[knetizen] The New York Times refers to SuperM’s gimmick (Updates: Rolling Stone, Kpop Herald, BuzzFeed)

[satoori]

The New York Times refers to SuperM

K-Pop Group SuperM Takes a Rare Path to No. 1: CD Sales

The boy band’s “The 1st Mini Album ‘SuperM'” arrived with packaging variations and bundles, resulting in a strong debut sales week, but modest streaming numbers.

Once upon a time, music fans bought hundreds of millions of CDs each year, fueling lavish industry profits. Nowadays, with streaming the dominant format — but with each click bringing infinitesimal royalties — artists and their record companies must come up with all sorts of gimmicks to sell those gleaming plastic discs, which can help boost an album’s position on the weekly Billboard chart.

Over the last couple of months, the chart has been a showcase of some ingenious tactics. Taylor Swift offered four deluxe versions of her album “Lover” at Target stores, while the metal band Tool sold 88,000 CDs in its first week as part of a $45 foldout package that included a four-inch HD video screen.

But now a K-pop supergroup has truly pushed the envelope: SuperM — a seven-member boy band whose existence was announced just two months ago — topped Billboard’s latest album chart with a seven-track EP that was sold in an array of CD versions and bundle deals.

SuperM’s debut, “The 1st Mini Album ‘SuperM’,” opened at No. 1 with 164,000 album sales and a modest 4.9 million streams, according to Nielsen. Of those album sales, 113,000 were CDs and 51,000 were digital downloads.

The CD version came in eight packaging variations, one for each member of the group (plus a “united” version), which included a variety of posters and collectible cards. The group’s fans took to social media to display the many versions they acquired.

“The 1st Mini Album” was also available as part of more than 60 sales bundles for merchandise and concert tickets, which featured items like T-shirts enabled with augmented reality: point a smartphone at the shirt using a special app, and the SuperM member pictured on it becomes animated. Tactics like these have become increasingly common, but also raised concerns in the industry about distorting the weekly charts.

By comparison, the No. 2 album this week, “Over It” by the Atlanta singer Summer Walker, was a streaming smash, but with minimal album sales. “Over It” was streamed 155 million times, yet sold just 14,000 copies as a complete album.

Post Malone’s “Hollywood’s Bleeding” fell one spot to No. 3, while “Kirk” by the rapper DaBaby — last week’s top album — fell to No. 4. Swift’s “Lover” holds at No. 5 in its seventh week out.

cr The New York Times

original post: theqoo

1. I’m concerned about its adverse effects on K-Pop in the future

2. I really feel ashamed;;

3. I’m ashamed, why did they call themselves the K-Pop Avengers?

4. In the future, not only this group, but also the K-pop industry will look worse in the eyes of foreign media

5. The US media criticized SuperM after having the chart results yesterday. I like the members but I really hate the way SM does

6. I’m ashamed. K-pop’s image is getting worse because of this

7. K-pop’s image is being ruined

8. I don’t understand their fans shielding this. In short, if Chinese or Japanese singers top the Billboard 200 in this way, wouldn’t we curse them? If you change your position, you will find the correct answer…

9. Really … I feel bad for other singers who have worked hard

10. It’s ridiculous that the biggest agency in Kpop is destroying the image of Kpop abroad

–

original post: theqoo

 

 

1. Don’t call them K-Pop. They debut in the US. What kind of K-Pop is that?

2. What did they do to K-Pop like this? Is there anything good to celebrate? Streaming and MV views are so low that even fans don’t want to listen … Did they know they made the whole world laugh at K-Pop?

3. It’s a tweet from June and Billboard seems to be aware of the problems with bundles and merchandise, so I hope it will be corrected.

4. Gimmickry … It’s annoying and embarrassing when foreign media talk about Kpop like that

5. Damn it, is SM crazy?

6. After all, they want to take first place and then get the swear words back, and hurt the members. How will it affect Kpop in the US?

7. Korea’s biggest entertainment company made the group debut and called them the K-Pop Avengers, so the K-Pop image is currently being ruined.

8. It’s not illegal, but it’s an excessive trick.

9. I feel bad for the other groups; Other groups are gradually expanding on the scale of their tour and fandom … And suddenly SM threw cold water at them.

10. Japanese people are calling them Korean scammers … I have never felt humiliating like this

 

 

No matter if you're a fan or not, this topic about bundles is relevant to the current and future Kpop industry. And now more Westerners are paying attention because SuperM is Korean. 

Update: Rolling Stone

5 hours ago, Viki131988 said:

 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rs-charts-top-200-superm-summer-walker-899371/

SuperM contains members of the already-popular groups EXO, SHINee, NCT 127, and WayV. The new ensemble’s Number One debut with The 1st Mini Album was the result of a massive social media campaign where fans encouraged each other to buy as many copies of the album as possible. The win was also aided by bundling: SuperM offered its album in conjunction with a variety of merchandise, tour tickets, and imaginative packaging campaigns including eight different CD versions of the album. In total, D2C accounted for more than 60 percent of SuperM’s 165,000 album-equivalent units.
 

Updates 2: Kpop Herald

2 hours ago, Viki131988 said:

As the album was released in the US alone, the records were sold in Korea as import albums with a higher price tag and the Korean sales were counted towards the US album chart. Retailers also emphasized the fact possibly to better appeal to their fans. 

“Many of the albums were sold in Korea. My company alone has shipped thousands of albums,” a local record importer told The Korea Herald on condition of anonymity. She declined to reveal the exact shipment volume.

On Yes24, one of the nation’s largest online record store, the eight member and group editions are ranked high in the monthly sales chart, with five in the top 50 chart. 
Both S.M. and its US partner Capitol Records were contacted for comment. An S.M. official said all the marketing strategy was set by Capitol without further elaborating.

An official of the Korea Music Content Association, the non-profit organization behind the Gaon chart, was also reluctant to comment in detail, but agreed it was an “unusual case” for a K-pop group to debut abroad without releasing a licensed album at home, with an aim to maximize album sales.https://twitter.com/Kpop_Herald/status/1184409832368947200?s=20

Update 3: BuzzFeed

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by satoori

[satoori]

As a fan of other groups that are active in the West, it's sort of funny seeing this outrage by Westerners now.

Specifically, Armys have been calling out bundles for awhile now, yet no one cared. (By the way many non-fans may not be aware but all of this sort started because a few Western music industry people had the audacity to drag BTS and Kpop for doing different versions of albums.)

Anyways personally I do hope changes are made in the future. BB charts should reflect music and not merchandise.

 

edit: Also - seems there is a debate between doing bundles for merchandise and concert tickets. Some think both is wrong, while others feel doing it for concert tickets is fine.

Edited October 15, 2019 by satoori

[JENKAI]

why do these western reporters only brought up now about the bundles when western artists have been doing this before..

Talk what you want, SuperM deserves that number 1. They have gotten enough shit already.

[sobral]

3 minutes ago, JENKAI said:

why do these western reporters only brought up now about the bundles when western artists have been doing this before..

the new york times literally wrote an article about this exact issue in june lmao

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/business/media/billboard-charts-bundles.html

[satoori]

5 minutes ago, JENKAI said:

why do these western reporters only brought up now about the bundles when western artists have been doing this before..

Talk what you want, SuperM deserves that number 1. They have gotten enough shit already.

All the shit SuperM received is because of SM doings alone tho. Most people are draggin Capitol and SM for their management. 

Edited October 15, 2019 by satoori

[Usagi.]

8 minutes ago, satoori said:

As a fan of other groups that are active in the West, it's sort of funny seeing this outrage by Westerners now.

Specifically, Armys have been calling out bundles for awhile now, yet no one cared. (By the way many non-fans may not be aware but all of this sort started because a few Western music industry people had the audacity to drag BTS and Kpop for doing different versions of albums.)

Anyways personally I do hope changes are made in the future. BB charts should reflect music and not merchandise.

 

edit: Also - seems there is a debate between doing bundles for merchandise and concert tickets. Some think both is wrong, while others feel doing it for concert tickets is fine.

isnt it the same journalist who wrote this NYT article?

[minhoe]

how is this any different from fansites bulk buying or fans buying multiple copies for the stupid photo card or covers?

[satoori]

Just now, Usagi. said:

isnt it the same journalist who wrote this NYT article?

i'm not sure...but I wouldn't be surprise..

Suddenly many of them are now backtracking and have a new outlook

[JENKAI]

3 minutes ago, satoori said:

All the shit SuperM received is because of SM doings alone tho. Most people are draggin Capitol and SM for their management. 

no i've seen them hating the group too in the name of dragging capitol/superM. the amount of people i've seen are just taking this opportunity to drag the group, belittling their hard work, telling them to be ashamed of themselves.

[Usagi.]

3 minutes ago, satoori said:

i'm not sure...but I wouldn't be surprise..

Suddenly many of them are now backtracking and have a new outlook

I just checked and yes, the same guy, Ben Sisario

[Kally]

15 minutes ago, JENKAI said:

why do these western reporters only brought up now about the bundles when western artists have been doing this before..

Talk what you want, SuperM deserves that number 1. They have gotten enough shit already.

Deserves #1 lmao counting international sales on Billboard is literally a scam

 

[freya]

Merch bundling and radio payola are a menace to the industry. The Jonas Brothers album sales early this year and unusually high radio play made it very clear to us. It's only going to get worse until something gives.

Miley's condoms and whoever was selling fried chicken are already horrific examples of what you can use to boost album sales.

[satoori]

Just now, minhoe said:

how is this any different from fansites bulk buying or fans buying multiple copies for the stupid photo card or covers?

at the end of the day with fansigns and different versions, the customer is making a choice to buy multiple albums itself. 

music charts are suppose to reflect purchase of albums and digitals...not merchandise or concert tickets. 

 

 

 

[minhoe]

Just now, satoori said:

at the end of the day with fansigns and different versions, the customer is making a choice to buy multiple albums itself. 

music charts are suppose to reflect purchase of albums and digitals...not merchandise or concert tickets. 

 

 

 

and the people who bought multiple superm albums did so because they made to choice to do so. y'all are acting like SM/capiton are pushing some sort of blackmailing scam 

[satoori]

7 minutes ago, Usagi. said:

I just checked and yes, the same guy, Ben Sisario

mess

9 minutes ago, JENKAI said:

no i've seen them hating the group too in the name of dragging capitol/superM. the amount of people i've seen are just taking this opportunity to drag the group, belittling their hard work, telling them to be ashamed of themselves.

all groups have antis. sadly the more popular one is the more there are...

basically everyone deserves #1 and success

[JENKAI]

4 minutes ago, Kally said:

Deserves #1 lmao counting international sales on Billboard is literally a scam

 

well even if they ship them to outside of the country isnt it indeed still counted as domestic sales bcs the fans bought them from US stores.. the albums are only sold in US stores so non american fans didnt have any choice but bought them from US stores.

[satoori]

3 minutes ago, minhoe said:

and the people who bought multiple superm albums did so because they made to choice to do so. y'all are acting like SM/capiton are pushing some sort of blackmailing scam 

no they bought tickets to a concert and/or merchandise

would they have bought the albums with out them(?) maybe..maybe not...

edit: people are not acting like anything...the music industry and artists are calling out bundles..and not just with super m

Edited October 15, 2019 by satoori

[Kally]

Just now, JENKAI said:

well even if they ship them to outside of the country isnt it indeed still counted as domestic sales bcs the fans bought them from US stores.. the albums are only sold in US stores so non american fans didnt have any choice but bought them from US stores.

No it's not US sales, it's called a scam.

[pururin]

5 minutes ago, freya said:

Merch bundling and radio payola are a menace to the industry. The Jonas Brothers album sales early this year and unusually high radio play made it very clear to us. It's only going to get worse until something gives.

Miley's condoms and whoever was selling fried chicken are already horrific examples of what you can use to boost album sales.

DJ Khaled had bundles with energy drinks. The energy drink brand kept telling people to bulkbuy. That's why his bundles were disqualified lol

[Usagi.]

Just now, pururin said:

DJ Khaled had bundles with energy drinks. The energy drink brand kept telling people to bulkbuy. That's why his bundles were disqualified lol

iconic asjkdnajkda

[freya]

1 minute ago, pururin said:

DJ Khaled had bundles with energy drinks. The energy drink brand kept telling people to bulkbuy. That's why his bundles were disqualified lol

ooo I remember. He tried to sue after that iirc and everyone just... laughed. lmfaooo

[minhoe]

11 minutes ago, satoori said:

no they bought tickets to a concert and/or merchandise

would they have bought the albums with out those options. that's the key difference.

would the people who buy multiple kpop albums for certain random photo cards or collect all members photo cards still buy multiple copies if there was no photo card? if a tree falls in the wood and no one is around to hear it, did it even fall?

 

Would you say AKB48 is guilty of the same thing as buying a single gives you one vote/lottery entry for the nightly concerts and a vote in the girl championship thing to decide who will be the lead girl for the next release?

point is i don't know why suddenly this sort of thing is an issue now when SM has similar gimmicks in both korea and japan. This number one really has the girls shook

 

are the sales of EXO's sing for you suddenly void and null as fans bought multiple copies?

Edited October 16, 2019 by minhoe

[JENKAI]

Just now, Kally said:

No it's not US sales, it's called a scam.

explain to me why is it a scam.

what is the difference between non american fans buying from US stores (lets say to make SuperM chart there even though most likely it was bcs they could only buy them frok american stores since we didnt think about sales at all), and non korean fans buying from hanteo/gaon stores so it can be counted to the artists' sales.

is this kind of thing not allowed? idk much about US music industry.

[Kally]

2 minutes ago, JENKAI said:

explain to me why is it a scam.

what is the difference between non american fans buying from US stores (lets say to make SuperM chart there even though most likely it was bcs they could only buy them frok american stores since we didnt think about sales at all), and non korean fans buying from hanteo/gaon stores so it can be counted to the artists' sales.

is this kind of thing not allowed? idk much about US music industry.

Billboard 200 is supposed to reflect music consumption ONLY in the US, not international sales, as simple as that. Gaon has nothing to do with this, they've always counted international sales.

[Acer]

It is severe manipulation right in front of us indeed, I do question how people don't see this objectively but whatever. 

Have you heard Adele is coming back soon