Why Koreans can't sell albums?

[roxx]

Seems like Korean music industry isn't so great. They can't seem to sell albums. Why is that?

[lu-xin]

Really? O.O I thought they were doing great lol...
They might not be able to sell as many albums as they want because of the current economic climate... or maybe everyone's downloading them instead of buying...

[Lance]

If you think about it, Koreans have about 1/10 the population of the US. So for an album in Korea to sell 200k copies, that's like it selling 2 million in the US.

[ZeroRegret]

Yeah and I also think downloading is a huge factor as well. I know a lot of people in Korea that download most of their music songs. And like lance said, small population in korea compared to the states so yeah . (They still make a lot of $$$$$$$ lol)

[YuKai]

The biggest problem with everyone thinking is..

"OMG! PIRATING, SO BAD! YOU MAKE ARTIST LOSE MONEY!"

No. Where artists really gain in the big bucks, are shows, televised ads, promotional exclusives, etc.

Artists don't make alot of money through record sales unless they are over 2 million.

[roxx]

It's just that I heard on an interview, some artists can barely survive, some are living in poverty.

I know that the top bands/artists are making money. But not that much. Apparently Rain is worth 8 million? Can't even compare to Britney Spears.

Also most in Korea think that singing is not a good career path either.

[ellechar7]

i think the album sales are down in general, not that just for koreans but all artists. i also read somewhere that concert sales are up compared to before... just like Lance said, the figures might be different due to the difference in population.

[ohdangchang]

It's not just koreans its practically a lot of countries out there. And Korea is a small country/population compared to the US or China etc. so it makes sense that famous artists here would be making less compared to a famous artist in the US or China.
Also because of today's technology you don't see a lot of people going to the store to buy an album and go around carrying a walkman and listening to their favorite songs.
People download songs illegally and even legally (you don't make much still). And people tend not to buy albums.
And a music career isn't a good career in any country, unless you become famous.
It's hard to live as a singer, because a lot of singers aren't famous and aren't making much therefore they don't make big bucks. And if you aren't pretty famous then your not going to be making a lot of money therefore your pretty poor. And it takes a lot of work and stress most artists don't make much these days as they used to, because album sales and concerts/shows, CF's are the only way they make money, and they still don't make much from those.