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Image: YG Entertainment
On June 8th, K-pop icon G-Dragon released EP Kwon Ji Yong, his first solo work in four years. Unfortunately, there’s a snag: it’s ineligible lớn chart as an album in his trang chủ country of South Korea.

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South Korea’s Gaon Chart, operated by the Korean Music nội dung Industry Association (KMCIA) has two ways for artists to lớn chart: the Gaon Album Chart, which ranks physical album releases, & the Gaon Digital Chart, which ranks singles based on an aggregate of downloads, streaming, and background music.

KMCIA says G-Dragon’s Kwon Ji Yong can only be considered for the Gaon Digital Chart because of its format — a USB drive that connects khổng lồ YG Entertainment’s website (G-Dragon’s label), where people can tải về the EP & additional exclusive truyền thông media after inserting a serial number. Because the USB drive itself contains no music, says KMCIA, it’s not an album.

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“Why does music have to lớn be stored only in CDs? This doesn’t make sense.”

Separately, Kwon Ji Yong’s songs are eligible for Gaon Digital Chart, where lead single “Untitled, 2014” is currently ranked at the top spot. But, album charts & sales are a major component of a record’s success. As Billboard notes, high physical album sales, especially within K-pop, indicate substantiative national popularity that helps propel an act forward.

Here in the US, all forms of albums are eligible for the Billboard charts, as long as sales are reported to lớn Nielsen Music. This includes Kwon Ji Yong, which debuted at No. 192 on the Billboard 200.

KMCIA’s position is not unusual for Asia. Other charts (like Japan’s Oricon and Taiwan’s G-Music) also only consider hard copies for album ranking. It’s hard to lớn imagine that things will stay this way for much longer. Though streaming in Asia accounts for 14 percent of global digital revenues, that number is only increasing, and companies like Spotify are finding creative ways to lớn appeal to lớn Asian markets.

“We think that the whole issue is a structural problem, those holding on to the old way of thinking & not being able khổng lồ accept the changes that are happening right now,” a rep from YG Entertainment told Sports Dongha. “It very difficult khổng lồ understand why some people would want lớn confine music storage devices to only CDs. Even those in their 70s & 80s don’t listen khổng lồ music from CD players, and it’s hard to find places khổng lồ buy them... Why does music have lớn be stored only in CDs? This doesn’t make sense.”