About half of Koreans prefer 'unpaid' online concerts: survey

A scene from BLACKPINK's “The Show,” the K-pop girl group's first livestream concert held on Jan. 31. Courtesy of YG Entertainment

By Park Ji-won

BLACKPINK's “The Show,” the K-pop megastar girl band's first livestream concert held on YouTube on Jan. 31, drew the attention of fans from all over the world. YG Entertainment, its agency, estimated more than 280,000 audiences watched the show, which approximately raised at least 10 billion won ($9 million) from ticket sales. Audiences paid an average of 42,000 won for the show. K-pop sensation BTS's livestream concerts held in June and October also attracted a large number of people or some 750,000 and 990,000 audiences, respectively, earning at least 26 billion won and 50 billion won from ticket sales.

People in the K-pop industry were excited about the results, viewing them as a positive signal for the future of online concerts as an alternative to offline gigs.

A recent survey, however, showed the future of paid online concerts for other singers who don't have global influence like BTS or BLACKPINK may not be as rosy. About half of Koreans said they are not ready to pay for online concert tickets.

According to the survey conducted by the Record Label Industry Association in January on 1,000 people aged between 16 and 49 who have watched paid online concerts, 46.6 percent of respondents said they are willing to watch online concerts only if they are free. Less than 30 percent (26.9 percent) said the reasonable price for an online concert ticket is around 10,000 won and they would pay for it. Also, 16 percent said they would watch online concerts if the ticket price ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 won, while only 6.4 percent said they are ready to pay if the ticket price is somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 won.

Some 29 percent said they are willing to pay 10,000 won or less if their favorite acts take the stage.