Supporting Your Faves When Promotions End
When groups finish promoting new songs, there are a few things that happen: they either immediately begin a new round of promotions, new music schedules like variety appearances or MCing, or more commonly, they disappear from the public eye for some much needed rest and to begin the creative process all over again. This leaves fans questioning how they can support their favorites when they are not active. Sure, buying albums is a great way to show support, but there are tons of other ways to show your love.
Stream, Stream, Stream
Although we hate the pressure put on streaming during the promotion season, this is really one of the best ways to support your faves if you cannot purchase albums.
YouTube and Naver Streams
While streaming on both platforms is important for attention both domestically and abroad, YouTube allows for a larger audience, a better chance at attracting foreign brand deals, and earning money for every stream. The more videos that are watched on both platforms, the quicker it brings them to the “Trending” or “Popular” sections of their respective sites, meaning more eyes on them. More eyes means more opportunities at home and abroad.
Music Streaming on Streaming Sites
While it’s hard to find the payout for Korean streaming sites, it’s easy to find the payout for other sites like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.
This image shows what the average payout per stream is that goes to the song’s “recording owner,” so in this case your artist may only see a percentage of the payout as they still need to pay everyone on their team. To put this in perspective, per 1,000 Spotify streams there is a payout of a little over $3 USD. The more people that stream on these various platforms, the more they help put money in artists’ pockets.
Watch Solo Content
While there is tons of content of groups together, another way to support is by watching individual members' content. From MCing to Twitch streams, idols work hard to promote their own groups as well as draw attention to themselves as artists and creators. That's where solo content and schedules come into play.
Member Streaming Channels
These days, a lot of artists are coming out with their own content via their own YouTube, AfreecaTV, and Twitch channels. Artists like DAY6’s Jae, MAMAMOO’s Solar, and IZ*ONE’s Sakura among others have channels where they upload a variety of content from original songs, vlogs, and even Let’s Plays. These channels allow for the artists to not only bring more attention to their groups, but to themselves as well. While artists receive a substantial amount from their regular promotions, having their own channels allows for additional money streams in case companies fail to do their jobs.
Talk About Them Everywhere Online
Brand power is important for the life of an idol group. If attention dies down after promotions end, it's hard for them to remain in the public's mind. In order for a group to become a “household name,” they need to be constantly talked about. Tweet about them, comment about them on related articles, recommend them to people, use hashtags, etc. While the spam of content can be considered annoying by some, when done well it ensures that an artist remains talked about during their downtime in between releases. Another important thing to do is to react to articles on Korean news sites. A lot of fanbases share instructions on how to do this best, so make sure to check in with them. These reactions will push the articles up the recommended list and make people pay attention. This is important for those groups who have massive international bases, but a small domestic fanbase.
Final Thoughts
Any kind of support is good support. Being able to support your idol in any way shows how much you love them. Don’t feel discouraged if you are not able to do a lot, anything you do to help get the name of your favorite artist(s) out is appreciated by fellow fans and the artist themselves. At the end of the day we want to see our favorites dressing well, eating well, and smiling, so any support goes a long way.