Latest news with #Pastoral
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Inside the big business of boy paper, a booming sub-industry of the K-pop machine
Seventeen's new album has been fueling a K-pop photo card trading frenzy. The variety of photo cards has spawned a booming market for trading and collecting. The cards' popularity come as K-pop companies' stock soars. "I have your man," I typed at 1 a.m., my hands trembling with excitement. "Do you have Joshua on hand to trade?" Joshua Hong's 13-member K-pop band, Seventeen, released a new album on May 26. That album comes with serious math for trading card aficionados. There are seven versions of the record, each containing one to four photo cards — that's 264 unique cards, or "boy paper," to collect, not counting rare releases. I wanted him badly enough to wheel and deal my way through a maelstrom of trading card listings. My late-night obsession is a small sliver of the sprawling business of K-pop photo card trading, a blood sport that's equal parts lottery and enterprise. The pieces of boy paper I'm attempting to secure are highly desirable collectibles in the fandom, said Kay Koo, an expert in marketing and K-pop from Korea University. Fans buy copies of the same album, hoping to find their favorite card. "They serve as tangible indicators of fan loyalty," Koo told BI. "Some fans even purchase over 100 copies of the same album to collect every photo card produced for that release, humorously calling this practice 'collecting Dragon Balls,' referencing the Japanese manga where collecting all seven Dragon Balls summons a dragon capable of granting any wish," Koo added. Jackie Ko, a proud Carat — the name Seventeen fans go by, à la Swifties — has amassed 3,300 cards since she started collecting in 2021. She buys albums, keeps most of the cards she pulls, then tries to trade duplicates. Ko, who's based in the US, also looks for fresh pieces from online sites like Mercari Japan, Neokyo, and PocaMarket — or from her local K-pop store's photo card trading nights. "The chase and journey of finding certain photo cards is thrilling in itself as well, and there comes a sense of achievement when said card is found, or when a certain collection is finally complete," she said. Ko estimates she's spent around $25,000 on photo cards and albums. Some of the more expensive cards she owns are rare cards of Seventeen's leader, — she's seen them being resold for around $400 a piece. Kia Pastoral, who became a Carat in October 2022, has a growing collection of 368 photo cards. She goes on X to look for new pieces and relies on her friends in the Philippines for more local trades. Pastoral estimates she's spent around $600 on cards. "I buy the albums not just for the photo cards, but also for the album itself and other inclusions," Pastoral said. "I definitely love the feeling of unboxing new albums and getting excited to see which member I pull." Ko described the adrenaline rush from buying albums as "addictive." "I don't think I would be buying this many albums if not for the photo cards," she said. I can relate to Ko and Pastoral's descriptions of the unboxing high. I bought five albums from a local K-pop store in Singapore for around $25 Singapore dollars, or $19.50, a piece. Staff at two K-pop album stores in Singapore said new shipments of the Seventeen album came in just this week, and fans have been snapping it up. Much like Pokémon card collectors, Carats like Ko and Pastoral keep their photo cards neatly protected in decorative card holders and a variety of A4 and A5 binders. Both fans have brought their photo cards on trips. Ko, for one, says she doesn't leave the house for an outing without a photo card on her. Fans and local stores can make money in the photo card resale market. Listings on an online Singaporean marketplace range from $5 to $25 per photo card. K-pop shops in Singapore also sell exclusive photo cards for $15 to $20 a piece. The photo card feeding frenzy is just one branch of the sprawling landscape of K-pop, with its seemingly infinite supply of boy and girl groups debuting every year. Seventeen has been around for 10 years, and their peers at parent company Hybe, BTS, are set to return this month in full force for the group's 12th anniversary. Though K-pop stocks dipped in 2024, Goldman Sachs analysts projected in a June 5 report that "Mega IPs" — bands like BTS, that perform in stadium-sized venues — would continue to buoy the companies this year. Concerts, albums, and merchandising are all part of the monetization mechanism for bands under Hybe. In 2023, Seventeen, per statistics compiled by Goldman, notched an all-time high of 4.5 million albums sold in week one of release that broke the Grammy-nominated BTS's record of 3.3 million copies. Photo cards aren't the only factor driving physical album sales. "In the early years, fans used to buy more albums to collect additional photo cards. Nowadays, they often trade or sell them among themselves," said Stephanie Choi, an assistant professor in ethnomusicology at the University of Colorado-Boulder. "There are so many different reasons for album purchase, and photo cards are one of the many reasons," Choi added. Fans may want to mass-buy albums to clinch spots at exclusive events or just to help their idols chart better. Still, it's fair to say that Seventeen's fame isn't built on a house of cards. "While photo cards are crucial for immediate sales, digital strategies and continuous online engagement are indispensable for long-term fan base growth and sustainable commercial success," Koo, the marketing expert from Korea University, added. Hybe's stock is up 43% in the last year. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Inside the big business of boy paper, a booming sub-industry of the K-pop machine
Share Save Seventeen's new album has been fueling a K-pop photo card trading frenzy. The variety of photo cards has spawned a booming market for trading and collecting. The cards' popularity come as K-pop companies' stock soars. "I have your man," I typed at 1 a.m., my hands trembling with excitement. "Do you have Joshua on hand to trade?" Joshua Hong's K-pop band Seventeen released a new album on May 26. That album comes with serious math for trading card aficionados: There are seven versions of the record, each containing four photo cards — that's 336 unique cards, or "boy paper," to collect. I wanted him badly enough to wheel and deal my way through a maelstrom of trading card listings. My late-night obsession is a small sliver of the sprawling business of K-pop photo card trading, a blood sport that's equal parts lottery and enterprise. Supply and demand The pieces of boy paper I'm attempting to secure are highly desirable collectibles in the fandom, said Kay Koo, an expert in marketing and K-pop from Korea University. Fans buy copies of the same album, hoping to find their favorite card. "They serve as tangible indicators of fan loyalty," Koo told BI. "Some fans even purchase over 100 copies of the same album to collect every photo card produced for that release, humorously calling this practice 'collecting Dragon Balls,' referencing the Japanese manga where collecting all seven Dragon Balls summons a dragon capable of granting any wish," Koo added. Jackie Ko, a proud Carat — the name Seventeen fans go by, à la Swifties — has amassed 3,300 cards since she started collecting in 2021. She buys albums, keeps most of the cards she pulls, then tries to trade duplicates. Ko, who's based in the US, also looks for fresh pieces from online sites like Mercari Japan, Neokyo, and PocaMarket — or from her local K-pop store's photo card trading nights. "The chase and journey of finding certain photo cards is thrilling in itself as well, and there comes a sense of achievement when said card is found, or when a certain collection is finally complete," she said. Ko estimates she's spent around $25,000 on photo cards and albums. Some of the more expensive cards she owns are rare cards of Seventeen's leader, — she's seen them being resold for around $400 a piece. Kia Pastoral, who became a Carat in October 2022, has a growing collection of 368 photo cards. She goes on X to look for new pieces and relies on her friends in the Philippines for more local trades. Pastoral estimates she's spent around $600 on cards. "I buy the albums not just for the photo cards, but also for the album itself and other inclusions," Pastoral said. "I definitely love the feeling of unboxing new albums and getting excited to see which member I pull." Ko described the adrenaline rush from buying albums as "addictive." "I don't think I would be buying this many albums if not for the photo cards," she said. The high I can relate to Ko and Pastoral's descriptions of the unboxing high. I bought five albums from a local K-pop store in Singapore for around $25 Singapore dollars, or $19.50, a piece. Staff at two K-pop album stores in Singapore said new shipments of the Seventeen album came in just this week, and fans have been snapping it up. Much like Pokémon card collectors, Carats like Ko and Pastoral keep their photo cards neatly protected in decorative card holders and a variety of A4 and A5 binders. Both fans have brought their photo cards on trips. Ko, for one, says she doesn't leave the house for an outing without a photo card on her. Fans and local stores can make money in the photo card resale market. Listings on an online Singaporean marketplace range from $5 to $25 per photo card. K-pop shops in Singapore also sell exclusive photo cards for $15 to $20 a piece. Merchandising is king The photo card feeding frenzy is just one branch of the sprawling landscape of K-pop, with its seemingly infinite supply of boy and girl groups debuting every year. Seventeen has been around for 10 years, and their peers at parent company Hybe, BTS, are set to return this month in full force for the group's 12th anniversary. Though K-pop stocks dipped in 2024, Goldman Sachs analysts projected in a June 5 report that "Mega IPs" — bands like BTS, that perform in stadium-sized venues — would continue to buoy the companies this year. Concerts, albums, and merchandising are all part of the monetization mechanism for bands under Hybe. In 2023, Seventeen, per statistics compiled by Goldman, notched an all-time high of 4.5 million albums sold in week one of release that broke the Grammy-nominated BTS's record of 3.3 million copies. Photo cards aren't the only factor driving physical album sales. "In the early years, fans used to buy more albums to collect additional photo cards. Nowadays, they often trade or sell them among themselves," said Stephanie Choi, an assistant professor in ethnomusicology at the University of Colorado-Boulder. "There are so many different reasons for album purchase, and photo cards are one of the many reasons," Choi added. Fans may want to mass-buy albums to clinch spots at exclusive events or just to help their idols chart better. Still, it's fair to say that Seventeen's fame isn't built on a house of cards. "While photo cards are crucial for immediate sales, digital strategies and continuous online engagement are indispensable for long-term fan base growth and sustainable commercial success," Koo, the marketing expert from Korea University, added. Hybe's stock is up 43% in the last year.
Boston Globe
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
BSO's Beethoven festival concludes with three hits and one miss
But though those numbers 1 through 9 may look neat when lined up, the symphonies didn't fit so into four programs. For example, Nos. 8 and 9 two were completed a decade apart. During that time, Beethoven's hearing loss intensified to the point where he was totally deaf, and he went through several periods of composing almost nothing, allegedly prompted by family troubles and chronic illnesses. Conversely, Nos. 5 and 6 were performed on different programs during the festival, despite receiving their world premieres on the same day. Perhaps there wasn't an easy way to sort the pieces by where they actually occurred on Beethoven's timeline, rather than simply by number, but it would have added meaning had the symphonies been put in more context. The program book, with notes by Beethoven biographer Jan Swafford, pulled significant weight in that regard. I will never truly be objective about Symphony No. 6, 'Pastoral.' It appears in some of my earliest memories, when my grandparents would put the final movement on the turntable and silence the looming grandfather clock in their living room to help me fall asleep at their house; when played well, to me it invariably sounds like what being loved and protected feels like. The BSO's 'Pastoral' on Tuesday night was achingly nostalgic, all clear water and golden light, a picture postcard of the Austrian countryside that Beethoven loved so much. The sweetness was almost oppressive, akin to a Thomas Kinkade painting, but lively accents kept it grounded enough. Principal clarinetist William Hudgins conjured waterfalls and leaping fish from his instrument, and the rustics' dance in the third movement began well-mannered before becoming satisfyingly rowdy. Advertisement Symphony No. 7, the most sublime and ecstatic of Beethoven's symphonic scores, was substantial but strangely bland, as if someone had forgotten to add salt to it. The issue wasn't speed; there was plenty of that, especially during the third movement. Tuesday's performance also included some fine solo work, especially from principal flutist Lorna McGhee, who added the fiery edges of a Celtic dance tune to the first movement's flute solo. Still, the orchestra as a whole seemed to be on cruise control. The missing ingredient seemed to be Lust — in the German sense, with a capital L, not as a deadly sin but as an appetite for life. Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Andris Nelsons leading the BSO in Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 on Jan. 18. Winslow Townson However, Friday afternoon's concert was an improvement. Symphony No. 8 was lithe and exhilarating, and Nelsons burgeoned with vitality on the podium as he drew out the piece's slapstick musical accents. In years past, when Nelsons would hang onto the podium's rail behind him, he seemed fatigued; these days, he still reaches for the rail, but in moments of high rather than low energy. At some points during the brief Symphony No. 8, it seemed to be the only thing keeping him from flying into the rafters. Advertisement The BSO performs the Symphony No. 9 yearly at Tanglewood as the closing event of the summer in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, but the Symphony Hall performance of the same piece proved itself an entirely different experience. The acoustics of Symphony Hall allow softer and subtler nuances of the sound to come through, and the orchestra reveled in those. The introduction of the 'Ode to Joy' theme in the low strings came after a pronounced silence, and it was whisper-quiet but no less solid, which allowed it to gradually gather momentum and power as the other instruments joined in. Transitions between sections were also fluid and graceful. The moment after the finale's jangling military march section was calibrated so that when the Tanglewood Festival Chorus re-entered in joyous full cry, it all but shook the ground. BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA At Symphony Hall, Jan. 21 and 24. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
