Physical albums aren't worth it anymore

Quote from ava-beatrix

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed a decline in quality in physical albums in the last year or so? I've noticed when buying albums that they're all flimsy little booklets, yet a year ago they were mostly hardcover books. For example, SKZ Noeasy vs Maxident vs 5-Star vs 樂-STAR (I left Oddinary out just because I don't have it). Noeasy is a three part album with a softcover yet thick photobook, second photobook with lyrics, and a third folder with additions. Maxident is a hardcover photobook with a folder inside for additions. Notice the lack of the two extra items? I understand Noeasy is an LP and Maxident is an EP, but that brings me to 5-Star, their next LP. 5-Star is a softcover yet slightly thick photobook with an interior pocket. Somehow, Maxident, a mini album, is better physical quality than 5-Star, their best selling LP to date. Next is 樂-STAR, a flimsy and thin photobook that is no wider than half of my pinky finger. The book is literally stapled together.

In the span of just a year, the album quality downgraded from a hardcover photobook with good quality to a flimsy paper book that I could make myself (which didn't even come with more than one photocard and no poster, and I bought on release day) in a year. 5-star also had nearly double the pre orders than Maxident (couldnt find 樂-STAR numbers), and this is JYP so even though ITZY and VCHA flopped doesn't mean that album quality has to go to sh*t. I paid 30 dollars USD for all of these albums, and IMO only Noeasy and Maxident were worth my money.

tl;dr: 樂-STAR album is horrible quality compared to Maxident which released one year earlier and companies need to stop skipping out on album quality.

edit: for a visual reference this is maxident next to 5 star next to rock star next to noeasy. sorry for the quality i did take this picture on my school chromebook lmao

https://ibb.co/HDrbfSr

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Firstly love that your signature has DPR Ian, TXT, SVT and Ateez! Very cool choices, I love those artists to. I was thinking about a SKZ album so that's actually good to know, sorry to hear about the quality. 😊

I totally get where you're coming from and I do agree with you, when I was a big Stay it was hard to always keep up with their back to back releases. And with the variety of albums and thin photobooks totally makes sense

I think if you like the release and have room for it or it means something to you I say go for it!, but after putting a limit on my spending in general, I realized having reasons for an album purchase or something makes it a lot more worth it. $30 is pretty crazy, are you in Canada at all or somewhere, where the shipping is extra? I totally feel that pain.

Personally I only have a couple for different reasons, like passing a certain milestone in school (I use it to pass and study for math lol), a personal savings goal, a personal work out goal etc, but a couple of them are signed.

(3 Seventeen Albums: FML, Semi Colon & Sector 17), (1 B.A.P), 2 OnlyOneOf Albums (I got them because I'm attending an event in Vancouver), 1 EPEX, 1 Pentagon and 1 BE'O Album.

I can see where you're coming from.

Most fans buy an album not because of the music on it, as they can easily consume that by streaming. So there need to be other nice things to make it worth buying.

I did buy a CD player for my Kpop albums, but most of the time, I just stream anyway.

agree. i really hate SM for putting low effort in aespa's albums. no inclusion only a photocard. for the cheapest one you get a paper and some paper photos (and a photocard). i stop buying any merchandise and album. i will save my money for their concert.

maybe

I wouldn't say, it's not worth it anymore, but albums from BIG4 are usually not worth the money we pay for them. SM albums are usually the "same". I mean, I bought Taeyeon's To X album not long ago, and when I saw BoA promotion for her upcoming album, I thought it's Taeyeon's. SM albums are very similar. It's only worth it if you really love them.

I bought albums from small agencies and the difference is HUGE. Most of their albums are more creative, they're including more merch, too.

I think BIG4 don't care about this anymore, because they know that mainstream groups can't make headlines with albums sales, only Streaming numbers and ticket sales. Also, they know that their hardcore fans will buy their albums, even if it's too expensive. When you have a core fanbase, you don't have to worry about album sales anymore.