by On a Friday a few months ago, a reporter and the head of an entertainment agency had lunch together. The team leader said, “I get a lot of calls from reporters, so I need to get into the company as soon as possible.” Usually, the Friday before the weekend is often not busy with newspapers and agencies, but this day was special. This is because an idol belonging to that agency released a new song on Friday.
The same was true of groups that made a comeback this month, such as Blackpink and Twice. All of them released albums and sound sources at specific times on Friday. Blackpink, who made a comeback as a group after 22 months, released a new song, ‘Pink Venom’ at 1 pm on Friday, the 19th.
The song entered the US Billboard’s main singles chart, ‘Hot 100’, at #22 on the 29th (local time). At the ‘2022 MTV Video Music Awards held the day before, Blackpink also won two gold medals. TWICE, who had renewed their contracts ahead of the expiration of the contract period, also released their 11th mini album and the title song ‘Talk That Talk’ at 1 pm on Friday, the 26th. Why is it especially Friday? Are there secret secrets that we don’t know about?
They have Billboard, an American album ranking chart, in mind. For example, 1 pm in Korea is midnight on Friday in the US Eastern Time. Billboard reflects the results on the chart from every Friday to the following Thursday based on eastern time in the United States. This is a strategy to maximize entry into the Billboard charts.
In the US pop market, releasing new songs on Friday has become a custom. Pop stars like Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, and Drake also release music on Friday. World record labels such as Warner, Universal, and Sony Music also participate.
Since when have K-pop singers been joining this movement? It is from 2020. This is because the global fandom is increasing with the group BTS (BTS) in the lead and is also recording high rankings on Billboard thanks to the fandom’s firepower support.
The day and time when BTS released ‘Dynamite’ in August 2020 were also at 1 pm on Friday. Black Pink also released the English song ‘Ice Cream’ at 1 pm on Friday in the same month. The same was the case with the day and time of the week when BTS released, an anthology (collection of existing works) album, which summarized nine years of activities in June.
K-pop singers with a global fandom prefer 1 pm on Fridays, but groups that do not or newly debuting groups choose a different day of the week. Monday 6 pm. New Jeans, the so-called ‘Min Hee-jin girl group,’ debuted by releasing the ‘Attention’ music video at midnight on the 22nd of last month, but their debut album was officially released at 6 pm on the 1st of this month, Monday.
This is because the weekly rankings of domestic music charts start on Monday. Usually, the domestic music charts count the music performance from Monday to Sunday and reflect it in the score, so Monday is an excellent opportunity to rise to the top of the music charts. 6 pm is to target the music charts on the way home from work and on the way home, where streaming is concentrated.
Since New Jeans is a rookie group, it seems they paid more attention to the domestic music charts than to challenging the Billboard. Nevertheless, the new Jeans’ debut song ‘Attention’ topped the Melon real-time chart on the 9th. New Jeans was the first team to complete the Melon real-time chart among the K-pop groups that debuted this year.
After that, the song that overtook ‘Attention’ and climbed to number one on Melon’s real-time chart was Ive’s ‘After Like.’ This song was also released at 6 pm on the 22nd, Monday. Le Seraphim also released their debut album in May at 6 pm on Monday the 2nd.
This trend has been in place since 2018. Previously, most new songs came out at midnight. However, it has been criticized for distorting the chart rankings with the so-called ‘sound source total attack (total attack),’ which encourages music streaming and download to increase the chart rankings of fans’ favorite singers in the early morning hours when there are few users. As a result, as music sites reduced the streaming and download reflection rates in the early morning hours, 6 pm became the new target time zone.
A team leader at a large entertainment company explained, “The timing of the release of new K-pop songs takes into global account markets such as Billboard and home markets such as domestic music sites. . He also added, “If you look at the release days of music sources or albums, you can tell whether they are more interested in the global or home market.”
Blackpink’s 2nd regular album with ‘Pink Venom’ will be released on the 16th of next month. It’s Friday
