but also increase the total sales.

However, the important reason for cheap disks is for market appeal. In the case that the K-POP artist continuously increases sales to create millions of thresholds and monopolies in most markets, it is difficult to increase the artist group in the second echelon and below. Below, they are even more urgent to prove the demand for market appeal.

After all, sales means selling seats and popularity, which is also closely related to other revenue channels such as concerts and advertising endorsements. In terms of BTS, its consecutive years are the annual sales of the sales volume, and the sales volume of single albums is more than 2 million. For other artists, it is undoubtedly a mountain.

To this end, for the K-Pop artist who wants to be superior, it has the significance of "curve saving the country".

Judging from the total sales record of the GAON CHART album in 2021, the cumulative BTS of about 7.2 million is still leading the fault. The second echelon men's group NCT 127, NCT DREAM each under the "cheap disk effect" each Living below it, SEVENTEEN followed closely with a sales volume of about 3.79 million. The combinations of Stray Kids, Enhypen, TXT and other combinations, which had never reached a million threshold before 2021, have increased by low -cost sales to 1 million to 3 million. It can be said that "millions of freedom" is even easier after the launch of cheap. For STRAY KIDS and TXT, the US tour and European tour have also been on the agenda.

Can cheap market last?

From the above perspective, the birth of cheap plates is essentially full of contradictions.

At the moment when the cheap market is rampant, there are also artists who choose to strengthen the meaning of CD in the album by CD only, and it seems to have the meaning of confrontation with cheap disks. For example, the men's group IKON, while conforming to the trend of cheap markets, still insists on attracting the attention of the audience with a hidden song that can only be listened to. Another example is the BTS that has not been opened, and the newly released selected album "ProOF", there are three CDs, one of which is CD only.

However, for the Korean music industry, de -CDization may be the ultimate path. Except for CD, because the cost and pricing of vinyl records are high -end, the scale of income cannot be made considerable, and transportation and preservation can not be casual. Perhaps the role of "albums without CDs" will eventually spread throughout the record market. The cheap market may already be the last "gentleness".

At present, major Korean entertainment companies are indeed expected. Because whether it is a conventional album or cheap, for consumers, the small card with an artist card has a high collection value. With the rise of the Yuan universe, NFT digital collections have become its new attempts.

In 2021, Hybe President Fang Shihe once proposed this route at the company's instruction meeting, hoping to make fans freely display and exchange digital cards in the fan community. The new album released by the women's group Dreamcatcher in April this year is to launch NFT collections with Enterbutton (ENTC) platform in accordance with this route. However, the current energy consumption of NFT is equivalent to the energy consumption of a family for one year. The situation of extremely environmental protection has also caused this plan to be resisted at home and abroad. The company has to be canceled by the company.

Under the global issue of "environmental protection", cheap markets also face an inevitable problem. Even if the conventional album is overplayed and more lightweight, the cheap disk is still using small cards to induce fans to sell the sales volume, and it still creates a large number of "physical garbage" thrown away. Most of the K-POP albums are basically difficult to recover, which also causes environmental pollution.

It is reported that this behavior has attracted the attention of the environmental protection organizations composed of overseas K-POP fans. At the "Sustainable K Enterprise Industry Speaking" held in the South Korean Congress in 2021, KPOP4PLANT proposed to suggest that Korean Entertainment Company implemented an ESG concept. The so -called ESG refers to the abbreviations of Environmental (environment), Social (society), and Governance. It is an investment concept and corporate evaluation standards that focus on corporate environment, society, and governance performance rather than financial performance.

KPOP4PLANT suggested that I hope that entertainment companies can continue to reduce excessive packaging, use environmentally friendly recycled materials to make albums, no longer make cheap disks with plastic shells, hold low -carbon concerts, and actively call on artists to participate in the middle of environmental operations.

Based on this, the entertainment companies are not looking for a new way. For example, the main Digipack version refers to carton packaging. In addition to the CD disk, it uses paper to make physical albums. The disadvantage is very soft, and the finished product is cheaper and rough. This is also a conscious and cheap point for many fans. For example, BTS has boldly boldly fixed the Digipack concept to conventionally configured album "MAP of the Soul: 7", which caused fans to dissatisfy because of problems such as paper boxes easily damaged and too soft traces.

Then it is the Kit (Kihno) album developed by Korean music tide Muzlive, which has been put into the record market. The KIT version of the album is only the size of the slap, and the configuration is mainly based on small cards. Kit refers to a Bluetooth box. After purchasing, you can connect to the box through Bluetooth and listen to the exclusive App Kitplayer. From the perspective of most fans, this is more like an electronic album.

However, the cost of the KIT version is often higher than the cheap disk and conventional albums. This is not a cost -effective buying and selling for fans to repetitive purchase of entertainment companies.

In 2017, South Korean singer Quan Zhilong also tried to imitate Hamasaki's "USB Records".However, there are differences that Quan Zhilong did not put the song into the U disk in advance, that is, in the U disk, there is no song, there is only one website link and password.The album content is downloaded into USB.At that time, such a USB album was priced at about 200 yuan.However, there are also fans who point out after purchasing, and USB also has color loss.The Korean Music Industry Association also publicly stated that it is not acknowledged that it is a physical album.In GAON CHART, the album record should be "the sound is fixed in a shaped object."

All in all, under the ESG and Yuan Universe boom, the physical record market will definitely usher in a renewal. The cheap disk where the dissatisfaction has gradually increased may not be a long time.And how to create a new way to replace cheap disks as soon as possible and continue new sales myths are also new problems that need to be solved in front of K-POP artists.

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