Half of K-pop fans buy album to collect goods

▲ This graphic image shows Korea Consumer Agency. (Yonhap TV)

▲ This is a file photo. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Mar. 8 (Yonhap) – It has been counted that half of K-pop fans purchase the album for the purpose of collecting goods (fandom products).

The Korea Consumer Agency released a survey on Tuesday that 52.7% of K-pop fandom consumers have purchased albums for the purpose of collecting goods, and only 5.7% of consumers listen to music on CDs.

Over the past four years (2019-2022) the number of consumer complaints related to fandom marketing received at the 1372 Consumer Counseling Center recorded 903.

By type of complaint, 200 cases (22.1%) of product delivery delay and non-delivery were the most, followed by 168 cases (18.6%) of quality defect and product defect, and 141 cases (15.6%) of refund and exchange delay.

By item, 208 photo cards and posters (23.0%) and 124 record and DVD (13.7%) were counted.

According to a survey of 500 consumers with experience in paid K-pop fandom activities, they purchased products such as albums (78.9%), photo cards (55.6%), and cheering tools (43.4%) an average of 4.7 times a year.

The average purchase amount was mostly "over 50,000 won to less than 100,000 won," as 27.6% responded, but 2.8% of the respondents said they spent more than 1 million won.

In addition, delivery delays (29.0%), unreasonable pricing (20.6%), and random goods giving (15.2%) were cited as things that needed improvement related to fandom marketing.

The most common reasons for purchasing albums (overlapping answers) were record collection (75.9%), but many consumers said they collected goods (52.7%) and applied for events (25.4%).

194 consumers who have purchased records to obtain random goods purchased an average of 4.1 copies of the same album, and as many as 90 copies of the same record were purchased.

102 consumers who purchased for the purpose of applying for the event bought an average of 6.7 copies and up to 80 albums.

As for how to listen to music, 83.8% answered that they stream music and videos, while only 5.7% of consumers used CDs.

67.8% of the respondents said that excessive purchase of records negatively affects the environment.

As a result of checking 50 types of albums with high sales volume to investigate fandom marketing related to albums, the albums were released in 128 products according to detailed specifications such as photo books and cases, and each album had an average of 2.6 specifications.

Photo cards are representative fandom products, and 96.9% of the surveyed albums included random photo cards.

For the record with the most types of photo cards, 78 types were provided, and since one album contained six random types, 13 album purchases were required to collect all types of photo cards.

Currently, goods such as photo cards are considered to be the main purpose of purchasing records, not additional products, but the online purchase detail page of the album under investigation only provides information on the type and quantity of goods, but does not provide product images.

The Korea Consumer Agency pointed out that only 11 (22 percent) of the surveyed albums included digital records without CDs, but it is necessary to expand the release of digital albums to eliminate the act of discarding unnecessary CDs to collect goods.

Based on the results of the survey, the Korea Consumer Agency will advise operators to sell goods and records separately and release records considering environmental protection.

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Yunhee Cho.)

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