On March 10th, girl group TWICE made their comeback with the 12th mini album “Ready To Be”, alongside its title song “Set Me Free”. However, compared to past releases, the new album experienced poor digitals, with songs barely making it into Korean music charts, before exiting within 2 days.
On the other hand, TWICE’s physical sales are extremely impressive despite the group entering their 8th year. In particular, “Ready To Be” debuted at No.1 on the Circle Album Chart with 1,427,039 million copies sold, becoming TWICE’s 11th album to top this chart and putting them on the same level with SNSD and BIGBANG (in terms of number of albums debuting at No.1 Circle Album Chart).
In the Hanteo Album Chart, over 600,000 sold copies of “Ready To Be” were recorded. The new album is also predicted to debut at No.2 on the Billboard 200 Chart and No.7 on the UK’s Album Chart.
Impressive as these achievements have been, several netizens are noticing the discrepancies between TWICE’s physical and digital records in the latest comeback, sparking questions. In particular, many wonder if TWICE’s Korean fandom has given up on streaming, and if the girl group’s global fandom has expanded.
Below are some comments from netizens:
- Did TWICE’s Korean fandom just give up on streaming? The new album is not doing well digitally
- The physical sales are so high but the digital sales are disappointing, I wonder what happened
- Is it because TWICE’s foreign fandoms are buying albums but their Korean fandom is not streaming?
- Personally, I think “Set Me Free” is not a good title song, hence the low digitals. “Moonlight Sunrise” would have worked better.
- The gap between digital and physical sales are way too huge..
Source: k14
