The number of signatures is worth millions, how much money will K-Pop make signing a sale?

Author | Ding Qianwen Edit | Fan Zhihui

The first shot of Hallyu's return came from the pile of sky-high book signings.

On June 26, LE SSERAFIM's nearly half-month offline signing event in Guangzhou officially closed and the selection quota was announced on the 28th. Many fans are finally convinced that K-Pop is really back.

In addition to LE SSERAFIM, Stray Kids, SEVENTEEN, (G)I-DLE and others have announced that they will hold offline new album signing parties in Qingdao, Guangzhou, Changsha and other places in July and August.

This is also a rare occurrence of K-Pop artists coming to the mainland to carry out activities since the "Korean restriction order".

However, compared with the usual routine of relying on popular activities such as variety shows and brand platforms to open up the mainland market, this time K-Pop artists have unanimously chosen a book signing meeting with certain audience limitations as a test of the waters. It is inevitable to wonder why the book signing is the first step for K-Pop artists to "land"? 

Hard-to-turn book signings

Album signing, as the name implies, refers to a fan event that provides fans with the opportunity to communicate face-to-face with artists in the name of signing and selling albums, but the number of places is limited, and the winner needs to be determined by purchasing the album lottery. This popular promotional method from K-Pop has also been copied simultaneously by domestic entertainment limited groups and idols in recent years.

Intuitively, the initial purpose of the signing meeting is actually to stimulate physical sales, which is a direct and rapid monetization under the To C model. Generally speaking, the signing party usually chooses to cooperate with the album sales platform during the artist's release of the new album, throwing the bait to fans who purchase the album through a specific platform to have the opportunity to participate in the offline signing activity with a limited number of people, so as to achieve the purpose of short-term large-scale physical album orders. 

During the return of artists, in order to achieve high sales, an average of about seven book signings per week are everywhere. For example, K-Pop boy group ONEUS once hit a high-pressure itinerary of 51 book signing parties in the first week when it returned with its sixth mini-album "BLOOD MOON" in 2021. The album also successfully exceeded 170,000 copies in its first move, not only reaching the highest initial sales since the group's debut, but also gaining one of ONEUS' first music broadcast program. 

In addition, going overseas to hold a book signing party is also another source of sales that K-Pop artists cannot give up, and it is also part of the sales included in the medium import.

As early as the 2010s, platforms such as Yinyuetai, idou App, and Owhat smelled business opportunities and hosted K-Pop artist signing parties in the mainland many times, and took advantage of the trend to broaden the channels for album purchase, making its own overseas purchasing platform popular, breaking the monopoly of overseas group purchase album transportation and signing album return business by fan stations.

For example, in 2014, Yinyuetai twice became the organizer of BTS China fan signing party less than a year after its debut, which is undoubtedly a necessary means for K-Pop artists who are still in the rookie period, "going to sea" is undoubtedly a necessary means for the effective growth of physical album sales.

Today, emerging platforms such as Gongyi Entertainment, Nanyi Music, Galaxy Jimei, and TOU have become the top platforms in the mainland signing market, and due to the restrictions of the lottery for the mainland market, the probability of winning the lottery of domestic fans has been greatly improved. 

Of course, from the perspective of fans, the biggest temptation of the book signing party is to provide the opportunity to communicate face-to-face with idols "legally", satisfying fans' voyeurism and curiosity. Even if you ask the idol for wearing a headgear or sticker, coquetry, TMI Q&A, imitation challenge, etc., if the staff confirms that it is reasonable or the idol actively cooperates, you can get a certain amount of ideal feedback.

As a party providing fan services, idols respond to all conditions of fans through book signings, which is also a regular means to strengthen fan stickiness, and even break the circle. For example, at the signing ceremony of the draft limited group R1SE and INTO1, which effectively transferred this gameplay to domestic entertainment, there were many famous scenes in which fans used a variety of headwear to "dress" idols, and Gu Landi, who was also from the draft, also liked to raise the hot search for high positions because of the dream scene of lifting the veil for fans in the book signing. 

At the same time, some fans who frequently "brush their faces" can also be remembered by idols, become special existences, and even achieve a limited experience of becoming friends with idols. For example, Sakira Miyawaki, a member of LE SSERAFIM who is recognized as having a strong ability to identify fans, was able to provide fans with a deep communication and two-way star-chasing experience at the signing ceremony. Arguably, the book signing is also a shortcut for fans eager to get an idol's response. 

Even though due to the epidemic, the close contact of the offline signing event was forced to be suspended, but the form of the signing party was not greatly affected. With the advent of video book signings, the gameplay of breaking geographical restrictions and further stimulating album sales has become more favored by fans, especially non-local fans, and has also regained business opportunities for mainland local album sales platforms.

For example, the Chinese fan signing party held by the SEVENTEEN squad BSS in January was to guide fans to randomly select 10 video letter places of about 15 seconds under each member's name by placing orders to buy albums through the entertainment platform, but this new "signing" form also made fans think that it was "money grabbing" and were not willing to actively buy it. 

However, whether online or offline, the signing meeting is still mainly based on "idol business", and the emotional value generated by this is the focus of fan payment.

However, it is worth noting that even if fans win the lottery quota, idols are not able to "open their doors" as they wish, in addition to the involvement of staff in the wall, idols offline refusal of reasonable requests from fans, video signing to close the fan screen of "cutting small windows" behavior has been regarded as the black history of idols themselves, such as NMIXX, ENHYPEN, SEVENTEEN and other popular idol group members have been accused of this behavior in the signing.

In addition, the "signature bullying" behavior against members of an idol group caused by fans' own prejudices was also a major controversy phenomenon in the signing party. For example, ENHYPEN member Park Sung-hun was ridiculed in front of a fan in a recent video signing, and NCT DREAM member Luo Shumin also encountered fan jumping in the 2019 offline signing party. 

"Because the signing party is generally a group signing, it is inevitable that there will be only fans or CP fans who meet members they don't like, and they will 'evil to the guts'." NANA, WHO IS A FAN OF NCT DREAM, EXPLAINED THAT IDOLS ARE TREATED DIFFERENTLY AT BOOK SIGNINGS, "BUT FANS ALSO SPEND MONEY, SO EVEN IF IDOLS ARE BULLIED VERBALLY OR BEHAVIORALLY, THEY CANNOT BE CHARACTERIZED." "Based on the bad behavior of visa skipping, many brokerage companies have also set up relevant regulations to cancel all qualifications of the winners, but they still cannot stop the spread of this chaos."

It can be said that the form of the signing party with continuous upgrading is actually racking its brains to roll sales and realize the short-term efficient monetization of the fan economy. 

Signings are good business

As we all know, as long as there is a fan economy, it is inseparable from the formation of the gray industry chain, and the signing party is no exception.

Even if what fans pay for is only a face-to-face with the idol for only one or two minutes, but just these few minutes of face-to-face is enough for fans to be willing to pay. This is also because the difficulty of winning the lottery will continue to climb with the popularity of idols.

As mentioned above, the basis for winning the book signing party needs to be measured by the purchase of albums, but there is no guarantee, purchase gradient setting, and all rely on fans to buy the number of albums to pray for the selection. Therefore, in order to increase the probability of winning the lot, many fans buy albums in large quantities in an attempt to win by quantity.

BUT NANA ALSO SAID THAT THIS KIND OF MONEY-THROWING BEHAVIOR IS NOT A UNIVERSAL FORMULA, "BUY TWO, TEN ALBUMS ARE ALSO A LOT OF PEOPLE, ITS LOTTERY MECHANISM IS NOT ACCORDING TO WHO BUYS MORE WHO WILL DEFINITELY WIN, INVESTMENT MORE THAN FIVE FIGURES IS ALSO A CHANCE OF LOSING, SUCH AS SEVENTEEN, NCT HAVE HAD THIS SITUATION, EVEN IF IT IS TO FIND A PLATFORM TO SAY IT WILL NOT HELP, AFTER ALL, IT HAS BEEN STATED AT THE BEGINNING THAT IT IS 'RANDOM SELECTION'." ” 

Therefore, this kind of business that pinches the psychology of fans and controls the economic lifeline of fans also makes the operation of "Cutline", a guaranteed winning chain, come into being.

The so-called Cutline refers to the number of purchases provided by scalpers who sell signing information through internal channels or experience. Generally speaking, the intelligence is updated twice before the deadline, and the price of these information also changes according to the popularity of the idol, and most of these places are also regarded as internal places provided by the platform to provide scalpers for takeout.

Interestingly, this ambiguous speculation has not been rejected by major fan circles, but is popular because it is enough to help fans stop losses in time and effectively spend reasonable amounts.

Lulu, who recently purchased the signing meeting information of the newcomer group BOYNEXTDOOR Nanyi platform, said that she will buy specific Cut information from many scalpers selling signing information for comparison, "Buying intelligence is also a psychology of spending small money to make big things, the price of intelligence is generally in the hundreds of yuan, according to the number of Cuts provided by scalpers to increase by about ten, the probability of winning is basically 100%, reducing the number of times they misjudge and spend money wrongly, it is still very useful." ” 

Since the official lottery mechanism of the signing party and Cutline are confidential content, even the winning fans are not allowed to disclose the amount invested on the public platform, the purpose is also to avoid extreme fluctuations in the price, "These need to be kept silent, because different idols have different popularity, so many prices are different, the platform needs fans to spend more money and does not want to be public, once there are fans public, fans will also be pulled into the blacklist by the platform." Lulu said with a smile.

This is also a relatively fair measure for fans, "fans will also supervise each other, in fact, it is also a fair shaping on the surface." For example, under the post published by a blogger of Xiaohongshu that it cost 4,000 yuan to sign a video of ENHYPEN members, many fans advised bloggers to delete the specific price, worried that the tide would rise; Some fans pointed out that they spent at least five figures but failed to win, and the huge difference in money invested also made many fans dissatisfied with the platform. 

With the opening of offline signing events for K-Pop artists in the mainland, in addition to selling winning lots, the number of onlookers watching the signing party in the venue has also become a popular sales project. At present, TOU, Gongyu and other platforms have been listed into two categories: winners and onlookers.

Lulu also pointed out that close onlookers are extremely friendly for some agency sisters, "The number of onlookers is relatively low investment compared to winning the lot, and the probability of winning is higher, (G)I-DLE has 100 onlookers at this Changsha signing meeting, but only 50 bidders." If it is for the purpose of drawings, selling pictures or relying on these signed party pictures to hold a paid photo exhibition in the later stage, many professional station sisters are also happy to participate. ”

But this place is not easy to choose, for example, SEVENTEEN has been entertaining Guangzhou signing party rumored that the price of onlookers is about 100,000 yuan, far beyond the spending power of most ordinary fans. But this does not mean that fans will be deterred, and overall the signing party is still a prosperous business for platforms, brokerage companies, and artists.

In the eyes of fans eager to break the "screen star chasing", the book signing is the best way to quickly contact idols. It is also based on this, in addition to group signing, the number of signatures in the name of a single member and the number of signatures in the artist group have also quickly become a new system for signing parties, increasing the probability of fans winning a certain member, and attracting more and more fans to invest more money. 

For example, at the Guangzhou signing event that SEVENTEEN will hold in July, the 13 members will be divided into two groups, A and B, and the group will be selected in the form of groups to match the number of signatures. Lulu, who has invested more than five figures, said that the two groups are also divided according to the popularity of the members, "Group B has members who are very popular in the mainland, such as Yin Jinghan, Wen Junhui, Quan Yuanyou, JOSHUA, etc., and now they are in a state of life and death, as far as I know, some signing sisters have purchased more than 3,000 albums, about 500,000 yuan invested." ”

ON MAJOR SOCIAL PLATFORMS, THERE ARE ALSO RUMORS AMONG SEVENTEEN FANS THAT THERE HAVE BEEN ENTERTAINMENT QUOTATIONS OF 170,000 YUAN IN GROUP A, 200,000 YUAN IN GROUP B, AND 100,000 YUAN IN ONLOOKERS, AND THERE IS A SHOCKING INTELLIGENCE OF "310,000 YUAN IS NOT GUARANTEED, AND MILLIONS OF YUAN IS GUARANTEED", EVEN IF IT HAS BEEN A RUMOR THAT IT HAS BEEN QUICKLY RELEASED AS A RUMOR, THERE ARE STILL A LARGE NUMBER OF FANS WHO ARE WORRIED ABOUT THIS, AND HAVE TO CONTINUE TO INCREASE INVESTMENT AND ARE TRAPPED IN THE "RICH WOMAN'S GAME". 

Of course, from the perspective of fans, the high funds invested in the early stage for the signing party are not completely incompensable, and the albums purchased for the winning selection often choose to distribute them at a lower price than the market price, and offline album stores and ordinary fans are the two major channels for returning albums.

However, due to the secondary sale of the signing party album affecting the new peak of the idol album physical sales, the signing party album was also boycotted by some fans. In this case, many winning fans will also choose to use the small card in the album as a blood recovery tool, and sell certain cards according to the small card market.

At present, as the delivery period of platform albums is getting longer and longer, the "signers" who have no physical albums in hand have also opened up a low-price distribution pre-arranged solution in advance, which attracts consumers to confirm the purchase of album orders in advance at ultra-low prices that are less than half or more of the market price, so as to ensure their short-term blood recovery, and pull consumers into the same purchase group to wait for album delivery, but this situation is also accompanied by a certain risk of running orders.

For example, on Xianyu, search for "tq (in advance)" to see a large number of artist signing album pre-sale links, the price is also particularly low, such as BOYNEXTDOOR's debut album priced up to 145 yuan a piece, the price of the early receipt order of signing back blood is only 100 yuan for two. On the other hand, this is a very cost-effective way to buy passers-by or fans who just want to buy album collections. 

In addition, selling artist TO signatures is also a big way for fans who participate in the signing party to return blood, and even high pricing will be made due to the different popularity of members and the content of the signing, such as the signing party of NCT DREAM's popular member Park Zhisheng TO signature sold on idle fish for up to 1500 yuan. 

That is to say, even if the initial cost is high, relying on subsequent sales of TO signatures, albums and other blood recovery methods is enough to convert a certain loss and may even achieve some gains.

In addition, more fans can monetize their traffic and become well-known bloggers by posting recorded videos of their participation in book signings, and even have the opportunity to generate revenue by revealing brand accessories, clothing or product placement video ads in the signing. FOR EXAMPLE, "ONA", A BLOGGER WITH 20,000 FOLLOWERS ON DOUYIN, WAS SUCCESSFULLY RELEASED FROM THE CIRCLE BECAUSE OF A LARGE NUMBER OF VIDEO RECORDINGS SIGNING WITH ARTISTS SUCH AS ENHYPEN, TXT, AND & TEAM.

In general, the internal circulation model of signing from top to bottom contains certain profit space for platforms, brokerage companies, fans and even scalpers. In short, it is to use the popularity of idols to complete the monetization of different dimensions, even if the original purpose is to stimulate physical album sales, but through multi-channel intervention, the profit model is becoming more and more diverse, which is another interpretation of "cutting leeks". 

epilogue

Looking back, K-Pop artists entered the mainland to hold a book signing party this time, to a certain extent, it was also affected by the rising sales of China Export.

In the past three years of the epidemic, K-Pop's export of albums to China has increased year by year, and last year alone, the Chinese market was the second largest exporter of K-Pop albums after Japan, reaching 51.33 million US dollars; According to Yonhap News Agency, in April this year alone, the export value of K-Pop albums to China has reached 5.258 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 98.2%, which is also because SEVENTEEN's new album sold more than 2 million copies in the mainland; As of April this year, the export value of K-Pop albums to China has also exceeded 18.981 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 195.7%.

This also shows that if K-Pop artists want to increase physical sales, the Chinese market is still an indispensable part, and how to "tempt" Chinese consumers to become "leeks" has become a problem that K-Pop needs to overcome. Therefore, it is self-evident that offline book signing parties are surging. 

"We are actually calculating a reasonable difference in a set of game rules formulated by brokerage companies and platforms, on the one hand, to add bricks to the sales record of idols, on the other hand, we are also using book signing parties to satisfy our desire to meet idols, and a small vanity that has a certain special status in the fandom."

And NANA does not think that this is using the fan economy to "cut leeks", "In fact, it is also a wish to fight a wish, what we (fans) need is feedback on emotional value, choose the way we think we need, and there are not a few white fans." ”

In other words, the signing party can also be regarded as an alternative interpretation of the blind box economy, even if the fans have a gambling psychology, but to some extent, it also satisfies the spiritual needs and social needs of fans, and the sense of surprise and satisfaction it brings is the spiritual consumption that fans crave.

It is undeniable that this also stimulates a certain degree of market vitality, brings sustainable development space to physical album sales, and drives the prosperity of the second-hand trading market.

However, this also makes the signing party inevitably have certain financial attributes, so that fans bear unimaginable bubble risks in excessive speculation, such as small card speculation, album market oversaturation secondary sales can not be sold, etc., in the poor information to be chased up and killed.

As a new business, signing will generate huge benefits due to the related nature of its fan economy, but it is also a drain on the enthusiasm of the audience to hollow out fans and establish a reasonable selection mechanism. How to ensure that the audience achieves positive feedback of emotional value on the basis of rational consumption, rather than promoting the formation of a long-term posture of the gray industry chain, is what the industry needs to solve.

After all, standing in the center of the "besieged" mainland idol market, it is also time to carry out a new model of local re-creation of book signings, and leeks do not grow on their own. 

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