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The Actual Reason
for Buying CDs
Efforts to protect the The Current State of the Music Industry
environment
With advances in technology came changes in the medium
Many industries today have been through which one listens to music. CDs, cassette players,
striving to lessen the damage done to and MP3 players all had their time once. Nowadays, few
the environment. For example, coffee people listen to CDs with the universalization of digital music.
shops started using paper straws and Yet K-Pop industries keep on selling albums to make profit.
encourage customers to use their How is this possible? The albums do not only contain CDs,
own plastic bottles. However, the but also contain a variety of goods such as photobooks,
music industry does not seem to be posters and photocards. A survey done to consumers of
doing anything different. The Korean K-pop fandom activity by KCA elucidates that 52.7% of those
Federation for Environmental Movement consumers are purchasing the albums for the additional
have criticized the impossibility of products inside, not for the CDs themselves. Furthermore,
recycling CDs because of the materials 25.4% answered it was for event application, such as
they are composed of. The KCA, Korea concerts and fan meetings. The Korean music industry has
Consumer Agency, also stated that only been using the albums as a means of marketing. They have
5.7% of the consumers actually listen to been producing albums with different components per series
the CDs they buy, suggesting the large and include random photocards to induce fans to buy more.
number of CDs being discarded. If a fan does not get the photocard with his or her favorite
member, he or she is more likely to purchase another one.
As a result, the number of complaints has been increasing
since 2019. The complaints received by the ‘1372 Consumer
Consultation Network’ in 2019 was 123. The number
reached 301 in 2021, and 299 in 2022.
