K-POP Accelerates Global Expansion... "Still Heart Club" Fan-Involved Band Survival Show Launches, BuzzFeed Podcast Debuts

Mnet’s global band-making survival show “Still Heart Club” is drawing attention for its fan-participation system as it prepares to premiere on October 21 at 10 p.m. The program is a global project where contestants in guitar, drum, bass, vocal, and keyboard roles compete to form “the ultimate headliner band” by leveraging the romance of youth and raw emotions. Moon Ga-young serves as the host, while Jung Yonghwa, Lee Jang-won, Sunoo, and Ha Sungwoon act as directors. “Still Heart Club” will be streamed live to over 250 countries and regions worldwide through the global K-POP content platform “Mnet Plus” and the Mnet TV YouTube channel. Music fans from South Korea, the Americas, Europe, and across Asia can access the show simultaneously to experience the band survival process in real time. In Japan, it will be broadcast concurrently via the local leading OTT platform “ABEMA.” Notably, this program introduces a global band-making system that allows viewers to directly participate in the band formation process. Fans worldwide can become “band makers,” vote for positions through the Mnet Plus platform, and watch as their chosen members come together to form a complete band. The production team stated, “It will be a band survival show where fans around the world watch simultaneously, make direct choices, and help create the band,” adding, “We hope viewers can experience the live band sounds and youthful energy together.” Meanwhile, BuzzFeed Celeb launched a new K-POP podcast titled “Phone A Fangirl” on October 16. This podcast connects K-POP fans directly with K-POP idols and celebrities through professional fans Joyce Louis-Jean and Lindsay Webster. Fans can submit questions they want answered via phone or voice message and receive actual responses. New episodes of “Phone A Fangirl” are released every Friday on the BuzzFeed Celeb YouTube channel and podcast platform. The first season’s schedule includes episodes featuring TOMORROW X TOGETHER (October 10), ZEROBASEONE (October 17), Mingyu×Scoups (October 24), KAI (October 31), BOYNEXTDOOR (November 7), Hannah Bahng (November 14), AtHeart (November 21), and P1Harmony (November 28). These new content platforms demonstrate new expansion possibilities for the K-band music genre in the K-pop music content market and are expected to maximize interaction with fans worldwide.