Dark Side of K-Pop: Exposing the Album Dumping Culture

Seventeen from HYBE sparked controversy with album unboxing
Min Hee Jin criticized ESG in entertainment
NewJeans topped album sales without photocards

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Recently, the most talked-about story in Korean society is undoubtedly the conflict between the giant entertainment company HYBE and Min Hee Jin, the head of its subsidiary label ADOR. HYBE has demanded an emergency shareholders’ meeting to discuss the dismissal of ADOR’s executives, citing evidence that they were trying to seize control of the company.

In response, Min held an urgent press conference on the 25th of last month, where she passionately spoke for about an hour and a half to convey her position and sense of injustice.

The issue resurfaced at the end of last month when a Japanese netizen posted photos related to the SEVENTEEN album, an artist under HYBE’s label Pledis Entertainment. Min’s comments at the press conference drew renewed attention.

Min has previously called for the entertainment industry to practice ESG management at the press conference. The photo released by the netizen and Min’s comments are now drawing attention together.

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Min’s call for ESG management stems from the known cultural practice in the entertainment industry: album unboxing. This involves buying multiple albums to attend a fan meeting of one’s favorite artist or to obtain a desired rare photo card. Typically, an idol album contains various items, including photo cards, CDs, photo images, lyrics books, supplements, and advertising booklets, with a single album containing around 100 pages of various paper and print components.

Moreover, the competition among idol fandoms to increase initial sales by purchasing albums has solidified this culture of buying albums in bulk.

Min pointed out this situation, criticizing the entertainment industry for focusing solely on selling as many albums as possible and urging them to improve the album unboxing culture actively.

X Compilation

On April 30, a Japanese netizen posted photos of X piles of SEVENTEEN albums in boxes on the social network. He added that the albums were scattered near Shibuya Parco in Tokyo, and there was a sign saying, “Take as many as you like.”

Afterward, according to a post on X that became a topic of discussion, a warning was posted at the location where the boxes were stacked, saying, “This is private property. Selling or distributing items here will be reported to the police immediately,” and “CCTV is in operation here.” The albums piled on the street were all cleaned up, bagged in trash bags, and moved to another street.

The new albums being recklessly dumped on the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, are speculated to be due to album unboxing. SEVENTEEN boasts tremendous popularity in Japan, and Japanese fans are known for their strong support. It is believed that they purchased bulk albums to protect their favorite artist’s pride.

X Compilation

Fans who buy albums for photo cards and album sales often donate or discard the albums.

Concerning this, Min stated at the press conference, “I wish we wouldn’t push these random cards and such practices.” She revealed her position, saying, “NewJeans did well even without including photo cards in their albums,” and “If everyone in the entertainment industry does this, it distorts the market.” She criticized the practice in the entertainment industry of increasing album sales using photo cards and fan meetings as weapons.

Furthermore, Min expressed concern for the fandom, saying, “If album sales continue to rise, it only adds burden to the fans.”

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Min further mentioned that the continuous fan signings are physically taxing for artists and noted, “This culture has settled in, making fans buy more albums than necessary, fearing the members might feel down, and fans who went to signings keep going repeatedly. I think the current environment in the record market is all wrong.”

She mentioned NewJeans to illustrate her point, saying, “I started NewJeans to fix this mentality, and I wanted to confidently show that you can succeed without resorting to tricks like photo cards.”

NewJeans achieved the highest album sales among K-pop female artists in 2023, with total sales from January 1 to December 16 recorded at 4,399,019 albums. This accounts for the highest market share, at 15.4%.

Meanwhile, according to Hanteo Chart, SEVENTEEN’s best album, SEVENTEEN IS RIGHT HERE, was released on April 29 and sold 2,269,906 copies on its release day, setting a record for the highest sales on the first day for a K-pop artist according to Hanteo Chart standards.