Thread by @sweetbtstea

How BTS Dodged A Massive Bullet By Remaining Album Artists And Rejecting The Ongoing Singles Artist Trap: Part 3 (FINAL)

[BY THREAD POLL]

Previous parts of series linked below.

PART 1:

https://twitter.com/sweetbtstea/status/1134652201459171333

PART 2:

https://twitter.com/sweetbtstea/status/1137782521750577154

TO REITERATE (AGAIN)

After two detailed threads about the perils of becoming a singles music artist, I've FINALLY gotten to the part of this series where I can discuss how and why BTS dodged the massive bullet that is today's Western pop star system.

BTS have become the new reigning princes of the global pop music scene right in the middle of a Western music identity crisis and at a time when powers that be struggle to figure out how best to parade proof of their success before the world when the institutions previously-

suited for doing so are not only failing them, but potentially tripping them up on the way to the summit.

Should anyone care about the BB200 chart at a time when artists owe the lion's share of their rankings to merch and tour bundles or (free) streaming equivalents?

After BTS blew past the Rose Bowl record set Western music stars, I'm curious how many US industry insiders aged a couple of decades after realizing what BTS' bundling tickets/merch would have done to their album sale figures?

billboard.com/articles/colum…

It's true BTS briefly flirted with the idea of bundles, as they were available for Citifield during LY: Answer. But the decision to move in that direction was canceled for MOTS: Persona. Perhaps a point needed to be made.

But *what* point?

VI. SPIT OUT THE BONES

The CD isn't dead everywhere. In Japan, hardcore fans of idol groups like Keyakizaka46 and Morning Musume keep the industry booming to the point where Japan is ONLY major market where physical revenue makes up a monstrous share of music sales: About 72%!

ifpi.org/downloads/GMR2…

In idol markets like Japan and Korea, buying a lot of CDs increases your odds of everything from getting to meet your favorite idol (huge groups means a good chance that fans will have one favorite member) to being able to collect everyone's photos and posters.

In other words, there is an incentive that goes into owning physical copies that's not been not replicated in markets where the CD has gone into seemingly irreversible decline.

Instead, as CD sales went into total freefall, industries threw their complete salvation at streaming.

(NOTE: I have to mention that BTS is an anomaly here because even without so-called incentives, ARMYs will STILL go out of their way to buy BTS' music. Ex. charting BTS member mixtapes & the endless campaigning for their free music to become available on iTunes and Spotify.)

By including incentives, the idol industry in Japan and Korea inadvertently rescued the physical sales medium in their markets.

With idol culture getting a second wind in Korea, it's no wonder that Korea climbing up the list of world's biggest music markets was due in part to-

the stunning upward swing in physical album sales. Over the past few years, physical sales have held their own against digital sales in that country, with the most popular artists selling millions of copies of their music annually.

*cough* BTS *cough*

Even if digital streams make up the majority of music consumption in South Korea, it's *still* a market where the CD is seeing tremendous growth and even stability in sales when compared to sharp downward fall physical sales experienced in the U.S. over the last ten years.

Therefore, it would naturally be challenging, not to mention intimidating, for a top group existing in a market where they have strong physical sales to adapt to a largely digital market where the consumers are streaming.

Luckily, BTS DIDN'T have to adapt!

BTS sold more than 1 million albums in the United States alone between 2017 and 2019. Pure album sales, not streaming. With the average price at $19.99 per CD, that represents a little under $20 million in revenue, right?

As quietly as it's kept, you need an insane amount of streams to get close to that number, especially as the payout per-stream allegedly ranges from $0.00069 (YouTube) to $0.01900 (Tidal) as of 2018.

youredm.com/2018/12/26/mus…

So, with these numbers in mind, a pop star could have an album that amasses a billion streams and makes millions...just not as many millions of 💰💰💰 as they could have had with a 1 million physical album sales (not talking bundles...) in its place. 😬

BTW, as streamings' dominance grows, it doesn't seem to be coinciding with any move towards making streams more valuable for artists and labels who share music on these massive platforms. And with the push to make streams more valuable on charts gaining steam-

It could get ugly if streaming platforms feel no pressure to echo this adjustment with greater payouts that will make the stream equivalent album (SEA) look better on today's music charts.

Even as the stream earnings debate rages, BTS has been able to both earn billions of streams and sell millions of albums. They are winning without having to compromise...so WHY compromise?

Observing the state of the Western music market in the era of massive streaming, you can see that there is a lot of money to be made from streams, but it's still (an unanswered question) of exactly how much of it is finding its way into artists' and labels' pockets.

By attempting to do things strictly the way Western artists do it, BTS would be getting what Western artists are getting: A lot of pressure to string together singles, focus ON singles rather than their albums, & pressure to prop up album sales with bundling.

By the time BTS effectively started dropping singles (albeit for a game OST), they made sure it was exclusively on their terms. This amount of freedom is only possible due to sticking to their guns and only doing what works for them.

VII. BTS, ARMY, AND THE NAKED EMPEROR

I can't speak for other markets, but I can say that US ARMYs were unashamedly and doggedly determined to make BTS famous in America. We worried radio stations, Walmart, Coca Cola, our families, coworkers, TV networks...pretty much ANYONE you can think of to make it happen.

We imported BTS. First into our hearts, and then into our nation. And we weren't alone.

BTS ARMYs all around the world took up the task of doing everything possible to spread their music domestically, fighting an insane amount of resistance due to xenophobia, racism, and sexism.

Rather than go into detail about why ARMY succeeded where corporate-driven Hallyu efforts failed (another thread for another day), I'll say that ARMYs had a personal and vested interest in BTS' security as a music act.

We felt the safest place for BTS was at the top.

That might sound objectively arrogant but understand...the K-pop industry became so massively flooded that even groups at major companies were getting put on the back burner and then disbanded (or placed on indefinite hiatus).

For BTS' unique situation, it was never going to help them for their international fans to sit back and watch Big Hit and Korean ARMYs do everything. Especially as certain powers that be in Korea were doing their utmost to suppress BTS' reach and cover up their achievements.

As a consequence of ARMYs being driven to make BTS the biggest and best thing in the world, we've kind of accidentally exposed an entire music industry.

First, if BTS was given a fair shake, I suspect pure sales would already be double in America at this point.

Yeah, I said SALES, not streams.

Despite radio's shoddy and shameless treatment of this group (from giving away their music at yard sales rather than play it to outright cussing out fans who requested them...) BTS still earned #1 albums (three in one year), and Top 10 singles.

While there were allies that helped, it's important to note how significant it is that BTS became absolute superstars WITHOUT the help of radio. There was a time when this was *impossible* in America.

Without meaning to, BTS exposed radio's obsolescence as primary kingmaker.

Even worse, BTS did NOT get to the summit because of streaming. True, they were the second most streamed group on Spotify in 2018, but as ARMYs are quick to tell everyone, streaming isn't our strength. At least not compared to other popular artists.

forbes.com/sites/caitlink…

So you have a group that broke into the United States without a majorly streamed hit song, constant radio airplay, and the backing of one of the Big 3 (US).

AAAAAND they did this with a Korean album.

The only people downplaying this are either clueless or terrified.

Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of a grassroots American fanbase, BTS is de facto part of the U.S. music landscape. The Recording Academy invite pretty much sealed the deal of their anticipated semi or outright permanence on the global music stage.

Even now, as BTS' success reveals more and more that the emperor is buck (ass) naked, there are those scrambling to preserve the illusion.

If you're wondering how long we'll have to endure the trope that BTS is meaningless pop music enjoyed by "fans are forever stupid 12-year-old girls (and that's bad!)," in America, I suspect for as long as the music industry continues to struggle with its ego & identity crisis.

CONCLUSION

(FINALLY!)

A lot of music consumers don't bother to look very closely to what's happening with the U.S. industry. It takes a lot for things to go so bad it makes the news, and even then, people have to care enough to bother to read the articles.

Instead, many don't imagine or care about the domino effect of their actions or inactions as it contributes to the whole picture.

When Millennials gave CDs the finger in the early 2000s, it wasn't done with the understanding or desire that the medium would suffer.

Few fans today who brag about the many millions of streams their faves get really understand just HOW MANY streams it takes to equal a single album sale...and how embarrassing the stream equivalent album figures today look alongside album sale figure for top artists 20 years ago.

By not compromising, and trusting that their fans all over the world have their back, BTS enjoys a level both fame and career stability that many, supposedly far more famous artists, do not.

Bright future, bullet dodged.

/THREAD AND SERIES