K-pop album sales analysis

K-pop fever hasn't cooled off.

Global demand is still growing with K-pop-related sales generally doing well. BUT, lately, there’s been a decrease in sales of music ALBUMS. Today, we want to analyze this shift with Jeff Benjamin, a K-pop expert and contributor to Billboard, Forbes, Rolling Stone, and more. Hello Jeff!

Q1. Figures released earlier this month showed that K-pop album sales last year declined (There was a slight rise in album exports by 0.5%) What caused this drop?

Q2. What’s your assessment of this change?

Q3. Last year, K-pop idols were more active overseas than ever before, resulting in a surge in K-pop concert sales. So, can we say the K-pop market is still growing and what’s the connection between increased performances and the decrease in album sales?

Q4. So, could we say fans' perception of album purchases is changing?

Q5. Some also attribute the downward trend in album sales to the hiatus of K-pop giants like BTS and BLACKPINK.

BUT BTS and BLACKPINK are set to RETURN in the second half of the year.

So how much of an impact do they have on these sales of albums?

Q6. It looks like it’s difficult to draw a correlation between K-pop growth and record sales from hereon.

Are we expecting changes in the K-pop industry based on that?