SEOUL – Long-time K-pop fan Lee Eun-soo, 25, has been buying albums and merchandise, as well as streaming music – all part of what it means to be a loyal K-pop fan.

But she is sceptical about the industry’s sustainability, pointing out that the agencies behind the stars place too many financial demands on fans.

“Fans have to (fork out) money endlessly to show love and agencies know how to squeeze money out of them,” she said.

While K-pop’s global success is undeniable, it remains a niche culture, sustained by fervent fans. The industry’s reliance on a limited number of fans for profit has raised concerns over the years about its long-term viability.

Excessive spending

K-pop groups’ expansion into the international market may have contributed to the remarkable increase in album sales, but industry experts note that such feats are largely reliant on fans’ repeat purchases.

The boy band Seventeen set a record in 2023 by surpassing cumulative yearly album sales of 16 million copies. Their album Seventeenth Heaven sold 5.09 million copies within the first week of its release in October 2023, according to Hanteo, a domestic music chart, achieving an all-time highest sales record.

“Seventeen produced the best-selling album worldwide in 2023, but they don’t hold such high rankings on Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform. This shows that the actual consumption of K-pop does not necessarily correlate with album sales,” said culture critic Lim Hee-yun.

Among their strategies to entice fans to buy multiple copies of an album, entertainment companies include random photo cards of artistes inside the album.

Piles of Seventeen albums were found dumped on the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, on April 30, possibly indicating that fans had bought and discarded the albums after taking only the merchandise inside.

Tilted relationship

Experts say that over-reliance on fans is undermining the credibility of K-pop and also takes a toll on its stars’ private lives and emotional health.

In launching the K-pop category in 2023, Billboard Music Awards excluded duplicate downloads of the same track from the chart tally, recognising only one download per week.

The new rule, apparently aimed at minimising the influence of fandom’s mass streaming and purchases, reveals that the global music industry views fandom’s collective actions and purchases as demonstrative of fans’ loyalty rather than the performers’ musical merit, said Mr Kim Hun-sik, a culture critic.

K-pop agencies’ selling of excessive intimacy between fans and stars is another problem. “Weverse”, “Bubble”, “Fromm” and similar private message platforms for K-pop idol and their fans have seen rapid growth in recent years.

Fans eager to communicate with their idols have criticised some artistes for infrequent communication, and concerns have been raised about artistes being compelled to participate in paid interactions.

In the new profit-generating plan, idols are exposed to what Mr Lim calls excessive emotional labour.

With excessive intimacy, some fans cross the boundary by intruding into celebrities’ private lives. For instance, Karina of girl group Aespa faced backlash after confirming her relationship with actor Lee Jae-wook and eventually led to her issuing a handwritten apology. The couple broke up less than a month later.

“We’re in a situation where both fans and artistes are being exploited within a distorted business model. The problem lies in the business model, not in the singers or the contents,” said Mr Kim.

Diverse business models needed

The irony is that this distorted structure of the K-pop industry has been both the driving force and the shadow of K-pop’s growth so far.

The fan activities are appealing, said a K-pop fan in her early 20s, who added: “Getting deeply immersed in supporting an artiste, feeling a sense of belonging among fans and working together to raise the chart ranking are all part of the attraction.”

Mr Lim expressed hope that K-pop may inculcate different values without eliminating such activities.

“Seeing thousands of albums being discarded might raise awareness about environmental issues, and attacks on idols for dating could prompt awareness of the issue of celebrity privacy, leading to pressure on agencies to address these issues. Fans can function as a correcting force,” he said.

Ms Kang Hye-won, a visiting professor at Sungkyunkwan University’s culture and technology department, argued for diverse business models.

“Currently, almost every K-pop group focuses solely on creating a core fandom and extracting money out of them. Groups must diversify their approaches. Some may prioritise fan engagement, while others pursue mainstream appeal or focus on live performances,” she said.

Mr Kim agreed that K-pop’s crisis lies in the business model. Agencies should stop exploiting fans, he said.

“It’s time for qualitative growth rather than just expansion, and that ultimately depends on how agencies treat and engage with the fans. They need to stop viewing fans only as a means of profit. Only then can K-pop become sustainable.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK