Red Velvet Shock With Album Sales And Chart Performance Following Comeback
Coming into their tenth year as a group, Red Velvet has remained a force to be reckoned with, maintaining a faithful fan base always ready for new music. Recently, fans’ prayers were fulfilled when Red Velvet returned with “Cosmic” around eight months after their last comeback.
However, SM Entertainment‘s lead into the comeback left much to be desired for fans, which seems to be a recurring issue with each Red Velvet promotion cycle.
To start, the group’s comeback was announced on June 10 amid a scandal, fueling fans’ suspicions of the group being used as a distraction again.
5 Times SM Entertainment Used Red Velvet To Cover Up A Scandal According To Fans
The comeback was scheduled for June 24, two weeks after the first announcement. This left many fans scrambling to pre-order the album with much less time than the average K-Pop release.
Also, unlike the releases made by most SM Entertainment artists, Cosmic had only three different types of albums, totaling nine versions available. This does not include a “special” edition of the album, which has become commonplace.
In addition to these physical issues, fans also complained about the use of AI in the group’s teaser images.
Some of the AI mistakes I found in the background of the Red Velvet concept photos:
-rainbow glare that ends randomly
-car with odd bumps in the design
-letters that make no sense
-uneven fence arches pic.twitter.com/BDABePx1Nl— M ☽ ☽ N ¹² seeing ARTMS (@cloouriibit) June 11, 2024
The release of the music video also brought to light issues, direction from Red Velvet themselves.
Following the music video being delayed, Joy expressed frustration with company, saying that the members’ suggestions for the video were ignored.
However, despite these numerous issues the group has left many shocked with the album’s performance following release.
During the first day of sales, Red Velvet sold 139,556 albums, just under six thousand less than Chill Kill. The album also debuted at number 1 on the U.S iTunes World Album Chart.
Many have been pleasantly surprised by the groups performance so far, in spite of the numerous issues the release faced.
absolutely no marketing by their company, thank god for reveluv https://t.co/G8QAWQllGh
— gabi ⊹₊ ⋆ (@bbfreckle) June 25, 2024
These numbers when their stupid company literally just confirmed their comeback some 10 days ago and dropped everything few days ago. Tbh, I'm in awe that Red Velvet still got these numbers despite of all the screwed ups. What kind of company does that to their artists? https://t.co/wE6sTtqb8H
— its_wendzday (@wendzdayj) June 24, 2024
this would save so many nugu ggs from disbandment I'm honestly so proud of them…. like esp dealing with a company that treats them like shit. https://t.co/PDQRWW0qTL
— bbgirls promoter + bodyguard (@milffyoungera) June 24, 2024
