Million Seller, A Prestigious Title In The K-pop Industry

JAKARTA - K-pop group SEVENTEEN won the double million seller title on Thursday, November 12 through their latest album, Semicolon. For the first time ever, SEVENTEEN has the highest sales since making its debut in 2015.

Million seller is a title given to a solo musician or group who has more than one million album sales. The more their album sales, the more multiplied the million seller title.

2020 can be called the year of SEVENTEEN. Not only has managed to sell millions of albums, SEVENTEEN is also active in a number of television shows and music stages.

The title of million seller was first achieved by soloist Seo Taiji in 1998 through the album Seo Taiji. Although it is called Seo Taiji's first album, the public thinks this is Seo Taiji and Boys' fifth album after they decided to disband.

But sales of one million albums were only reached until Kim Gun Mo's seventh album. After that no musician or group had sales above one million. Until the curse was broken by SM Entertainment's group EXO through their first album, XOXO in 2013. For the first time in 12 years, a K-pop group has regained one million sales.

Congratulations! #EXO set the record for selling 1,000,000 copies of their first album, 《XOXO (Kiss & Hug)》. pic.twitter.com/foLc2muK6l

- SMTOWN (@SMTOWNGLOBAL) December 27, 2013

Launching Soompi, at that time EXO won 1,007,577 album sales. The million seller title for EXO continued until they were dubbed quintuple million sellers for selling millions of copies for five consecutive years.

As for girl groups, BLACKPINK became the first female K-pop group to reach a million seller through their first album, THE ALBUM.

In 2020, BTS ranks first in the group with the most album sales in South Korea. Consistently releasing albums every year, the Map of the Soul series, which was released in various versions, has stolen international attention since 2019.

Following in second place, SEVENTEEN won a million seller with Henggarae album and continued with Semicolon. Interestingly, this achievement was carried out within two days of releasing the album.

[기사] # 세븐틴, 스페셜 앨범 '세미콜론' 106 만장 돌파 .. 더블 밀리언 셀러 등극 https://t.co/tC5dBWj63f# 플레 디스 #PLEDIS #SEVENTEEN

- 플레 디스 공식 트위터 (@pledisnews) November 12, 2020

In third place, NCT is a million seller with their big project, RESONANCE Pt. 1. Currently they are preparing RESONANCE Pt. 2 as the second project this year.

EXO's Baekhyun became the fourth K-pop musician to win a million seller. With the mini album Delight, this album sold one million copies in a month. Baekhyun became the newest soloist to hit high sales after Kim Gun Moo in 2001.

How do you know the million seller count? There are many music stores designated to sell these musicians' albums. Then the agency will calculate the organic sales starting from pre-orders to the day of the album's release.

The music streaming service will show sales results through the official website, one of which is the Gaon Chart. If you look at the official Gaon Chart website, you can see the album chart which contains the albums released along with the total sales.

Gaon Chart calculates all sales from CD, USB, KIT, LP versions, and many others. Currently, NCT's album RESONANCE Pt. 1 won 1,193,394 copies overall in October.

There are no special conditions for a musician to win the million seller title. If you have die hard fans like BTS, then buying an album is not a difficult matter. On the other hand, many fans have funded so that they can give albums to fans who cannot buy albums.

In addition, the agency's role in album sales is also large. They will hold a fansign session where fans are required to buy an album in order to get a raffle ticket. On the other hand, fans will compete to buy up albums in order to participate in the fansign.

The popularity of K-pop music in the international arena is not manipulated. Therefore, don't be surprised if there will be other groups that follow SEVENTEEN to reach million sellers. It's just that, a large fan role and a supportive agency are needed for the success of a group.