Fans Are Outraged Over The Major Catch In SM Entertainment’s “ACE” Fanclub Membership
SM Entertainment has opened up recruitment for the official fanclubs of EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, and more, but there’s a catch that has made many fans unhappy.
Over the past couple of days, SM Entertainment making “ACE” membership available to many of their artists’ fandoms. This special fanclub membership provides a special membership card, welcome kit, access to exclusive online content, and priority for participation in various offline events to those who pay to be a member.
For many of the fandoms who’ve had “ACE” membership open up, it’s the first time it’s been available to them. The only problem is there’s a major catch for one fandom and some disappointment for others.
The registration for NCTzens recently opened up and fans were extremely excited to have another way to interact with NCT. The only problem is, the membership isn’t for NCT. SM Entertainment has only opened up “ACE” membership for NCT 127 so far.
When NCTzens found out that they would only be granted membership for NCT 127 if they decided to sign up, they weren’t happy since they would much rather give support to all of the members versus a single subunit. Fans have been releasing their frustrations online and begging the company to open it to NCT as a whole.
can sm just make a fanclub for nct as whole
— 🍒 (@doyoungdrafts) March 14, 2019
@SMTOWNGLOBAL
THERE IS ONE GROUP NAME NCT
AND
THERE IS ONE FANDOM NAME NCTZEN
NCT MAY HAVE SUBUNITS
BUT NCTZENS WILL FOREVER BE ONE FANCLUB#에스엠_엔시티즌_통합해#SM_NCTzen_통합해— ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴏᴜʀ ᴠɪꜱɪᴏɴ (@YaoV_) March 14, 2019
They’ve especially been bringing in the argument of cost since the initial registration costs 35,000 won (about $31) with a renewal fee of 15,000 won (about $13) per year. Which means, supporting all the NCT members and their subunits would come with a pretty hefty price tag.
nctzens: @ sm, give us that yearbook please
sm: …. anyways, here is a 127 fanclub without winwin and it costs 33,000 to get ACE
nctzens: pic.twitter.com/ZFNy300bmJ— mim loves jinjin (@mimmelil) March 14, 2019
i'm not sure about fanclub memberships and all so correct me if i'm wrong but wouldn't sm be able to make enough money if they just hiked the price up at least a little bit if they didn't separate the members? like that would've been understandable if it were still within normal-
— Sodium Jaemin (@hyuckscupidsbow) March 14, 2019
NCTzens aren’t the only ones who have been feeling upset with the system. BoA and f(x) fans have been feeling left out as they have yet to have “ACE” membership offered to them.
"SM havent opened fanclub for f(x) (and BoA) yet, only f(x) doesnt have a lightstick, f(x)'s gonna be 10 y.o this year but their last cb was in 2015" https://t.co/HXMZOkCiFF
— ㅈㅅㅈ (@krystclass) March 15, 2019
Crying. Miss my F(x)
— a Xunqis (@exoutdid) March 15, 2019
Fans would love to support their favorite artists in this way and are hoping that SM Entertainment will make some changes to this fanclub program so that it works for every fan.
