Make Believe Mailer 25: BTS Enters The Millions Club
Or: The State Of Physical In Japan
I didn’t know what other picture to use.
K-pop powerhouse BTS continue to make history. Back in June, the group released BTS, THE BEST, a greatest hits compilation gathering many of their Japanese-language originals alongside Japanese versions of songs originally recorded in Korean. “Dynamite” also gets tacked on as a bonus track. Upon release, THE BEST managed the largest one-week sales mark in Japan this year in one day, and just last week surpassed a million units sold, putting them in the same club as J-pop heavyweights like Namie Amuro, Arashi, Mr. Children, DREAMS COME TRUE and so on. Another notch in a very hole-heavy belt.
While you can listen to THE BEST on subscription streaming, the million-sales mark comes primarily from physical purchases.
From Universal Music Japan’s Special THE BEST Site
The K-pop industry’s strongest skill is adaptability. In most of the world, where the monetary value of music disintegrated over the past 20 years and digital / streaming surpassed physical as the go-to method of listening, Korean companies wisely went heavy on getting music videos and songs on these easy-to-access and simple-to-share platforms. Tactile objects, in elaborate packaging, exist for a certain type of hardcore fan to treasure in these regions. But it’s about online access, and gathering as much attention as you can from it (even if that doesn’t necessarily pay the bills…or your employees).
K-pop companies roll out a totally different strategy for Japan, however, and make a lot of money in the process. For the majority of the 2010s, the Japanese market was ridiculed by Western media for gravitating towards CDs (and still a hook for a certain type of writer). “Look at this backwards country, buying physical music when they could be diving into the streaming pit! Fools!” The Korean music industry, though digitally savvy, didn’t scoff, but rather released Japanese singles and albums as physical-first goods, often in multiple versions, mirroring the way, say, a domestic idol group like AKB48 approached the marketplace. It was easy to gawk, but K-pop smartly realized by embracing trends in Japan, they could develop a strong fanbase (and make big bucks).1
That remains the case. As the image above shows, THE BEST came out in nearly a dozen different versions, and this tactic surely helped push them past the million sales mark. That’s simply following how J-pop long functioned2, and a practice adopted by almost every Korean act trying to breakthrough in the country. Anecdotally, I’ll always have the image of seeing over a dozen dudes gathered outside of the Tower Records in Shibuya one night a couple of years ago, the type of guys you’d typically assume were fans of a mid-tier J-pop idol group. They were surrounded by cardboard boxes full of…TWICE singles, which they were opening on livestream.
That’s just good business, but in 2021 it’s also somewhat of an outlier. That’s because the Japanese market…the one so long seen as a fossil due to its preference for CDs…is shifting drastically, and now something like THE BEST is the outlier.
AKB48’s 58th Single “Nemohamo Rumor”
Purely on chart position, AKB48’s 58th single “Nemohamo Rumor” continues an impressive number-one-spot streak. Every single they’ve released since 2009’s “River” has topped Oricon’s weekly chart, meaning “Rumor” extends this to 44 releases straight. Yet another run…one that parent company AKS probably loved way more than chart-topping position…came to an end. From 2011’s “Everyday, Katyusha” onward, every AKB single has moved over a million copies in its first week, powered by a well-documented fandom-first model where hardcore supporters often buy multiple copies of the same offering. Say what you will about how this reflects “real world” popularity…but as business strategy, it’s ideal.
So how did “Rumor” do in its first week?
😬 350,677 Copies Sold 😬 (like, still good, but their preceding single sold over triple of what this one did….)
The era of physical-first in Japan is over. A noticeable shift has been underway since 2016, when the smashes of the year left nearly no dent on Oricon…but dominated YouTube. That’s just increased. The biggest song of 2020, YOASOBI’s “Yoru Ni Kakeru,” didn’t receive a physical release, existing as a digital-only offering until appearing on the duo’s debut EP THE BOOK at the start of this year. Big hit singles used to always be pushed as a tangible experience, but as is the case around the world, most pop fans in Japan are happy to hear songs through YouTube or TikTok or Spotify.
This year, huge hits from Awesome City Club, Ado and others primarily existed as digital releases, at least until the prior released a full-length featuring it and the latter gets around to it. At that point, it’s just a bonus for fans, and the album itself will probably not make as much as an impact in comparison. This change can be seen in brick-and-mortar establishments as well. CD rental chain Tsutaya has seen franchisees announce expectations to leave the very business that transformed them into a bedtown staple by 2023, while Tower Records and other big-box music retailers are becoming more like experiential centers scattered in major neighborhoods rather than local stops for music fans. A personal experience…one retailer located inside the train station nearest to me, which my wife says had operated since she was a kid in the 1990s, recently closed for good.
“Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)” From Japanese Million Seller “Scatman’s World”
K-pop’s physical focus in Japan isn’t a surefire strategy for success…OH MY GIRL recently put out a single in three versions that sold less than 10,000 copies, while a supposed world beater like BLACKPINK registered sales not all that impressive given their pumped-up status. And utilizing YouTube remains vital. Yet, as evidenced by TWICE, SEVENTEEN and especially BTS3, it can pay huge dividends…even if, in a weird twist, the Korean artists embracing it are now out of step with where Japan’s domestic industry is going.
Which doesn’t diminish THE BEST’s entry into the millions club. BTS are a legit phenomenon in the country. Yet in many ways, it also represents the last gasp of a ranking system capable of capturing these breakthroughs. Going through a list of the best-selling albums of all time in Japan, it’s surprising to see what managed over a million in sales before the internet truly disrupted the industry, especially from a foreign perspective. Enya, t.A.T.u, Twelve Girls Band…that’s just a sampling. BTS ultimately have more in common with Namie Amuro or DREAMS COME TRUE, in that they pulled this off via a best-of summarizing a career (up until now) rather than a specific album4. The accomplishment remains earned.
But I think it will only become rarer. Physical sales…which always push these kinds of releases into the rarefied air of a million seller…are less central to how the Japanese music industry functions. THE BEST represents a last-gasp entry for an achievement slowly fading away as Japan becomes more fragmented. It deserves the articles commemorating this accomplishment. Yet those also fail to say anything about where the country is actually going, and how this is an exception rather than a norm.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Follow the Best of 2021 Spotify Playlist Here!
Not limited to just K-pop…One Direction achieved massive success in Japan in part because they adjusted to the local climate, specifically by being the rare Western act to launch a fan club.
This is only like, 30 percent me trying to protect myself from any ARMY who stumble across this…you guys are doing great, keep it up!
*whispering* if you really want to muck things up, Girls’ Generation were the last K-pop act to achieve over a million sales with an album in their self-titled Japanese debut, which was technically not a best of (despite featuring…a best-of worthy tracklist)