As the South Korean city of Busan hosts the latest round of negotiations for an international treaty limiting plastic pollution since Monday, many K-pop fans are concerned about the marketing techniques supporting their favorite groups.
Because to sell more and more CDs, South Korean music labels do not hesitate to slip signed selfies, vouchers for a video call and other tickets into the boxes. Result: instead of buying a single disc, fans buy dozens in the hope of getting a bonus.
“Each album, in fact, is a lottery ticket,” summarizes Roza De Jong, a K-pop fan. He added: “It’s common to see piles of plastic albums left on stairs or strewn across the streets of Seoul.” Also sometimes albums are released with a different cover.
“We call it marketing exploitation,” laments Kim Na-yeon, another fan who questioned herself when she noticed that her shelves were overflowing with identical CDs.
Now, she accuses labels of “manipulating” fans’ love. “CDs are made from materials that are very difficult to recycle and it got me thinking about how much carbon is emitted to produce or dispose of them.”
For the first time in 2023, sales of K-pop CDs crossed the 100 million mark to exceed 115 million, an increase of 50% in one year. In addition to plastic packaging, the production of a CD generates around 500 grams of CO2, according to an impact study by the British University of Keele.
A good group generates “the equivalent of the emissions produced by 74 flights around the Earth,” says Kim Na-yeon.
