Damn Idol Episode 198
At that, On Saemiro tilted his head after hearing me.
“Who’s an idiot?”
“Who else? Choe Daeho.”
“Why is Choe Daeho’s name suddenly coming up? Because Mix Way is under Ryan Entertainment?”
Come to think of it, the innocent On Saemiro still didn’t know much about the workings of show business.
The articles On Saemiro had seen were proof that Choe Daeho had put Mix Way in the same ring as Sedalbaegil.
Otherwise, there was no reason for so many articles to connect Mix Way’s first-week sales with Sedalbaegil’s.
That was how the media worked.
For the media to become public opinion, it needed sheer numbers, and the easiest way to fill those numbers was with internet articles.
“Everyone, come here for a second.”
Since I was at it, I explained to the Sedalbaegil members that Choe Daeho had grouped Mix Way and us into the same category.
As we talked, it turned out Gu Taehwan had already known this, while Choe Jaeseong had been half-sure about it.
It seemed only the innocent On Saemiro and Lee Ion had known nothing.
“But is there a chance we’ll lose in first-week sales?”
“There is. You can see their fandom’s banded tightly together. They’ve scheduled a lot of fan signing events too.”
“But still, it’s 680,000.”
“When people have a target, they run toward it.”
If our first-week sales had been 1.68 million, that would be another story, but 680,000 was a number they could potentially reach.
And if Mix Way’s fandom saw that the first-week record was within reach, they’d grit their teeth and run for it.
Of course, I didn’t think that kind of behavior was bad.
Fan signing events were something an entertainment company naturally ought to do, and something fans wanted too.
Besides, wasn’t the fans’ support for Mix Way something done out of pure fan love and goodwill?
There might be some among them who disliked Sedalbaegil, but there was no reason to treat all of Mix Way as enemies because of a minority like that.
I didn’t have any feelings toward Mix Way either.
What I found distasteful was Choe Daeho, who was planning to take first-week numbers inflated through fan signing events and go around shouting that Mix Way had “beaten Sedalbaegil.”
But, well……
I thought that was something worth doing too.
Because that was the world of marketing.
“But why is Choe Daeho an idiot? You said we could lose.”
“Sion called Choe Daeho an idiot?”
“Yes. After seeing that article.”
Surprisingly, Lee Ion did not say, “Still, you shouldn’t call an adult an idiot.”
It seemed Choe Daeho had clearly been positioned as an enemy for Lee Ion too.
Well, he was enemy-like, to be fair.
Mm……
If I thought like this and found it amusing inside, that would really show my age, wouldn’t it?
“Why are you getting so serious?”
“Huh? No. I was thinking about something else.”
“Why is he an idiot?”
“Because I think Choe Daeho has overestimated his own influence far too much.”
When you stay in show business for a long time, there’s something you come to see: there comes a moment when successful producers start taking the public too lightly.
It’s not always the case, but those who have been successful all along tend to collapse that way.
But the public is never easy.
Each individual is just an ordinary person, but when tens of thousands gather, they become a great wave.
And a person cannot control a wave.
That was why, from this point of view, I thought Choe Daeho was an idiot.
Judged coldly, Choe Daeho’s plan was quite excellent.
No matter what metric it was, there would be some area where Mix Way surpassed Sedalbaegil, and latching onto that?
Fine.
He could raise Mix Way’s weight class, and he could siphon off our buzz.
But he shouldn’t have grouped Mix Way and us into a common category.
Especially not under the category of music.
The public was not an existence that gathered when told to gather and dispersed when told to disperse.
Now that we had been tied together once through first-week sales, Mix Way and Sedalbaegil’s music would be compared endlessly.
“Isn’t that too convenient a way to think?”
Gu Taehwan tilted his head and said that after hearing me, but this wasn’t convenient thinking.
Because from now on, I was going to set the stage that way.
“We’ll know if we wait and see.”
Well, even so, I didn’t know about Choe Daeho, but it probably wouldn’t be a bad thing for Mix Way.
Because they would receive the full-force support Ryan Entertainment would pour in to beat Sedalbaegil.
“Break time’s over. Let’s practice again now.”
At Lee Ion’s words, followed by a clap of his hands, I nodded and stood up.
We could only do music shows on M-Show and SBN, but that wasn’t bad.
We just had to put on dense, high-quality stages on those two music shows.
* * *
[Mix Way’s first-week sales surpass Sedalbaegil!]
[The underdog’s rebellion? Sales numbers that shocked both singer and fandom.]
[Is 2018 the golden age of K-pop idols? Mix Way stands at the forefront.]
The moment Mix Way’s first-week sales were tallied, articles poured out.
Most of the articles said that Mix Way had beaten Sedalbaegil.
They packaged it differently with all sorts of perspectives and embellishments, but the contents were the same.
The public’s reaction to this was split exactly in half.
-lololololol What do you mean they beat them lolol Ryan Ent’s media play is disgusting.
-Underdog my ass lol Isn’t it indie band Sedalbaegil vs Mix Way from a huge agency?
-For a second I thought Mix Way had surpassed all 3 Sedalbaegil units + their 2nd full album.
-They barely surpassed just the 2nd full album sales lol And even that wasn’t by much.
-We all know exactly how many albums they sold by scheduling a shitload of fan signs... lol
-Tbh they probably did some bulk-buying too. There was about a 30k gap at the end, but then the number suddenly went up.
-Those numbers aren’t released to the general public, though?
-Now they’re fabricating shit because they want to hate so badly.
-The fabrication is what your singers are doing to album sales lolol
-Real talk, if Sedalbaegil had scheduled the same shitload of fan signs, they probably would’ve sold 1 million.
-If you add their unit albums, they already broke 1 million.
-Ah, then 2 million.
-Sedalbaegil gave out goods too, though?
-Are fan signs and goods the same thing?
-What’s so different about them lol Honestly, people bought Sedalbaegil’s 1st album like crazy because they gave out CD players too.
-Yeah, without the CDP, their sales would’ve been cut in half... lol
One side said Mix Way’s first-week tally beating Sedalbaegil was abnormal, while the other side said Sedalbaegil was no different.
Overall, those who thought Mix Way’s first-week number had been inflated were numerically superior.
Because that was the opinion of the general public.
But while the public said one thing and stopped there, Mix Way’s fandom gritted their teeth and acted across every front.
And that wasn’t all.
-lolol Serves them right.
-Honestly, Sedalbaegil’s just had good timing until now lol They’ve never even met a proper competitor.
-They always beat up Take Scene and then pretended to be world-class.
-Mix Way’s album this time is pretty good, yeah.
-Sedalbaegil has a tendency to totally look down on K-pop stans. That’s why they can’t become a stan pick.
-Yeah, since they’re a normie pick, their records might be good, but in a few years all their core fans will leave and no one will even remember them lol
-No need to think so hard haha Mix Way’s album is just better.
-This is true, honestly.
Fans of groups who had suffered because of Sedalbaegil until now began supporting Mix Way.
They went around saying Mix Way had come out with a better album than Sedalbaegil, and that Sedalbaegil had never met a competitor.
Of course, it was nonsense.
Because the first time Sedalbaegil took first place after going independent was by competing against Drop Out and NOP.
But there was something people didn’t know.
First-week sales were, of course, important.
They were numbers that proved the firepower of a fandom, and also an indicator used to judge how high the album’s peak could go.
But put another way, most companies poured enormous marketing into those first-week sales.
That was why around 30 to 50 percent of an album’s total sales were sold in the first week.
However……
Sedalbaegil was different.
-No, this is ridiculous. Why does Sedalbaegil get nothing but forced hate all year?
-What forced hate lol?
-Sedalbaegil 1st album first-week sales: 220k. Total sales: 1.78 million. It’s even still selling well. It’ll probably hit 2 million within this year.
-So what?
-Mix Way 1st album first-week sales: 190k. Total sales: 360k. Tension first-week sales: 150k, total sales: 280k. Okay?
-Do Sedalbaegil fans not realize this is the problem? Always dragging other groups by the hair.
-I’m not a Sedalbaegil fan, though? Drop Out 3rd album first-week sales: 160k, total sales: 890k. Take Scene first-week sales: 60k, total sales: 210k.
-I’m just telling you that good albums keep selling lolol Why do they get so much forced hate over first-week sales like it’s that important?
Sedalbaegil were people who had steadily sold albums.
It wasn’t as if Sedalbaegil didn’t put marketing into album sales.
But what they valued most was musical essence, and as long as that essence did not blur, the album would not lose strength just because there was no marketing.
Around this point, similar opinions began spreading across the internet.
-But that’s true. We should look at second-week sales, or even a month’s worth, not first-week sales.
-Yeah. And these crazy Sedalbaegil bastards haven’t even released the songs digitally.
-lololololol They’re hipsters incarnate.
-No, seriously, why aren’t they releasing the music digitally?
-They said they wanted to share with fans the sentiment of the analog era, when you could only listen to music by buying the album.
-Did Sedalbaegil say that?
-No, I said that.
-Who the hell are you?
-Someone who felt that analog sentiment.
-What the fuck are you talking about?
-How much are Sedalbaegil’s second-week sales?
The second-week sales of Sedalbaegil’s 2nd full album were not as high as the first week, but they were still tremendous.
Sedalbaegil 319,3**
Because it was 320,000 copies.
-Wow lololol insane. 320k?
-That’s crazy lololol
-Wait, is this just the 2nd album?
-Yeah yeah yeah, excluding the units lololol If you include the units, it’s over 500k lololol
-Wow, fuck, are all the K-pop fans in the world listening to Sedalbaegil’s album?
-But the case is pretty too, and if you line it up neatly with the 3 unit albums, the interior design high is real.
-Yeah yeah yeah, it looked like they designed it that way on purpose.
-Then Sedalbaegil sold 680k in week 1 and 320k in week 2. How much will Mix Way sell in week 2?
-Dunno lolol Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
By this point, Choe Daeho and the other Ryan Entertainment officials were breaking into cold sweats.
Mix Way’s first-week sales really had been achieved by gathering and detonating the energy of the entire universe.
Naturally, their second-week sales could only be significantly lower.
According to internal estimates, even if they sold a lot, it would be around 100,000 copies.
Even that was the expected figure if they scheduled additional fan signing events and induced additional purchases.
It might even come in lower than that.
“Uh, Team Leader Park. Try shifting the topic. We need to drop something else and get people away from this issue.”
But no matter what Ryan Entertainment did, the issue did not blur.
Because.
-Wow, finally!
-Insane lololol There are hipsters who release the digital music three weeks after the album release?
-Terminal Hongdae disease ㄷㄷ
Sedalbaegil had finally begun distributing the digital tracks from their 2nd full album.
And that wasn’t all.
It was also revealed that Sedalbaegil and Mix Way would appear together on M-Mixdown, the music program of M-Show.