Damn Idol Episode 191
* * *
Interview requests poured in like mad, and the number of people contacting me was ridiculous.
Even TT were asking on the official homepage.
What kind of magic had I pulled off?
Normally, people were horrified by the things I did without thinking much of them, but this time was different.
This time, even I thought I’d done something magical.
But if you broke down the principle behind it, it actually wasn’t much.
First, I made the tracks for Sedalbaegil’s second full-length album, Stage.
The tracks I made totaled twelve.
Next, I dismantled them.
The main melody, sub-melody, back sound, ghost notes.
The tone and manner of the main instrument, rhythm, drum loop, emphasized sounds and unemphasized sounds.
I laid all of it out like pieces of a puzzle.
Then all I had to do was compose using only those pieces.
From the tracks of Stage, I took the synth performance that had been relegated to a sub-melody and pulled it up into the main melody for Choi Jaeseong’s song. Taking the drum framework of the track and using it as the roof of rhythm and blues became Masked Robber’s song.
For Onsaemiro’s and my unit album, we completely excluded electronic sounds and borrowed only the elements that suited an unplugged arrangement.
That was how three unit albums were born.
Of course, there were more devices involved than you might think, so simply combining the three unit album songs wouldn’t produce our second full-length album.
You still had to reduce what needed reducing, remove what needed removing, and separate the main and sub elements.
But that was only for extracting tracks worthy of the word “album” at the level of a regressor who had been stagnant for far too long. Even if you just combined them moderately, you’d end up with music that sounded good.
I had taken that into account to some extent too.
In any case, the magic I performed wasn’t technically anything amazing.
The idea was what mattered.
“That’s nonsense, hyung. Who could even do something like that?”
Or not?
Because the members’ reaction after hearing my explanation was to scoff.
Anyway, the sales strategy for the second album was buzz marketing.
Getting people to talk about our album by word of mouth, and making them wait for the release date.
It was successful.
However, there was a slight difference in position between me and Director Seo Seunghyeon here.
Director Seo Seunghyeon wanted to avoid selling the physical unit albums of Masked Robber, Sedalbaegil, and On&On separately.
What that meant was, you could only get the unit albums by purchasing Sedalbaegil’s second full-length album as a package.
1. Stage Side A + Stage.
2. Stage Side B + Stage.
3. Stage Side C + Stage.
We would divide them into four bundled packages like that, release limited editions for each package, and create higher-priced products as well.
If we did that, sales would be inflated by an enormous amount.
What if there was someone who wanted all of Stage Side A, B, and C?
That person would have to buy three copies of Stage.
What if we included unit-specific photocards in each limited edition?
It would sell even more.
While he was at it, Director Seo Seunghyeon also suggested setting a fansign cutoff for this fan signing event.
I understood his opinion, respected it, and was pleased by it.
Seo Seunghyeon’s role was to increase the company’s sales, so he was sufficiently fulfilling his role.
However.
“This won’t do.”
“No, why not!”
“The fans might feel bad about it.”
“……?”
From my position, it was absolutely impossible.
The demon’s counting was a concept of worship.
People had to sincerely want to possess the “moment” we had created.
So if commercial tactics made the feelings behind buying the album turn hazy, there was a risk it wouldn’t be counted.
That was simply how the human heart worked.
Even someone who would voluntarily buy ten copies of an album might feel bad if they were forced to buy three.
But explaining that to someone else wasn’t easy.
“No, Sion-ssi. This is completely normal. It’s even hard to call it a commercial tactic, you know?”
“It still won’t do.”
“The sales difference will be several times greater!”
Director Seo Seunghyeon tried his best to persuade me somehow, but from my standpoint, there was no room for reconsideration.
And this decision wasn’t solely because of the demon’s counting either.
I wanted the fans to love us forever.
I also knew that this feeling of mine could only end as one-sided love.
So whenever Sedalbaegil released an album, I wanted them to be able to consider nothing else and think only about whether the album would be good, and whether Sedalbaegil’s activities would be cool.
Because continuing like that for ten or twenty years was more valuable and precious than shining briefly for a few years.
After hearing me out, Director Seo Seunghyeon let out a deep sigh and said,
“Fine, fine. Then I’ll have to at least sell the way Han Sion-ssi thinks about the fans.”
“Don’t we need a villain?”
At my answer, Director Seo Seunghyeon looked dumbfounded.
I didn’t know why, but he said it was because I’d understood him too quickly.
“No, how did you realize it right away?”
“It’s obvious. If you’re going to sell that sentiment, you need a villain who’ll show people how precious that sentiment is.”
“I’ll be the villain! I’m too wronged to let this pass quietly.”
I gave a faint laugh at Director Seo Seunghyeon’s words.
I’d felt this since the first time we met, but Director Seo Seunghyeon was a suitably ordinary office worker.
He had a suitable sense of responsibility, knew how to care for the company to a suitable degree, and also took care of his own satisfaction to a suitable degree.
Even so, the reason I viewed him favorably was because he knew how to immerse himself in a situation.
In society, someone who was suitable in every way yet knew how to immerse himself was called “someone good at his job.”
But no matter how good Seo Seunghyeon was at his job, he was still far short of the experience I had accumulated in show business.
“Director, are you really going to take the bullet as the villain?”
“Yes.”
“Then how about we do it like this?”
* * *
-Anyone see this?
-What is it?
-It’s from Sedalbaegil’s official homepage, and the product sales are fluctuating like crazy. These are screenshots taken by the hour.
-Huh? Two things keep going back and forth?
-Yeah. At first I thought it was an error, but it’s been two days. In the morning, a rip-off package is listed, and in the afternoon, it changes to a great-value package.
-What’s going on?
A post someone uploaded to the internet became a hot topic among TT.
Most TT already knew that Han Sion was obsessed with physical album sales.
He had never said it outright, but it showed whenever he did live broadcasts.
Han Sion didn’t really care about rankings on music sites, but he openly showed his joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure over physical album sales.
So everyone knew the unit albums would be released physically, and through a live broadcast, it had been said that sales would begin together with the release of the second album.
But then the official homepage began wavering.
In the morning, a full-package product that made single-album purchases impossible would be listed, and in the afternoon, the list would change to single albums with generous goods included.
If it had happened for only one day, it would have been an error, but if it continued for three days, it wasn’t an error.
-Isn’t the company wavering over the album sales strategy internally?
-It’s weird if they’re wavering this openly.
-Companies have political factions and stuff too. Did they fight?
Before long, Sedalbaegil’s official homepage server went down for about six hours.
It should have been impossible for Sedalbaegil’s server, which had been built with an enormous amount of money, to go down, but the situation occurred.
Around that time, press materials were distributed to reporters by SBI Entertainment, Sedalbaegil’s independent label.
When the second album would be released, when preorders would begin, and what products it would be sold as.
The press materials contained the full-package product that made single-album sales impossible.
A few hours after articles went out like that, a correction request came in.
All the other information was the same, but the album’s product composition would be a single configuration.
At this point, the reporters thought they had a scoop.
The issues currently surrounding Sedalbaegil and their second full-length album Stage were enormous.
The magical feat Han Sion had shown was spreading by word of mouth, and M Show was still relentlessly airing TV commercials.
Rumors were widespread that M Show and Sedalbaegil had formed a firm alliance.
There were even rumors that Sedalbaegil would receive a huge investment from M Show and enter under it as an independent subsidiary label.
So there was no reason for reporters not to carry this information.
[Sedalbaegil, conflict over album product composition?]
[Sedalbaegil reportedly in conflict within the company over full-package VS single products.]
Some of the quicker reporters even had drinks with Director Seo Seunghyeon and figured out the situation.
At first, Director Seo Seunghyeon seemed to be watching his words, but later, under the influence of alcohol, he told the truth.
“No, he’s good at music, but the kid is basically Peter Pan. He’s obsessed with romance, I’m telling you.”
“Why?”
“He says he doesn’t like fans wasting money, so he wants to release them as single albums and give away goods too… Then what are our employees supposed to live on?”
“Ah, then that was…”
“I got so heated that I uploaded the product composition to the homepage, and Han Sion contacted the youngest employee and had it changed. But the youngest employee touched something wrong and the homepage turned into a mess.”
“Sedalbaegil holds most of the company shares, right?”
“It’s tyranny by the majority shareholder, I’m telling you. The kid is fishy. He has no intention of making money. It’s not like they’ll be stars for a thousand or ten thousand years.”
After hearing Director Seo Seunghyeon’s words, the reporters were a little disappointed.
They had hoped for a more sordid or sticky situation, but in the end, it was a clash between goodwill and commercial viability.
‘How do I write this article sensationally?’
The reporters broke up the drinking party and headed back while thinking that, but an article had already gone up.
[
The article relayed the facts as they were, and even released the recording transcript.
Naturally, the public was on Sedalbaegil’s side.
They applauded Sedalbaegil for considering the state of their fans’ wallets, and cursed Director Seo Seunghyeon for seeing fans as nothing but a means of making money.
Of course, among office workers in their thirties and forties, there were also many who defended Seo Seunghyeon.
-No, I mean; his wording was a bit rough, but wasn’t that guy just working hard for the company?
-Yeah, yeah. If Sedalbaegil set up a company and hired employees, they also have an obligation to generate sales.
-If his wording had just been cleaner, this wouldn’t be something to get cursed at over...
-It’s because the kids have never worked at a company lol. You think a company runs on romance?
But the rebuttals to that were formidable as well.
-No, but lol. It’s not like they’re giving the albums away for free, they’re selling them, right? Selling them cleanly and plastering on commercial tricks are different things.
-And do you think the company won’t run if Sedalbaegil sells albums? From what I see, Side A, B, and C will all sell over 500,000 copies each. The second album will sell even more.
Around then, Director Seo Seunghyeon’s apology was uploaded to Sedalbaegil’s official homepage, and the product composition was finalized.
Stage Side A, B, and C would each be sold separately, and the second album, Stage, would also be sold separately.
A bundle package that allowed people to buy everything at once was uploaded with a heavily discounted price.
At this point, a “normally sold album” had been image-made into something extremely considerate of fans.
Naturally, people in show business, including reporters, knew what Sedalbaegil had done.
“Looks like they put Director Seo up as the villain and built a publicity strategy around it, doesn’t it?”
“Since there are four physical albums, buying all of them wouldn’t be cheap.”
“Ha, they planned this well. Now they’ve framed it so that just buying the albums feels like you’re getting a huge benefit.”
“Sedalbaegil’s image was good too.”
“They included a CDP with the first album and everything. The image connected.”
“Only Director Seo ended up pitiful.”
“Seriously.”
But that was absolutely not the case.
Seo Seunghyeon was beaming as he watched the records pile up the moment preorders began.
And so, two weeks flew by like an arrow…
At last, Sedalbaegil’s second full-length album, Stage, was released.