K-pop’s Global Dominance vs. Weakness in Domestic Market...Album Sales Drop for First Time in 10 Years

Although K-pop maintains tremendous influence worldwide, it is showing weakness in the domestic music market. As structural changes take place within South Korea’s music industry since the pandemic, both declining album sales and poor performance in digital music have emerged simultaneously. Album sales are the clearest indicator of an industry’s health. K-pop album sales rose sharply after 2014, reaching a record high of 100 million units in 2023, but due to market adjustments following the pandemic, they turned downward for the first time in 10 years. Music data journalist Kim Jinu stated, “With cumulative sales as of October remaining around 80 million units, overall sales this year are expected to stay at last year’s level or drop slightly.” Export performance is also weak. According to the Customs Service, physical album exports from January to October amounted to $243.8 million, a 2.7% decrease compared to the same period last year. In particular, exports to Japan—the largest overseas market for Korean albums—fell by 10.8% to $70.7 million, while exports to the United States also dropped by 5.1%. These figures fall short of expectations given K-pop’s rapid global growth. The domestic digital music market is also weakening at the same time. On Circle Chart’s digital chart from November 9 to 15, only four K-pop songs made it into the top 10: NMIXX’s “Blue Valentine,” LE SSERAFIM’s “Spaghetti,” Hwasa’s “Good Goodbye,” and BLACKPINK’s “JUMP.” This contrasts sharply with the golden era of girl groups like NewJeans, aespa, and IVE, which dominated the charts. The share of new songs on the chart is also showing a downward trend. Kim Jinu analyzed, “Streaming data for new songs, which reflect current trends, indicates weakening short-term momentum, and the long-term presence of new songs is gradually declining as well.” Meanwhile, while overseas concert revenues are rising sharply, increasing production costs and expenses related to new groups are eroding profitability. HYBE’s concert sales in the third quarter nearly tripled compared to the same period last year, but it still recorded an operating loss of 42.2 billion won (approximately $31 million). The success stories of mid-sized agencies are also fading. As the industry shifts focus toward large-scale marketing and global tours, smaller agencies face growing financial difficulties. With overall costs rising while album and digital sales plummet, overseas concert revenues alone are insufficient to cover structural losses.