Oped: Kpop is still doing better than most other genres and kpop artists still selling astronomical numbers

    So why are we concerned about small groups. Sales of 200k?


    These numbers are huge compared to digital sales in the west (outside America maybe).


    Then comes tour, merch, income from social media etc


    Here in Scandinavia some artists have to bust their …. to perform on every small festival or venue to make a small living. Some stars only make money on buying and selling flats/houses.


    I think most of them would kill for a chance to be in kpop.


    Are we being too hung up in numbers and comparing kpop artists to kpop artists when we should look at how kpop artists are doing ww?


    Long post without sources I know. Sorry.


    :pepeshock:

  • AllKill VIP

    200K in what context?


    always the context my friend...


    let's say (from what I recently found out) formis9 doing 200K would be fantastic (for me)

    200K to BP would be a disaster lol


    and also how many members in a group?

    assuming ceteris parabis...one would argue that 200K to a group like (let's say 17)isn't as comparable to 200K for a soloist like IU


    and furthermore one might also argue that those struggling Scandinavian acts that you mentioned OP don't have the crippling trainee debts (non big3/4)???, housing costs and makeup, food etc etc that all idols get lumped with

    But then, kpop scene completely different from other countries music industry too. They have something called trainee's debt that the artist need to pay all of that before actually making money and getting paid after their debut. Not to mention that how much they spend on something like mv and a lot more things as you can actually see how kpop are better on that side. If I compare to any singer from my country, if they sold same amount of album, one will get rich as hell as they don't spend much on the production and one is probably doing just enough.

    The wast majority who even debut wont ever make it big, make money or be remembered in 5-10 years, and thats with a huge chunk of their young lives wasted on training and sharing cramped living space with 5-10 other members. Its the company that makes the most profit in 99% of the cases.


    If you want to compare the big kpop acts that actually make money compare them to the biggest acts in respective country.

    Not really unless you’re in the big3 where your life is settled for life. But if you pull a BTS, OMG..it’s great too even if it’s rare.


    Usually labels only invest when it comes to MV, and performances...but mostly it’s your team which does the job. If you have a great team you will hit big.


    Even small artists can live a decent life even if they don’t have a big fanbase, or sales. You just have to moderate hits. I rather be a solo artist than a kpop artist imo.

    idk, this is a weird take to me. first of all like 100 groups debut every year. out of those only about 10 or less that actually sell enough to make any sort of living. there are groups that promote for years without seeing a paycheck. 200k album sales may be enough for some companies to break even on what they spent on a cb, but with no profit the idols are the ones that dont get payed. out of the hundreds of "active" kpop groups only maybe about 20 bgs and 20 ggs are making sustainable income from idol activities alone. most of 2nd gen and some of 3rd gen have already branched out into acting, variety shows ect.

    Y’all are comparing album sales to expenses.


    I’m just talking album sales. Y’all talking about trainee debt. Thats the scumbag companies fault. Not the album sales.

    Quote from azhra-0110

    Eh no, bad take. It's not like the idols take a big cut off album sales, depends how big they are, trainee debt and so on. We have also yet to see more than a few groups with massive touring power that can even rival artist outside of kpop

    not everyone needs massive touring power to make money

    How are the average kpop groups doing touring-wise compared to the tours of other non-english singing acts??

    i still think it depends if you're not from the bigger companies.

    like if you're from a company like no one has heard of, you best know things are gonna be tough for you.

    but yeah, in general, i feel like you have a chance of becoming at least mildly known.

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