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The Korea Times

By Kim Jae-heun
The coronavirus pandemic could have been a disaster for South Korean entertainment companies, but instead, they used it as an opportunity to go online and stage concerts on virtual platforms.
Revenue from concerts is a big deal for talent agencies such as Big Hit Entertainment, SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment. And when the coronavirus outbreak started, all three knew trouble was brewing when their K-pop groups’ concerts started getting cancelled.
Last year, K-pop giants BTS held 62 concerts in South Korea and around the world, earning 198.6 billion won (US$156 million) for Big Hit Entertainment, or one third of the company’s annual sales of 587.9 billion won in 2019.
This year, Big Hit Entertainment had planned to hold 39 concerts as part of BTS’ world tour covering South Korea, the US, Canada, England, Germany, Spain and Japan. However, most of them were either cancelled or postponed indefinitely.
Online performances cannot completely replace live performances. However, it showed the potential for contactless concerts. We need to think about how we can both develop both online and live concerts
Lee Dong-yeon, a professor at the Korea National University of Arts
To make up for what could possibly be a huge economic loss, South Korean entertainment companies settled on the alternative of holding concerts online. They figured there was no better option when the world was practising social distancing.
BTS held their first online concerts on April 18 and 19 on YouTube under the title of “BTS Online Concert Weekend”, which ran for a combined 23 hours and 13 minutes and recorded a total of 50.59 billion views.
Such success was possible because Big Hit Entertainment had been utilising online platforms since August 2018. It had aired live BTS concerts at cinemas and streamed the shows online, garnering 410,000 and 230,000 views respectively.


The entertainment company also produced a documentary featuring the behind-the-scenes footage of BTS concerts that was watched by 4.6 million fans, more than double the 2.06 million that actually went to the live shows.
Following the success of free concerts in April, Big Hit Entertainment held the biggest paid online show on June 14, allowing 756,600 viewers from 107 countries to log in at the same – 15 times more than the 50,000 spectators that an average large-scale concert venue accommodates.
75,000 K-pop fans paid US$27 to stream SuperM’s live concert stream
“Is this the future of concerts? It is a little frightening,” BTS member RM said during the concert. “But we are able to do this because of our fans from all over the world. We hope the time comes quickly when we can gather in reality for our shows. Until then, we will do our best to do whatever else we can offer.”
Big Hit Entertainment used its “Weverse Shop” e-commerce platform to air the BTS concert in South Korea and Kiswe Mobile to stream the show in the US.
The tickets cost 29,000 won for members of the BTS fan club and 39,000 won for non-members. Big Hit Entertainment earned 22 billion won from ticket sales and generated profits from two commercial periods played between concert streams.

This was a huge improvement considering that BTS’ agency earned 4.6 billion won from streaming the boy band’s concert at Wembley Stadium in London on Naver last June, attracting 140,000 viewers.
In collaboration with Naver, South Korea’s largest internet portal, SM Entertainment launched its first paid online concert, “Beyond Live” featuring boy band SuperM.
The seven-member group’s performance was aired live for 120 minutes and more than 75,000 viewers from 109 countries logged in to watch the show. A ticket cost 33,000 won and the entertainment company is estimated to have earned more than 2.4 billion won from ticket sales.

Following SuperM’s concert online, six more bands held concerts on virtual platforms and the number of viewers increased with each new event.
“Online performances cannot completely replace live performances, said Lee Dong-yeon, a professor at the Korea National University of Arts. “However, it showed the potential for contactless concerts. We need to think about how we can both develop both online and live concerts.”
Read the full story at the Korea Times


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When the pandemic ended their world tour, BTS staged some free online concerts, then some paid streamed events
These were so successful, other groups followed suit and K-pop labels clawed back millions of dollars



The BTS world tour was halted by the pandemic, K-pop’s biggest names turned to online shows. The first performances were free, and tickets were sold for later streamed events that made millions of dollars.
