So in a long run, are physical album sales more important?

Here's how I think things matter for idols' career

1. Physical Sales

2. Touring

3. Digitals.

Touring will always be the most important thing

Touring.

i think touring and cfs are where the most money is

The answer is actually creative freedom.

BGs stay longer and stay together because they have more creative freedom over their music

I thought CFs, merch and touring is where most of the money lies...

and it's different from BG to GG in my understanding as

BG collect more loyal fans whereas GG collect GP thus the charting for the GG but not the BG and the high average album sales for BG

It’s still touring. Physical albums are just currently a more important cause you can’t tour.

Not in themselves, but album sales are an indication of fandom size which translates into touring power. Can you think of any kpop groups that sell big numbers of albums but can't sell concert tickets? Or groups that don't sell albums but have big tours?

The main point is to actually have a fandom vs casual listeners. Having both is great or course, but relying only on the 2nd won't make a group last.

For the artists I think touring and CF. For the company, physical and merchandise (well probably everything, but these two seem more reliable).

Itzy has everything sales,charting and digitals

Since the coming of the digital era, touring is where the money is. Album sales are secondary since an established artist can keep touring without releasing any new material. Album releases are good to get media coverage though.

Quote from Pearl-Iris

I agree with everything you said. The only group that I think is an exception is Bigbang, as their physical album sales aren't that amazing but their touring power is top class (along with digital album sales).

The 2nd generation had different standards of album sales, Big Bang belonged to the upper tier in physical sales during their time.

Album sales always most important.

500k album sales equal 7.5 million in gross revenue assuming 15 bucks per album as standard price. How many Melon or Spotify streams do you need to accumulate that kind of revenue? I think you need billions of views to make millions in streaming.

It starts with that, then touring proceeds, then streaming, cf deals. The whole lot

Quote from Pearl-Iris

But if your physical album sales are good then your touring would be automatically good as well, isn't it?

Not really. Unlike album sales which are spread out, touring is concentrated. You need to have enough fans in one part of the world to be able to pull good successful numbers

Also albums are cheaper than tour tickets so it does not immediately translate to fans that can afford albums can afford tickets too