What caused the recent massive inflation in physical sales?

1) boost during covid, post-covid fanbases worked extra hard to keep/improve records from the higher base year during covid. This is particular true for C-bar (usually solo) which aim to outdo each release and compete among themselves

2) better global distribution

3) more fansign,videocall and lucky draw events + photocards. Please look at how much photocards one era could have - NMIXX, IVE, ITZY etc

4) more versions including member cover for regular versions, bringing back the jewel case/digipack which are cheaper +new SMART / QR / WEVerse albums. Those definitely boosted the sales

Yall the tea has been served

[instiz] CLARIFYING RIIZE'S 'GET A GUITAR' SAJAEGI

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SM faking the sales LOL. And I bet JYP did the same for nmixx, itzy, and all the lot who have had lower sales

Quote from Afriyieau1

Too many versions with randomized pcs to generate more sales. We need to go back to 3-4 versions

BTS with their 2 versions

But who knows when they comeback.

Distribution + tons of versions/photocards (before groups had 3-5 version, now it's minimum 10)

Distribution, COVID, the crazy amount of photocards, the fact that you have to buy a ton of albums to have better chances to join a fansign videocall are legit reasons and have helped a lot. But the different fandoms' desire to outdo one another and break the record was the biggest motivation.

I hope people have got it out of their system and stop doing that because it's weird to have hundreds of thousands of albums thrown away somewhere just for a record.

It makes the achievement way less impressive this way.

Quote from RunOutOfIdeas

Distribution, COVID, the crazy amount of photocards, the fact that you have to buy a ton of albums to have better chances to join a fansign videocall are legit reasons and have helped a lot. But the different fandoms' desire to outdo one another and break the record was the biggest motivation.

I hope people have got it out of their system and stop doing that because it's weird to have hundreds of thousands of albums thrown away somewhere just for a record.

It makes the achievement way less impressive this way.

Oohh! I feel for the parents' pockets. Ouch!!

it's deflating now

The second albums this year for everyone went down so I'm assuming the bubble broke.

Quote from KarimaJ

The second albums this year for everyone went down so I'm assuming the bubble broke.

Not for Enhypen. My feeling is, it’s just Chinese sales that went down. So the groups without big CBar sales were not concerned. But sales are still high though.

More versions

More PCs

Better distribution

Cheaper pricing through digipacks (also an impact of better distribution for pricing)

Covid resulting in the expansion of online fan calls for the global market which means fans mass buy in every territory nowadays

China

mainly photocards or album versions

I agree with the points made about kpop growth during and post pandemic + distribution. But also, I'm under the impression that in the last few years a lot more focus is put on album sales than before. I don't know, maybe I wasn't too deep into kpop circles, but were album sales numbers as scrutinised and weaponised for fanwars prior to 2018 as they are nowadays? I feel like the competition element comes into play as motivating factor for fans buying more albums.

Quote from butterbutterfly

I agree with the points made about kpop growth during and post pandemic + distribution. But also, I'm under the impression that in the last few years a lot more focus is put on album sales than before. I don't know, maybe I wasn't too deep into kpop circles, but were album sales numbers as scrutinised and weaponised for fanwars prior to 2018 as they are nowadays? I feel like the competition element comes into play as motivating factor for fans buying more albums.

Yes they were, people used to say bp only had yt views before The Album even though they were selling 200k+ back then

Album sales used to be seen as legit measure of popularity, bg stans were so annoying back then

Maybe things like this.

Thread

SM exposed for allegedly committing sajaegi by faking RIIZE's 1.01 million album sales in their first week of release

twitter.com/pannchoa/status/17…aWmVCCYTDbMaxSktX5mg&s=19

1. RIIZE's Get A Guitar

1st week sale - 1.01M
Total sales 1.09M

Circle - Physical albums shipment count
Hanteo - Merchant sales count

2. The agency told the record labels
"We're going to hold this many events for you, so you can go ahead and register this many orders already"
So the even before opening said events (lucky draw, fansigns, etc.), the record labels already created more "orders" than the actual amount of "sales"

3. The reality is not…

thebadguy

Jan 11th 2024

There is a part that is thanks to the globalization of kpop, better distribution (twice albums for example were only distributed on korea in 2 or 3 stores, now they distribute internationally with a lot of stores), better strategies like more time for pre orders and more versions, cheap digipacks, photocards, etc but denying the shady side of this with really fraudulent strategies with the chinese cbars, overshipping albums that stay on warehouses but are reported as sold is just insane.

The sales of groups like seventeen, stray kids, nct dream and 127, aespa, red velvet, ive, newjeans, lesserafim, itzy all have that fraudulent side no matter how much their fans cry about it. Like from where does a group like itzy can sell 1M of albums just like twice?

Quote from ForgottenSoul

I feel inflation of sales was always a thing but now we have like 3 groups doing 5m+

Seventeen for example went from

2019 - 656k

2020 - 1.7m

2021 - 2.7m

2022 - 4.1m

2023 - 6.2m

Stray kids

2019 - 400k

2020 - 720k

2021 - 1.7m

2022 - 3.5m

2022 - 5.5m

Dream

2019- 640k

2020 - 800k

2021 - 2.1m

2022 - 2.1m

2023 - 4.5m

Seems like for these groups their sales really exploded mostly last year. I wonder what really changed, i personally don't think KPOP is growing and it peaked maybe 1/2 years ago but maybe thats me.

These groups gained 2m albums onto their 2022 album which seems quite a lot.

It seems like after coivd is when shit exploded for a lot of groups.

I might have made a mistake tell if their best selling album that year is different.

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Lmfao ignoring Blackpink going from 300k to 1.5 and then 2.5 m

Quote from Dreamer95

Lmfao ignoring Blackpink going from 300k to 1.5 and then 2.5 m

Organically. Stay pressed LOL

YG barely do any fansign or lucky draw. Blinks would die to have more of those but unfortunately YG is just incompetent.

Quote from DoReMii

Yall the tea has been served

https://www.pannchoa.com/2024/…iizes-get-guitar.html?m=1

SM faking the sales LOL. And I bet JYP did the same for nmixx, itzy, and all the lot who have had lower sales

Can someone please track groups like NMIXX ITZY and IVE lol. I feel that these few are similarly using same strategy given how many fansign events they have been holding. The number of FS is unbelievable high

Quote from babyspice31

Not sure but I would love to see it go. Fortunately china’s economy dipped in the second half of 2023 and we saw a bunch of groups with a large Chinese fandom drop in sales like Seventeen, aespa, Stray Kids.

Bulk buying is not a reliable source nor a reflection of a group’s ACTUAL numbers

and popularity.