i'm pretty much gone out of the korean music scene these days, but i did see this article:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2884955

it's about the korean music industry - closing of record shops, thoughts about the state of music in general, and on-line sales.

after reading it, for me i wondered if the korean music industry is dying. does anyone else thinks that?... i mean with how album sales are going, i dunno how korean musicians/ indie groups can even make a living. (not talking about the boy/girl bands) or maybe they've other means that i don't know about - like concerts...?

i ahve been thinking about this idea too...
becos ppl keep illegally dl the album. by make it digital they can count it.
future, ppl sitck alot with computer rite?

this is why im so upset with singers coming up with "digital albums"... i really wished they would stick to regular albums because i do think they mean a lot more. and i really wish people would start buying CDs.. especially if you really call yourself a fan to the artist(s), you really should. you should show your support.
my favorite bands are nell, my aunt mary, and rocket diary. its hard to find their albums in stores so i always buy them on yesasia. im planning to buy every album of nell (i bought only 4th and 5th album).. i recently bought my aunt mary's recent album.. and am planning to buy rocket diary.

if you really enjoy listening to a music of an artist, please support them by buying their CD. they put a lot of effort and heart into it.

There's always 2 sides to a story, and a pro and a con. MP3s really did cause a restructure in the development and distribution of music, and there's no turning back now. So much so that artists and even record companies (as well as record stores) suffer from the setbacks - the effort and costs of making the music continues to become more than its sales at times. But it depends on the user too, the consumer market. If MP3s continue to be available, then people can download 1 song and choose not to buy an entire album. But that could also go the other way - they could like the songs so much, they will buy the whole album. It always depends on the user.

For me, if I really like an artist, I would pay for their albums. But for those I just want to sample, I would probably need an alternative rather than spending on 3-4 cds I'm probably not going to listen to in the long run. It always depends on you. And from my experience, you cannot control another person's way of thinking when he/she decides (or decides not) to do something, like buying a CD.

actually, although boy/girl bands have the advantage here by having a gazillion more crazed fans and that they can therefore sell products (that aren't related to music at all) like little collectibles such as picture sets, stationary, shirts, towels, etc.etc.etc., they also are affected by this as well. even though it is more likely that boy/girl bands are more successful financially than underground groups, you have to keep in mind that since there are generally 4-5 people in a group, the amount of money they get is split and a lot of the money don't go to the artists themselves. for groups such as super junior, although they're wildly popular, i think it's really hard for them to support themselves financially since there are 13 members and even if they do have a chance to get a nice sum of money for their work, after splitting it 13 times, the pay isn't that great. but then again, they have the opportunities to do more CFs, acting, etc. too.

i understand why people illegally download. there are people out there that desperately want music to listen to, but can't for reasons such as being broke, having no job, having no allowance, and parents don't let them. i don't think it's right for them to be deprived of music if they love it so much, but again, it's not right to illegally download. i'm okay with illegal downloading if people just want to hear samples of the songs before they decide whether or not the album is up to par with their tastes. i know some people wouldn't want to dish out $16+ on an album and be disappointed that it's all stupid. but again, if they want samples, they can watch music videos on youtube and some artists put out samples of their songs on their newest albums that are a few seconds long and give people a taste of what their album is like. also, i don't have a problem with this specific group of people: those who illegally download (for whatever reasons such as not being able to wait until they get the album) BUT they support the artist(s) by BUYING THE ALBUM AFTERWARDS.

i admit it. i download too, but i'm not trying to defend those who dload illegally. because of my circumstances, i cannot buy albums (;_; but i want a CD collection) although if i DID have the money, i would definitely buy all the albums i can get. i love CDs. i really do. once i get my own place, i'm going to have a huge wall or even room full of CDs + even vinyl records if i can find any. therefore, when i am able to get a steady flow of money, i'd probably go broke buying CDs . now, i just have to settle for getting CDs as gifts ;_;'' which doesn't happen too much.

i don't find anything wrong with digital albums, but i prefer the good old albums that you can hold in your hands.

yes, the music industry in korea is dying. the illegal downloading there is crazy;;;. i know most fans are teen (but not all) such as me, but i wish they'd show more respect for the artist. i tell people that dload and HAVE THE MONEY TO BUY that they should support the artists they like. they respond by asking me why they should buy if they can get it for FREE.

well, i think of it this way. if you don't support the artist by buying their albums and you think it's not a big deal because you're one person, the reality is that there are a gazillion other fans thinking the same exact way and doing the same exact thing. therefore, the artist doesn't get a lot of money especially if they're not big giant popular groups like DBSK that can make money off of CFs, dramas, tv appearances, collectible items, etc., this is going to greatly affect their ability to support themselves financially. this not only affects the artist(s), but the other people involved in the production of the album such as producers and if you see it as a big picture and generalize, the companies are being hurt too and therefore won't be able to support the artists and therefore, NO MUSIC!
yes, i know that's a bit drastic, but i think if this continues and grows on a greater scale, and they can't find other alternatives/stop or reduce illegal downloading somehow, it COULD happen.



it makes me incredibly sad ): SUPPORT SUPPORT SUPPORT!! BUY THE CDS, EVERYONE! although i think underground people are generally more sympathetic to the artists they like (i'm generalizing, i know) and appreciate the work they put into the music they make more than mainstream fans :/.

you know i support my artists, and buy albums all the time, but the problem is gahh i had ripping from my cds, so i download the mp3s too and then add them to my ipod. i honestly buy cds, just for the pictures, gahh i know thats horrible, but its true.

I like buying cds more. it just...means more, you know? I do occasionally download cds, but the majority of the time, I buy them.

Regarding digital albums, I thought that was an interesting issue as well. Take Radiohead for example, they sold their album digitally online at any price you wanted to pay for it first (a first of its kind!), and then later they sold the album as a CD and it still went to number one recently here in the US (or 2, as I saw in the latest Rolling Stone). Imagine this too, with the age that we're moving with, what's to stop the artist from selling in the form they want to sell as well? Times are changing.

i would never buy a digital album,
espcially if it were korean... bc the access to korean mp3s is widely available...
the idea of not being able to hold it in my hand, bothers me

i would however buy a real cd if i really liked/supported the band

i completely agree.
i'm not saying you know.. to buy every single album out there. just.. at least the ones that you think would be well worth it.
and i'm really glad to hear that all of you are buying cds from those artists you really enjoy listening to.

The real reason that record shops have been disappearing is because all the good ones are being evicted and replaced with ugly downtown canals.

Hahaha...so funny. Racetraitor, I wish I had been able to respond to your post about No Brain. In all reality, I didn't know about those events you just mentioned. Frankly, before I even get into a band's political disposition, I'd rather see if their music is worth noticing. And frankly, I didn't find them that outstanding. Political favors notwithstanding.

One more thing: I'm sorry your topic was locked, I haven't read the rules myself. But I don't think it's fair to lock that topic, it's good for people to know certain things. Perhaps, next time one can just write "No Brain paid undisclosed sum for political favor" and do a condensed article in the No brain thread or something. Let's compromise people.

^ i can't tell if you're being serious or not, but i hope that isn't a sign that that massive canal plan that Lee Myungbak wants to do is in the works.

oh and thanks for the info about No Brain. didn't know about that. or Lee Myungbak.

His first massive canal plan, Cheonggyecheon, is finished, at great cost to downtown Seoul. Dongdaemoon, which used to have a lot of very cool record stores, is a wasteland of urban renewal and sparkling new highrise department stores.

Not sure what "gasoo" is, but Lee Myungbag is unfortunately connected to the underground music scene, in that he might crush it out of existence, and that one of the underground bands helped him get elected.

that's what i do too. T_T
sometimes, the album gets leak out earlier.
but i do buy the album and they just get open once and chunked at a corner.

^ just for clarification - i wasn't talking about the Cheonggyecheon. i meant the Panama style canal he wants to build once he gets officially inagurated (i personally don't see korea's need for it, and the money will go to the Hyundai construction - and not really supported by the shipping companies, and pretty damaging to the environment - sorry for the aside lol).

record shops are losing money because of the record LABELS...

record labels EVERYWHHERE are losing alot of money due to ILLEGAL downloading...
in the US, the smart artists and execs are taking full advantage of the fact that the internet is now the leading source of music promotion and distrubution, they are investing in companies like itunes and creating mp3 downloading based companies....
while the lazy record labels are complaining about album sales and trying to suck as much money from artists and producers before their companies fall...
KOREAN record labels take a bigger portion of the artists cd sales, concert sales etc than american record companies do fromtheir artists....
basically korean record labels take something from EVERYTHING the artists make while american companies take only what they had a hand in (albums and song and such)
so REALLY the korean labels shouldnt be complaining (greeedyyyy)...but they are...because they cant sell albums...they were NEVER able to sell albums....
only reason theyre complaining is because its a way for them to suck more money out of ppl....
so y could they never sell as many albums as american record labels? because they have a ton of artists who release tons of albums with one or two single worthy tracks....same thing is happening in america....
people WILL buy albums if they have loyalty towards the artists that they like...but if you keep releasing new artists and never give the audience a chance to fall in love with em, how do they expect ppl to go out and BUY their albums? do they really think ppl are going to BUY ALLLLLLL of the albums that ALLLLLL of their artists have just released? YEA RIGHT..!

this all started when the record labels assumed that their target audience was "stupid"....they figured that playing the numbers game and oversaturating the market with
TONS and TONS of crappy albums and crappy singers and crappy plagerized songs will make the "stupid" buyers keep buying.... well...the "stupid" buyers decided they arent going to buy crappy music so they started putting the music on the internet to check out the music before they buy it...obviously it wasnt good enough for anyone to spend money on...to me...its not relly a problem...its the ppl in charge gettting what they deserve....

solution?
"kanye west sold 900,000 records the first week of sales..."
put out better music...hire better producers and songwriters$$$...spend more time and MONEY for the artists and their records....and stop trying to screw everyone out of their money!!!! (artists/prodcuers/AND the audience)
put out good music and pppl WILL buy the the product whether its online or at the record stores

THEY caused all of this themselves by becoming greedy BUSINESSMEN and making money the number one priority rather than putting the MUSIC first...
they dont deserve any simpathy.....

and record shops are a casualty of all this....too bad for them

EDIT: NVM, my bad, read the post wrong.

Cheonggyecheon destroyed many record stores. For those of you who live here, you probably know there are virtually no good places to buy music in this country. A national canal would be exponentially more retarded than a downtown canal, and would destroy the country on a much larger scale.

Strike 2, giiso, I like your post again. So you confirmed for me something, it really is a Korean phenomenon. Because I'll be frank with you, the music industry of other countries, despite suffering the setbacks of the digital age, do not produce the limited albeit generic type of music Korea does. People with actual talent are still willing to sell their music, no matter what type of media.

In Korea, regardless of digital downloads killing album sales, there's too much pop and relatively little anything else. And the turnover rate for the stars are pretty fast - everyone has to be a teenager, anything above that is uncool. You don't even have to have talent - which is bewildering! Mercifully, a lot of other countries don't suffer fools so easily.

Your solution of putting out better music is true - but that requires talent. Which I still find sorely lacking in a country that's become so used to living without it for a while. And then those that actually try learning to play instruments aren't given as much credit or recognition, as in the rock division! Something else Korea has to understand is to open up her industry - don't limit success to pop tarts and 15-mins-of-fame idols. Welcome the offerings of other genres of music!

At the end of the day, being a musician is a career; it can last beyond the teens provided the artist is 1) talented and 2) interested in making music to show to the world. If they lack any of this, they're not going to last. And then it'll be hard to build up any type of following. Pop acts in general tend to have more limited careers than rock bands, and pop artists most certainly have a high turnover rate. So if you have an entire country relying on pop acts alone, then you're obviously going to end up with loads of 15-minute idols. And lots of disloyal fans.

I don't believe in an eye-for-an-eye logic like what you said: 'they figured that... oversaturating the market with... crappy albums... will make the "stupid" buyers keep buying.... well...the "stupid" buyers decided they arent going to buy crappy music so they started putting the music on the internet to check out the music before they buy it...obviously it wasnt good enough for anyone to spend money on...to me...its not relly a problem...its the ppl in charge gettting what they deserve....' Although I understand your stand as a fan, understand too that holding a bitter grudge will not resolve the problems of your industry. I'm not saying go out there and buy the crappy albums of your local stars, but it's kind of a vicious cycle wherein nobody helps each other as a result: You get crap, you give crap back, you will get crap again. This cannot go on.

For me, I'm not buying a lot of what I see in this particular music scene and I can't help voicing it out (no offense to those with sensitive ears). I want to believe something good will eventually happen, but the more I read here, the more I become disillusioned seeing the way this particular society is.

"You get crap, you give crap back, you will get crap again"
do u really think that if the record industry gives us crap...and we BUY the crap....that they are going to EVER change the crap that they give us.?
the crap is easy and cheap to put out and sell....the reason they put out the CRAP is because the LABELs make MORE money from the already tons of money they make....
if we buy their CRAP...then they are going to keep releasing crap....common sense....

so where can this "cycle" adjusted to where there actually MIGHT be change to get better music?
well they can either start putting out decent records just for the hell of it...(not happening...cost too much and takes too much effort..no reason to)
maybe we should each pick up 2 of every copy of every artists album out there...maybe then they'll see that the buyers DESERVE better music ...(hahahahahahaha)
i dont see any other way to motivate them to change then the drastic "make them lose 30 million of the 100 million that they get everyyear"

i dont feel that that statement you made was thought out well enough...but its cool that theres someone here that actually THINKS

Giiso, you really hate the label companies! I guess they've wronged you one too many times. But I'm not trying to defend them - I only mention a cycle that seems hopelessly self-perpetuating. So I thought about this issue, to do you some honor, and came up with a few questions of my own. If (God forbid) they actually do release good albums, wouldn't you be contradicting yourself if you bought it and added to the millions they're earning already? Also, maybe the reason they release crap (and get away with it) is because there are gullible people out there (a market!) who actually do buy their crap (because they don't consider it crap, or 'fans' are culpable too)? You have to give people the benefit of a doubt. Finally, as an endnote, I would imagine it also takes an artist to create the crap that's out there, so maybe the artist herself/himself is to blame too? (Perhaps they're not talented enough, and don't want to make any effort, to produce good music either?)

I honestly don't know where this is going, but thanks for making me think about certain things.

I think that digital music stores can help improve an artist's popularity. I believe it was Giiso who brought up the point that it gives people a chance to try out new artists without buying a whole CD. For example, if I see an interesting band on iTunes, I can spend 99 cents or whatever on one of their songs, instead of going out to a store and spending maybe $13 (or more) on a CD just to find out that I don't really like that band. I don't know anyone who actually goes to CD stores and buys a bunch of records of artists that they've never listened to just to try them out, while I know quite a few people who try out songs by artists before deciding whether or not it's worth buying their CD. I guess this is, in a way, applicable to downloaded music too.

Personally, if I'm going to buy a CD I'd rather have it physically than just buy it online. I do admit to downloading music to try out artists as I don't know any digital music stores online (in Canada, that is) that offer a wide variety of Korean/Japanese/Chinese music, but I generally buy CDs that I really like either from YesAsia or if I happen to be going to Taiwan or something. But, it is hard to find indie and underground artists in record shops, even YesAsia doesn't have some artists that I've been looking for CDs of.

i never said not to buy albums...i said that in order for there to be a change for better music, not buying BAD albums might be the only way (which is not an idea, its already happening) and artists dont create anything...artists sing and dance...producers and songwriters create.....the better the producer or songwriter, the more money it costs for the label (which is y we get crap music)... its cool that your trying to give ppl the benefit of thedoubt... but thinking like that doesnt work in this industry....its not as nice as ppl think and ppl are constntly trying to screw you....(the "gullible" ppl out there are ppl who dont care about the actual music but the image and idea of it....)

The lack of cd sales in Korea is probably one of the biggest reasons that companies are wanting sending their artists overseas to Japan, China, and aiming for the US market.

I heard that most pop artists don't make their money off cd sales, it's the tv shows and radio events and advertisting and concerts that bring in their income. Which is why variety shows and radio and television ads are brimming with musicians. Companies get the biggest share off albums, but the artists tend to get the larger portion off tv or ads which in some way, evens it out a bit.

But, in a way, I feel that this issue id geared more towards the pop genre than the music industry as a collective whole.
I agree with what robot_victim said about how entertainment companies are just filling the market with as mush "stuff" as they can, and korean pop nowdays does tend to sound similar. If you played music from different huge name groups to someone who didn't really know they, would you really expect them to tell the difference.

It's not like pop music 10 years ago where there was slightly more specialization among the big names. It wasn't like they stuck in a specific genre, but back when pop just got huge in the mid 90's, groups had a "sound" that carried through their albums.

It seems that with things like rock music, the problem isn't as severe.
Seo Taiji could still generate millions of dollars on sale of music as a rock musician, but that may be because his fan base is slightly older and from the generation that used to buy cd’s.
Rock groups aren't the biggest name in the media and yet, without much mainstream television appearances, they can generate enough for companies to keep producing albums. Like with the band EVE, they've gone through something like 3 member rotations since they've started, they are almost never on mainstream television, and yet they somehow find enough sales with their albums to get to an 8th.
Even before selling out, No Brain and Crying nut had a decent amount of albums out.
This decline in the industry is a bit proportional to the rise in the pop industry where companies are just throwing as much as they can into the market.
If companies put out more substantial music rather than the dime a dozen pop tracks of the hundreds of similar pop albums that come out a year, the cd sale issue wouldn’t be such a huge problem.

How on earth are you going to try to market a star that's not even making it big in their own country? I hope they better know Japanese, Chinese, or English then, because they might as well start from scratch as being a Japanese, Chinese, or American star to begin with.

Regarding the rock bands issue, the biggest problem with making ends meet despite the lack of media attention is that people don't often know who they are. And they sink into a pit hole thinking that that's okay - which really it's not. To be honest, I'm surprised some bands have more than 2 or 3 albums and don't seem to make a dent in the korean music industry. Or are content to stay 'indie/underground.'

As for making good music, there's a cycle I've been trying to tell you guys about. You have an industry that does not support nurturing individual talent (i.e. everyone's gotta have someone else make the music for them, i.e. the producer - whom they can later lay all their problems on!), you keep at this for years so you end up with an industry that doesn't support talent, ergo, talent becomes rare and ergo you will not find good music. I can't lay it out any simpler than that.



So that's how it is (in this industry) then? Jesus.

there are good points being brought up by the comments here so far. sometimes i think that in the end, the avg. korean person just likes the usual ballad/pop type music (not that i'm saying anything's wrong with that). maybe someone will be a force enough that on the demand side tastes change that will force suppliers to change their tactics (lol... was in a bit of econ mode there)... again just thoughts.



well, i dunno if this is quite answering your question - probably not (or if you know about it already, then just see it as fyi for other folks)... but there are indie/underground bands that do the club circuit in japan and after they got a bit of recognition there, when they came back to korea they get recognized as well in the korean indie scene. in the pop world, biggest examples are BoA, Younha (and K - but i dunno what's he doing now). band world, cherry filter and i think Jaurim also did stuff in japan. if i'm off about this, feel free to correct me.