DISCUSS: Do Physical Album Sales Matter?

[enchante]

Recently I've been thinking on the nature of nugu groups and digital sales versus physical sales. There are true blue nugu groups like Berry Good and BonusBaby. But there are also nugu groups who are popular internationally and do fantastic on digital and worldwide charts. See CLC and Loona both charting on Billboard Top 10 despite doing poorly in physical sales because they did well in digital sales. Then of course there's groups like Twice and Gfriend who do well both on the physical and digital charts and are popular in S.Korea and internationally. I apologize for only naming girl groups I don't know bgs that well. 

 

So I pose the question to you, is a group truly nugu if they do well digitally or are only unpopular in S.Korea?

Also, why do you think boy groups do so well physically while girl groups tend to do better digitally?

 

I appreciate the time you took to answer, thank you everyone!

[Geeminy]

well of course for international fans, it is much harder to get physical copies while for digital all you need to do is press a button and its on your device 

[byeol]

high physical sales means you have a big fandom, having a big fandom guarantees you have a stable career

 

so yh they do matter. I have seen groups with great digital sales disbanding

[OppawithaVengeance]

 

high physical sales means you have a big fandom, having a big fandom guarantees you have a stable career

 

so yh they do matter. I have seen groups with great digital sales disbanding

 

[itouch]

When streaming sites aren't even paying royalty for years, does digitals even matter? Of course physical is the king.

[chandy]

IMO, better digital sales open more opportunity cause it draw people's attention when seeing some song on top of the chart. Also girl group tends to get more digital sales because public likes their songs more? However boy group get higher physical sales bcs bigger fandoms.

[Mogwai]

Girl groups have less of a stigma among casual listeners, and most of their music tends to be of the light-hearted and catchy variety, so they do better on digital charts because they're earworms.

 

There are exceptions among boy groups, but many of them aren't perceived as cool to be caught listening to by the general public. Part of that comes from overzealous fangirls, and casual listeners prefer not to associate themselves with that image. 

 

In a sense, fangirls are a double edged sword... they tend to be more enthusiastic about support, so they buy physical albums in bulk, but people look down on fangirls' zeal because they think every fangirl wastes too much time and money on their favourite boy groups. 

 

 

Any kind of high sales at all (physical or digital) is important because they're figures that prove that the group is profitable. Profit --> other businesses want a piece of that --> CF offers/demands for television show appearance/demands to perform in festivals/demand, demand, demand

 

With physical sales specifically, they show fandom power. Fandom power --> fill concert venues --> even more money

 

But no, high digital sales without physical sales don't mean the group is nugu at all. It means that there's demand. Unfortunately, it also means that the group's success is hinged purely on general public interest, which might be fleeting.

 

The same may be said about fandom power, but the rise and fall of income in that area tends to be less unpredictable.