Can you trust Korean music charts?

[chasing-thewind.livejournal.com]

Are Korean music charts rigged? A two-part report published this week examines issues relating to chart fixing in South Korea.

Korea’s online music charts under fire for unfair practices, suspected chart-rigging

Ever wondered why K-pop has so many chart-topping debuts or new releases? How trustworthy do you think the K-pop charts are?
According to some industry insiders and experts, the online charts are prone to manipulation.

A major issue with the charts today is “hoarding,” allegedly by fans or brokers, to push certain songs up the charts, particularly upon their release.



At the center of the problem is, according to professor Kim Min-yong of Kyung Hee University in Seoul, the existence of real-time charts, which are refreshed approximately every hour. These charts allow for 24 “No. 1 songs” every day.

“If you hit No. 1 just for one hour, you can claim that you had a No. 1 song,” Kim said in a recent forum in Seoul.

Those chart scores are taken into consideration when deciding rankings on music programs, or awards at the end of the year. According to writers for major radio programs who asked to remain anonymous, chart rankings also play a part in determining which artists are chosen to make appearances as well.

The problem of hoarding was brought into the public spotlight recently after a media outlet revealed the scores of suspicious user accounts on Melon, the largest music service provider, allegedly used for hoarding.

The issue was first brought up in 2013. Then four of K-pop’s largest entertainment agencies -- YG, SM, JYP and Star Empire -- asked for a state investigation of “brokers” who offered to manipulate the charts for large fees. The case was thrown out due to insufficient evidence.



Also in dispute are the “recommended” songs that appear on top of the charts on every major streaming platform.

The problem stems from the fact that listeners usually stream all the songs they see on the Top 100 charts rather than choosing specific songs to listen to, according to Kim. He said that in choosing “all tracks” listeners inadvertently streamed the “recommended” song as well, pushing up the recommended track’s streaming numbers.

The contention is that streaming platforms are rigging the system in order to push certain songs up the charts, allowing the companies behind those artists to gain more streaming revenue and opportunities for media appearances.

According to data provided by Kim, 57 percent of songs recommended by Melon, as of August 2015, were distributed by partner company Loen Entertainment, while 42 percent of songs recommended by Genie were distributed by partner company KT Music.

Loen Entertainment and Mnet.com’s parent company CJ E&M agree with the overall idea that “recommending” songs could warp the charts to a certain degree, but insist on calling the function a curation service that helps customers discover new songs.

“We want to curate new songs and introduce them to our users,” said Park Jin-kyu, head of Loen Entertainment’s corporate relations team.



“We’re discussing how we can do that without creating controversy over fairness. We understand that the artists who take over that small privileged spot seem like they have power. We’re testing different mechanisms that will allow us to recommend songs based on our users’ listening history,” he said.

On Oct. 21, Mnet.com became the first platform to issue an official statement pledging concrete change. In the statement, Mnet.com’s parent company CJ E&M stated they would “remove the ‘package-deal recommendation service’ from (its) music service soon” and “aggressively pursue an alternative to real-time charts, which leads to streaming hoarding.”

Mnet.com said it would “actively reflect the criticisms of music production agencies to lead improvements in the music market environment and evolve Mnet.com to a symbiotic platform” as the “second-largest music service provider,” CJ E&M music division head Ahn Suk-jun said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Loen Entertainment told The Korea Herald through an official statement that it had no plans to eliminate the “recommended” tracks from its Melon charts, saying that “Melon is currently developing algorithms that would prevent hindering fairness or reason through partiality,” and that the service would “present a meticulous song recommendation service customized for individual listening preferences within this year or early next year.”

As for the hoarding behavior by enthused fans or brokers, Loen said, “Since two years ago, Melon has operated a data analysis team that has run a filtering system to block abnormal data, and has filtered over 1 million abnormal IDs.” According to the statement, abnormal streaming practices are already being addressed through this system.

Still, it said, “Melon will continue to develop advanced response filtering systems in the future.”

According to the “Digital Music Report 2015” released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, South Korea’s music market grew 19.2 percent in 2014, with 91 percent of total digital revenues last year coming from subscription streams.


Dependence on platforms, charts hindering new songs from reaching listeners

If it’s hard to name more than a few Korean artists who are currently active and not idol stars, K-pop ballad singers or TV discoveries, it’s not because they don’t exist.

“There are only two genres in today’s Korean music,” said Shin Dae-chul, head of the Barun Music Cooperative, at a forum in Seoul.

“Idol music, non-idol music. The rest is meaningless. ... (The current digital music system) has naturally pushed out consumers in their 40s and 50s, and musicians as well. They can’t work in this system.”



Musical artists agree with this.

“It’s definitely not a market that’s structured to be favorable for artists,” said the vocalist of an indie rock band, speaking to The Korea Herald on condition of anonymity.

The singer said her band, as well as other bands she has spoken to, has had bad experiences with distributors and platforms that were taking artists for granted.

“It would be really difficult to get someone on the phone to change incorrect information about us on the site, or to remove our songs altogether.”

For a while, she said that her band even considered not distributing their songs in Korea at all. “We don’t even make that much off streaming,” she said, noting that music streaming platforms take 40 percent of the streaming revenue.

“We said, we don’t need it, take the songs down.”



But there are not many other options for indie artists to make an income, she said.

She and industry insiders like Lee Youn-hyuk, head of secretariat at the Record Label Industry Association of Korea, said the way digital music is consumed in Korea is a root cause of why only certain artists can succeed in the digital music environment.

“Most people consume music by listening to the top 100 songs on the charts, although that’s difficult to prove quantitatively because every music streaming service is different,” Lee told The Korea Herald in a telephone interview.

“Since most people don’t look for songs outside of the top 100, the charts become very conservative. The same songs are consumed over and over again, making it hard for new songs to break in.”

As of Thursday, five of the top 10 songs on the real-time charts from Melon, the largest digital music servic provider, are from one album -- IU’s “Chat-Shire,” which was released Oct. 23.

Two other songs are from idol stars -- Taeyeon’s “I,” released Oct. 7, and f(x)’s “4 Walls,” released Oct. 27.

One song is from a drama soundtrack, and the remaining two are from Lim Chang-jung and Zion.T, both of whom are known for their megahits with each new album.



The reason for this pattern of consumption has a lot to do with price. Digital music platforms in Korea all offer unlimited streaming packages at about 6,000 won ($5.25) a month. It is only another 2,000 won to 3,000 won to add unlimited mobile downloads for music. At this price point, consumers do not feel the need to carefully curate their listening choices.

“Labels will often talk about switching between distributors in order to gain an edge with platforms, either through playlist recommendations or special mentions,” said Lee.

“But even that’s only for artists and labels that have a bit of pull. For new faces, it’s a nonstarter.”

While acknowledging the difficulties presented by the current digital market situation, both the anonymous vocalist and Lee noted the artists could also do more on their end to improve the situation.

“We write and produce all of our own music, meaning that we sign our own contracts for distribution,” said the vocalist.

“That’s the only reason we know all these problems with distribution rights. Most artists don’t know about this kind of stuff.”
Lee added that artists in Korea need to study up.

“A lot of indie artists abroad do the promotional work themselves. They hire someone to do that for them only when they’ve reached a point in their music where both they and their label can make income together,” Lee said.

“You can’t eliminate market economics from music, especially pop music.”

“Artists have to know how their music will reach and be consumed by listeners. If they can’t figure it out themselves, they need to know how to find good partners that can help them,” he added.


Source: Kpop Herald 1 | 2

Sorry for the trouble, mods, hope this looks better!

I thought this was a really interesting read. I wonder what would happen if they studied how much of the general public actually listens to those who chart versus those who don't. What do you think, Omona? Are digital music charts trustworthy or not?

Comments

[stutterflies.livejournal.com]

OP, please skim through your post and edit out extraneous text or repeated paragraphs. Copying and pasting articles produces weird results sometimes.

Thanks for posting though! I enjoyed the read.

[thisoneputa.livejournal.com]

obvi.

Thanks for the post!

I enjoyed it

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

Korea has SO MANY charts as well. you have the streaming charts, where you can be number 1 in one and number 6 in another, and then there's the music tv broadcasts as well. it makes it hard to tell who actually is the best selling artist, and I've never actually been able to wrap my head around all the charts and how they work (esp since i grew up in the UK, i got so used to just having ONE Number 1 Album and ONE Number 1 single)

[suiteroom.livejournal.com]

very true! it is very confusing, I usually only look at Melon and base everything off that LOL

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

Mte. I mostly look at melon and maybe mnet/bugs because they concentrate more than 70% of the digital market. The rest of charts are kinda irrelevant.

[snowmog.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to know if shops playing music in Korea affected the digital rankings in any way. Most shops play what is currently charting and in some shops I know they play music from a laptop or tablet using what I presume is an account with Melon, or one of the other streaming services. To me it seems to be the only way to continue playing current stuff and not spend ages checking charts or downloading music.

IA that something needs to be done though. The way points are given on music shows too is ridiculous.

[nekokonneko.livejournal.com]

that's an interesting thought. people always mention here how mellow songs that are suitable coffee shop bgm will get big, but it's never been put forward that the actual playing in the shops is what affects their charting

[snowmog.livejournal.com]

Perhaps if it had a major impact it would have already been mentioned in one of the reports, or perhaps in total it's such a low percentage of overall chart plays.

I know not all the shops use streaming because some use a music-only radio station; or the streaming only comes from one account which wouldn't have that big an impact on the charts (only worked this out because a song followed me through an underground shopping mall once, although most of the shops were playing different stuff). I've known other shops play songs that were a few years old, and some chain stores were only allowed to play albums of artists they were using as models and the promotional material would have been given to them from the entertainment companies.

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

The entirety of this article is basically a complaint that popular songs/artists do well and get more popular while unpopular songs/artists don't. It's not the system, it's the very nature of popularity. This is how it is in every single country's music industry.

Other than the fact that music charts usually recommend more popular songs, there really is no evidence here that we shouldn't "trust" them.

[infadel-x.livejournal.com]

Money is one thing, but I think song coverage is constant in every market nowadays. In the US, it's radio play. In most places, iTunes or a digital chart. Sometimes OSTs from famous movies or TV shows stay on the charts for months. Charts are usually very conservative. Once a song hits, it stays.

Melon even breaks the real time chart into 5-minute intervals for the top3, so it makes for interesting data for a song. But I think it's rigged. Not because of fans, if a group has fans they should do whatever they can to promote their group and shouldn't be criticized for it. But because we know fuck all about their algorithms - who's to say it's fair.

[phililen3.livejournal.com]

I don't trust or pay attention to charts. I also definitely don't trust ratings.

It is so hard to find non-pop, especially non-idol music in the Korean music scene. I depend on other sources for that, but even then, it is limited. I wish there was an Omona-like music site that caters to everything not idol related.

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

Idk, I've never had trouble finding non-idol Korean music. In fact, even though I stan a lot of idol groups, most of the Korean music in my library is non-idol. Download sites like kpopexplorer and hulkpop upload pretty much all facets of Korean music and if I like something enough, and it's available to me easily, I'll buy it. I also browse koreanindie.com for the occasional news.

[phililen3.livejournal.com]

But those download sites are limited. It's all still very pop and ballad focused. Very mainstream. There is not much of a trot or rock focus. At least there is some old school on the odd occasion.

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

It's pop and ballad focused because the majority of music in Korea is pop and ballad focused.

hulkpop uploads nearly every single thing released in the Korean music industry on a daily basis. It's up to you to find your trot and rock on there, but it's be there.

For example the front page on hulkpop right now is: Giant Bear, Masterpiece, Crush Fever, Eastern Sidekic, Crackshot, D-UN, Beast, Kim Feel, Han Yeoul, PIA.

There's 1 idol group there and 2 OSTs, but the rest are all indie. Most of them I've never even heard of and I've been following kpop for 9 years now. And this isn't the exception, it's like that on almost every page there after.

[phililen3.livejournal.com]

I know very well that I have to search for music myself. You are being condescending and that is not appreciated. As much as those two genres dominate the mainstream, there are other genres too and artists that go with them that are simply not present on those sites. At the end of the day, I rely on sites that are not related to the English speaking world to find the artists that I listen to and have better luck there.

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

Jesus, idk how that came off as condescending to you because I was just trying to recommend you a site but apparently you have your own preferred places, and that's fine.

"there are other genres too and artists that go with them that are simply not present on those sites"

Umm, 7 out of the 10 artists on the front page of hulkpop are rock. Specifically Giant Bear, Crush Fever, Eastern Sidekic, Crackshot, D-UN, Kim Feel (OST but still rock), and PIA.

[leighbee333.livejournal.com]

You weren't being condescending at all, idk what she's going on about, lol...

[wintersjuly.livejournal.com]

i've wanted to get into more non-idol korean music acts but i didn't know where to start, so thanks for the sites!

[goldenrosalie.livejournal.com]

thank you so much for rec-ing those sites! i was able to find so many releases there :D

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I thought this was gonna be something worse... something like outright chart manipulation, instead of 'in a fragmented market made up of mostly passive consumers, it's too easy to reach #1 without actually being really the most popular act in the entire country'. (Though 57% or 42% of your recommendations coming from groups you have a business relationship with is pretty damning, honestly.)

Anyway, I think the Korean charts are fun because they change every hour and include so many new groups. It wouldn't be as much fun if it was just popular musicians who'd been promoting for 10-30 years already. In Japan, the same groups have dominated the charts for 10+ years, which seems to me like a way bigger problem.

Sort of on topic, last month's #1 artist in the US - The Weeknd - was placed at the top of the charts thanks to something called "album equivalent units". In terms of actual numbers of physical albums sold, the #1 group in September was the metal band Five Finger Death Punch, whom I and probably you have never heard of. And that's why it's important to include streams and downloads in the charts even if they are easier to manipulate.

[jeliza]

Excuse you, Five Finger Death Punch are awesome and have been titans forever (they have *lots* of #1s on the rock charts, and have been around for 10 years. Typical mainstream radio mixes go really light on the rock, you have to go to rock radio for that.). But similar to Korea, only certain genres/groups are still successfully pushing *physical* media to their fans.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Whoops sorry, you can tell I'm not a metal fan ^^ But yeah, there's groups that sell CDs and groups that are 'mainstream' but don't.

[omgcats.livejournal.com]

what? no, five finger death punch is very popular?? that is a bad example.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Looks like I messed up, heh.

[kaninasan.livejournal.com]

Wow this article is trash tbh, it throws out assertions and questions but doesn't back any of it up tbh.

I mean like this:
"“Most people consume music by listening to the top 100 songs on the charts, although that’s difficult to prove quantitatively because every music streaming service is different,”"

yeah you can't prove it bc you just pulled that out of your ass and then based your whole argument on it.

And complaining about ppl in their 40s and 50s being "pushed out" i mean i'm sorry but how many of them are even interested in music streaming. historically the main demographic for pop music is people under 30, so that's the group that gets catered to.

every few weeks we get these articles with headlines basically implying that the top companies are paying to manipulate the charts, but it's never ever backed with any receipts. Basically what they've "uncovered" is that fans replay their fave's song a lot to increase the chart position....

and as for IU dominating the charts now with her songs... like if iKON's album had done that then yeahhh maybe I could believe that there was sth shady going on. But this is IU, one of the most popular artists in Korea, and not just with kids or teenagers. So her sustained dominance of the charts is no surprise.

there are some issues that are worth adressing tho, like those "recommended" songs, now that's sth easy to manipulate and influence when you have $$$. and I do agree that having the charts update in real time, while interesting, isn't necessary tbh, updating it once a day should be enough and they could also release the stats on how each song was streamed in the last 24 hours or sth.

oops that turned into a novel, sorry...

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Artists have to know how their music will reach and be consumed by listeners
This! Korean indie musicians need to start touring the country (and not just stay in Hongdae) and using SNS to build their fanbases instead of crying how their songs aren't selling enough. Also they need to try to get on TV and radio instead of thinking they are too good for that.

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

I don't think the charts are necessarily "rigged". It's a given that every semi-popular group with at least a decently sized fandom is gonna get #1 even if it's in the first few hours of release, and especially if the release is at midnight when fans are ready to stream. It's always been like that as far I know.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

i just thought about the korean music charts yesterday. for e.g. adele has been slaying the charts all over the world in the last few days, but shes nowhere in the korean charts. i also think its weird that they dont have itunes or spotify, but i guess they prefer their own services. but back to adele, you barely find foreign artists in the digital charts in korea. when you look at them you get the illusion that korea only listens to idol music, which is not true since mostly middle schoolers in korea enjoy kpop.

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

that's true. the only foreign artist i usually see in korean charts is maroon 5. but aside from that...barely anything.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

korea seems to adore maroon 5

[kevinmchale.livejournal.com]

adele snatched a few realtime #1's earlier this week and still top 10 on bugs, olleh and genie

[winegums.livejournal.com]

que? Adele is #23 on Melon last I checked (couple of hours ago), Hello has been on the Korean charts ever since its release.