Gaon Chart, now Circle Chart, hopes to become the Billboard of Korea

K-pop

Published: 07 Jul. 2022, 17:38 Updated: 07 Jul. 2022, 18:40

Gaon Chart, now Circle Chart, hopes to become the Billboard of Korea

From left, Leeteuk of boy band Super Junior, Secretary General Choi Kwang-ho of the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), pop culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun and Professor Lee Tae-joon of the Korea Development Institute (KDI) attend the KMCA's proclamation ceremony on July 7 in Jongno District, central Seoul. [KMCA]

Album sales tracker Gaon Chart announced its new beginning as Circle Chart, with a newfound mission for accuracy and sustainable development.

The Korea Music Content Association (KMCA) held a proclamation ceremony on Thursday in Jongno District, central Seoul. The KMCA’s Secretary General Choi Kwang-ho, Professor Lee Tae-joon of the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and pop culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun attended as speakers, along with Leeteuk of boy band Super Junior who served as the M.C.

Since launching in 2010, Gaon Chart has become one of Korea’s leading music charts and key indexes in the K-pop scene. Now as Circle Chart, the tracker has not only a new name but also a new vision for the future of K-pop.

Logo for Circle Chart [KMCA]

“Like how Japan has the Oricon charts and the United States has the Billboard charts, we aim for Circle Chart to be a key figure in K-pop,” said Choi in a welcoming video. He proceeded to announce the values and future goals of Circle Chart.

“We want music charts to do more than just show the sales and popularity of a certain song,” he said. “Our goal is to spread the public value of K-pop to the world. Based on the objective data we collect, we are going to create an ecosystem of digital platforms that can materialize the spirit, public value and positive influence of K-pop.”

In order to launch Circle Chart, the KMCA signed partnerships for data collection with YouTube, TikTok, Spotify and Apple Music, on top of data from domestic charts Melon, Genie, Bugs, Flo and Vibe. It is now the only chart that is able to legally collect domestic and foreign data regarding K-pop.

One of the ways Circle Chart aims to provide worldwide K-pop data at a glance is to separately specify how many copies of an album were sold in Korea and abroad.

The Korea Music Content Association (KMCA)'s Secretary General Choi Kwang-ho explains Circle Chart's goals during the proclamation ceremony on July 7. [KMCA]

The KMCA also recently signed with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) as the representative of Korea, which means the two organizations will cooperate to mutually share their data and the IFPI will cite K-pop data from the KMCA in its annual reports.

Circle Chart is the world’s first music chart to take into account the eco-friendliness of music releases. The tracker aims to operate a category tentatively named “clean chart” which ranks K-pop albums based on eco-friendliness, hoping to encourage K-pop agencies to produce albums and merchandise that have minimal impact on the environment.

“Until now, only a few agencies individually made efforts to make their albums more environmentally friendly,” Choi said. “Now, we hope to lead the entire K-pop industry to start using eco-friendly ingredients for albums or switch to digital albums.”

According to Choi, Circle Chart will put an emphasis on indexes like streaming and downloads, and have the digital indexes serve as its main chart rather than album sales. Choi explained that the measure is an adjustment to reflect the reality that “K-pop albums have become more of a merchandise rather than something for actually listening to music."

“Although album sales numbers still hold great importance among fandoms, online streaming and downloads are how K-pop releases are mostly consumed,” he said. “We will sum up all the data from the world’s paid music streaming services and announce it via daily and weekly charts.”

Leeteuk of boy band Super Junior served as the M.C. and spoke about his experience with K-pop and Gaon Chart over the past decade. [KMCA]

Following suit, the annual Gaon Chart Music Awards will become the Circle Chart Music Awards. Circle Chart also plans to host its MWM (Moving the World with Music) festivals, a festive conference for global fans, companies and organizations to come together and discuss sustainable goals and better eco-friendly materials for K-pop.

During a Q. and A. session with the attending press, Choi explained how the chart will strive to collect data more accurately amid K-pop fandom’s bulk-buying and mass streaming, which are often accused of warping the charts.

“It is difficult to predict how the charts will be affected in those situations, but it is something that we’ve been keeping in mind and expecting since we operated Gaon Chart,” he said. “We are considering measures such as putting a per capita limit on streams and purchases in the future.”

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]