When will people understand SALES is harder today than BEFORE?

I swear we already had a thread like this today

But to answer, yeah pretty unfair for the older gens

at the same time the phyical industry had grown too

Both had disadvantage on there on

it's hard to come by pure sales. everything is combined and manipulated to make the numbers bigger. I guess BTS sales are the only pure numbers.

Quote from 2techs

it's hard to come by pure sales. everything is combined and manipulated to make the numbers bigger. I guess BTS sales are the only pure numbers.

And why only BTS?

Quote from Valenttinna

And why only BTS?

I am wrong. It's not only BTS - it's BLACKPINK as well.

the world is more global now meaning that a group can reach out to many people who are willing to buy their albums... you can go cry about it

In theory yes. For example during 2nd gen's peak while Japan was still the primary international market for Kpop and was still the 2nd biggest music market in the world, unlike today it was actually about 2 times more valuable in terms of yearly revenue...

That's a market primary for most top selling groups album sales Twice, Seventeen, BTS, Izone, etc being worth almost double what it is today. That can in no way be considered 'easier' in 3rd gen to sell higher in that market when it's in fact shrinking year on year.

Same during the height of second generation it was pre the thaad dispute in around 2014-16 which led to Kpop being soft banned in China, an issue 2nd generation groups didn't face.

Now granted you can also argue 3rd gen have x10 better global distribution which of course is true and that things like bundling exists to drum up sales and also even tho Kpop is banned in China that market is significantly bigger now than during 2nd gen...

It's tough, but overall I would say that it's probably the same level all things considered.

Quote from 2techs

I am wrong. It's not only BTS - it's BLACKPINK as well.

I still see no arguments

idk whats going on but im here to collect my akorns

Quote from Valenttinna

I still see no arguments

EXO has been combining sales since 2013 except for maybe one album?

SNSD and Super Junior won disk daesangs with a repackaged version added to the original album.

NCT and Seventeen sold millions of albums without a hit in Korea. It doesn't even make sense.

You mean it's harder now that I can stream music any from any artist any time I want for a set amount instead of individually buying a digital album from one artist which alone would cost the same as the streaming price?

It's harder that I can easily buy a physical kpop album art a decent price in my own country's shops/Amazon instead of paying extortionate prices for an import from on the other side of the world?

Nope, during 2nd gen we have used to download songs

the living condition has improved a lot throughout the years, financial accessibility is more, thus more people can afford the albums now, bulk buying

I don't remember there being so much talk justifying sales before bp sold above 1 million, truly the revolution

no it is not harder now groups are selling huge amount of albums with no hits, kpop is now bigger, and fans in other countries can buy albums without selling their kidney.

NCT 127 in 2020 is not as popular as EXO in 2013 but they sold around the same for their full album + repack

Disagree about this. Kpop physical market has become huge. Nowadays c grade groups can pull 100k with ease. All groups have increased their sales. Just look at 4th gen boygroups. Many 4th gen bgs don't have good streams but great album sales.

i would say the higher physical sales are mainly due to bigger reach of kpop nowadays.

Streaming definitely taken a toll on physical sales, but the bigger market audience kinda offset it