MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / K-POP NEWS

JYPE to stop physical album and go digital, K-pop fans salute ‘eco-friendly initiative'

K-pop industry has a huge carbon footprint with fans throwing away the albums after chart-tracking, collecting photocards and getting into fansigns

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Following Victon’s label IST Entertainment, BigHit and YG, JYPE has become the next agency trying to do its part in reducing its carbon footprint. On August 9, JYPE shared a report on their environmental impact reduction activities. They felt that since the environment had become a global problem, they hoped that they could get together with fans and show global solidarity in changing their activities to be more eco-friendly. And one of their new projects includes stopping physical albums in the long run.

JYPE shared that they were planning on replacing physical albums with digital albums in the future to reduce waste when purchasing albums. They are looking for alternatives that can replace plastic CDs. In this trial run, “when purchasing an album, only photocards are received in person. Songs, behind-the-scenes videos, and lyrics books are provided through digital code access, and for this purpose, related technologies such as QR and NFC are being studied. Photocards are also being considered with eco-friendly production.” While there has been huge inflation of physical K-pop albums, fans bulk buy for temporary reasons.

READ MORE
Does Victon's eco-friendly decision mean no more K-pop albums in future?

JYPE terminates NFT plans with Dunamu, K-pop fans say: 'First good decision'

JYPE to go eco-friendly for albums

Many fans mass-buy albums to collect different photocards, to help with charting, and participate in the lucky draw for fansigns. After the first-week chart tracking, fansign entries and photocard collections, these albums full of posters, photobooks, lyric books and the CD are then thrown out. The Internet was shocked after a Knetizen found hundreds of NCT albums abandoned on the side of the road with only the photocards missing. We have had Victon and BTS’ J-hope replacing physical albums with digital versions. YG Entertainment had shared that they would use eco-friendly material to create physical albums for their artists.

JYPE too is trying to combine eco-friendly production of physical albums and the introduction of digital albums to see what works for them the best. So, while they are currently not stopping physical albums till they find a better alternative, “we will minimize packaging materials…and reduce waste by utilizing FSC-certified paper, soybean oil ink, and low-emission coatings. We will promote the eco-friendliness of the artist merchandise step by step.” Items such as clothes, bags and tumblers will be made with natural materials, and can be recycled and reused several times.

‘Environment needs to be top priority’

Surprisingly, this initiative has fans of JYPE artists torn. While some are commending the eco-friendly approach, others are upset that they will not get a physical album of their favorite artists. One fan tweeted, “I might be the only one but I applaud JYPE for doing this. I’ve always disliked mass buying albums just for sales and they end up “donated” or thrown in the trash. Our environment needs to be top priority and we shouldn’t contribute to its demise if we don’t have to.”

Another added, “The qrts are concerning bc how is album sales much more important than the current state of our environment and planet like ?? the real cause of climate change is corporate greed and i salute that jype took an eco-friendly iniative at least to address that matter.” One fan commented, “I was just thinking about how ridiculous the million album seller title Kpop fans keep bragging about when in reality it's a ridiculous amount of bulk buying and contributes to so much waste. Glad to have read about JYPE's plans to find alternatives for physical albums.”

However, one fan felt JYPE was sabotaging TWICE, “I find it funny that JYPE and HYBE will probably stop making physical albums NOW with Twice and BTS but had no problem making 726363 albums with 827373737 versions for their other groups.” Another tried to come up with a better solution, “Jype could do so many other things like make less album versions, stop making pob and lucky draw pcs, not use albums as ways for people to win fancalls/fansigns. a physical cd option should still be available, im not about to buy a whole digital cd just for a stupid photocard.” One was worried, “There’s no way.. this will literally f*k up jype grps album physical sales. Jyp is not being to smart on this one.”

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.