Amid Corona, Global K-Pop Fans Benefit From Digital Events

If you’re one of the millions of K-pop fans from across the span of the globe, the likelihood of you living in a city where your favorite artists tour maybe once a year is low. But amid the global covid-19 pandemic, the geographic barriers, hierarchy even, of K-pop fandom have been leveled thanks to digitally savvy ways of bringing together fans and stars. 

In the past, to attend a K-pop concert in person or to attend a fan engagement event where fans can interact with their favorite stars in a variety of ways ranging from autograph signings to high-fives, many fans had to travel, sometimes internationally, for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Geographic limitations of K-pop, and concert tours in general, meant that fans who attended these events in general either had to be locals, more affluent or had to go to major lengths to afford attending. But with the coronavirus keeping the world at a stand still, K-pop stars are engaging more actively with digital content than ever before, and bringing those traditionally offline interactions online to major success.

Concerts have been immensely lucrative and popular, with K-pop acts like BTS, SuperM, NCT 127, (G)I-DLE, and others, plus online festivals, having already held events that drew in hundreds of thousands of fans from across the world; BTS’s Bang Bang Con: The Live concert even was recognized by Guinness World Records for having the most-viewed live streamed concert ever, with over 750,000 fans tuning in. Most online concert tickets have been priced at roughly $30 USD, cheaper than typical K-pop concerts.  

Expect more of these concerts in the future. Not only are corona-era concerts currently planned by acts such as Monsta X, Seventeen, and TWICE, the medium is a great alternative to typical in-person concerts and is expected to survive this social distancing timeline we find ourselves in. As a low cost alternative to attending concerts in-person, one with the potential to reach many more fans than any in-person event can hope to and reduced costs to put on a show when artists don’t need to perform in front of a live audience, there’s no reason not to expect K-pop acts to regularly begin integrating online concerts into their touring, attracting fans beyond those who will be able to get the in-person experience. 

While K-pop’s digital concerts have proven to be immensely succesful and popular, “ontact” – a term in South Korea popularized recently to refer to contactless, online interactions – fan engagements have become increasingly popular, specifically video calls and autograph sessions. Recently several K-pop acts, ranging from the most popular to smaller artists, have held virtual fan signing events where they meet briefly with fans over the phone, and send them personalized signed albums. 

To get access to a one-on-one digital conversation with your favorite star – usually each fan can only speak to a single specific member of the act they apply for – album sales serve as entries, with fans being picked at random based on sales. Though most calls only last around 2 minutes, they’re an experience unlike any other, especially for international fans beyond South Korea and Japan who rarely get to have one-on-one interactions with their favorite stars.

Like the concerts, these fan events have been immensely popular among K-pop fans, and may be one factor in why K-pop sales are bigger than ever in 2020. 

One American fan who asked to be identified only by the first name April was never able to attend an autograph session – known as “fansigns” in Korea and in K-pop fandom spaces – in South Korea, but felt that the virtual experience gave her, and other international fans, the opportunity. She spoke with Monsta X’s I.M., her favorite member of the group, and recalls the experience as feeling “like I was catching up with an old friend.” While immensely personal in its own way, she says that it wasn’t a replacement for the in-person thing: “It made me want to try for in person fansigns in the future.” 

Though these online concerts and digital fan engagements aren’t comparable to an in-person experience and do have their own downsides and costs, they offer an alternative not only for the age of corona but also the future as a tool to expand beyond traditional live events. Beneficial for both companies and fans, K-pop digital innovation is stronger than ever in 2020, and continuing to shape the relationship between artists and fans.