Interlude

“Of course, this is a goal we can’t achieve right away.”

“Why?”

Hyein asked back at Team Leader Go’s words, a hint of disappointment in her voice. Go Kyungmin lightly brushed back his hair before answering.

“To begin with, our fandom hasn’t matured enough yet.”

Selling a lot of albums doesn’t mean that a lot of people will come to a concert, nor does having a lot of people come to a concert mean that a lot of albums will sell. That’s because the two are entirely different types of content.

Albums in the 2020s have taken on the character of merchandise and collectibles. Now that more people lack CD players than own them, albums themselves are no longer used for practical purposes. They are used as a means of including accessories such as photocards, postcards, and bromides.

Concerts are different. A concert is essentially the act of selling an experience. You listen to several hours’ worth of songs live and feel a momentary sense of liberation. It may remain as a photo, a video, or a memory, but nothing tangible remains.

“The two forms of content differ in both how they’re consumed and who consumes them. To put it bluntly, an album costs little enough that you could buy one even if you were starving. But if you tried to starve yourself to go to a concert, you’d die. The prices themselves are entirely different. For example…”

Go Kyungmin waved a sheet of data. It was material from the album distributor showing the age distribution of Group Sound’s fans.

“Looking at the album sales data, our fan base is concentrated among people in their late teens and early twenties. There are also some in their early teens. It’s only natural. [Hanging Garden] became a hit through SNS and challenge culture. Naturally, the age group familiar with that format was bound to become our primary fan base. But…”...