A Small Innovation in Korean Music Industry

Epik High, the Korean hip-hop group, established its own label called Map the Soul and opened its official website (http://www.mapthesoul.com) on March 18, 2009. The group distributed this news to various Korean media, writing, “The cost of an album rises, regardless of the artists’ intention, when the album is produced and sold traditionally. The price of our new album had to be higher due to the huge scale of its production. Even though the quality of the songs is high, we don’t want to sell the album at a price so high that our fans would be burdened. Therefore, we decided to sell and distribute it ourselves.” This is the first time a Korean group has tried establishing its own label and directly selling its album to customers.

Epik High opened its site mapthesoul.com since a growing number of its fans use diverse social networking media. In other words, the innovative attempt to escape the traditional distribution and management system was based on the needs of the group’s fans and customers. Epik High’s official website is crucial because the group needs to communicate with the world, mass media, and its fans. The website can be accessed in English as well as Korean.

There are eight sections on the site: news, schedule, artist, blog, mapNOW, mapTV, one, concert, and shop on the website. Epik High put social networking platforms such as a blog, YouTube, and a micro-blog into its official website. In the blog section, each member of the band and its staff has an individual blog. Each member writes about a personal view of the group’s work. Fans will find information about how the group produced its music, difficulties during the production, opinions of music, and an introduction to the album. Some of them write about their daily life, such as the places they go or what they did with their girlfriends. Fans can comment on what they read. In the mapNow section, they share messages from me2Day (http://www.me2day.net), the Korean micro-blogging site similar to Twitter. When they write a message, many of their fans reply.

They post video clips of their daily lives or behind-the-scenes views of their appearances on the broadcast TV program posted on YouTube. At the mapTV section, people can see all the video clips the group has posted on YouTube and write their opinions about the video clips. This was a great tool for introducing the group’s website.

Jieun Oh, a fan of the TV program, said, “I am a crazy fan of Infinity Challenge, the famous Korean variety show. Last August, Epik High was on the show and sang a song written just for the show. The song grabbed the attention of the public. When Epik High announced that they would post a song for free download on their website, the website crashed because there were so many visitors. I was one of them. From the moment I first heard about the website, I have been visiting to listen to the group’s music and read the band members’ thoughts.”

In the one section, people write their opinions and Epik High replies. This gives Epik High a direct line to what people think of the group’s music and concerts. Many people have asked them to hold a Christmas concert through the one section. Jiyun Kim, who is a fan of Epik High, said, “I knew that they had stopped production of their official album until DJ Tukutz returned from army service. However, I really hope that they hold a Christmas concert, which they do every year.” Finally, Epik High announced that they would do as their fans asked.

The group’s play for independence seems to be working. Since they began selling their albums only through their website, local sales of the album have greatly decreased compared to when they sold it by traditional way. However, sales to people in other countries have increased more than 10 times, and the group has also progressed in selling its music worldwide by offering the album through iTunes. Group members insist that the biggest thing they have earned is “communication.” Epik High said, “We really wanted to directly communicate with our fans, but if we had been under contract with a company, they would have prohibited doing that. We communicate with fans 24/7 on our site, mapthesoul.com.”

This is a great example of using social networking media, a two-way communication channel to share ideas or thoughts with a target audience. Social networking media is not a tool for delivering a message but for deriving empathy and understanding through conversations with one’s target audience.

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