SM Explains Their PoS Comeback Schedule & Promotions

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

Red Velvet (July 9), EXO (July 18), Girls’ Generation (August 4), NCT Dream (August 17).

These are the comeback dates of some of SM Entertainment’s idol groups. On the outside, it looks like SM has made it a goal to target this summer and send out its best and brightest. However, some in the industry point out that when looking at music charts, music show rankings, and being topical, having overlapping promotional periods may do more harm than good for idol groups. SM is sure to know this, so why did they plan out their idols’ comebacks in such a way?

A representative explained, “The album release dates were set independently for each group, taking into consideration factors like title tracks, music videos, concepts, and concert plans. Each of the four groups had their comeback dates set based on their group’s schedules.” Girl groups prefer to release summer albums, and that’s what Red Velvet had in mind with the release of “The Red Summer.”(OP Note: Does the month May or June not exist for SM?) Their title track “Red Flavor” has been enjoying a long run on music charts, with some calling it “The perfect summer song.”



Following them came EXO with a surprise comeback. Though they had been dropping hints of a summer comeback, an official date wasn’t set till July. EXO had also prepared a summer concept for their fourth studio album “The War.” The album title not only represents EXO’s world view, but it literally means “It’s hot” in Korean as well. The title track “Ko Ko Bop” is a rhythmical reggae-pop song that goes well with the summer season. Red Velvet and EXO both set out to promote for approximately a month and their overlapping schedules meant that they often stood as rivals on stage for various music shows and on music charts.

Girls’ Generation’s focus was on releasing a special album for their 10th anniversary. The group debuted on August 5, 2007 and to commemorate the milestone, Girls’ Generation released “Holiday Night” online on August 4. Though their results on the charts were below expectations, their comeback was a hot topic because it was for their 10th anniversary. A representative stated, “Because we have many idol groups under SM, we often have groups with overlapping promotional periods. We believe that this summer, Girls’ Generation was in the spotlight because it’s their 10th anniversary.” (OP Note: Straight lies.)



And last but not least is SM’s youngest group, NCT Dream, who will make a return on August 17. Having made their debut last August, NCT Dream is a six-member group of teens with a youthful image. NCT Dream’s first mini album “We Young” has a “Summer Boy” concept and the representative explained, “NCT Dream has a strong base of teenage fans, and they set their comeback date to fit within the summer vacation period.”

Girls’ Generation promoted for approximately a week. By the time NCT Dream makes their comeback, Red Velvet, EXO, and Girls’ Generation will have wrapped up most of their promotional activities. It looks like an idol group can promote for as little as a week now, and an industry source stated, “Idol groups having shorter promotional periods can be a reflection of how fast trends change in K-pop and on its music charts.” Music critic Kim Yoon Ha added, “Nowadays, promotional activities for idol groups aren’t just music shows. They also appear on variety shows and this means that idols have to take on a large amount of activities in a short period of time. Most groups these days will be active for about three or four weeks so as to not overexert themselves.”



SM isn’t the only agency that has its idol groups make comebacks close to each other. This is something that happens in YG and JYP as well. Kim Yoon Ha explained, “In large agencies, they have quite a large number of groups and also have to juggle individual activities, like drama schedules and solo albums, as well. Therefore, it becomes difficult for them to evenly space out the schedules of all of their artists.” Some describe seeing idol groups from the same agency competing against each other as “in-fighting,” but a representative from SM stated, “Idol group activities aren’t only targeted at topping music charts or winning music shows. We just hope we provided an opportunity for people to listen to a wide variety of music this summer.”

Source: Naver viaSoompi

Omona, do you enjoy overlapping comebacks? Sones, are you also hella pissed at SM right now?

Comments

[normanikordei.livejournal.com]

(OP: I think they mean a month just for EXO lololol)

exo had shit promotions for this comeback lol. one group variety, two group radio shows, and one unit radio show, and whatever that idol men mess was and this was all in the first week of the comeback. not to mention they missed out on several music show performances/encore stages because of those poorly planned sm town concerts EVERY WEEKEND IN JULY/EARLY AUGUST. that's not a month of promotions, that's a week imo.

red velvet had more promotional opportunities than exo in their overlapping month though still w sm its never enough. rv did more music shows bc they were promoting when sm town was in seoul and then it skipped a week, and they had more group variety than exo did.

and june does exist for them lol nct took over though. they're the only group getting proper promos from sm. they actually did get a full month.

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

Was NCT the whole month though?

And I forgot that EXO doesn't really promote either. It's like SM hates all their groups that aren't shiny and new.

i'll edit my post (:

[miuratenshi.livejournal.com]

Overlapping promos are awful. It just feels like everyone gets cheated. To spend so much time recording and preparing only to promote for two weeks is some crap.

[ggumd.livejournal.com]

they fucked up snsd's promos big time ugh like what is the benefit of all of these overlapping comebacks? they lumped exo, rv, snsd, and now nct dream all within a short time span, why sm???

[dynamite-state.livejournal.com]

Taemin is coming too.

[fifi-moon.livejournal.com]

paving the way for the King's come back

[dynamite-state.livejournal.com]

Everyone besides NCT kinda got screwed over tbh and their reasoning makes no sense. I'm mostly pissed about SNSD but truthfully I don't care that much lol. I'm saving my energy for fx's final comeback which will probably be just a digital single with no promo whenever it comes.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

keep on waiting. victoria and lay wont come back until the whole THAAD issue is solved.

[jazzy4heard.livejournal.com]

I think overlapping comebacks are not a problem (not everyone stanning all groups), if anything it benefits the company.
What bugs me is why SM cant give the same length and amount of promotion to each group.
But SM has been known for favoritism anyway, so yea...

Some Sone I know are hella mad for the short anniversary promotion. But SM also did the same during SJ 10th, so not a new story. Being suck is SM's favorite trope.

[fayfayren.livejournal.com]

I will never forget Super Junior's 10th anniversary album cover. That basic blue background and the white circles lol. SM really paid them dust with that

[cagallisakura.livejournal.com]

sm when their girlgroups promote more than a week pic.twitter.com/Azmw0n3wot (https://t.co/Azmw0n3wot)

— 🍉🌹 (@baecteria) August 13, 2017 (https://twitter.com/baecteria/status/896687470669987841)

i've been using my sica judging icon so much recently

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

lmaoooooooo sunny

[by-venoms-sting.livejournal.com]

Most groups these days will be active for about three or four weeks so as to not overexert themselves.

Lol as if they care about over working their artists.

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

Whomever is in charge of their schedule management needs to be fired. Fuck off with this bullshit excuse.

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

So basically no one was communicating with anyone else and everyone just so happened to have a summery concept that just had to be released...okay.

[rosiemotleymind.livejournal.com]

I give no shits about NCT so my energy can only go towards RV and SNSD. Soshi deserves better even besides Yuri's injury. They could have been efforts made for their comeback to go smoothly. I don't know why I expect SM to do right by these groups but here I am looking like boo boo the fool once again

We're not going to see f(x) until like...2020

[savaburry.livejournal.com]

did they really explain anything? i mean, ..okay they had allegedly had these albums planned in advance but it's not like...thats not an explanation lol

just admit youre trash. you have great artists but youre trash. idk what they're gonna do if rabid stanning dies out. the back ordering of the war is all we need to know i guess

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

All this shit excuses to make up for the fact that their only effort goes to NCT.

This is the same tired shit every time SME debuts a new group. They get lazy as fuck with their other acts because they will sell records, especially their boy groups because they know stans will buy anything even if its EXO farting for 50 minutes straight.

Red Velvet is getting more attention from the company now that they left F(x) to die, but still they only care about boys in that company smh.

This comes from a bitter old time TVXQ stan, I've seen this happen for the last 12 years, I doubt it's going to change any time soon lmao, /cynical

[blck-ink.livejournal.com]

it just doesn't make any sense. just think about how many new fans + money they could've acquired if they'd let all these groups promoto longer...

[vh4n.livejournal.com]

Mhmm... Sure SM, sure.

I feel really bad for the group orders that weren't able to get the amount of orders they wanted. C'mon SM fans actually WANT to buy the albums despite your shitty promo activity cycle.

[noandno.livejournal.com]

Can someone fill me in on f(x)'s situation. From what I've read Victoria CAN'T go back to Korea mainly due to THAAD? How is Jackson able to go back and forth though?

[izumichan31.livejournal.com]

I think Jackson's case may be due to the fact that he's from Hong Kong not China(?). That's my only guess.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

The album release dates were set independently for each group

but they're all under the same agency???

i'm just... how is SM the biggest agency in korea when they fuck up all the time with their poor management. i've been saying this ever since they came back, but why did they throw out red velvet again so soon after rookie promos? that was in like, early february. they could have waited until september for their next comeback. or release red flavour instead of rookie, that song was shit anyway.

lol @ "EXO with a surprise comeback". they comeback has been in the works since late last year, the boys had dropped hints about a summer comeback for ages. i guess SM waiting for so long because of THAAD, they were probably hoping that lay could join them but then things got worse and they scratched his parts.

with soshi, i'm just... they knew the exact comeback date for 2 fucking years.they had 2 fucking years to prepare the comeback, but instead they started working on the album a few months before and squeezed them right between exo and nct dream. i know that yuri's ankle and wanna one taking over probably took a huge part in their decision to cancel the whole thing after 1 fucking week, but that just makes SM look like they're scared of a rookie group.

can't wait for shitty management to do it all again and squeeze exo & soshi repackage, super junior, taemin and tvxq into one month.

[raggymogow.livejournal.com]

A bit OT but there's a rumour that RV is getting another comeback most likely around October when BP is also slated for a comeback(?)

[ultravioletcake.livejournal.com]

IF that's gonna happen then good for the girls but SM always rushes their comeback every time. I feel like it's always a 2 week promo for them no matter how well they're doing.

[mad-nux.livejournal.com]

I dont understand why is it so hard for sm to distribute their artists' comeback evenly in a year. how do I apply I know I can do better lol

[adenar.livejournal.com]

I feel like this explained absolutely nothing

[mortkero.livejournal.com]

I don't mind overlapping promos, but I think length of promotions is an issue, but also believe that jammed scheduled for idols causes exhaustion.

You can't really get cross that idols aren't appearing on everything, and then act concerned when idols appear tired or sick on shows imo.

There should be a better balance, and it should based on decent maximum work hours. In UK it's 48 hours a week. I think that and a month of promotions seems reasonable?

[ironicmustache.livejournal.com]

ia.

and plus, exo has paid their dues about a million times over. if i was them i'd just want to promote for a week and get my money and be done. (of course, they all still have a bunch of other stuff going on, it's not like they're in the yg basement or something).

... snsd's case is just sad and weird tho.

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

meh idc about overlapping. i got all my faves nct exo and rv together and it made my summer great. rv have a concert to prepare and red flavour has been slaying without them spending 20 hours at a music show daily. they have a reality show and went on a bunch of varieties too like there's literally nothing to complain about bc this era was great ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ exo have promoted for quite a while considering their status and how little they promoted before. they went on varieties for the first time in 2 years, had a bunch of fansigns (more than usual) and generally look relaxed and happy, whereas they were absolutely dead for exact

and everyone complaining about nct as if they do anything besides music shows lmao jaehyun is only now going on their first public variety that's not weekly idol. like other than fans, nobody knows or cares about nct promoting so let me not hear about how nct gets all the amazing promo

[jaelissi.livejournal.com]

“Idol groups having shorter promotional periods can be a reflection of how fast trends change in K-pop and on its music charts.”

So SM expects their music to go stale in as little as a week?

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

it's so bizarre how the top companies with the top girl groups always fail to capitalize on their success. like, even if you put aside what the artists want/deserve and look at it purely from a cold capitalist mindset, it makes no sense. for groups like snsd and 2ne1 you would think their ceos would take full advantage of their popularity, and yet.

[dior-chic.livejournal.com]

Mte, but I guess deep down it's rooted in misogyny - even though their girl groups are insanely popular, they're probably viewed as lesser since they're girl groups :/

[sparkb.livejournal.com]

Istg january-june is never exist in SM calendar except for rookie staff.