Within the past two decades, the use and purchasing of compact discs, better known as CDs, have severely declined. This is a result of the growing presence of streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify. Streaming services have provided a far more convenient and accessible option to listen to music, but they are also more affordable as monthly subscription fees are $10.99 per month. Contrastingly, CDs typically cost approximately $14.00-18.00 on average today. These factors contribute to making digital streaming services the optimal choice for music listening. However, it is important to note that despite this, CDs still have a fairly large presence in the music industry. While there has been a decline, overall, CD sales continue to reach millions of units each year due to the strong purchasing power of consumers, specifically dedicated fans of artists. This is seen through the CD sales of well-known names such as Adele, BTS, and Taylor Swift, all of whom have garnered worldwide fanbases. Below are the ten best-selling albums of 2021 in the US according to Forbes (McIntyre, 2022):

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• Adele (30) - 898,000

• Taylor Swift (Fearless - Taylor’s Version) - 263,000

• Taylor Swift (Red - Taylor’s Version) - 237,000

• Carrie Underwood (My Savior) - 217,000

• Tomorrow X Together (The Chaos Chapter: Freeze) - 215,000

• Taylor Swift (Evermore) - 213,000

• NCT 127 (Sticker) - 211,000

• BTS (Map of the Soul: 7) - 210,000 

• Olivia Rodrigo (Sour) - 195,000

• BTS (Be) - 187,000 

 

   (figure. 1)

Four out of ten of these albums are CD unit sales from Korean-pop groups, making it evident that Korean artists have a large influence on physical CD album sales. This raises the question: How are Eastern music acts high-performing in CD sales for the North American market? 

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     While the listening medium is the same, there are clear distinctions between Eastern and Western CD marketing and packaging design.  Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd, and Justin Bieber are four popular artists based in North America. Their CDs all follow the same trend; each consisting of a CD case, album cover, and the CD itself. There are some variations with their album designs, for instance, Justin Beiber selling ‘alternate’ album covers. However, the only difference between these versions was the album cover colors. Overall, these CD packaging designs and concepts were not appealing to the entirety of their fanbase because they provide no unique distinctions between the artists’ albums. As a result, fanbases would rather opt to listen through digital streaming platforms than purchase a physical album, especially since CD players aren’t commonly used today. On the other hand, Korean-pop groups' albums are unique in their promotional materials and album packaging. Korean music companies heavily promote album releases through social media. These promotions consist of marketing materials that build anticipation for groups’ fanbases, such as album schedules that outline days when music video teasers are released (figure 2). In addition to this, Korean music companies aim to increase CD sales by releasing inclusions alongside the album. These inclusions may come in the form of stickers, lyric books, posters, and bookmarks relating to the album’s visual concept. One distinct inclusion that often accompanies these albums are photo cards. Photocards are printed cards of a group member's self-photograph. Usually, there is only one randomized photocard included per album. Furthermore, groups often have alternate versions of albums, with different inclusions and aesthetic concepts (figure 3.) As a result, dedicated fans purchase larger quantities of albums to increase their chances of receiving a photo card of their favorite member or purchase all album versions to directly support their favorite artists. 

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“According to Axios, the surge in CD sales was also driven by "young people who are finding they like hard copies of music in the digital age".” (Kariuki, 2022)

 

 

     To conclude, Eastern music acts use physical album inclusions to create a sense of ‘specialty’ and connection for fans, which is a main driving factor in their high sales in the North American market; while Western music acts have minimal distinction in their packaging design. And so our main goal at SoundScape is to increase the CD sales of North American artists by making them more appealing to their audience.