Netizens accuse BTS of ‘sajaegi’ after outselling BIGBANG in physical albums

[happydirections.livejournal.com]

Popular hip hop group Bangtan Sonyeondan (also known as Bangtan Boys or BTS) has been accused of sajaegi after reportedly outselling K-Pop icon BIGBANG on the physical album charts.



The accusations follow the ranking according to the Hanteo Chart, which tracks physical sales of albums, where BTS’s new album 화양연화 (In the Mood for Love Part 1) has beat BIGBANG’s Made Series-m.

Controversial discussions of possible “sajaegi” (where a company buys albums in large quantities to inflate the official numbers) have arisen among netizens because it is an extremely rare accomplishment for an idol group from a small company.
BTS’s agency, Big Hit Entertainment has countered these statements, arguing, “Big Hit Entertainment doesn’t have the resources to do such a thing.”

BTS recently began their music show performances following the April 29th release of their album with their title song “I NEED U” which swept charts shortly after it’s opening. In addition, they’ve taken fans behind the scenes of the jacket shoot and music video filming and have hinted at the possible release of the 19+ version of their music video.

Meanwhile, BIGBANG began their promotions shortly after BTS starting on May 3rd on Inkigayo and achieved a perfect all-kill with their track “Loser” after it’s release on May 1st.

BTS and sajaegi suspicions clarified

1st day sales: 7,999 copies
2nd day offline: 19,000 (sales exploded at night)
3rd day offline: 9,700 copies (7k copies sold at 7pm)
4th day offline: 9,300 copies (1,200 at 8pm -> 4,200 at 8:10 pm -> 9,300 at 8:20 pm)

Comparison to last year's first week sales of TVXQ (52k), SuJu (49k), B2ST (48k)... BTS is currently at 47k on their fourth day.

BTS' previous album had 15k first week sales for a total of 78k sales along with 15 fan meets. This album, without any fan meets, sold 47k in 4 days.

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1. [+237, -199] For sales to just randomly explode like that in the middle of the night is suspicious, the way most sajaegis work

2. [+227, -189] Honestly, no matter how popular they've gotten, they can't have the same numbers as SuJu and TVXQ... and why would their sales explode at set times like that? I think fans have every right to be suspicious. If they had group sales for fan signings, please show us proof of those receipts.

3. [+213, -176] Even if they have more fans this time than their last album, why would they all go out to buy the albums at the same time on a weekend night?

4. [+89, -32] I don't know why every time a mid-tier agency group sells a lot, people immediately suspect them of sajaegi. First B1A4 and now BTS..

5. [+85, -52] Their sales number should mean that they have a similar fandom size to SHINee and B2ST but... does BTS have that big of a fandom?

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Pann: Regarding the suspicions of BTS sajaegi

Suspicion #1: BTS sales records show room for sajaegi suspicions. Why did their sales randomly spike during the night on a weekend? Please show receipts immediately for the 8,000 copies that were sold that night.

Answer: According to Hanteo admins, album sales made offline are entered in the chart system manually at once at a specific time. Sales graphs, therefore, are not accurate indiciations of the time every sale was made. That's why groups who showed minimal sales randomly spike when their offline orders are inputted into the system.

In the case of BTS, notices for group orders came out late so many purchased their albums individually instead of participating in the group orders. And considering that exams were recently over, it's not weird at all that offline sales would spike over the weekend.

Other idol groups with similar spikes were suspected of sajaegi but were later confirmed to be legitimate sales.

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Suspicion #2: Last year, big groups on the Hanteo chart recorded the following first week sales: TVXQ (52k), SuJu (49k), B2ST (48k). However, BTS sold (4.7k) in the first 4 days alone. They are not at the level of these big name groups yet, so how?

Answer: We admit that BTS is not at the same level of the above groups. However, the numbers mentioned above were the first week sales for their repackaged albums, which of course would reflect a lower number compared to their first releases.

If you look at the actual first week sales for their first album releases, you will see that the numbers are actually TVXQ (73k) and SuJu (64k). B2ST has always been stronger digitally than physically.

BTS, on the other hand, has always maintained top physical album sales since their debut despite lower digital records. They won the Bonsang at the Seoul Gayo AWards and the World Rookie Award at the Gaon Charts for this same reason.

BTS' first week sales are also quite average and not that high compared to other similar groups. Last year, groups like TEEN TOP, B1A4, CNBLUE, and other mid-tier agencies recorded an average of 40~50k in first week sales. By comparison, BTS' is not that extreme or out of the ordinary.

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Suspicion #3: Everyone is capable of sajaegi.

Answer: Dispatch proved that barcode sajaegi is not possible. Hanteo does not reflect 'barcode' sales no matter how many times a company sticks a different barcode on the same CD. Sales are only input into the Hanteo system through purchase proof like tax invoices, etc.

It is also a bigger waste for the company to buy back their own albums because the record stores take a commission charge of double the amount. The record store takes a commission the first time the company buys back the album and once the albums are put back for regular sale, the record store takes another commission from those regular sales as well.

Big Hit is also a small tier agency and Bang Shi Hyuk is a Seoul University graduate, he wouldn't be dumb enough to buy all of those albums at once. He would've bought a set amount consistently over a longer frame of time.

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Lastly, BTS released two versions of their album and are currently recording their best digital sales in the history of their career. Their fancafe has also hit 100,000 members and has an ongoing album event. Fans, both domestic and international, are trying their hardest to win the group a #1 like they have been working towards. Moreover, official sales from Japan are also now being reflected on the Hanteo charts, which also reflect the increase in recent sales.

We have no intention of attacking VIPs but with a few VIPs being suspicious of BTS having bigger first week sales than Big Bang and attacking BTS with suspicions of sajaegi, we feel unfortunate that it has resorted to this.

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1. [+19, -1] (Long detailed description of how hard working the members of BTS are)... These kids are not greedy for money at all and work so hard for everything and you think they'd resort to this just to make money? Even if their agency did commit sajaegi, I bet the BTS members themselves would be mad and try to stop it ㅋㅋㅋ

2. [+13, -1] Thank you for explaining it so clearly ㅜㅜㅜ

3. [+12, -2] I hope people who are claiming sajaegi will read this..

4. [+8, -1] This needs to be read by everyone claiming BTS is committing sajaegi. How can we prove that it's not sajaegi when sajaegi was never committed to begin with? If anything, everyone else should be the one coming in with proof trying to prove that it is sajaegi. All we're doing is trying our best to give our kids their #1 ㅜㅜ

5. [+6, -0] This is fact. I hope whoever first claimed the sajaegi suspicions gets hit with a boomerang.


EDIT: BTS and sajaegi suspicions clarified + netizens comments

Source: koreaboo, Korean Finance, netizenbuzz, Pann (1, 2)

Comments

[rennehollic.livejournal.com]

it's amazing that some people don't believe smaller groups can outsell bigger groups....

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

Um....doesn't big bang's album have 2 songs on it? Like....why waste money on that? Next.

[pinklunacy.livejournal.com]

MTE. Why is it even called an album is what I'd like to know!

[laambda.livejournal.com]

their last album sold almost 100k though? plus it seems like they gained a lot of fans with this comeback

[lily-of-west.livejournal.com]

What kind of bs...c'mon now...really...do people not realize Big Bang is putting out singles album until September when they'll release a full album...fans are concentrating on streaming and digital sales since the boys are murdering digitally....whoever is trying to use Big Bang's name for promotion or to hate on another group needs to take a seat tbh...

[rmarques.livejournal.com]

A clarification on how the numbers are possible and how the sales just exploded was posted later; netizenbuzz translated it here (http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.pt/2015/05/pann-bts-and-sajaegi-suspicions.html).

[happydirections.livejournal.com]

i added it. thank you!

[cookiedealer.livejournal.com]

idk why this is mystifying, big bang's album has two songs on it, bts has proven to have quality physical albums with all kinds of nice stuff AND bts does fansigns. fansigns are generally a good way to make the fanbase buy physical albums.

[bloodtaki2.livejournal.com]

Laughing at BTS' company's dry statement. This is gold.

I doubt BTS will outsell them on the montly charts, so who cares. It's just details.

But come on, it would just be better to wait for BB's full album, instead of buying 6 different singles.

[rennehollic.livejournal.com]

their statement is everything. It really shows how many f*cks they give

[cafetin99.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for BTS. It fucking bothers me when butthurt fans do this kind of shit. Is your oppa is the only one who can win/get the sales?

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

Pathetic lmao

[fayfayren.livejournal.com]

LOL @ the company's response. big bang only has two new songs vs. a whole new album. don't yg artists always sell really well digitally compared to physical albums?

[bloodtaki2.livejournal.com]

Actually, Big Bang sell really well both digitally and physical albums. They are top tier in both categories, even when they come back after 2 years of hiatus each time. But this is a single with two songs. And we all know they're gonna release two songs each month and the full album will drop in September. So why bother buying the singles when you can get the real deal? Even as a big bang fan, that just would be overkill otherwise... XD

[leopolitan.livejournal.com]

NB confirmed for bts stan

[donutism.livejournal.com]

YG never sold well physically, and this 'album' has 2 songs on it lol. Even as a big bang fan......

[srybutno.livejournal.com]

big bang are an exception, they do great and so does gd. not that it matters in this case bc it's a single with 2 songs

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

there's no fucking way i'd buy an 'album' with two songs on it so this makes sense lol

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

This is why some fandoms collect, takes pictures and make boxes full of albums receipts ....
I still think is unfair when people just suspect about small companies, they did the same to b1a4

[audiograms.livejournal.com]

lol bighit does not have that money. i love both groups so i'm happy either way, but i think fans need to let groups that have fan support enjoy it.

[yuzuruhanyu.livejournal.com]

im loving this drama

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

There are also group orders for international fans in various countries.

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

But the albums, don't buy them, who cares, if your money. Are they really making a big deal out of this? The fans, I mean? Like I don't really read any other sites, so I don't follow this kind of stuff.

[robalunch.livejournal.com]

Yawn They should accuse them of having bad taste instead.

[daftpunkremix.livejournal.com]

LMAO mte

[violentiak.livejournal.com]

Cackling at the company's statement.

[mlmello.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there was a physical album for these two songs from big bang... LOL

[scheisse.livejournal.com]

YOU OUTSOLD ME FAVE??? YOU MUST BE CHEATING!!

[lily-of-west.livejournal.com]

take a seat....accusations could have been done literally by any fandom trying to start shit...

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

Ofc every time a group from a small company do well it's sajaegi. They did it with B1A4 and now with BTS. Smh.
BTS is not super popular in Korea, but they have a pretty decent-sized fanbase internationally. Considering that a good portion of physical sales come from i-fans, I can totally see why they're selling so well. They're also doing really well digitally this time so that means they've definitely gained some public attention.
And like other people have said, BB didn't release a full album, just a single with 2 songs so lots of people are expecting for the full album to be released.

[bloodtaki2.livejournal.com]

Come on, I didn't even know there was a physical album for these two songs. I just thought they would release them digitally, then sell the full album at the end of the year. XD

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

You know there is a rumor that the Pann post was for noise marketing OR that another fandom did it to target BTS...because why would VIPs care about 3 days of sales at 30k?

The 19k could be fandom bulk buying or something but that 7k at 7pm did strike me as a bit weird not that I care.

Big Bang is doing fabulously with their single album anyway.

[happydirections.livejournal.com]

because why would VIPs care about 3 days of sales at 30k?
yeah, that's what I've been thinking... bigbang has been doing AMAZING. it doesn't make sense. people have way too much time on their hands to start these stupid rumours.