Why MV views and sales are often misread by K-pop fans and how to correctly read them

[zai]

my opinion from this:

1.Kpop is really big now in 2019, so we cant compare 2019 MV to 2009 MV. and nowadays kpop fans are like to stream their faves MV so we don't know if it pure new unique viewers or same person watching it for 10000000x times

2.Sales number are important but its not really measure how popular the group, but to solidify how strength the fandom is and its not fair to compare fandom power in 2019 and early 2000s, not really means million seller nowadays is not great but because Kpop now is having more exposures than before, its not fair to compare past to present.

 

[sexy cutie]

mostly agreed with him..but crediting SNS for sales...but forgot to credit how physicals are dead today compared to the 90s

 

[agust]

It's common sense so wbk but it's true some people in k-pop fandoms particularly tend to not think about it.. MV views stopped being relevant the moment fandoms started having goals to reach in 24 hours, 1 week, 1 month etc. Some fandoms use their incredible amount of views as an indicator that the group is popular but in the end you don't really hear about these groups because it's just the same group of people constantly refreshing the YT page to get those precious views. No, having over 200M views on YouTube doesn't make a song a "hit". Same goes for spotify streaming numbers. If a song gets over 200M streams, you can't tell if it's people genuinely listening to the song and popular among the infamous "GP" or just fans who spent days streaming over and over to stay on the charts. I don't know much about western fandoms but it seems like this practice isn't only exclusive to K-pop. It's so easy to manipulate numbers to give people the impression that something is more popular than it really is. In the end you don't get to know how popular an artist/group is, you can only get an approximation but I think the whole era of online streaming really blurred the lines between real popularity and fandom support.

Also it's true we shouldn't compare old releases with recent releases since the methods of consumption have changed over the years. It's so much easier nowadays for k-pop fans worldwide to buy k-pop albums that will count on the charts than it was 2, 5, 10, 20 years ago.

Let's not be too loud tho lol k-pop fans love to have these unconsistent numbers with them so they can brag about their group being worldwide famous.

 

[Echo]

These arguments matter for groups that aim for popularity in only Korea

 

[davidguy]

I always go back to this Busker Busker song and how everyone and their grandma in Korea knows it, and yet it has a whopping 22 million views on YouTube.

 

[twitzy]

Kpop fans are so lame, don’t y’all have a career or a life or smth? All they do is brag about their lames faves views and sales *yawn*

 

[BlessMeAchoo]

I always go back to this Busker Busker song and how everyone and their grandma in Korea knows it, and yet it has a whopping 22 million views on YouTube.

You just reminded me of when EXO and BAP got Busker Buskered, good times lol