KPOP Fans Deliver Lightstick Trophies to HYBE, Demanding an End to Plastic Album Tactics

KPOP4Planet, an organization leading climate action among KPOP fans worldwide, announced the results of the “2024 Sustainable KPOP Awards” in front of HYBE’s headquarters in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 16th, while urging the company to stop harmful album marketing practices. In a vote participated in by 14,000 KPOP fans from 66 countries including South Korea, the United States, the Philippines, and Germany, HYBE ranked first in the “Stop Environmental Pollution This Year” category with 5,071 votes for using tactics such as encouraging multiple purchases that exacerbate the climate crisis. The company also took first place in the “Let’s Have Eco-Friendly Fan Activities Next Year” category with 3,712 votes, as it is expected to halt such tactics and bring positive change to the industry. YG Entertainment came in second, SM Entertainment third, and JYP Entertainment fourth in both categories. KPOP4Planet delivered trophies made from Lightstick to HYBE through a performance, expressing its determination to continue the campaign with fans until entertainment companies stop environmentally destructive album purchasing tactics. Kim Na-yeon, a campaigner for KPOP4Planet, emphasized, “In an era where music is listened to via streaming, this absurd system of mass producing and discarding carbon-emitting plastic CDs must change.” Entertainment companies boost initial album sales by including fan sign-up coupons or random photo cards in albums, as well as creating different versions with only altered covers to prompt fans to purchase multiple physical copies. Even in today’s era dominated by online music streaming, physical KPOP album sales continue to rise. Last year, HYBE was designated as a reporting corporate group with total assets over 5 trillion won by the Fair Trade Commission, and it accounted for approximately 40% of domestic album sales in 2023. Recently, Park Jung, a member of the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee, pointed out based on data from the Ministry of Environment that plastic waste emissions increased by about 12 times over five years from 2019 to 2023. In the 2023 Sustainable Management Evaluation by the Korea ESG Standards Board, HYBE ranked last among the four major entertainment companies in terms of ESG performance. During the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee audit last October, representatives from YG, SM, and JYP stated they would examine ways to improve their album sales strategies. While Kim Na-yeon said, “We have been continuously demanding dialogue with HYBE since 2022, but our requests have been ignored,” she also assessed that it was a success that the excessive album sales marketing issues of these entertainment companies were brought up during the National Assembly audit. KPOP fans have been carrying out environmental campaigns since 2021. KPOP4Planet launched the “Save The Butter Beach” campaign to protect Maengbang Beach in Samcheok, Gangwon Province—the location behind BTS’s 2021 song “Butter”—from coal-fired power plant construction. Additionally, through the “Fandom 4 Forest” campaign, which involves planting trees using star names to create forests, the organization has reduced carbon emissions by 28,456 tons to date. Among the participating fan communities, BTS’s ARMY ranked first, having planted a total of 44,508 trees.