BTS pop-up extended: What buying merch means to artists
It’s an expensive expression of love, but it’s a price fans are willing to pay
Supporting an act from Korea goes beyond streaming music on different platforms. Part of being a fan is buying their official merchandise. Every purchase made is a message of support to the artist.
It’s an expensive expression of love, but it’s a price fans are willing to pay.
Albums are the ultimate merch. Korea has two main charts called Gaon and Hanteo and it monitors the physical album sales closely. Gaon counts the physical albums shipped to stores, while Hanteo counts the sales the album made.
Fans buy on the first day and week because it is the period when the new albums are talked about the most. The more artists are hyped up, the more popular they become.
Album sales are also the basis for the awards given in shows such as “Inkigayo,” “Music Bank,” “M! Countdown” and many more. The daesang and bonsang awards given at the end of the year are also a reflection of the album sales.
It is not surprising then that fans buy more albums than they intend to keep. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing your favorite artists cry with happiness over the support they received.
Highly collectible
So what happens to the excess albums that fans buy? They give them away or sell them for a really low price. It’s not unheard of to find a P1,000 album being sold for P100. The photo cards are usually removed because they are highly collectible.
There are also stories where well-off fans or a fan club would leave paper bags filled with albums in cafés of the agencies their idols belong to. Those albums can be had for free by other fans who can’t afford to buy them or even by those who are just curious about them.
After the album, interest for the artist is maintained through other merch. They also serve as great promotional materials for the artist. The merch ranges from home items such as towels, blankets, tumblers, spoons and forks to clothes and accessories.
Even the items that they promote become merch, too. The higher the marketability, the more jobs and assignments for the artist. Usually, similar merch worn or used by the artist sells out quickly.
Sold-out items
For example, we bought the Jungkook hoodie at the press preview of the “BTS Pop-up: Map of the Soul” at SM Megamall. Stocks were all gone less than a week later. The same item is also sold out online.
But there are still a lot of cute items in the BTS pop-up store. Stocks are constantly changed, giving fans a reason to keep coming back. Its popularity among BTS Army became more apparent when SM announced the extension of the shop until Oct. 31. The pop-up was originally only until Aug. 29.
TinyTan, characters inspired by BTS members, are also popular. The collection available in the pop-up is inspired by the septet’s disco-pop single “Dynamite.” They have items that are affordable for younger fans.
Some of the new items added include mouse pads, sticker packs, washi tapes, notebooks, pens and cable tie sets. There are T-shirts and shorts with lyrics from the song.
Admittance to the popup shop is still via registration through booking platform Morningkall. There are 13 time slots per day. Each slot allows a maximum of 30 people. Only five walk-ins are allowed per slot.
The app MandaTrack is used to enter the mall. Thus, Lifestyle recommends downloading it before you go to the BTS Pop-up Store.