Who is paying for the high-priced album weighing 22 pounds and selling at 1520 yuan?
On the 29th, BTS's latest album "Proof" luxury collector's edition physical pre-sale, the price is about 1520 yuan.
After calculation, netizens found that the album price exceeded the standard and weighed 22 pounds. The total cost of album fee + postage + tax may be as high as 3,000 yuan.
Some netizens speculated that this move was a crazy act of cutting leeks by HYBE, the company where BTS is located-because the two parties are about to terminate the contract, HYBE wants to do a one-shot deal, so the price of BTS albums is one digit higher than the normal price, which is never before in the Korean wave music world. situation that has occurred.
Korean netizens ridiculed HYBE Entertainment's leek-cutting behavior one-sidedly, and mocked that BTS's album was made by gold.
However, many Chinese fans are willing to pay for it. According to station B, the BTS.V Chinese fan club purchased about 4.5 billion won (about 25 million yuan) of albums, which rushed to the top of the hot search on the Korean Internet and attracted attention.
Baidu's "Kim Tae Hyung Bar" ordered an overwhelming 40% of all Chinese fans' combined purchases.
High-priced albums in the music world are actually not uncommon, but most of them have collectible value or come with gifts. It is rare for BTS's "Proof" to sell for such a high price.
High-priced albums often add collectible value
Previously, the price of the black collagen soundtrack album of "Ayrdon Circle" was more than 1,000 yuan, and the sales were limited to 6,999 sets, including 4 sets of 8 albums, covering the complete game soundtrack.
In addition, each set of albums will also be accompanied by a 30×30cm art painting with an independent number, which is collectible for interested players.
Not long ago, singer Wang Xinling became popular because of her participation in "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves". The price of her old album "My! Cyndi!" released in 2020 was fired to more than NT$3,000, and the hardcover version has skyrocketed to NT$8,000, equivalent to RMB 1819 Yuan.
Then his brokerage company made a statement: "Thank you for your support to Xinling. I hope you can support rationally, and don't waste money on products that are hyped by people with intentions."
At present, there are not a few sky-high-priced albums sold on Taobao, most of which are collectible or hard-to-find music albums from the early years, such as Jacky Cheung's "Waking Up and Dreaming" vinyl record for 1,000 yuan; Jay Chou's "Still Fantasy" released in his early years "Qilixiang" and "November Chopin" tapes, priced at 3,570 yuan; singer Bai Xue's first solo album released in 1994, priced at 6,920 yuan; Han Baoyi's "Pink Memories", which was first released in 1991, priced as high as 37,920 yuan, but sales are almost zero.
Wang Jie's selection album "A Masterpiece" over the years is priced at 9,999 yuan, showing that it has been sold out.
The album weighing 22 pounds becomes a "brick" set?
Coincidentally, the fifth album "DON'T MESS UP MY TEMPO" of the Korean idol group EXO in 2018 weighed three pounds. If one of each of the three versions came, it would be 9 pounds. At the time, it also made netizens dumbfounded, and joked about this. Not an album, but a "brick set", "I'm still looking forward to this 'brick' set", it is reported that this album has sold more than 1 million copies.
The high price of BTS' latest album "Proof" and the weight of 22 pounds can be called a "brick set" in the "brick set", which has caused heated discussions among netizens without any suspense, "This album of 22 pounds is wearing bulletproof Clothes?" "Small, the layout is small, it should be priced at 100,000 yuan" "It's better to buy 22 catties of meat to eat at home".
High-priced album "One is willing to fight and one is willing to suffer"?
Well-known music critic Lu Shiwei said in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that BTS itself is an idol group, and the new album is packaged in this form, on the one hand, it may be to show individuality, to be different, or to be a special creativity; On the other hand, it may be to meet the needs of fans for collection. The current physical albums are actually more to meet this demand. As long as someone is willing to spend the money, "One is willing to fight and one is willing to suffer, and they can sell it. If you don't accept it, you just don't buy it. Because this 1520 yuan definitely includes the cost that is different from other ordinary albums. Those who want to buy it may think it's worth it if it is more expensive, and those who don't want to buy it will be cheaper. Not necessarily buying. It’s a two-way choice in itself.”
However, industry insiders also reminded that fans should be chasing stars with due degree, especially some students who have no income, they should chase stars rationally, especially not to compare consumption for star chasing.
Text / reporter Shou Penghuan
Coordinator/Liu Jianghua