K-Pop Album Exports Show Signs Of Slowing Down For The First Time In 9 Years
According to recent reports, Korea’s music exports have declined for the first time in nine years during the first half of 2024 (January-June).
The Korea Customs Service’s import and export trade statistics have revealed that album exports from January to June of this year amounted to ₩179 billion KRW (about $130 million USD), a 2% decrease from the same period in 2023. This is the first time since 2015 that album exports during the first half of the year have shown negative growth.
The last time exports fell, they did so by 7%, from ₩19.0 billion KRW (about $13.8 million USD) in 2014 to ₩17.6 billion KRW (about $12.8 million USD) in 2015. But from the following year, they grew consistently, reaching ₩183 billion KRW (about $133 million USD) last year.
According to the data, Japan had the largest album imports, worth ₩64.8 billion KRW (about $47.0 million USD), followed by the United States at ₩42.1 billion KRW (about $30.5 million USD), and China at ₩25.4 billion KRW (about $18.4 million USD). Export to China has decreased by 18.7% on a year-over-year basis. Even domestically, Hanteo’s first-week sales have decreased across the board. The cumulative sales of albums ranked between 1 and 400 between the January and June period amounted to approximately 47.6 million copies, a sharp decline of 8 million units from last year.
The Big 4 (HYBE, SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment) are not safe from this decrease either. Their total album shipment during the first half of 2023 was 53.45 million copies, which decreased to 44.74 million copies this year. The market capitalization of these four major players also went down by nearly 30% compared to the same period last year.
Despite the slowdown, industry experts believe that K-Pop is just laying the groundwork for leaping forward once again. The prospect of BTS and BLACKPINK, the two major K-pop groups, resuming their activities in earnest during the second half of 2024 and the next year, are going to play important roles in the recovery of the K-pop market, as per experts. There are, however, apprehensions about K-Pop facing a crisis if sales numbers in China fail to recover.
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