Merch Madness
From light sticks to fish sticks, a dazzling array of branded goods has K-pop fans shelling out the equivalent
of thousands of dollars a year to support their favorite acts. How much is too much?By Tamar Herman and Raphael Rashid
O
N A CHILLY NIGHT
in New York last
November, thousands
of flashing multicol-
ored lights illuminated
Madison Square Garden. Fans danced
in the stands to the songs of K-pop
group SuperM, waving light sticks
overhead. Controlled via Bluetooth
by one of the band’s engineers, they
pulsed in time with the bass and shim-
mered along with softer melodies.
Sales of the $60 magenta-hued
lights bearing the band’s logo were
brisk at the venue, but they weren’t
the only ones on display. SuperM is a
K-pop supergroup featuring members
of four different boy bands — EXO,
SHINee, NCT 127 and WayV — and
many in the audience jammed along
with similar, Bluetooth-enabled sticks
representing those acts as well. Some
held two or more.
These light sticks, known in Korean
as bongs, have become an integral
part of the K-pop concert experience.
The newest answer to the cellphone
flashlight (and before that, the old-
school cigarette lighter), they are just
one example of a staggering variety of
fan-oriented goods marketed by the
South Korean music industry, which
is based as much on consumerism as
it is sonic artistry. “K-pop merch is so
dramatic,” says Ahomari T., a 28-year-
old SHINee fan from South Carolina.
(Like other K-pop fans in this story,
she requested some anonymity for
privacy.) “You buy an album, and it’s
almost like a gift bag.”
Albums are just the gateway to a
massive market for branded tie-ins
that, in addition to light sticks and
the more conventional concert T-
shirts and posters, includes tea, beer,
soju, chocolates, stuffed animals,
smartphones, shoes, neck pillows
and moisturizing face masks. There’seven food — for instance, pop duo
TVXQ!, Red Velvet and SHINee each
endorse a brand of fish sticks.
Fans purchase the products to
show their loyalty — and they feed
a multibillion-dollar industry in the
process. The corporate powers behind
K-pop’s artists and merchandise strat-
egies are largely tight-lipped about
their operations, but industry sources
say that album and merch sales can
create a cycle, bringing in more adver-
tising opportunities or sponsorships
for a group, which boosts its popular-
ity and leads to additional events and
concerts. But for K-pop enthusiasts
with limited incomes, the cost of
keeping current with the latest in fan
gear can be exorbitant.
“I guess it’s like, ‘Which came first:
the chicken or the egg?’ ” asks ChrisLee, CEO of SM Entertainment,
which manages a roster that in-
cludes SuperM, EXO, Red Velvet and
NCT 127. “Is it merchandising, or is it
a way to sell the music?”T
HE SIZE AND SUCCESS OF
the K-pop merch market in
South Korea is inextricably
linked to physical music sales — CDs
and vinyl albums — at a time when
streaming has become the dominant
platform for music consumption
globally. South Korea is now the
world’s sixth-largest music market,
which accounts for 3.1% of global
sales, and revenue from physical sales
jumped 29% in 2018 — more than it
did in any other market — even as
physical revenue declined by 10%globally, according to global music
industry organization IFPI. “Our
impression from talking to people [in
Korea] is that it is a natural increase
in demand for physical product,” says
IFPI director of insights David Price.
“People want to buy the CDs for the
ability to have that CD and to listen
to the music.”
Overall, South Korean music sales,
which K-pop dominates, reached
almost $5.5 billion in 2018, or
6.49 trillion in South Korean won, up
11.9% from a year earlier, according to
the Korea Creative Content Agency.
And as K-pop’s global audience
grows in size and maturity — with
acts’ careers and popularity lasting
longer than ever — the market for
K-pop merch has grown and evolved
with it. Trademark applications inFans at a SuperM concert
in Los Angeles in 2019.FANS: LESTER COHEN/GETTY IMAGESILLUSTRATION BY SINELAB MARCH 28, 2020 • WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 457fea_kpop [P]_27818950.indd 45 3/24/20 7:44 PM