CDs? Why the K-pop industry still selling physical albums?
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| Baekhyun's albums 4 versions (I still waiting for another version) |
For this blog, I want to discuss the top 3 reasons why K-pop fans still buy the physical album (CD album), although nowadays nobody listens to CDs or has a CD player anymore. I will also review some of the K-pop marketing strategies that they use to sell their merchandise (e.g., CD album, light stick, and other goods).
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| My album collections |
I have been around K-pop since when I was in middle school. As you know, K-pop had broken into Asian markets, so I have been around the industry for a long time. Furthermore, I have a group of friends who love listening to K-pop music and doing the cover dance, so I am pretty familiar with the K-pop songs. Although I have been around K-pop for a while, I did not like or followed them until 2018. The first group that I followed is "Wanna One," a group that debuts from the survival program and has a contract for one and a half years before the members go back to their original companies. However, I have three groups that I mainly followed right now, including EXO, NCT, and Wanna One. As international fans, without a Korean music site account, one way to support their favorite artists is to buy the physical album. Although the K-pop industry's most significant income, usually from selling concert tickets, merchandise of sale (e.g., CD album) is another significant source of K-pop industry revenue.
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| Physical albums |
You might wonder why I have to waste money by purchasing an album instead of just registering for the Korean music site account, the first reason is that most Korean music sites required Korea's phone number to create the account. The second reason is that the K-pop CD album is more than a CD album, and here are the top 3 reasons why!
1.The packaging and album's design
In my view, the packaging and design for K-pop albums are among the best in the music industry. I said that because I have a couple of Western CD albums, which I got as free merchandise from buying the concert tickets, it came in simple jeweled/crystal cases. Typically when we buy a CD, we receive the CD in jeweled/crystal cases; however, that is not the case for K-pop CD albums. K-pop albums are all about presentation. Furthermore, each K-pop album came in different types of packing (e.g., a gift box, a hardbound book, VHS tape-style box, and Book/Magazine style).
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| Album Packaging & Design - Example |
For example, album number 1, Baekhyun's Delight album, appears as Book/Magazine style, where they have the CD on the last page (without jeweled case). So, when I put the album on my bookshelves, it looks like one of the magazines. On the other hand, album number 3, NCT127's limitless album, came as a gift box album, where the inside of the box contains the red jeweled case for the CD and other goodies. As you can see in the picture, there are many different packing styles of the album for the fans to collect. Furthermore, the aesthetically pleasing designs are also why these albums are the must-have for all the K-pop fans.
2. Exclusive pictures that you could only view in the photobook
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| Example of Photobooks |
Another main part of the album is the photobook. "Photobook is the heart of every K-pop album." I could say that most of the fans who bought album actually buy the photobook and receive a CD as a free gift. Most pictures in the photobook are the exclusive photo that you could not see anywhere else except in the album, which means you need to buy the album if you want to see those pictures. Furthermore, photobook usually has more than 100+ pages, so it is worth owning your favorite artists' photobook.
3. Photocards, Wall poster, and other goodies
Photocards
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| Photocards |
Aside from photobook, photocard is another must-have item for all K-pop albums. Every K-pop album has to have photocards. However, photocards are work differently from photobooks because whenever you buy the K-pop group album, the photocard will be random members in the group, so you will never know whom photocard you will get until you unbox the album. Also, in the back of the photocards, it will have the artist's message and signature. The fun and excited part are when you unbox and see if the photocard that you get is your bias or not. In case you did not get lucky enough to get your bias photocard, you could trade the photocards with other fans via social media platforms, which is another good community interaction.
Wall/Folded posters
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| Wall/Folded posters |
Not every album comes with a wall poster. However, the majority of the time, when you buy the album, it will come with a wall poster. In the case that you did not receive a wall poster, there would be a folded poster in the album, where you still get a piece poster but might not as big as a wall poster.
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| Example of wall/folded poster |
For example, NCT 127 group, the Neo Zone Punch, the Final Round album did not include the wall poster, but the album has a folded poster. While We Are Super Human album, from the same group, do not have a folded poster but have the two wall posters instead. Sometimes the album provides both folded and wall posters, such as NCT Dream's Reload album.
Other merchandise/goodies in the package
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| Other merchandise/goodies |
For other goodies, the goodies that the fans receive will depend on the album's theme and concept. The example of other goodies includes polaroid photos, standees, stamps, film photographs, circle cards, letters, postcards, stickers, keyrings, bookmarks, etc. (exclude photobook and photocards).
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| EXO Album Vol.6 (top) / Wanna One 1-1=0 album (bottom) |
*Side note
One of the reasons, in my opinion, why the K-pop industry could sell many copies of a physical album is that each album that they made have different versions (with the same exact songs). Each version will have different themes and concepts, as well as goodies inside the album. So, if you want to see all the photobook versions and collect all the goodies, you would need to buy all versions that your favorite artist produces. K-pop album has to have at least two versions, which is the minimum, and the highest number of versions that I know of is 20 version from the EXO group (EXODUS album) released in 2015 - it is good that at that time I did not follow K-pop yet.
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| Wanna One's album 6 ver. (left) / NCT127 album 3 ver. (right) |
Furthermore, random photocards are also increasing sales. It is no doubt that for people who are collecting photocard, they would buy multiple albums to get all the photocard of their bias. So, each album would have at least three different versions of photocard for each artist. For example, WOODZ's Mini Album Vol. 1, has 25 different versions of the photocards, so there is no question if someone might buy 25 albums to collect the photocard. However, that is not the case for everybody because there are online shops selling only photocards for people who do not want to buy anymore album could still collect the photocards.
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| Example of merchandise/goods |
Other goods they sell include season greetings, light sticks, clothing, photobook collection, DVD concerts, poster with a handwritten's signature, and etc. People who collect all the artists' products or goods would buy almost everything that the artist's entertainment company produces. Another good marketing strategy that I think impacts people the most is a "flash sale," which I was once a victim of (LOL). I think it impacts people because there is a limited time to buy, and there is no guarantee that the company would sell their products again if the fans would not purchase it now.
Unboxing Video!! - Here is an example of unboxing the K-pop physical album.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed and learned about the K-pop album and some strategies that they use to sell their products.
Let me know what do you think about the K-pop physical album and if you were interested in buying one after reading my blog?! Also, leave the comment on what other topics you want to know more about K-pop!
For the blog's song recommendation - EXO-SC: 1 Billion Views!
Stay tuned, and see you again in my next blog!!
Sources:
https://www.koreaboo.com/article/exos-2nd-studio-album-exodus-will-available-20-different-versions/
I did not know that you have these many CDs of K-pop. I wonder if you do not want the CD or merchandises anymore what will you do with these stuff. I am now convince that you know a lot and about really like K-pop!!!
ReplyDeleteI have learned a lot about this genre from your posts. The other day I was scrolling on my phone and a video popped up mentioning the K-pop group Blackpink. According to the source, the girl group is number 2 on Spotify's top played songs in the world, and their new music video received the most views ever on YouTube within a 24 hour period of its release.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's so many CDs! I always thought that the physical product side of music would completely evolve into digital formats. However, I recently listened to a podcast (I wish I could remember which podcast) about a company that designs concert and band memorabilia and how super fans collectively spend millions each year on CDs, t-shirts, posters, etc. I guess no matter how much we can access digitally, we will still desire products that we can touch and keep on a shelf.
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ReplyDeleteFor someone who is drawn to things with great design, I completely agree. I think that the albums have some fantastic components and the design in the small details are great. It was cool to see some of your personal collection!
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