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Fans often buy multiple CDs with same music but different

photos

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Plastics use in K-pop industry 14 times higher in 2022

than 2017

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Activists plan to march ahead of UN talks to cut plastics

waste

By Minwoo Park and Daewoung Kim

SEOUL, Nov 21 (Reuters) - K-pop music may be South

Korea's buzziest export but the industry needlessly creates

mountains of plastic in its home market by churning out CDs that

most fans don't even listen to, critics say.

What the fans are interested in are the photos of band

members that come with the CD and essentially function as

trading cards, often becoming collectors' items. The catch is,

each CD will typically contain photos of just one band member,

it's not clear what photos will be in the CDs and fans often buy

multiple CDs until they get their favourite band member.

The practice, while very lucrative for K-pop agencies, is

hugely wasteful, says Kim Na-yeon of activist group Kpop4planet.

The group plans to highlight the issue while South Korea

hosts United Nations negotiations over a treaty to control

plastic waste next week and will take part in a demonstration to

raise awareness about the climate crisis this Saturday.

"Most people listen to music via streaming and most don't

even have CD players," said Kim.

Indeed, only 8% of South Koreans use physical albums to

listen to music, according to the Korea Creative Content

Agency's 2024 white paper on the music industry.

It's not uncommon for some fans to buy say 10 CDs, keep the

photos but throw out many of the actual CDs. Some will even buy

far more as often a purchase will automatically put the buyer

into a lottery for tickets to meet-and-greets with band members.

Kim Do-yeon, a 24-year-old K-pop fan, said while it wasn't

ideal for the environment, she often buys several CDs featuring

the same music from her favourite band.

"I buy multiple CDs because each version is packaged

differently - in particular, the photos are different," she

said.

Such marketing tactics from K-pop agencies have meant that

in South Korea, sales of physical albums - which are almost all

CDs - have nearly tripled over three years to more than 119

million in 2023, according to South Korean album sales tracker

Circle Chart.

That's been a major factor behind a 13% jump in global

physical album revenues last year, according to the Global Music

Report by industry body IFPI.

The amount of plastic used by K-pop agencies has thus

surged, hitting about 800 metric tons in 2022, a 14-fold

increase from 2017, according to a statement from South Korean

lawmaker Woo Won-shik that cited environment ministry data.

The issue of K-pop's marketing tactics has also been debated

in parliament's environment and labour committee meetings but

the practice shows no sign of ending.

K-pop agencies emphasise that they are using recycled or

eco-friendly materials and have begun issuing sustainability

reports.

Asked to respond to the criticism of the industry's CD

marketing practices, HYBE, K-pop supergroup BTS'

agency, said it planned to greatly expand its offerings of

so-called Weverse albums, where fans access music and digital

content such as photos by purchasing via a QR code.

Other K-pop agencies SM Entertainment and JYP

Entertainment did not respond to Reuters requests

for comment while YG Entertainment referred to its

sustainability report.

Kpop4planet argues that the firms owe it to the fans to do

more and that unless there is a change in their CD marketing,

the use of recycled material in CDs is tantamount to

greenwashing.

"Most K-pop fans are young, they're the future generation in

their teens or 20s who will be directly affected by a climate

crisis," said Kim Na-yeon.