Books, blog and other blather

Korean Music Charts – January 2007

Absolutely shocking how poor sales were for December. I thought that Korea usually gets a Christmas bump, but it certainly did not this year. The top-selling album, the latest SM Entertainment holiday release, sold just 33,453 copies. The tenth-place album, Park Sang-min’s latest, sold just 11,000 (last month, tenth place sold 20,000).

Foreign music sales were also pretty bad, although they were actually up a little from November.

Still no work on 2006 overall sales yet, but you can bet they are going to be pretty depressing. On the other hand, the advance word I am getting about digital sales (online downloads, mobile phone music, etc.) is pretty incredible. Last year, mobile and downloads were (officially) about $267 million, versus $118 million for CD and cassette sales. I say officially, because the math behind the numbers if pretty murky, with no one group responsible for all the rights or collecting all the money. Unofficially, that number could have been well over $400 million. And there are rumors that 2006 might have experienced another huge leap. I will write about those numbers as soon as I hear more.

This Month Artist Album Name Release Date This Month’s Sales Total Sales
1. Various SM Town 10 12.12 33,453 33,453
2. SG Wannabe The Precious History 11.16 33,426 78,548
3. Big Bang Vol. 1 12.21 33,343 33,343
4. Lee Seung-chul Reflection of Sound 9.27 26,017 86,593
5. Rain Vol. 4 – I’m Coming 10.13 20,995 106,110
6. Dong Bang Shin Gi Vol. 3 – O-Union 9.28 20,046 349,317
7. Brian The Brian 12.18 15,376 15,376
8. Bobby Kim Vol. 2 12.11 13,723 13,723
9. Sung Shi-gyung Vol. 5 10.10 11,912 94,328
10. Park Sang-min Vol 11 12.01 11,008 11,008

(source: MIAK)

Foreign Sales:

This Month Artist Album Name Release Date This Month’s Sales Total Sales
1. Il Divo Siempre 12.01 7,233 7,233
2. Richard Yongjae O’Neil Lachrymae 9.07 6,498 19,454
3. Various Love and Memory 12.07 5,471 5,471
4. The Beatles Love 11.21 5,081 9,126
5. Westlife The Love Album 11.20 4,629 10,216
6. Various Step Up (OST) 10.24 4,407 4,761
7. Shin Youngok Love Duets 12.05 3,845 3,845
8. Jo Sumi With Love 8.25 3,418 19,055
9. Various Wine: Music & Story 10.19 3,404 5,410
10. Kenny G The Most Romantic Melodies 11.20 3,237 6,698

(source: MIAK)

1 Comment

  1. pop

    interesting site… we are doing something similar as well… check us out at http://www.popseoul.typepad.com

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