Min Hee-jin Criticizes K-pop Idols Using Random Photocards To Increase Album Sales
ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin’s comment about the problem of how K-pop idols are selling albums aroused keen interest
CEO Min Hee-jin, who is suspected of attempting to take over the management rights of ADOR from HYBE, held an emergency press conference in Seocho-gu, Seoul on April 25th.
Raising various issues during the two-hour press conference, the female CEO also criticized the Korean entertainment industry issuing random photocards in albums to push sales. She said, “NewJeans achieved good results without using random photocards to increase sales”.
CEO Min stated, “Some may say NewJeans doesn’t do random photocards but does have random albums. In fact, having all the photos of the artists in one CD, it becomes a dictionary. The price of the album remains the same as 20 years ago. If we charge it at the price of a dictionary, will it sell? If we don’t do random, there will be a comparison of the members’ popularity. I didn’t want to sell albums in such a dirty way. I believe that we should sell the album for its content and compete fairly. That’s my responsibility”.
In addition, she continued, “Idols are having a hard time because they have to keep doing fansigning events. They keep asking NewJeans to do fansigning events. I think the music market is going the wrong way so I started doing this with NewJeans. I wanted to show people that we can do well even without such tricks”.
In fact, random photocards, face-to-face fansigning events, video fancalls, etc. are the main reasons why idol fans buy so many albums. In order to get the photocard of their favorite members or get a chance to talk to the members, fans need to buy dozens, hundreds or even thousands of albums.
Fan loyalty also plays a role in setting records during initial sales. Some fans decided not to receive the albums even after purchasing a large quantity of them just to increase the idols’ album sale figures, which eventually created a phenomenon called “undelivered album”.
As such, many K-pop fans agreed with Min Hee-jin. Fans on X (formerly Twitter) commented, “Such a comment is very necessary”, “She completely turned the tables by saying she didn’t engage in the culture of using random photocards commercially because you didn’t want to be compared with people who did it in K-pop”, “An insight that help you understand more about idol culture and business”, She was right”, etc.
Meanwhile, HYBE decided to file a complaint against ADOR and CEO Min Hee-jin for breach of trust after securing evidence proving their attempts to take over management rights in their recent audit. However, Min Hee-jin tearfully and aggressively expressed her unfairness at the press conference.
