(Starting a new blog corner)

 

 

I shouldn’t be blogging when I should be doing what any loyal and respectable fangirl should be doing: that is RTing or upvoting or clicking whatever thing it is on the Internet to ensure that CNBlue wins. Though to be honest, I’m not really sure how an RT or a hashtag or a “like” button could help them win whatever it is they’re supposed to win. I don’t even know what they’re supposed to win and, yes, I am just going around in circles.

I won’t use being a newbie fan as an excuse. I come from a different mindset where the only “click” that matters is the “buy” button as I have mentioned in a previous post. And Oricon does the rest of the job for me. All I need to do is sit back and wait for the official figures to come out. Then Arashi appears on MUSIC STATION. Et voila, no sweat. (Do I sound like a lazy fan? Hahaha!)

This has actually been a dilemma for me. Will it make me a bad fan if I don’t RT, upvote, hashtag? Hey, I did watch the CAN’T STOP MV on YouTube without pausing and watched it several times too. Shall I watch some more so they could reach 3 million views and sing the song in some accent like they promised or make a video call on LINE?

It’s not like I haven’t done crazy things in my fangirl life before, even crazier than spamming my Twitter.

But I need to understand what I’m getting myself into and right now, I’m purely looking at everything from a business standpoint because, well, money talks. Though that shouldn’t really concern me as a fan, that should be the concern of the producers and the artists, especially since I won’t have any share of the revenue pie anyway. I’m just purely concerned that all of these do not have any implication on the things that matter because the bottom line is, entertainment is still business. In other words, show me the money!

So I started reading up on the K-pop business model to better understand what all of these is about and I found some really interesting reads:

• No less than The Economist wrote on K-pop’s business structure stemming from the international success of Psy and it’s no surprise to read that digital downloads, no matter if they reach the billions or millions, do not really make for a sustainable business model.

• The Music Industry Blog also takes a look at what it calls the “curious case of the Korean music market” and it’s interesting how it notes fan behavior not only in K-pop but in J-pop (or rather, in the Asian market) as opposed to the Western market.

There are also several analyses online on what Psy’s billion YouTube hits really mean. And that while it only earned him $800,000++, the real deal came from advertisements, endorsements and paid performances across the world that followed.

These hits and views do actually matter. Obviously, the more popular an artist is, the more job offers there are. And the more possibility to see them up close and personal. Maybe.

And I do understand the psychic rewards that come when you see the artists you support win in anything, even if it’s a poll from a website that’s obviously to drive up hits. How much more if it’s winning the charts (I’ll just ignore the ambiguity of it all and the lack of solid numbers) and when they worked so hard on their music. Dammit, they have to win, they deserve it and #CANTSTOP them (there, a hashtag)! Just music.

So excuse me while I upvote and hashtag and RT.

…

…

…

Do I really have to do this? Jinja?

© Orange Jasmine Purple Yam (blogging since 2001). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the contents in this site without permission from the author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Orange Jasmine Purple Yam with appropriate link to the original content.