Why PR is important in K-pop

I am a student based in Los Angeles who is currently studying Public Relations. I am a huge fan of a lot of K-pop groups, and because I am interested in the music industry, I like to follow up with the PR departments on how they promote my favorite artists and what I have observed as a fan.

 K-pop (Korean Pop) has positively taken the music world by storm. K-pop originated in South Korea. The first-ever K-pop group was Seo Taiji and The Boys, who were signed under Banana Culture Entertainment and debuted in 1992.

 Since then, over the past decade, K-pop has grown tremendously around the world. It was not common for K-pop groups to promote outside of Korea but with the help of Public Relations, K-pop music labels have been able to target a larger audience internationally. There are several strategies from public relations that K-pop labels have used to grow their audience.

 The first one would be the amount of content that is pushed out. This content can include anything from daily vlogs, Instagram lives, Twitter threads of Idols interacting with fans, and Idols promoting items. This is a tactic that can make fans feel closer to their favorite K-Pop Idol, which will then grow a bond between their love and support for them. The amount of interactions between fan and Idol will also result in more support which leads to more sales.

 Another example would be breaking into the Western music industry. Targeting different international audiences will help your artist grow tremendously. An example would be having your K-pop client promote their newest album in the United States. Important music cities such as Los Angeles and New York would be the most ideal cities to promote, which is where K-pop groups base their PR companies. Most K-pop groups will promote their album in The States and then play that album on their North American tour, where American fans can be the first to hear the songs live.

 Monitoring album sales would also be another ideal example of PR in K-pop. Something unique about K-pop albums is that they include photocards - photos of K-pop idols in an ID form, along with other inclusions such as postcards and stickers. Each album can vary from one to four photo cards, and inclusions are random. Because of this, it is ideal for K-pop fans to buy more albums in order to get a photo card of their favorite Idol.

 These tactics have worked, and several K-pop groups have promoted successfully in other countries such as the United States. More ideals such as online concerts have also been developed, and there are more brilliant ideas of PR to come in the near future.