by As major countries around the world ease quarantine measures that were strengthened due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the entertainment industry is actively increasing overseas activities for artists, including world tours. The entertainment industry, which has been targeting the overseas music market mainly in Japan, is entering the North American market and taking a step forward.
According to Hive on the 7th (241,000 won ▼ 6,000 -2.43%), a total of 114,000 visitors came to BTS’s ‘THE CITY’ project held in Las Vegas last month. It is 2.5 times larger than the number of visitors to the ‘2022 CES’, the world’s largest information and communication technology (ICT) and home appliance exhibition held in the same region. A total of 200,000 people visited the four face-to-face concerts, with 22,000 live-streamed viewers and 402,000 online streaming viewers. A total of 624,000 people watched the BTS concert, both online and offline.
According to the stock market, the estimated sales of BTS’s Las Vegas project are expected to exceed 150 billion won. Ebest Investment & Securities (KRW 7,420 ▼ 110 -1.46%) estimated the sales of concert tickets to be 145 billion won and MD sales such as souvenirs to be 28 billion won. Hive’s total artist performances and MD sales in the first quarter of this year were 61.3 billion won and 68.2 billion won, respectively. BTS is scheduled to make a comeback next month, but it is highly likely that they will hold another North American tour within the year.
JYP Entertainment ( JYP Ent. (59,800 won ▼ 200 -0.33%) ) is also showing good results. The group Twice finished seven concerts in North America in the first quarter and is about to hold two encore performances. With 7 performances, she earned about 12.3 million dollars (about 15.6 billion won) in ticket revenue, which is the highest record for an Asian female singer. Also, during the same period, TWICE sold 270,000 albums even though there were no new albums released. This is a number that exceeds the annual canter shipments (150,000 and 130,000 copies, respectively) in 2020 and 2021.
Stray Kids, a group belonging to the same agency, is also planning a North American tour in June or July. The size of the audience tripled in two years, and as all seats were sold out, the existing seven performances were extended to two more. Last month, Stray Kids topped the Billboard 200 chart for the third time in Korean artist history. JYP Established JYP USA, a local corporation in the United States, in March and is strengthening cooperation with the famous label ‘Republic Records’.
YG Entertainment predicts that if the group Blackpink makes a comeback in the third quarter as expected, it will be able to gather at least 200,000 spectators in North America. According to Yuanta Securities, the audience for Blackpink’s North American performances in 2019 was 76,000, and it is expected that three to four times the number of audience will visit the venue this year. In addition, Blackpink held an online concert ‘THE SHOW’ last year, and the percentage of US subscribers for membership to watch the concert was the highest at 19.2%.
As Korean idol groups accelerate their advance into the US with the re-opening, it is evaluated that the domestic entertainment industry is about to take a leap forward. According to the industry, up to the 2010s, 90% of overseas performances were held in Asia, and 60-70% of them were in Japan, the second-largest in the global music market. Then, as BTS succeeded in advancing into North America between 2017 and 2019, the domestic entertainment industry enjoyed a trickle-down effect. The North American market is the largest market accounting for 40% of the global music market, and BTS’ presence in North America has expanded to the entire Korean entertainment industry.
According to the Yuanta Securities Research Center, album exports by region have recently risen significantly in North America. In the past three years, it has increased by 42% in Asia and 92% in North America. The proportion of total album sales to North America also increased from 2% in 2017 to 11% in 2021, and the share of Gubo sales also increased significantly from 6% to 13% during the same period.
Lee Hye-in, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said, “After the release of a new album, the sales volume of the canter is increasing simultaneously among several artists. By finding and purchasing an artist’s existing album, it appears when a new fandom flows into the K-Pop market.” She continued, “With BTS as the lead, many K-pop artists are actively entering the North American performance market, so the North American tour is expected to begin in earnest in 2022-2023.”
