Recap of Interviews with
Members of the Music Industry
AUTHOR | AADIL HUSSEIN DATE PUBLISHED | NOVEMBER 17, 2023
Over the past two weeks, I have had the pleasure of interviewing a few professionals who have a keen interest in physical albums. Firstly, I got the opportunity to speak with Anne, CCO (Chief Communications Officer) at LightupK, a K-Pop merchandise store located in Toronto. That interview was followed up by a second one with Sofia, King, and Eduardo of Sarah & Tom, a K-pop and anime store located in Koreatown, Toronto. They were all very cooperative and provided me with incredibly insightful answers as I picked their brains. A summary of all my questions as well as their answers will be covered in this blog post.
Q1: Firstly, I would like to start off with a personal question. Do you collect physical albums or vinyls? If yes, tell me about your album collection.
Every interviewee has a collection of either physical albums or vinyls. Most of the music contained within these collections falls under the genre of K-pop, with some of the favourites among their collections being Nectar by Joji, Jack in the Box by J-hope, and Vivid by Ailee.
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Q2: What is the reason behind your affinity for albums (what made you want to work in an album store)?
This question was asked to understand potential reasons to still collect albums, especially since we are in the age of digital streaming. Anne in particular had the answer that stuck with me the most, as she cited tangibility as the reason behind her album collection. I can relate to that feeling myself, because while I am not a collector of albums, I am guilty of gathering collections of things that I liked as a kid such as Pokemon cards, so it is understandable why someone else would do the same with their favourite albums. Another interesting answer came from Sofia, as her reasoning for collecting vinyl connects to her love for 1970’s interior design.
Q3: Do you feel as if physical albums are more popular amongst fans of Eastern artists (i.e. K-Pop fans) as opposed to fans of their Western counterparts? What are some reasons behind this?
​Physical albums are more popular amongst fans of Eastern artists in comparison to fans of mainstream Western artists. The main factor behind this discrepancy is that K-pop albums come with much more than just a CD. Add-ons tend to include a photocard - a picture of one of the group members, a poster, a photo book, and other merchandise items. These add-ons serve as an extra incentive for fans to go out there and buy the album, as opposed to just streaming it on their devices. The crew from Sarah & Tom also brought up an interesting observation, K-pop fans tend to have a deeper connection with their favourite artists in comparison to fanbases of the artists in the West. This may be down to the inaccessibility to popular artists where Western artists are less interactive, and harder to reach whereas, K-pop artists are heavily interactive with their fan bases through multiple forms of communication such as messaging apps where you can communicate with your favourites, and meet-and-greets as a way to sell albums. K-pop fans seem to be closer to the artists they love compared to fans of their Western counterparts and all of these reasons can make it easier to understand the K-pop album phenomenon.
Q4: Could you go into detail about LightupK/Sarah & Tom’s marketing strategy (how do you make physical albums desirable to customers)?
​Community building, as well as maintaining strong customer relations are at the heart of both LightupK as well as Sarah & Tom’s marketing strategies. If you have both of the requirements listed above, turning potential customers into returning customers becomes more of a guarantee. An example of community building I am referring to is photocard trading, which Anne mentioned during her interview. In short, if a customer is unsatisfied with a group member’s photocard that they pulled from their album, they can go to the store and trade it for a different photocard. Keeping customers happy is the best way to keep them coming back, and through the spread of the word, it also attracts new customers. Active social media presence was another key aspect of the marketing strategies discussed by both parties.
Q5: Personally, do you think there is still a market
for physical albums?
An important disclaimer that I would like to add is that this question was asked with Western artists in mind. There is a thriving market for physical albums in the Eastern music industry. The feedback that I got, once I added that disclaimer, was interesting. Both parties I interviewed reluctantly said that there still is a market, however, it is a dying one with an imminent need for improvement. So, as I reflected on their vastly different responses to the same question, I wondered if physical albums are on the decline in the West but on the rise in the East, should the West not take inspiration from the East to improve sales? I decided to conduct further research online. I looked up some big Western artists as well as album sales for their recent releases, and to my surprise, some big Western artists like Travis Scott, have already started using merchandise as an incentive to buy their albums (Destefano, 2023).
Q6: Aside from the rise of digital streaming, what are some other causes behind the decrease in
popularity of physical albums?
Cost and inconvenience are two of the biggest reasons behind the decline in the popularity of physical albums. Simply put, albums are expensive. When competitors such as digital streaming services like Spotify provide you with unlimited music on your device for $10.99 a month, buying that album becomes harder to justify. Furthermore, CD players are less common in households and cars these days (Paul, 2022). In essence, listening to music through a CD player requires more effort than simply pulling out your earphones, plugging them into your device and listening to whatever music you want. However, another factor that I did not consider was the environmental impact of albums. In response to this, some K-Pop artists, BLACKPINK, for example, have responded by using soy ink as well as recycled materials on their 2022 release BORN PINK, to make it more eco-friendly (Khan, 2022). It will be interesting to see if more artists adopt this, in a way to combat the negative effects that album production has on the environment.
Q7: What are some advantages that physical
albums have over digital albums?
There are quite a few advantages that physical albums have over their digital counterparts. Firstly, there is the tangible aspect. It is easier to attach memories to a physical item (i.e. the album you played during your first heartbreak) than it is to something on your phone, which you may lose over time anyway. There is also an aesthetic benefit, which means something to people who care about cover art. Lastly, and most importantly, the sound quality is better on a vinyl or CD, than it is on your phone (Team, 2023).
There are quite a few strong benefits, just as there are strong drawbacks that come with physical albums. Whether or not physical albums appeal to you depends on what factors you value most.
WATCH AND LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEWS
Interview with LightupK
PART ONE
WATCH FULL INTERVIEW HERE
via Zoom
Interview with Sarah & Tom
Citations
Adjusting our Spotify Premium prices. Spotify. (2023, October 2). https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-07-24/adjusting-our-spotify-premium-prices/
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DeStefano, M. (2023, August 9). How much did Merch help propel Travis Scott’s “utopia” to number one? Complex. https://www.complex.com/style/a/mike-destefano/travis-scott-utopia-merch
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Khan, A. (2022, August 12). Blackpink takes a step towards eco-friendly album consumption with Born pink. Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-blackpink-takes-step-towards-eco-friendly-album-consumption-born-pink
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Owen, J. (2023, March 3). The impact of declining CD sales. loveit coverit insurance. https://www.loveitcoverit.com/news/changing-world/music/the-impact-of-declining-cd-sales/
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Paul, J. (2022, December 12). Why don’t new cars come with compact disc players anymore? Boston.com. https://www.boston.com/cars/cars/2022/12/12/why-dont-new-cars-come-with-compact-disc-players-anymore/
Team, D. (2023, August 7). Pros & Cons of physical vs Digital Music Distribution. Daisie Blog. https://blog.daisie.com/pros-cons-of-physical-vs-digital-music-distribution/