JYPE plans on removing CDs, lyric books, etc from albums leaving only photo cards.

[Mrs. Morale]

 

Apparently, they will still have physical albums available but will give the options for fans that collect PC to buy the PC version only

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Mrs. Morale

[Mrs. Morale]

I can get removing CDs & lyric book (as that is in Korean). But why the other benefits such posters, merch , photobook & the other little things we use to get. I want my photobook. I'm not even a collector, I just buy albums to enjoy it.

They should cut back on the number of versions. Instead of having 2 or more versions. They have only 1.

[Morgan]

kind of a dumb move honestly. the appeal of buying a kpop cd is the content that comes with it because we already have the music. also  makes the insane prices somewhat justifiable. its like a pandoras box/treasure chest. will anyone other than hardcore stans buy the projects just for a photo card now? idk. 

[Mrs. Morale]

Apparently, they will still have physical albums available but will give the options for fans that collect PC to buy the PC version only

 

[Guest]

Personally I'm against removing CDs because everyone should be entitled to own a physical copy of the music that they buy. Not to mention I love how kpop albums can be art objects or collectibles, so putting effort into the design is nice - and I'm sure getting rid of physical albums is also a way to downsize design departments to pay them less, not just because of environmental costs lbr, and a way to start pushing new technologies into kpop for companies to jump onto.

But it seems they're doing what Victon did at the start of the year where they offer two versions of the album, which I think is fine. If that is what they are doing. And they had better not charge an arm and a leg for the photocard versions.

Realistically companies just need to disincentivize mass album buying, but the entire system of kpop has been game-ified around mass buying and I don't think you can un-gameify it.

[GetRapper]

If they get rid of the multiple versions and reduce bulk buying, I'm all for that.

[Belkiss]

That's dump imo 

Fans love to acquire physical albums, photo books etc. The artistic aspect of kpop album is one of the  pillars of kpop in general 

[pluto]

let's start with reducing the album versions... 4 albums for nayeon solo and almost every twice cb since the beginning of time is such a waste. i don't mind getting rid of the lyric sheets or unnecessary merch like stickers, but at least keep the cd and photobooks. 

[jay94]

What's crazy about selling albums without a physical album in kpop is that they ask you to pay crazy money for few photocards and the shipping costs even more than the photocards  Jack in the box was the same and more people was disappointed than happy

[Guest]

let me guess....they just want to sell photocards but without the advantage of knowing which one you get, so you still have to buy a bunch. doesnt sound scammy at all lmao

[Kman1]

2 hours ago, pluto said:

let's start with reducing the album versions... 4 albums for nayeon solo and almost every twice cb since the beginning of time is such a waste. i don't mind getting rid of the lyric sheets or unnecessary merch like stickers, but at least keep the cd and photobooks. 

There's only 1 Twice album with 4 versions

[Quinn the Brain]

I love CDs tho~ I love playing the actual CD 

Aren't multiple photo cards the problem? Like buying multiple albums because you want every PC?

[Firestar]

It sounds like they are copying the IST platform album model, you can buy the full album, or for a little less you can buy the version that is just photocards and a digital link to the music and photos, etc.

[Josaline]

Dump move lol Just looking at HYBE's latest album sales is enough to see that. Only 120K of Seventeen's more than 1 million-selling albums are Weverse. J-Hope could easily sell over 1 million copies, while his Weverse album only sold 350K in a week.

[babyv004]

the problem is not exactly the physical albums (well it is, if they have 456789 versions. they need to decrease that to only 1 version) but the bulk buying system kpop that there is rooted in kpop
they need to get rid of the fact that fans buy many copies just that they could access fanmeetings and other events. and to the fans that bulk buying to collect photocards, they need to have other ways to "sell" them along with the digital version and you only need to pay the shipping (or at most you pay like a tiny bit more the digital price, plus shipping)

maybe physical albums sales could stop counting for rankings or have a way that even if you buy a bunch of albums with same account, it would only count 1.

but this is not a thing that 1 or 2 companies in the industry can change. the whole kpop industry needs to join together to discuss and rendo the way things count to rankings and to attend events

 

And since the cds mostly useless now, but people still like physical things even tho they dont play the cds, another solution is them inventing smth that could replace CDs (like they did with VHS). i thought kino would do that but then i was disappointed the way it works. if was just smth that you plug in your pc/phone like a usb and without the need to install a app and much less have to download the songs, you could listen the album with that attached to the pc/phone or then it would connect by bluetooth.

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by babyv004

[Firestar]

4 hours ago, babyv004 said:

the problem is not exactly the physical albums (well it is, if they have 456789 versions. they need to decrease that to only 1 version) but the bulk buying system kpop that there is rooted in kpop
they need to get rid of the fact that fans buy many copies just that they could access fanmeetings and other events. and to the fans that bulk buying to collect photocards, they need to have other ways to "sell" them along with the digital version and you only need to pay the shipping (or at most you pay like a tiny bit more the digital price, plus shipping)

maybe physical albums sales could stop counting for rankings or have a way that even if you buy a bunch of albums with same account, it would only count 1.

but this is not a thing that 1 or 2 companies in the industry can change. the whole kpop industry needs to join together to discuss and rendo the way things count to rankings and to attend events

 

And since the cds mostly useless now, but people still like physical things even tho they dont play the cds, another solution is them inventing smth that could replace CDs (like they did with VHS). i thought kino would do that but then i was disappointed the way it works. if was just smth that you plug in your pc/phone like a usb and without the need to install a app and much less have to download the songs, you could listen the album with that attached to the pc/phone or then it would connect by bluetooth.

 

Honestly I think the platform album model works just fine, who would want to buy 10 full albums, when for less money you could buy 1 full album and 9 platform albums, they count the same for physical sales, you get the same number of photocards, etc. I really don't get the reluctance by the bigger companies to adopt it so far, I bet the profit is way better on the platform's too, you're literally just selling the PCs (dirt cheap to produce) and a link to the music.

[Josaline]

It should also be noted that Billboard does not recognize such albums. Because of this, J-Hope couldn't even make it into the TOP10 and floped in the second week on the chart. If companies turn to these kinds of albums, no Kpop group or soloist will have a chance to enter the Billboard 200.

[Nami]

That sucks, I will not purchase anything that is just PC's... 

[Banana Republican]

It doesn't affect me I don't buy CDs for at least 10 years. It was hard to listen to kpop on Spotify in 2010s but now almost all songs come to the platform on day 1.