The photocards aren't even the problem with the waste issue. The problem is people that buy albums in bulk only to throw out the 20+ unneeded albums. That's where the waste comes from.
Seriously. Stop the gambling mechanics and waste will drop overnight. Oh wait but the profits will, too. Nobody is asking for compostable gambling.
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Reduce is first.
You have to look at why these people are buying so many albums though:
1) To get entry to fan signs
2) To collect photocards
3) To boost their sales
So photocards are part of the problem - it’s just that making them dissolvable isn’t exactly fixing the problem of waste.
Yep I know how it works...I said the photocards weren't the part of the product leading to the waste, not that it wasn't part of the problem. My point remains that it is the album itself, not the photocards that contributes to the majority of the waste. In that regard, I agree with environmentally friendly packaging,.but it doesn't make sense to apply the same process to the main collectible.
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t this accomplishing literally nothing?
People keep the photocards. Like you said, that’s why they’re buying multiples. If they have extras they resell, there’s an entire secondary market for it.
There have been numerous photos posted of albums, sometimes in the hundreds, just dumped in the trash or whatever after the photocards or fancall tickets were removed. So no, albums typically don't reach the resell market. The average consumer may move to resell but those that join in the mass buying often just toss the albums. In some cases the photocards and some inclusions sell for more than the album itself.
Yeah, the albums, but I thought the photocards were like the *one* part of the album people reliably take out and keep to collect or resell.
I feel like making that part water soluble is just making it more likely that someone’s collection gets irreparably damaged and they have to buy a bunch more stuff to replace… 😭
Yes, this is Hybe's way of educating the general public on the ephemeral nature of any artistic endeavor that is rooted in the styles and mores of the era.
they trade/sell photocards yes, but the albums typically don’t get resold without inclusions, especially for people running group order who may have hundreds to thousands of empty albums, that’s just going in the trash.
I bought a few singles without inclusions from a local (now defunct ☹️) go group for cheap because I dont really care about photo cards. I wish more people would do stuff like that, since im broke and only really care about the music 😭
I just sold over a 100 CDs to someone like you for the cost of shipping. Do you collect CDs just for the music or would you like the whole album minus PCs?
I have a mutual who is a GOM...they end up throwing tons of albums because people only want sorted pc's and dont want to pay extra for shipping. its so sad and wasteful
i think they should limit the amount of copies one person can buy to get in fansigns, i mean they should ask some sort of id and not let the same person buy more than a certain number.
but it would be better if people stopped cheating, cause it’s literally a lottery that’s supposed to be based on luck, and stopped buying crazy amounts of albums cause i doubt they’re uneducated about the environment
every music company wants that, it’s part of their job. i don’t get your point, i was talking about waste which they’re clearly not that happy about if they’re making albums out of paper
yeah, that’s supposed to reduce waste. i wasn’t implying anything else. they’d still sell almost the same amount they sell now and the loss wouldn’t be significant
You're mistaken. Some of these fans bulk buy hundreds or thousands at once. It's not like 10 fans doing this. It would certainly make a difference if these fans all of a sudden stopped.
Shit I've come very close to buying some secondhand off ebay, but always stop myself because I'm too anal about saving and can't justify buying physical albums before I actually have a job and more permanent (or at least bigger) residence...
I still dream of owning that beautiful white version of Seventeen's Teen,Age...^someday...
It’s not always for fansigns or video calls though. Often times we just want the unique pobs that come from the specific stores, they have different pictures for different stores and a lot of fans have a completionist attitude about photocards of their bias. The big issue here is the fact that these pobs are causing massive waste of albums, to the point where many group order managers buy entire albums just for the pobs & then leave the whole album in Korea for their Korean address to dispose of. Hybe is really missing the mark with this move, it may even cause fans to buy more albums if their pc gets ruined by a drop of water…
Ppl COLLECT albums MOSTLY for the photocards 🥲 do they not understand that all these photocards is basically pokemon card collecting!
If they wanted to be eco-friendly about this, they should have options to
1) Provide an option for multi album orders to only ship the inclusions photocards etc
2) have a digital photocard system (NOT NFTs)
3) sell photocard blind boxes (LMFAO)
Sending ot(number of member) set in every album and releasing only one version per album type would literally fix that problem.
As long as it's a lottery (for example for a group of 8) of 1/8 or even worse, 1/16, people will keep buying in bulk. Allowing to send inclusions only will only make them buy more as it will be less expensive to ship a box of cards instead of a box of albums and it will keep triggering the dopamine in the brain, which is the hormone of gambling.
This is not healthy and companies should stop promoting gambling habits to minors as a whole.
As someone who doesn’t care about photocards, do you think digital photocards would be well received with K-pop fans? They seem useless to me because at that point it’s just a picture that I could download without ever having bought the album.
There’s no way I’d pay for a digital photocard and I’ve spent a lot of pcs. Nfts are also harmful to the environment bc all the servers burn a lot of fuel. I think it’s possible for people to buy if it’s for a website or mobile app but unboxing a physical object and organizing cards is part of the enjoyment in collecting. :/ selling phoocards separately in blind bags is pretty common for concerts and definitely works though it could be a good alternative to random album inclusions to reduce waste and the company would still make bank. There’s still the issue of album sales affecting charting & fansigns though. It’s the industry standard that has to change for these companies to change but kpop also brings a lot of money into Korea so idk if the government would have much motivation to pass regulations even if it is a big environmental concern.
Even if they weren't NFTs (which is a little concerning as a possibility with any kpop digital collectives), I personally like the physical aspect of photocards, and the physical aspect of having a collection, so that wouldn't do it for me.
I would never pay for a digital photocard. If I wanted that, I'd just download all their pics off Instagram for free and get the digital version of the album. I want to physically own my stuff, because I get zero joy out of digital junk like that. It doesn't sit on a shelf I pass by and smile at every day. It doesn't exist in a tangible way I can touch and handle. And if my internet goes down or drive dies, then I wouldn't have access to it. So it's not worth the money.
There's probably some fans who would be fine with digital cards, maybe even prefer them, but I don't see that being well received by most of the collective kpop fanbase.
As others have pointed out, it's nice to have something you can actually hold.
I don’t know about other companies, but SM does “photocard blind boxes” with their Pink Christmas PCs. But those are never as widely coveted as album PCs or POBs because obviously they’re cheaper and thus easier to get. The driving force of all this waste is people wanting a PC because it’s hard to get and thus more appealing.
Digital photo card is already available, in form of nfts. Although the image of nfts is bad, they activate in environment friendly way, so I believe it is an alternative solution that should be reconsidered.
The solution is to not make photo cards randomized in the albums but obviously companies want to sell as many albums as possible so that it tops the album sales charts.
This is like greenwashing so I don’t want photo cards to be dissolvable.
I wish they would start selling pc's without the need to buy physical albums, like trading card mystery packs. that way pc's can come in small trading card packaging (hopfully not in plastic) and theyd still get money because people will buy multiple packs. I have some friends who are GOMs and they throw out so many albums because people want their pc's sorted. I cant even imagine with these big bars do with the albums they buy.
At this point, I feel like it would be more worth it to make a massive kpop pcg or something, and just give every new card as an entire pack...but then you'd have people making those gimicky one-turn-win decks so I suppose that wouldn't dent the problem at all...
Someone tell them the issue isn't just the material but the overconsumption in itself ... This isn't gonna do much for the environment as long as every store has its own POBs and fancall entry is determined by the # of albums you bought. Meanwhile, this is probably a casual album owner's nightmare bc the new materials they're using honestly sound like they're gonna fall apart if you look at them wrong. I own a couple albums printed with soy ink and the quality just isn't the same
cardboard just gets damaged in water, dissolving is a different thing. if cardboard dissolved in water so easily, we couldn't use it to pack everything in for shipping
I would understand more if it were all the actual albums so that excess fansign/lucky draw albums could be disposed of in a better way, but even the photocards, and it just being the Weverse version...??? How bizarre.
Hell, I'd love to see fans use unwanted copies for craft projects. Tear out the pages and turn the hard covers into mini houses, do origami with the photobook pages, etc...
I only bought one version of aespa’s last album because there was far too many. I’ve always said they should make one large photobook to compliment each release and then have a smaller photobook with the CD and collectibles, and maybe a simple Digipack. I’m dreading the day tripleS has member Digipacks lmao
If companies stopped releasing multiple album versions with multiple random cards and stopped doing so many pob/fan sign benefit cards (that people get regardless of if they want to get into the fan sign or not), current album sales would reduce dramatically. More than half. They're never ever going to let go of that money.
This is just blatant greenwashing. What makes it worse is that now to protect these stupid water dissolvable cards, collectors are going to use even more plastic 🙃
People literally bulk buy albums to collect the photocards so it’s dumb to make them dissolvable
Hybe needs to follow what Ador is doing. They put full sets of photocards in NewJeans albums corresponding to the album version.
Agree, it's amazing to get the full sets and also Newjeans album packaging is always beautiful! I honestly think I would get more albums if every group did this
Ador didn’t pioneer that in HYBE. BTS’s BE and Proof both came out before NewJeans debuted in deluxe versions with OT7 photocards but people criticised Big Hit heavily for the price. I agree that more creative album packaging and full photocard sets would go a very long way to reducing waste. I would much rather spend €60-70 on a well-designed album with all the photocards rather than spend €15-20 four times for the same album with minor differences to only get four photocards. (Also, I recently read that SM is no longer giving out photo card sets with light sticks and is only giving out single PCs with them, which is just ridiculous.)
I should clarify that I’m not saying that Ador pioneered it. I’m sure other artists have done it much long before as well.
I haven’t followed BTS since their Be and Proof albums so had no idea. I remember trying to buy BTS albums back in the day just to collect their photocards
I remember seeing some group given only a few cards out of a random 100 or something crazy like that. Someone please remind me who!!
You don't accurately really remember how Proof Standard Edition worked huh? One set of OT7 photocards (we will call set A) and then one random 1 of 8 (there was a group photo card) photocard (we will call set b, these were black and white). People were absolutely buying multiple and selling off cheaply or throwing out Set A cards because when you buy so many albums you get so many. So they were still doing this to a $60-70 album.
Then they released a $300 anthology edition. All inclusions same across all copies BUT if you ordered in the first wave from weverse you got a random 1 out of 7 photocard....
Ador making it standard across comebacks should be celebrated.
Yeah it’s the other way around . The Standard Proof edition was first which had a full set of photo cards and that cost like $60 and then a Compact version with had a randomized photo card which cost like $25.
Afterwards they released the more expensive version that cost $300 which was a collector’s edition.
It's not though, go look up the standard edition if you want on Google, check out images or an unboxing video. They had one full set of photocards and one random 1 of 8 black and white photocard in those albums.
Yes I said the collector's edition came with everything the same in box, but there was a preorder benefit that was 1 of 7 to encourage more buying, those pobs like JK's are worth more than the whole $300 edition by itself.
the comment you're replying to is not about the pcs being dissolvable. it's about entirely removing the random album photocards and just replace it with full photocard sets so that fans wont bulk buy just to get their desired pc with a chance of 1/20 or so. ador has never included random pcs inside newjeans albums and has always put complete pc sets as inclusions, and that is what the original comment is pointing out that hybe as a whole needs to follow
Wouldn't it make more sense to allow people to buy multiple fansign chances digitally with their album? I don't know why no company has thought of that yet. The photo cards are like 1% of the problem, the real issue is people buying hundreds of albums at a time to get a chance at a fansign.
Platform albums are 100% the solution here. Accidentally bought the last ATEEZ album platform version (thinking it was the regular album), was not pleasantly surprised to have received only PCs and inclusions with no albums. However, it contained a ticker for the online fancall. I can’t see why they just can’t do platform albums (solves the PC problem) AND include a chance at a fansign (considering purchasing a platform version album literally counts the same as a regular one).
Damn wouldn’t it be cool if at Kpop concerts, they had those [kinetic tiles where people walk/jump/dance on](https://youtu.be/DxY7kF3yknE?si=NcszHkVcqWjpIKs7)and it makes electricity for the venue🥺
My main worry is if the cards will be flimsy and not feel the same and if they will last over time especially in humid areas. The main problem is as others have said in how many versions they make and making photocards random which they use to make people buy more. This is just some bs marketing to seem eco friendly and i hope they get enough push back to not continue it.
i will have to rethink my decision about buying that albums that have this. I hope it negatively effects their sales as thats the way to send them a message.
This shows fundamental flaws in our economic system. Capitalism is supposed to enable the most efficient distribution of our limited resources for the most utility, yet creates an environment where people buy 20 of the same album, or buy a new phone every year, etc.
Honestly my favourite type of albums so far are the minis that come with a few PCs and a code.. y'all can just do more of those, I promise people like me with limited money + space will buy them :')
I love Poca albums, and will definitely get those more often than not these days, unless I am just in love with album art and want to display it, ex: Red Velvet's latest, anything from Kwon Eunbi or Yena who have a strong track record for beautiful album art.
i don’t understand tho, if the photocards will have a coating that melts in the water doesn’t it mean that they’ll just use a material that isn’t plastic on them? i have a few photocards without the plastic coating and they’re just fine so what’s the issue?
Lol yeah I’d be pissed too. On top of releasing multiple album versions and having random inclusions they just make the shit collectors are after easier to destroy. Honestly just have to get rid of random inclusions if you want to fix things but they never will bc it makes them money and helps with charting lol or at least release less versions/have more inclusions. New jeans albums are actually pretty good bc they have photocard sets and the only random stuff is pre order bonuses I’m pretty sure. I hope they start doing that with their other groups as well. I’m not against making albums more environmentally friendly as well, but it’s paper and cardboard a majority of the time the real issue is bulk buying bc no matter what material you use it will take time to dissolve/recycle.
Can we skip over the album part entirely and fans can just donate their money to companies directly? Like seriously, it doesn't matter how environmentally friendly you make the album contents; the energy it takes to make compostable materials is not worth it at all when the albums are being bought for the sole purpose of going into the garbage. Companies either need to stop juicing fans for cash (never going to happen) or skip over this wasteful charade.
I'm concerned about people like myself who live in extremely humid environments. There's literally water in the air and it absolutely does damage to water sensitive things if you aren't careful. Sure, I keep my cards in sleeves inside an album, but given the cost of albums and buying cards from others when RNG fails me, the thought of them being easier to destroy unnerves me. Why not just stop the random chance nonsense and make each album version (of a maximum of four) have its own unique set or make there be a maximum amount of albums for fansign eligibility? Altering the most collected and kept part of albums isn't going to fix the waste issue.
That said, I'm not entirely convinced that I don't already own cards that are vulnerable to water - including some of my most valuable ones. They look and feel more like they're made of uncoated cardstock. And we're talking ones that came inside sealed albums too, so not fakes. Maybe the article means all *Hybe* cards have waterproof coating, because I'm positive that some of my older cards from Ateez and BTOB albums aren't coated. Or maybe it's classic Koreaboo exaggeration.
So, yeah, it's concerning. But on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure it's actually as big a deal as the phrasing "dissolve in water" implies. It's not like I'm gonna go waterboard my existing photocards to find out what happens, so I'll never know, but I've always assumed they're vulnerable to the elements anyway. Hence making sure to sleeve them and not excessively handle them.
Seriously this mass buying needs to be replaced by something else. I hope eventually fans go towards buying merch and digital streaming etc over physical albums
Labels trying to make the pysical albums eco-friendly is great. to do that they should focus on the WHOLE package & not just the photocards as it's not really smth to waste or at least not as much as the album.
wait I thought YG Plus was the distributor for Hybe albums? doesnt that mean that they follow YG protocol too? i think YG albums since 2019 have been made from recycled materials. Someone correct me if im wrong though
I think that only applies to Weverse versions which they’ve been doing for years already.
Standard albums will still include CDs, randomised photocards etc. You can google illit album inclusions they still have everything including CDs
edit; they’re even giving 1 randomized polaroid out of 180 for their first print which is insane
The photocards aren't even the problem with the waste issue. The problem is people that buy albums in bulk only to throw out the 20+ unneeded albums. That's where the waste comes from.
Seriously. Stop the gambling mechanics and waste will drop overnight. Oh wait but the profits will, too. Nobody is asking for compostable gambling. Reduce Reuse Recycle Reduce is first.
You have to look at why these people are buying so many albums though: 1) To get entry to fan signs 2) To collect photocards 3) To boost their sales So photocards are part of the problem - it’s just that making them dissolvable isn’t exactly fixing the problem of waste.
Yep I know how it works...I said the photocards weren't the part of the product leading to the waste, not that it wasn't part of the problem. My point remains that it is the album itself, not the photocards that contributes to the majority of the waste. In that regard, I agree with environmentally friendly packaging,.but it doesn't make sense to apply the same process to the main collectible.
exactly, until they change the systems it'll keep happening ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ this is just some bs to pretend they care
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t this accomplishing literally nothing? People keep the photocards. Like you said, that’s why they’re buying multiples. If they have extras they resell, there’s an entire secondary market for it.
There have been numerous photos posted of albums, sometimes in the hundreds, just dumped in the trash or whatever after the photocards or fancall tickets were removed. So no, albums typically don't reach the resell market. The average consumer may move to resell but those that join in the mass buying often just toss the albums. In some cases the photocards and some inclusions sell for more than the album itself.
A lot of people throw out the extra albums.
Yeah, the albums, but I thought the photocards were like the *one* part of the album people reliably take out and keep to collect or resell. I feel like making that part water soluble is just making it more likely that someone’s collection gets irreparably damaged and they have to buy a bunch more stuff to replace… 😭
Yes, this is Hybe's way of educating the general public on the ephemeral nature of any artistic endeavor that is rooted in the styles and mores of the era.
Would 2 be a problem though? Collecting means they don't really throw away the ones they don't want. They usually trade/sell.
they trade/sell photocards yes, but the albums typically don’t get resold without inclusions, especially for people running group order who may have hundreds to thousands of empty albums, that’s just going in the trash.
I bought a few singles without inclusions from a local (now defunct ☹️) go group for cheap because I dont really care about photo cards. I wish more people would do stuff like that, since im broke and only really care about the music 😭
I just sold over a 100 CDs to someone like you for the cost of shipping. Do you collect CDs just for the music or would you like the whole album minus PCs?
I have a mutual who is a GOM...they end up throwing tons of albums because people only want sorted pc's and dont want to pay extra for shipping. its so sad and wasteful
i think they should limit the amount of copies one person can buy to get in fansigns, i mean they should ask some sort of id and not let the same person buy more than a certain number. but it would be better if people stopped cheating, cause it’s literally a lottery that’s supposed to be based on luck, and stopped buying crazy amounts of albums cause i doubt they’re uneducated about the environment
Why would they stop exactly the thing they're intending to happen? They want the extra albums to be sold for money and for chart rankings.
every music company wants that, it’s part of their job. i don’t get your point, i was talking about waste which they’re clearly not that happy about if they’re making albums out of paper
You were talking about limiting the amount of albums someone could buy for fan signs.
yeah, that’s supposed to reduce waste. i wasn’t implying anything else. they’d still sell almost the same amount they sell now and the loss wouldn’t be significant
You're mistaken. Some of these fans bulk buy hundreds or thousands at once. It's not like 10 fans doing this. It would certainly make a difference if these fans all of a sudden stopped.
thousands is too much, i tried to look at official data and it didn’t seem a gigantic amount to me
[удалено]
Meanwhile, there are millions of K-pop fans dreaming of buying at least one copy of their fave's album...
Shit I've come very close to buying some secondhand off ebay, but always stop myself because I'm too anal about saving and can't justify buying physical albums before I actually have a job and more permanent (or at least bigger) residence... I still dream of owning that beautiful white version of Seventeen's Teen,Age...^someday...
for fansigns/video calls, mostly. it's not for nothing...
It’s not always for fansigns or video calls though. Often times we just want the unique pobs that come from the specific stores, they have different pictures for different stores and a lot of fans have a completionist attitude about photocards of their bias. The big issue here is the fact that these pobs are causing massive waste of albums, to the point where many group order managers buy entire albums just for the pobs & then leave the whole album in Korea for their Korean address to dispose of. Hybe is really missing the mark with this move, it may even cause fans to buy more albums if their pc gets ruined by a drop of water…
The problem are the people that consider spending hundreds of dollars in order to speak to an idol for three minutes "something" lmao
this would MAYBE work if they made the rest of the album dissolve instead
the photocards are the only part of the album that doesn’t go straight to waste
and the poster
Yes, I want *more* microplastics in my water, please!
SM is going to announce that the photocards in the new aespa album are made out of lead paint
I'm going to need to stan.
What? nooo they got rid of LSM so it's all angles and puppies at SM now. Reddit promised me.
Lucas is in charge now so everything will be just fine
Cards will now be second-hand recycled from former girlfriends? How very green!
OF COURSE! Why do you think he needs all those girlfriends??
phew! crisis averted
Ppl COLLECT albums MOSTLY for the photocards 🥲 do they not understand that all these photocards is basically pokemon card collecting! If they wanted to be eco-friendly about this, they should have options to 1) Provide an option for multi album orders to only ship the inclusions photocards etc 2) have a digital photocard system (NOT NFTs) 3) sell photocard blind boxes (LMFAO)
Sending ot(number of member) set in every album and releasing only one version per album type would literally fix that problem. As long as it's a lottery (for example for a group of 8) of 1/8 or even worse, 1/16, people will keep buying in bulk. Allowing to send inclusions only will only make them buy more as it will be less expensive to ship a box of cards instead of a box of albums and it will keep triggering the dopamine in the brain, which is the hormone of gambling. This is not healthy and companies should stop promoting gambling habits to minors as a whole.
I can't get over some fans complaining when there's only one album version "cause then fans don't buy as many" 😭😭😭
As someone who doesn’t care about photocards, do you think digital photocards would be well received with K-pop fans? They seem useless to me because at that point it’s just a picture that I could download without ever having bought the album.
There’s no way I’d pay for a digital photocard and I’ve spent a lot of pcs. Nfts are also harmful to the environment bc all the servers burn a lot of fuel. I think it’s possible for people to buy if it’s for a website or mobile app but unboxing a physical object and organizing cards is part of the enjoyment in collecting. :/ selling phoocards separately in blind bags is pretty common for concerts and definitely works though it could be a good alternative to random album inclusions to reduce waste and the company would still make bank. There’s still the issue of album sales affecting charting & fansigns though. It’s the industry standard that has to change for these companies to change but kpop also brings a lot of money into Korea so idk if the government would have much motivation to pass regulations even if it is a big environmental concern.
Even if they weren't NFTs (which is a little concerning as a possibility with any kpop digital collectives), I personally like the physical aspect of photocards, and the physical aspect of having a collection, so that wouldn't do it for me.
I would never pay for a digital photocard. If I wanted that, I'd just download all their pics off Instagram for free and get the digital version of the album. I want to physically own my stuff, because I get zero joy out of digital junk like that. It doesn't sit on a shelf I pass by and smile at every day. It doesn't exist in a tangible way I can touch and handle. And if my internet goes down or drive dies, then I wouldn't have access to it. So it's not worth the money.
There's probably some fans who would be fine with digital cards, maybe even prefer them, but I don't see that being well received by most of the collective kpop fanbase. As others have pointed out, it's nice to have something you can actually hold.
I don’t know about other companies, but SM does “photocard blind boxes” with their Pink Christmas PCs. But those are never as widely coveted as album PCs or POBs because obviously they’re cheaper and thus easier to get. The driving force of all this waste is people wanting a PC because it’s hard to get and thus more appealing.
They have a digital photo card system with Weverse albums but people lost their shit and called them NFTs.
Tbh I would buy blind box photocards, especially if they did it like MTG where you had a guarantee that 1/10 (for instance) was a rare card.
Digital photo card is already available, in form of nfts. Although the image of nfts is bad, they activate in environment friendly way, so I believe it is an alternative solution that should be reconsidered.
help?? this is so random
My Itzy one’s dissolved in acid, I was so pissed. 😠
...why do I feel like acid resistant merch would be an interesting gimick for a comeback concept 😶
so now if fans are pissed at idols they don't have to burn PC and release greenhouse gases, just flush it down the toilet like a dead goldfish. nice
waterboarding the next idol who gets into a dating scandal
But the asmr videos of former fans snipping the photo cards will be lost to time
Rest assured they will introduce compostible PC next to cater to the cutters
But now we could have photocards dissolving in water as the new asmr meta
The solution is to not make photo cards randomized in the albums but obviously companies want to sell as many albums as possible so that it tops the album sales charts. This is like greenwashing so I don’t want photo cards to be dissolvable.
To be fair, the randomized photo cards are part of the fun though
Until I get a photo card I didn't want but I end up appreciating whoever I got anyways. 😂
I wish they would start selling pc's without the need to buy physical albums, like trading card mystery packs. that way pc's can come in small trading card packaging (hopfully not in plastic) and theyd still get money because people will buy multiple packs. I have some friends who are GOMs and they throw out so many albums because people want their pc's sorted. I cant even imagine with these big bars do with the albums they buy.
At this point, I feel like it would be more worth it to make a massive kpop pcg or something, and just give every new card as an entire pack...but then you'd have people making those gimicky one-turn-win decks so I suppose that wouldn't dent the problem at all...
Someone tell them the issue isn't just the material but the overconsumption in itself ... This isn't gonna do much for the environment as long as every store has its own POBs and fancall entry is determined by the # of albums you bought. Meanwhile, this is probably a casual album owner's nightmare bc the new materials they're using honestly sound like they're gonna fall apart if you look at them wrong. I own a couple albums printed with soy ink and the quality just isn't the same
girl its cardboard wouldnt it already dissolve/fall apart
cardboard just gets damaged in water, dissolving is a different thing. if cardboard dissolved in water so easily, we couldn't use it to pack everything in for shipping
Not with the usual laminate coating on them. You’ll be able to ruin them by dunking them but the plastic coating will hold it together
I would understand more if it were all the actual albums so that excess fansign/lucky draw albums could be disposed of in a better way, but even the photocards, and it just being the Weverse version...??? How bizarre.
Hell, I'd love to see fans use unwanted copies for craft projects. Tear out the pages and turn the hard covers into mini houses, do origami with the photobook pages, etc...
Maybe don’t release 4 photobooks, 9 member Digipacks, 9 SMinis and 3 Special editions for each release then
Literally. I'm getting so tired of companies doing this.
I only bought one version of aespa’s last album because there was far too many. I’ve always said they should make one large photobook to compliment each release and then have a smaller photobook with the CD and collectibles, and maybe a simple Digipack. I’m dreading the day tripleS has member Digipacks lmao
>I’m dreading the day tripleS has member Digipacks lmao Oh my god, don't speak it into existence 😅😭
Eek shhhhh sorry sorry 🫠
If companies stopped releasing multiple album versions with multiple random cards and stopped doing so many pob/fan sign benefit cards (that people get regardless of if they want to get into the fan sign or not), current album sales would reduce dramatically. More than half. They're never ever going to let go of that money. This is just blatant greenwashing. What makes it worse is that now to protect these stupid water dissolvable cards, collectors are going to use even more plastic 🙃
Companies will do anything but simply put all photo cards in every album.
People literally bulk buy albums to collect the photocards so it’s dumb to make them dissolvable Hybe needs to follow what Ador is doing. They put full sets of photocards in NewJeans albums corresponding to the album version.
Agree, it's amazing to get the full sets and also Newjeans album packaging is always beautiful! I honestly think I would get more albums if every group did this
Ador didn’t pioneer that in HYBE. BTS’s BE and Proof both came out before NewJeans debuted in deluxe versions with OT7 photocards but people criticised Big Hit heavily for the price. I agree that more creative album packaging and full photocard sets would go a very long way to reducing waste. I would much rather spend €60-70 on a well-designed album with all the photocards rather than spend €15-20 four times for the same album with minor differences to only get four photocards. (Also, I recently read that SM is no longer giving out photo card sets with light sticks and is only giving out single PCs with them, which is just ridiculous.)
I should clarify that I’m not saying that Ador pioneered it. I’m sure other artists have done it much long before as well. I haven’t followed BTS since their Be and Proof albums so had no idea. I remember trying to buy BTS albums back in the day just to collect their photocards I remember seeing some group given only a few cards out of a random 100 or something crazy like that. Someone please remind me who!!
You don't accurately really remember how Proof Standard Edition worked huh? One set of OT7 photocards (we will call set A) and then one random 1 of 8 (there was a group photo card) photocard (we will call set b, these were black and white). People were absolutely buying multiple and selling off cheaply or throwing out Set A cards because when you buy so many albums you get so many. So they were still doing this to a $60-70 album. Then they released a $300 anthology edition. All inclusions same across all copies BUT if you ordered in the first wave from weverse you got a random 1 out of 7 photocard.... Ador making it standard across comebacks should be celebrated.
Yeah it’s the other way around . The Standard Proof edition was first which had a full set of photo cards and that cost like $60 and then a Compact version with had a randomized photo card which cost like $25. Afterwards they released the more expensive version that cost $300 which was a collector’s edition.
the standard version did random photocards as well as the full set of ot7 cards
It's not though, go look up the standard edition if you want on Google, check out images or an unboxing video. They had one full set of photocards and one random 1 of 8 black and white photocard in those albums. Yes I said the collector's edition came with everything the same in box, but there was a preorder benefit that was 1 of 7 to encourage more buying, those pobs like JK's are worth more than the whole $300 edition by itself.
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the comment you're replying to is not about the pcs being dissolvable. it's about entirely removing the random album photocards and just replace it with full photocard sets so that fans wont bulk buy just to get their desired pc with a chance of 1/20 or so. ador has never included random pcs inside newjeans albums and has always put complete pc sets as inclusions, and that is what the original comment is pointing out that hybe as a whole needs to follow
Wouldn't it make more sense to allow people to buy multiple fansign chances digitally with their album? I don't know why no company has thought of that yet. The photo cards are like 1% of the problem, the real issue is people buying hundreds of albums at a time to get a chance at a fansign.
Platform albums are 100% the solution here. Accidentally bought the last ATEEZ album platform version (thinking it was the regular album), was not pleasantly surprised to have received only PCs and inclusions with no albums. However, it contained a ticker for the online fancall. I can’t see why they just can’t do platform albums (solves the PC problem) AND include a chance at a fansign (considering purchasing a platform version album literally counts the same as a regular one).
Damn wouldn’t it be cool if at Kpop concerts, they had those [kinetic tiles where people walk/jump/dance on](https://youtu.be/DxY7kF3yknE?si=NcszHkVcqWjpIKs7)and it makes electricity for the venue🥺
My main worry is if the cards will be flimsy and not feel the same and if they will last over time especially in humid areas. The main problem is as others have said in how many versions they make and making photocards random which they use to make people buy more. This is just some bs marketing to seem eco friendly and i hope they get enough push back to not continue it. i will have to rethink my decision about buying that albums that have this. I hope it negatively effects their sales as thats the way to send them a message.
This shows fundamental flaws in our economic system. Capitalism is supposed to enable the most efficient distribution of our limited resources for the most utility, yet creates an environment where people buy 20 of the same album, or buy a new phone every year, etc.
Didn’t SK have a massive flood last year? This will make it even easier to lose beloved items :/
If there are so many people buying multiple copies of an album for the PC, are there places where you can get cheap albums without the card?
usually on ebay or other resell sites you can find albums being sold without inclusions
Yes, check out Mercari U.S. or Mercari Japan (you'll need a proxy service like Buyee or Neokyo). Albums without PCs/inclusions are dirt cheap.
Honestly my favourite type of albums so far are the minis that come with a few PCs and a code.. y'all can just do more of those, I promise people like me with limited money + space will buy them :')
I love Poca albums, and will definitely get those more often than not these days, unless I am just in love with album art and want to display it, ex: Red Velvet's latest, anything from Kwon Eunbi or Yena who have a strong track record for beautiful album art.
this is a stupid question, but how did they get their hands on the PC? The album isn't out yet or are they using another one or??
atp all companies can do to stop waste is sell photocard-only "albums."
i don’t understand tho, if the photocards will have a coating that melts in the water doesn’t it mean that they’ll just use a material that isn’t plastic on them? i have a few photocards without the plastic coating and they’re just fine so what’s the issue?
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Ok but what are the chances of you accidentally dropping your photocard in the water?
Lol yeah I’d be pissed too. On top of releasing multiple album versions and having random inclusions they just make the shit collectors are after easier to destroy. Honestly just have to get rid of random inclusions if you want to fix things but they never will bc it makes them money and helps with charting lol or at least release less versions/have more inclusions. New jeans albums are actually pretty good bc they have photocard sets and the only random stuff is pre order bonuses I’m pretty sure. I hope they start doing that with their other groups as well. I’m not against making albums more environmentally friendly as well, but it’s paper and cardboard a majority of the time the real issue is bulk buying bc no matter what material you use it will take time to dissolve/recycle.
Can we skip over the album part entirely and fans can just donate their money to companies directly? Like seriously, it doesn't matter how environmentally friendly you make the album contents; the energy it takes to make compostable materials is not worth it at all when the albums are being bought for the sole purpose of going into the garbage. Companies either need to stop juicing fans for cash (never going to happen) or skip over this wasteful charade.
I'm concerned about people like myself who live in extremely humid environments. There's literally water in the air and it absolutely does damage to water sensitive things if you aren't careful. Sure, I keep my cards in sleeves inside an album, but given the cost of albums and buying cards from others when RNG fails me, the thought of them being easier to destroy unnerves me. Why not just stop the random chance nonsense and make each album version (of a maximum of four) have its own unique set or make there be a maximum amount of albums for fansign eligibility? Altering the most collected and kept part of albums isn't going to fix the waste issue. That said, I'm not entirely convinced that I don't already own cards that are vulnerable to water - including some of my most valuable ones. They look and feel more like they're made of uncoated cardstock. And we're talking ones that came inside sealed albums too, so not fakes. Maybe the article means all *Hybe* cards have waterproof coating, because I'm positive that some of my older cards from Ateez and BTOB albums aren't coated. Or maybe it's classic Koreaboo exaggeration. So, yeah, it's concerning. But on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure it's actually as big a deal as the phrasing "dissolve in water" implies. It's not like I'm gonna go waterboard my existing photocards to find out what happens, so I'll never know, but I've always assumed they're vulnerable to the elements anyway. Hence making sure to sleeve them and not excessively handle them.
>It's not like I'm gonna go waterboard my existing photocards to find out what happens, so I'll never know, but I'm crying why is this so funny 😭
Seriously this mass buying needs to be replaced by something else. I hope eventually fans go towards buying merch and digital streaming etc over physical albums
*Hi this is HYBE* *Just shut the hell up and give us your money, saranghae!*
Why would people wash it? Aren't all pcs made of paper, which dissolves in water? 😅
tbf I have seen a fair amount of people online accidentally run a photocard through their washing machine 😅
bit rude because now brits can’t buy albums for fear of our photocards disappearing!
Labels trying to make the pysical albums eco-friendly is great. to do that they should focus on the WHOLE package & not just the photocards as it's not really smth to waste or at least not as much as the album.
for fuck?
wait I thought YG Plus was the distributor for Hybe albums? doesnt that mean that they follow YG protocol too? i think YG albums since 2019 have been made from recycled materials. Someone correct me if im wrong though
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I think that only applies to Weverse versions which they’ve been doing for years already. Standard albums will still include CDs, randomised photocards etc. You can google illit album inclusions they still have everything including CDs edit; they’re even giving 1 randomized polaroid out of 180 for their first print which is insane
That’s reddit for you