controversy arrises after superm gets number 1 on billboard hot 200 (1 Viewer)

[amourpinks]

superm used 60 bundles to get to really get to this point, and they only had 4000 SPS... that number should be higher if the majority of the sales were sales bought by fans. superm couldn't even chart decently on the American iTunes charts and didn't have good streams.

meanwhile the artist who got number 2 on the billboard, summerwalker... well heres a quote from billboard just showing all the achievements she had with her new album

"At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Summer Walker’s debut studio effort, Over It, launches with 134,000 equivalent album units earned — the biggest week for an R&B album by a female artist in over three years. The last R&B album by a woman to notch a bigger week was Beyoncé with Lemonade, which tallied 202,000 units in its third week on the list (May 28, 2016; at No. 2) after previously bowing at No. 1.

Over It’s starting sum of 134,000 units was largely powered by streaming activity, as the set garnered 14,000 album sales, 1,000 TEA units and 119,000 SEA units. The latter figure translates to a big 154.7 million on-demand audio streams for the album’s songs — marking the largest streaming week ever for an R&B album by a woman in terms of on-demand audio streams (surpassing the debut week of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, with 115.2 million). It also scores the second-largest streaming week for an R&B album among all acts (trailing only the debut week of The Weeknd’s Starboy, with 175.2 million)."

and here's the quote from billboard explaining superms number 1...

"SuperM’s The 1st Mini Album starts with 168,000 units, and of that sum, 164,000 were in album sales. The rest of the album’s first-week comprised less than 1,000 TEA units, and a little over 3,000 SEA units. The latter sum equates to 4.9 million on-demand audio streams during the tracking week for the seven tracks on the album. (The album has seven tracks in total, but only five distinct songs. The additional two tracks are instrumental versions of songs on the album.)SuperM’s handsome start was encouraged mightily by an array of permutations in which to purchase the album, which was likely very appealing to the group’s fans, since K-pop fans are often passionate about buying collectible physical packages of an album. The 1st Mini Album had more than 60 merchandise/album bundles available to purchase through their official web stores, a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with their upcoming arena tour and eight different CD variants of the album (seven with a different cover for each member, along with a group edition). The act also staged a week-long pop-up shop in Los Angeles during street week, where fans could buy the CD (as well as oodles of individual merch items)."

so many fans, not just kpop fans, are a little mad at billboard for allowing 60 bundles to be used and giving them this number one even though they didn't actually do good in any other category and only went number 1 because of the bundles... meanwhile summer walker actually did good in every category and didn't get the number 1.

so what are your thoughts on this?

for me, I honestly think that summerwalker should have gotten that number 1. it's honestly unfair that she didn't get it despite her doing good in every category and breaking amazing records. 60 bundles?? that's just shameful sm.... like they aren't even trying to hide how desperate they are at trying to get this number 1 at this point... theres nothing wrong with using bundles... its a promotional tactic that every single artist has probably used... but theres a difference between using 1 or 2 bundles.... to using 60! is winning really winning if you basically have to cheat to get there?

Spoiler

also mods please dont close this thread... i know that kps is supposed to be positive only but i dont think its wrong to spark a discussion about something like this.

 

[Ahsoka]

Theres nothing wrong with this thread as long as everyone remains respectful to each other and the artists. We have no stipulation of requiring threads to be positive, after all this is a discussion forum and things like this will come up. I personally don't know a lot about charting so I have nothing to say about it.

 

[Mayday]

As much as I love SuperM, we all know their success was very forced.

 

[PrideInBaek]

Been done before.
Will be done again.

It's not like they just handed out the albums. If I am understanding it correctly, Fans had to go and get merchandise for the group to get a copy of the album which means there were people willing to spend money on them whether it's by directly buying the album or getting deals. Honestly if I could I would have gone and bought the merch and gotten the album as a bonus too.
But this is just my opinion. I do feel for the girl who got pushed to second position but it's not SuperM or the companies' fault because Billboard themselves allowed it and counted the albums as legit sales. Nothing to be done about that.

 

[amourpinks]

Been done before.
Will be done again.
People will be pressed as long as it's not their favs tbh.
It's not like they just handed out the albums. If I am understanding it correctly, Fans had to go and get merchandise for the group to get a copy of the album which means there were people willing to spend money on them whether it's by directly buying the album or getting deals. Honestly if I could I would have gone and bought the merch and gotten the album as a bonus too.
But this is just my opinion. I do feel for the girl who got pushed to second position but it's not SuperM or the companies' fault because Billboard themselves allowed it and counted the albums as legit sales. Nothing to be done about that.

just because it is allowed does not mean that what sm did with superm wasnt shady and manipulative as hell. the difference between buying an album is that the fans chose to buy the album with the music, not clothing or tour tickets. when you buy an album you're supposed to be buying it for the music or whatever the hell is inside of it. by using bundles sm is basically putting their album on everything superm related that a person could buy, you buy a tour ticket (which were only 50 dollars btw) you also are buying an album, you buy official merch, your also buying an album, if you buy anything superm related your probably also buying an album. like i said theres nothing wrong with using bundles... but using 60 is crazy. without bundles, they wouldnt have even made it to the top ten let alone number 1.

just to add context for bundles, that would be like me buying a football jersey for a struggling football team popularity wise and then getting two or three tickets to one of their games for free automatically, or like me buying an energy drink sponsored by an artist and then getting an album for it (this actually happened with dj Khaled last year and he was given a lot of backlash for it)

normally an album or ticket to a football game would cost more than the merch or drink right? well thats what these companies are doing, theyre attaching an album to a product that ideally costs less than a physical album.

 

[VillageIdiot]

Can we disband SM?

 

[amourpinks]

Can we disband SM?

sure... but only after red velvets next full album comes out

 

[QueenB]

Haven't western artist used bundles before though?
This feels like the hate for repacks even though repack albums are just the kpop version of deluxe editions of albums.

Also, feels like some people are bringing Summer Walker into this just to be salty and they've never actually paid attention to her music

 

[PrideInBaek]

without bundles, they wouldnt have even made it to the top ten let alone number 1.

Wait I thought they were slated to debut at #4?
And yes what SM and Capitol Records did was manipulative. Agreed to that.

 

[amourpinks]

Haven't western artist used bundles before though?
This feels like the hate for repacks even though repack albums are just the kpop version of deluxe editions of albums.

Also, feels like some people are bringing Summer Walker into this just to be salty and they've never actually paid attention to her music

yes western artists have used bundles before... but the difference is that superm used 60... not one or two or even 3 or 4... 60.
and there are people who are bringing summer walker into this just because theyre mad and im not gonna say that they aren't... but I dont think it's wrong to bring her up as there is a big difference between her sales and superms sales.
i mean just in terms of streaming...
summer walker: 154.7 million
superm: 4,9 million

 

[amourpinks]

Wait I thought they were slated to debut at #4?
And yes what SM and Capitol Records did was manipulative. Agreed to that.

yes they were but again thats still with the bundles. that was actually another controversy, originally superm was predicted to have 70k sales, even with the bundles, and these prediction counts are usually never off and if they are it's by a little, people are wondering where those extra sales came from in the last week to even be able to get the number that they had.

 

[Evergreen]

It was also hard to buy the album outside America. Several persons told me that they couldn’t bought it because they aren’t from American except thank to a retailer.

 

[amourpinks]

It was also hard to buy the album outside America. Several persons told me that they couldn’t bought it because they aren’t from American except thank to a retailer.

yeah, the album was apparently only distributed to American stores.

 

[amourpinks]

yikes!! this means that sales from south korea were being counted towards the billboard hot 200 as well which isnt supposed to be allowed!

 

[Seros]

Their 2nd week drop is going to be record breaking. 1-OUT

 

[amourpinks]

Their 2nd week drop is going to be record breaking. 1-OUT

theyre gonna break the record for biggest free fall by a Korean artist as well, theyre really breaking all the records, kings tbh.

 

[yeji]

what do you expect from something sm is „pushing“ so hard?

 

[amourpinks]

what do you expect from something sm is „pushing“ so hard?

I expected them to be desperate but I didn't expect them to be THIS desperate.

 

[quinby]

SM this is beyond embarrassing.

 

[RandAlThor]

yikes!! this means that sales from south korea were being counted towards the billboard hot 200 as well which isnt supposed to be allowed!

i read that as on line sales, shipped to SK from the us vendor working with SM. Ie they likely had to pay big S & H.

BTW ktown4 u killed the dhl option i am very very sad. Gotta find a different vendor. I was better off buying thru amazon prime than ordering the new taeyeon album and any other oct nov stuff..