BTS j-hope to release no physical solo album for the environment, netizens call HYBE a hypocrite
HYBE is receiving a lot of criticism after announcing that j-hope’s solo album will have no physical copies
Album sales is among the most crucial elements for Kpop idols, and fans often buy a lot of albums to show their love for their favorite groups. However, in order to improve sales and collect album photocards, many fans started to buy albums by bulk and threw most of their purchases away, taking only the photocards. This displeased many netizens, who believed that such actions are detrimental to the environment.
On the other hand, many Kpop companies have been trying their best to both boost sales and reduce environmental impact. VICTON, for example, started to release digital packs, while SF9’s newer albums are produced using decomposable materials.
Faced with rising awareness, BTS’s company HYBE also tried to jump on the environmentally-friendly bandwagon. Their latest move is to apply a new ESG environmental strategy with j-hope‘s upcoming solo album “Jack In The Box”. In particular, there will be no physical versions for the album, instead fans will just receive a QR code for the music and a random photocard.
However, BTS fans have been displeased with this revelation, and started to question why HYBE needs to test out their new policy on j-hope’s first official solo activity, especially when there’s only 2 versions of his album. They also brought up other Kpop groups under HYBE, who still have physical albums with a lot of photocards, worrying that the lack of physical albums can negatively affect j-hope’s achievements.
Meanwhile, netizens aren’t reacting positively either, with numerous calling HYBE “a hypocrite”. According to them, HYBE is trying to pass off as an environment lover while investing in NFT – a virtual resource that wastes extreme amounts of energy and causes terrible effects to the environment. These netizens believe that HYBE is just trying to use j-hope’s name to get a good reputation, without actually caring.
