BTS, Blackpink, New Jeans... K-pop has long transcended the boundaries of Korea. K-pop, which enjoys global popularity with Billboard chart topping and 1.7 billion music video views, is enjoying global popularity. As the K-pop market expands, agencies have started making a fortune.

There are many ways for idol agencies to make money. When idols complete their schedules, they take a portion of the money the idols earn, they earn money by holding concerts and overseas tours, and they also collect membership fees by recruiting fan club members. An indispensable factor in this is album sales revenue.

Nowadays, almost no one listens to songs on CDs. This is because you can stream them on YouTube and various music sites. However, when singers release albums, they always release physical albums. Of course, it costs a lot of money to produce physical albums. So, agencies need to make consumers who don't even listen to CDs buy CDs. What methods do agencies use?

Physical albums are no longer just for listening. They have long been recognized as a type of idol merchandise. Idol physical albums don't just contain CDs. They are composed of photos of your idols that can only be found in that album, such as photo cards, posters, postcards, bookmarks, and so on. These official goods are only available during the album sales period, so K-pop fans almost always buy physical albums.

In fact, this physical album composition is one of the agency's marketing strategies. To encourage album consumption, it is necessary to create an attractive composition to make both core fan groups and consumers who are only casually interested in the product make purchases. However, the problem is that this marketing is going overboard.

Problem One. Random Goods

Photo cards included in idol albums usually come with one per album. When you buy one album, you can only get one out of 3-4 photo cards at random. This is why many people buy multiple albums to collect all the types of photo cards. Solo artists and idols with fewer members are relatively better off. As the number of members increases, some fans buy dozens of albums to collect photo cards of their favorite member, or "bias." A few years ago, a photo card of an idol group with over 10 members was controversial because it had over 200 types.

Problem Two. Multiple Versions of Albums

It would be nice if only the goods included were random and the album composition was all the same, but now even the albums are released in multiple versions. From a simplified version with only a CD to a large-capacity composition exceeding A4 paper size, the versions of albums have become diverse, making it more difficult for fans to collect goods. The number of versions, which used to be limited to 2 or so, has now increased to at least 4, inevitably thinning fans' wallets.

Problem Three. Fan Sign Event Entry Method

The third problem is perhaps the most serious. Because you are given the right to apply for a fan sign event in return for purchasing an album, buying dozens of albums has become almost essential to meet your favorite idol in person. This is because the more you buy, the higher your chances of winning the fan sign event. Moreover, nowadays, not only face-to-face fan sign events but also non-face-to-face fan sign events are essential. To replace face-to-face fan sign events during the Corona era, "video call fan sign events", a method of making video calls with artists for a short time of 1-2 minutes, were added, and face-to-face fan sign events, video call fan sign events, and showcase events are now required for each event. To see your "bias" in any way, you have to apply for all the events. The application sites are different for each event, so if you want to participate in all events, you have to buy albums separately from each site. There is no guarantee of winning, though.

This act of buying multiple albums is called "album ripping," and if you just search YouTube, hundreds of album ripping videos will appear.

In fact, it is natural for companies to pursue profits, and it is a matter of personal freedom how much consumption an individual does with their own abilities. So why is the phenomenon above a problem? This is because it has a negative impact on the "environment."

Albums are made up of plastic, coated paper, packaging plastic, etc., which cause serious environmental problems. Albums purchased in bulk to win fan sign events and to get the photo cards you want are nothing more than garbage after they have served their purpose. Actually, the environmental group "K-Pop for Planet," composed of K-pop fans, received a donation of unwanted albums and collected almost 10,000 albums.

Recently, as environmental issues have come to the fore, the controversy surrounding the environmental pollution problem in the K-pop market has intensified, and some agencies have released eco-friendly albums. If the reason for purchasing an album is simply a photo card, they have created a "photo card album" that consists only of photo cards. You can also listen to the song by recognizing the QR code on the back of the photo card. However, some agencies have released general albums and then separately released eco-friendly albums, which has led to accusations of greenwashing.

Many companies are practicing ESG management, and K-pop entertainment should also be thinking about the environment. To eliminate the "album ripping" culture, which imposes economic burdens on fans and harms the global environment, agencies need to take the lead.