Amid the rapid growth of the global K-pop market, domestic album sales continue to break records. There is a prospect that this year will also break the all-time record. After recording 57.08 million copies last year, it is predicted that this year it will be possible to exceed 70 million copies.
According to the Gaon Chart and Hyundai Motor Securities report compiled by the Korea Music Contents Association on the 21st, domestic album sales (including exports) totaled 28.65 million copies from January to May, up 38.6% from the same period last year. In particular, 9.96 million copies were sold last month, a record high. In fact, it has entered an era of 10 million copies sold per month. BTS' new album 'Proof', released on the 10th, sold 2.75 million copies in the first week, and is expected to record more than 5 million copies in June as well. .
Hive's BTS, Seventeen, and Tomorrow by Together (TXT) led the domestic record market in the first half of the year. It is estimated that BTS recorded cumulative sales of more than 4 million copies in the first half of the year alone, thanks to the high interest in the new album and the steady sales of previous albums. Seventeen sold about 2.5 million copies, and TXT sold about 2 million copies. NCT Dream under SM Entertainment and Stray Kids under JYP also recorded sales of 3 million and 1.85 million copies, respectively. Not only K-pop singers, but also trot singers were active. Lim Young-woong's first full-length album released last month sold 1.13 million copies, setting the record for the most among Korean solo singers.
It is thanks to the rapid growth of the global K-pop market that the domestic record market, which was 10.8 million copies in 2016, has grown five times in just five years. Simply put, since their debut in 2013, BTS has recorded 37 million album sales get more info over the past 9 years. This is equivalent to the total album sales in Korea in 2020 (41.7 million copies). Last year, the top 10 K-pop groups recorded 32.12 million album sales, accounting for 56% of their total annual sales.
What is noteworthy is that the overall pie has grown as the activity period of K-pop groups has lengthened and various singers have appeared. Not only their recent albums, but also albums from two or three years ago are steadily sold, leading the growth of the entire market. Kim Jin-woo, senior researcher at Gaon Chart, said, "New K-pop fans are constantly flowing in, and even old albums are steadily selling." In fact, among BTS' albums sold between January and May of this year, 1.33 million albums were released before 'Proof'.
The advancement of music marketing strategies is also contributing to the increase in album sales. Often, K-pop albums are sold in the form of a package with a CD, photo book, photo card, poster, etc., but in order to increase album sales, agencies produce different cover photos for each member and various photo cards, etc., and randomly include them. There is also an application ticket that can be applied to the fan signing event. This is why it is not uncommon for one consumer to buy dozens of albums to meet a favorite singer at a fan signing event or to find a photo card of each type.
The strong music market is expected to continue in 2H. Nhyphen, Twice members Nayeon, ITZY, Espa, Girls' Generation, Winner, etc. are planning to release new albums this summer, and Blackpink and Cho Yong-pil are also preparing new albums with the aim of releasing them in the second half of the year. Researcher Kim Jin-woo said, “The reason why the music market is growing recently is not because only some top stars have increased their album sales, but because the sales volume of singers in general is increasing.” It is certain and we may be able to expect more than 70 million copies.”
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