[` k s]

I really hope they figure out a way to reduce the amount of downloading in Korea because album sales are getting worse every year. US music sales are flourishing compared to Korean sales with all the controversy over Napster and etc. I did some quick calculations of the top 10 albums since 2000 and came up with some depressing numbers.

AVERAGES for the TOP10 (#1 Seller) NOTE: sales include CD's and MC's

2000 - 1,035,000 (Jo Sung Mo 3rd 1.97million)

2001 - 836,000 (Various Artists 1.69million)

*the end of the million sellers* R.I.P.

2002 - 517,500 (Cool 7th 647,000)

2003 - 338,800 (Kim Gun Mo 530,000)

2004 - 307,000 (Seo Teoji 7th 482,000) <-- This was a rare year where the decline was small because of the anticipation of STJ's new album along with 2 albums each from DBSG and LSY whom both are consistent sellers.

2005 - 205,400 (SG Wannabe 2nd + Special Edition 414,000)

2006 - Looks to be another sizeable decline in sales. In the first 2 months, sales haven't been that great besides LSY's album (which is selling well again, 73,000 for the month of January) and a decent showing from FTTS. Sadly, more than half the top 10 are still artists from 2005 and some whose album came out WAY early in 2005. And some of the top 10 artists, for the first time in the history of the Korean Music Industry, have sold LESS than 10,000 units.

It looks like music will eventually become a secondary career for most artists and they'll have to do rely on other activities (like acting) to have a good income (thinking of a celebrity income, not an average one).

Is there any hope?

credits: miak.or.kr

[xshinhae05x]

Yes.. there is hope: When Internet is gone (which it won't be)

[Take Five]

nope.

[miss_sweetheart1027]

No hope.

Have you seen five year olds in Korea? Oh god. They know how to control viruses, they know how to SEND them, they know ALL about MSN, etc. It's all about the internet. It's getting so popular that they learn it in school at almost a 'daily basis.' Also, extra cirriculum classes. Take dancing as an example. You need to learn a specific dance, but you need to find a link to find the song. The solution? Download it illegally.

Back in the middle-end 1990s, music industry was booming. Whether artists were treated poorly compared to today or not, they had more album sales. You barely saw any music artists going for acting a couple months after they release their albums. A million copies sold was considered normal for recognized groups.

But now, it changed dramatically. In 2006, if we see a million copies sold, that's a miracle. DBSG, SG Wannabe, Kim Jong Gook, BoA, etc. may be popular, but not popular enough to pull a million copies.

As the music sales declined, company owners have to change their ways. Their artists that they've trained so hard for has to earn a satisfying living for their work. Yet because of the 'fans' and their thoughts, companies have to resort into overworking. Bi? Overworked with acting and overseas. BoA? Overworked with Japan. DBSG? Overworked with Japan + China. This goes to most of the singers that also act.

But the thing is, after the singers faint from being overworked and stress, we blame it on the company. The fans don't even stop to think whether it's their fault or not. No, they just blame it on the company. But if we actually STOPPED downloading and started BUYING, most artists wouldn't be so stressed. Hell, if just half of the people downloading buy the albums, it'd be like the 1990s again, except more improvements. They'd be treated better, they'd get more money, they wouldn't have to be so pressured, etc.

Until the downloaders and some 'fans' (even though you don't download and buy, everyone should encourage others) realize that they should stop hating on the companies and start buying, the artists would have to live this way.

And when the artists keep living this life, a lot of them would quit. They'd give up. Which will take down a lot of the pride Koreans have in K-pop.

[suejinners]

^yeah shes right

my 5 yr old cousin downloaded ringtones for his parents onto their cellphones!!!

so until the internet goes away album sales will continue to decline.

Lots of gasoos always have some other thing...like acting, running their own business, modeling/CFs, etc


look at the album sales.. globally they are still really low

BoA Ranks Second in Global Album Sales
2006-03-06


Singer BoA's new album "Outgrow" released by Japan's Avex has achieved the
second highest sales record in the world.

The German music website Mediatraffic said Monday that "Outgrow" ranked second
in album sales last week, the ninth week of 2006, on its United World Chart, with
220,000 copies sold. Mediatraffic determines the rankings every week by
compiling album sales and charts across the world.

The most-sold album was "Back to Bedlam" by British singer James Blunt, which
sold 268,000 copies. The album's song 'You Are Beautiful' is currently number one
on the Billboard chart.

BoA's album slid to the 16th place in sales this week, but is still ahead of those by
Robbie Williams, Andrea Bocelli, and Enya.

BoA previously topped the German website's chart twice -- for the seventh week
of 2005 with her best-of album 'Best of Soul' and for the fifth week of 2004 with
her third album 'Love and Honesty.'

BoA's agency SM Entertainment said, "Since BoA limits her performance to the
Asian region, she is not that famous in the Western music world. But considering
the Japanese music market is the second largest in the world, we can say that
BoA sells the most records in the world."

c: KBS Global

[luckyyou]

How much are albums in Korea? I think CDs should be $10. I'm always buying CDs when they're $10, if it goes up to $11, I don't buy it. It's some kind of robotic move with me. I know that it costs to bring CDs here from Korea, but I'd rather go to Korea, buy it for $10 and bring it back here.

[Kylie Nomiko]

Ya. It's a global thing. I dont think any of the music industry is flourishing...

[cecilia]

i still buy my cds
but felt that in 2005 cd sales dropped heaps
didnt even have to look at the stats
u could even jsut feel it by lookng at hanteo every week
it's really bad.....
looking at new releases now, first week they usually sell a few thousand for the more popular artists
the ones who go past 10000 for the first week dont appear too much anymore
and in my memory in 2004, ppl like se7en, shinhwa, dbsg were doing over well over 10000 on the first day....
ppl seemed to hav elost the desire to buy cds...it's so sad....

[umbanana]

^ i agree
i thought i was the only person who still bought cds = =
none of my friends buy them
and they think im stupid for buying them
well i dont care coz i wanna support the artists i like.

the relli sad thing is that electronics stores don't sell cd players anymore..well there are no new models. mine has died on me *cries*

[cecilia]

^ i agree
i thought i was the only person who still bought cds = =
none of my friends buy them
and they think im stupid for buying them
well i dont care coz i wanna support the artists i like.

the relli sad thing is that electronics stores don't sell cd players anymore..well there are no new models. mine has died on me *cries*

cd players still get sold in aust
haha aust is behind always
i still love my md
even when everyone went to mp3 and now ipods
i'm still satisfied with my md
so now i buy the cds, transfer them to my md
then they jsut...sit there
lol~ well i guess i use the jacket to read the lyrics
ha

[miss_sweetheart1027]

^yeah shes right

my 5 yr old cousin downloaded ringtones for his parents onto their cellphones!!!

so until the internet goes away album sales will continue to decline.

Lots of gasoos always have some other thing...like acting, running their own business, modeling/CFs, etc
look at the album sales.. globally they are still really low

They're low, too, but look at Korea's numbers... it's just lower.

For weekly, they still had about 200,000 copies sold. #1 for albums this week (DBSG is not included since it's not really an album -__-) is 8,719. And if we DID include DBSG, it would only be 10,575 weekly. Worldwide is doing 2x better. Korea has 'officially' said goodbye to 1 million copies (per year) T____T. While a lot of famous American stars can easily get that number.

[kiki]

I don't think it will unless some miracle happens..
people downloading songs off the internet is making it decline

[chaserj7]

not until people stop downloading..

please support your favourite artistes by buying their original albums!

[bluelily]

The music has to be strong enough for the listener to want to spend money on it. When you feel the music you will spend up to twenty dollars to support your favorite artist. Like Rain's new boxset costs US $137.99. I would spend that much because I love his music and he is a great artist. He gives you what you want and more.

[mintoro]

no internet is only solution i can think off... bcoz ppl now are always dling songs from internet ( i admit i did it too) of course i buy cds too... for the artists/gasoo i like and which the album really makes me feel worth to buy it...
it's really sad to see many of the gasoo went for acting and other bussiness bcoz they cant live with the little money they can earn from the album. i'm really scared that one day no gasoo wanna sing anymore bcoz too stress for them to continue contribute since no one supporting them(buying their album)
not only for kpop, even the chinese singin industry is having this big problem... sigh...

[Echoe]

Let me just put in my two cents.

Korean music isn't the music that it was when it was old-school.

[Knossos]

I still buy CDs... I don't download and yea I think I am the only one among my friends.
I don't think you can totally blame people from downloading though. In the 80's and 90's music companies really abused fans. They printed out so many useless artists and cds that were nothing but garbage and not to mention over priced. Artists and the companies both of them really didn't think much of fans at all like they exist without fans or something and all the lipsyncing at concerts and wow so many of them just slacked off. I feel like what's going on is backlash. I feel so bad for artisits who work their butt off and are really deserving though... well so I do buy cds and they are the only people I listen to.. I don't download because if I want to listen to it I buy. I am upset with fans who download music though... that's just not right. DBSG considering how many fans they have should have a million seller at least.

Internet soon will creep into book sales with the Google electronizing books and etc.

I don't see hope in near future. I think the structure of music and entertainment industry is in the process of a complete change. Internet didn't just change the music industry though.... I think our generation (I am 19 btw) will have it the hardest because everything we know it is in the process of changing into something else. I guess we all face very uncertain future.... not just the music industry

[elizabeth]

i am sure Korea is also trying to ban dl.... hopefully

[katana28]

Can someone tell me how much artists make from the sales of the cds? Because I remember reading about this on another thread where artists make very little on album sales (ie, they earn maybe $0.05 per album sold), and that a majority of their earnings comes from other areas such as modeling, CF's, etc. Even if album sales go up, would the artists make enough to support themselves on that alone?

Oh and does Korea have anything like iTunes where they sell digital music online (like $0.99 per song)? That's one way to use the internet and hopefully guilt trip people to support the artists that way.

[MythnoonA]

I buy CDs. I have only one whole album downloaded--and that's Clazziquai's 1st--I was too slow, and it was sold out everywhere I get CDs from--so a friend sent me the links. Everything else that I've downloaded--I own the CD, except for some single songs.
If they were too expensive, I couldn't by the ones I wanted (I still wouldn't download alot, because I do want to support the artists that work so hard for me). I can understand why some people do download--they can't afford everything they want. But there are people who do it constantly--and with everything, Music and movies. A couple of weeks ago, people started asking about The King's Man (The King and the Clown) in the drama/movie forum. It's still showing in theaters, but they all wanted clubbox links, or anything else they could get. We see whole new movies posted in forums for downloading. If people didn't have as much access to things that were downloadable--they might do it less. It's not like they haven't found tricks to getting stuff...but maybe it would cut down on the amount.

Can someone tell me how much artists make from the sales of the cds? Because I remember reading about this on another thread where artists make very little on album sales (ie, they earn maybe $0.05 per album sold), and that a majority of their earnings comes from other areas such as modeling, CF's, etc. Even if album sales go up, would the artists make enough to support themselves on that alone?

I remember when the gasoo and other people were protesting the mp3 downloading--they had just come out with those mini mp3 players, which became really popular. Did they expect people would only upload their own music files, and stop there?

I don't think Korean artists make anywhere near what American (or Euro, etc) artists make. I do think most of their income comes from other things.