Gee Gee Gee Gee....Shady Shady?

Over at a community I frequent, I came across a post about an article suggesting that SNSD's "Gee" single was pretty much the absolute number one downloaded pop song from January through April.

The original article: http://star.mt.co.kr/view/stview.php?no=2009051910245400184&type=1&outlink=1

And here is the translation:

It has been revealed that the 9-member girl group SNSD have been a huge hit on online music stores this first few months of the year.

According to documents that the music portal site KTF Doshirak revealed to MoneyToday StarNews on the 19th, SNSD's Gee has placed first in the total number of overall pop song downloads between January and April.

SNSD's Gee, which has been presented online beginning of January, was the number 1 download in January and February. In March, the song was third, and between January and February, it was placed number 1 overall [lol isn't this repetitive?]. SNSD's minialbum with Gee has sold over 100 000 copies (their company's standard total) and it has reeled in a fairly large sum offline, as well.

On the other hand, according to KTF Doshirak, the female duo Davichi's "8282" was in first place in March and BigBang&2NE1's "Lollipop" was first place in April.

Also, for the total download listings following SNSD from January to February, Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry" was 2nd, Davichi's "8282" was 3rd, Afterschool's "Ah" was 4th, SS501's "Because I'm Stupid" was 5th, Hwayobi's "Half" was 6th, BigBang&2NE1's "Lollipop" was 7th, Wax's "Can't Call Even Once" was 8th, Gavy NJ's "Love Story" was 9th, and Big Bang Seungri's solo song "Strong Baby" was in 10th place.

The poster at the community was sharp enough to inquire how Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry" could have been second in February when it wasn't even released until March.

Now, let's assume they were counting Super Junior's album pre-sales. That total was roughly 150,000 before the mid-March release. So then, album-wise, they were already ahead of SNSD before they even actually released their CD. Oops. So then, are we talking digital singles? Otherwise...why rank them? "Sorry, Sorry" was not released as a single until about March 9th. And I'm fairly sure that from the point of its release, it beat SNSD's "Gee" quite soundly. Heck, I'm fairly sure that as of March "Gee" wasn't even remotely a serious contender sales and rankings wise.

And yet, we are expected to believe, without any hard numbers, that SNSD's "Gee" was the absolute most downloaded pop song for the first quarter of the year, even when it failed to be THE dominant single for half this period of time.

Hmm....

Something + The State of Denmark = Rotten

Namely, I cannot find a single source anywhere that will differentiate between the sales of "Gee" the album and "Gee" the single. There's nothing stating how many CD sales vs digital album downloads SNSD has had for this third album, either.

Absolutely EVERYTHING is totaled together.

What does this mean?

It means that technically, it's impossible to determine what SNSD's "Gee" (album or single) actually sold.

Again, notice from the article:

SNSD's minialbum with Gee has sold over 100 000 copies (their company's standard total) and it has reeled in a fairly large sum offline, as well.

Eh? So what is that "fairly large" offline sum exactly?

*crickets chirp*

Are we suggesting that CD sales online and CD sales offline are absolutely not mutually exclusive?

*more crickets chirp*

And if we're talking about the album alone anyway, what exactly is that digital single sales total again?

*cricket chorus starts up*


Unfortunately, no one, it seems, can confirm these burning questions. For soshified's part, I do not think this interesting bit of fraud is the result of shady translating, so unless a more savvy member is willing to translate, I'm going to assume that they too are have been duped by SM's fuzzy sales numbers.

In any case, maybe the next time they start clamoring for sales recognition for SNSD, they might at least be willing to fabricate numbers for us to work with.



EDIT: In addition, when I was checking SJ's pre-sale numbers I noted that 150,000 was the rough total of pre-sale orders when online (62,400) and offline (87,830) were added together. So then, it's quite possible that SNSD's boasted 110,000+ is the result of a similar division (50,000+ to each), and seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the "Gee" single digital sales, the total for which continues to be M.I.A.

Also, as of May, Suju has sold more than 200,000+ online and offline.


EDIT TWO: Thanks very much to queenbee for this chart capture:



This is as of YESTERDAY. It shows that their cd sales are just now getting to 70,000 and that they have NOT actually crossed the 100,000 cd sale mark. What's interesting is that if you glance their wiki, you'll note that cd and digital sales are added together for that 100,000 plus. If we assume that the CD portion is 70,000, than the remaining 30,000+ would be digital.

And what about that digital download for the single? Are we to expect THAT is over 100,000? if so, where are the hard numbers to reflect this?

Inquiring minds want to know...

And still International Sones are forever having the wool pulled over their eyes.
They also use these 'official numbers' and push them in your face whenever you say "SNSD are barely scratching the surface of success, if at all."

And it's true. SNSD are not as popular as Sones make them out to be. They are so desperate to seek attention that they would put out misleading and false information just to make it seem on the outside that they have high popularity.

It's disgusting.

Well, if what this article is saying is any indication, they're getting help from SM. :/

In any case, it doesn't surprise me that fangirls are more than willing to swallow this news whole without bothering to look into it.

Deluded much? o.O Jeeez. It's annoying.
Anyway, thank you for posting this, dearest!

the plastics, their rotten-freak fans, & SM are just a bunch of liars..
& Gee is pretty much hurting my ears. the mini album is a total bummer & it makes me wanna puke everytime I hear my niece & cousin play it on my all surround sound home theater. & my stepdad hates that CD he wants to throw it @ the waste bin.

thanks for this post and pointing the wrong stuff out! :D

for the update, Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry" album has sold over 200,000 now.
lol, SNSD got pwned. xD

most downloaded? really,?
and i thought 2ne1 and Super Junior won over them... *sarcasm*

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I'm fairly sure this is the case, but without any hard numbers it's really anyone's guess what they've sold.

I hope Sm Town New Girl Group (Crystal?) pwns SNSD

I don't know where the hell do these articles get their sources and their numbers but according to HANTEO CHARTS yearly rankings as of 31 May 2009:

http://www.hanteo.com/rank/chart.asp?Page=yearly&genre=kpop

SNSD is NOWHERE the 100,000 mark



In case some of you guys don't know, Hanteo charts are what music and award shows like Music Bank and Golden Disk Awards, base their digital sales rankings...

Remember that joke of a 2nd place SNSD got in MUBank a couple of months back? CLICK FOR ARTICLE MUBank even showed Hanteo ranking on screen (starts at 1:37)

<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/R77pgS7JVDY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/R77pgS7JVDY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

First name that pops up: #10: SNSD - Gee

LOL... that in itself is already shady shady~

This latest news article is just more money LSM is paying to media people to make sure SNSD's name doesn't get covered by the dust 2NE1, After School, T-ara, and Kara are kicking all over Korea~~

It's the same story... they made it as if SNSD is #1 again... when in fact we all know they're NOT.

get over it, delusionals.

Thanks queenbee of the graphic! I'm going to edit it into the article if that's okay. :)

tsk tsk ~~
assuming.

I feel like kicking SM's asses. They do everything they do to help SNSD.
In one year, SNSD gets 1 mini album, 2nd mini album and probably also a single for the SM Town summer or something. What's up with SM trying to freaken make SNSD as popular as WG. Why not try matching SHINee with 2PM. Juliette? Stop making SHINee do covers/remakes all the time. What about SJ. They get an album. That's it? THAT'S IT?!?!? ELF has been waiting for SJ for a freaken whole year and the only thing they get is an album?

SNSD gets like, the whole 2009 if biased SM keeps being biased. SNSD, SNSD, SNSD all the time, why do we have to hear the words Girls Generation all the time?

SM Entertainment, just F¤£#=%k you.

Jaetinh wrote:I feel like kicking SM's asses. They do everything they do to help SNSD.
In one year, SNSD gets 1 mini album, 2nd mini album and probably also a single for the SM Town summer or something. What's up with SM trying to freaken make SNSD as popular as WG. Why not try matching SHINee with 2PM. Juliette? Stop making SHINee do covers/remakes all the time. What about SJ. They get an album. That's it? THAT'S IT?!?!? ELF has been waiting for SJ for a freaken whole year and the only thing they get is an album?

SNSD gets like, the whole 2009 if biased SM keeps being biased. SNSD, SNSD, SNSD all the time, why do we have to hear the words Girls Generation all the time?

SM Entertainment, just F¤£#=%k you.

That post really made me laugh. =D
[In a good way]

2PM came back strongly and more mature with "Again & Again", which also did very well on charts and shows. However SHINee World waited nearly 6 months [I'm not too sure] for a comeback and they got a song that...isn't really too great. Kudos to Jonghyun for writing it, he's talented, but they should have had a song to match "Again & Again" as SHINee were meant to be the Newcomers of 2008, in which they beat 2PM.
You're right about Super Junior too. Their biasedness towards SNSD is just disgraceful and blatantly obvious. I'll correct you, ELF waited over a year. Over a year and they a full album. [And a tour, but international fans can't really take advantage...]. I don't want Super Junior to get over-worked so I'm not really requesting any more from them tbh...although I do love them and would love another mini album at the end of this year or something.
So to conclude this post, what I was saying is that these bands [Super Junior & SHINee] wait so friggin' long for a comeback and SNSD get 2 in one year. Urghhh...

[EDIT: 090619]

I just saw this on DBSKnights and thought it was relevant to this page.

SM Entertainment, who manages popular groups and artistes like Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, Dong Bang Shin Ki and more, has seen an increase in it’s stock value – to reach ₩12 Billion.

At Noon, on the 17th, SM Entertainment announced the increase of ₩ 19,100,000,000. The company’s President, Lee Soo Man, holds 27% of the shares.

On 2 January 2009, the first trading day of the year, SM’s stock was valued at ₩6,860,000,000. They have managed to reach their target of hitting ₩12 Billion within 6 months.

The increase of SM Entertainment’s stock value by more than 50% in the first half of the year is mostly due to the many activities by Girls’ Generation and Super Junior.

One of the largest shareholders being Bae Yong Jun, Keyeast Co’s shares rose to ₩4,000,000,000 and Rain’s company J-Tune Entertainment’s shares rose to ₩2,400,000,000.



Source: [tvxqasia]
Translation credits: mandasoh@iscreamshinki.net
Credits: DBSKnights + sharingyoochun

I love reading your articles. You make such sound arguments, haha. Oh, and your "something is rotten in the state of Denmark" = hilarity.

I just saw this on DBSKnights and thought it was relevant to this page.

SM Entertainment, who manages popular groups and artistes like Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, Dong Bang Shin Ki and more, has seen an increase in it’s stock value – to reach ₩12 Billion.

At Noon, on the 17th, SM Entertainment announced the increase of ₩ 19,100,000,000. The company’s President, Lee Soo Man, holds 27% of the shares.

On 2 January 2009, the first trading day of the year, SM’s stock was valued at ₩6,860,000,000. They have managed to reach their target of hitting ₩12 Billion within 6 months.

The increase of SM Entertainment’s stock value by more than 50% in the first half of the year is mostly due to the many activities by Girls’ Generation and Super Junior.

One of the largest shareholders being Bae Yong Jun, Keyeast Co’s shares rose to ₩4,000,000,000 and Rain’s company J-Tune Entertainment’s shares rose to ₩2,400,000,000.



Source: [tvxqasia]
Translation credits: mandasoh@iscreamshinki.net
Credits: DBSKnights + sharingyoochun

I find it hilarious that there is no mention DBSK, still their most profitable group, particularly abroad, or SHINee, who's latest efforts have charted pretty well. They only mention SNSD and Super Junior, the later having significantly dwarfed SNSD's own sales.

Who is SM trying to kid? Clearly they are desperate to make SNSD look like they are not a waste of money, even at the expense of other artist's own contributions. Really pathetic. :/


Thanks, will be updating the article.

I thought to update the old article, but I'm worried about running out of room. ^^' So I'm adding this latest bit of ridiculousness here:

SM Entertainment, who manages popular groups and artistes like Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, Dong Bang Shin Ki and more, has seen an increase in it’s stock value – to reach ₩12 Billion.

At Noon, on the 17th, SM Entertainment announced the increase of ₩ 19,100,000,000. The company’s President, Lee Soo Man, holds 27% of the shares.

On 2 January 2009, the first trading day of the year, SM’s stock was valued at ₩6,860,000,000. They have managed to reach their target of hitting ₩12 Billion within 6 months.

The increase of SM Entertainment’s stock value by more than 50% in the first half of the year is mostly due to the many activities by Girls’ Generation and Super Junior.

One of the largest shareholders being Bae Yong Jun, Keyeast Co’s shares rose to ₩4,000,000,000 and Rain’s company J-Tune Entertainment’s shares rose to ₩2,400,000,000.



Source: [tvxqasia]
Translation credits: mandasoh@iscreamshinki.net
Credits: DBSKnights + sharingyoochun

Notice at the beginning of each mention of SM artists...who's first? SNSD. If people didn't know any better, you'd think that SNSD contributed most to the stock value increase. Given how the sales of the other mentioned groups are far far higher than that of SNSD on their own, not to mention combined, is there a reason SNSD is at the front of these listed artists....and why other groups fail to be mentioned (like SHINee, currently topping charts whereas SNSD is nowhere near the top)?

Now, despite lagging album sales in comparison to other SM artists, SNSD is everywhere; CFs and TV shows. Could that be where they're pulling weight? Not sure, especially given the recent cancellation of their show and Yoona's struggling "Cinderella Man". Maybe Korea is only enthusiastic about SNSD for thirty seconds at a time?

I find that sales are most telling in terms of how popular a group REALLY is, after all you have to like someone an awful lot to reach down in your own pocket and spend money on them. Let's examine this by CD sales:



CD sales from June 2008 to June 2009:

DBSK for Mirotic: 363,000+
Super Junior for Sorry, Sorry: 108,000+
SNSD for Gee: 72,000+


Now, this gets even curiouser when you look at their top Kpop Artists for the Year:



Now remember, this is considering CD sales alone, which is probably why Super Junior didn't make the top 5. However, look who did: SHINee.

And before we go and dismiss this group's presence for these past six months, take a look at this:

<img src="https://2img.net/h/i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv206/Labacookie/kchartMayJunea.jpg">

SHINee is currently enjoying the top charting position after having sold 32,818+ CDs for "Juliette". And while that's a little less than half what "Gee" sold, remember that Gee was released six or so months ago; "Juliette" was released last month.


So, let's summarize:

1.) SNSD was not among the top selling artists for the past year.
2.) SNSD was barely among the top ten selling artists for the past six months, and has not been a serious contenders since...well, a couple or so months after their most recent efforts.
3.) Even their junior, SHINee, outsold them, and in CDs alone, and Super Junior, though being around for half the time, had more than double their sales.


And yet, despite lagging popularity in sales, and questionable popularity on shows on their own, I'm expected to believe that they contributed to a lion's share of the profits?

I'm not even going to bring DBSK's efforts in Japan into the equation. Because, you know, having the unarguably one of the biggest groups in Asia, if not the world, on your label doing remarkably well abroad probably won't increase stock viability at all, right? Especially considering how rough it is selling music in Korea right now with massive illegal downloading.




It really seems that with all the additional promotion and activities, which dwarf that of artists that have sold more than they have in the past six months, someone is REALLY determined to make SNSD look more viable than they are. Super Junior, despite being around for half the time as SNSD (and selling twice as much) is the one being forced to stop activities. So then, the least profitable group continues to receive the most promotion, and another album?

I've shared my little equation before, and I think it again applies:

Something + State of Denmark = Rotten.


Chart image sources: Hanteo



merging topics with the first one.

Labakittie wrote:
I'm not even going to bring DBSK's efforts in Japan into the equation. Because, you know, having the unarguably one of the biggest groups in Asia, if not the world, on your label doing remarkably well abroad probably won't increase stock viability at all, right? Especially considering how rough it is selling music in Korea right now with massive illegal downloading.

Public Affairs increases stock viability on its own. Thats why rumors can have the power of sending a company in to bankruptcy.

SM do get money from DBSKs efforts in Japan, but thats a small share compared to what they would get if DBSK were in Korea, that's common sense. And Avex has stock in SME, so if DBSK do well, so does SME and Avex. And if huge problems arise with public relations with SM in Korea, it could put Avexs contract in to jeopardy with SME. And who has the upper hand in this equation? Avex of course.

And with the major rebuilding of image SME has been trying to do by making their biggest embarassment look successful, it makes sense that their stocks would be worth more now than the beginning of the year. It also makes sense why SME pushed back SNSDs comeback more than once since Dream Concert last year. (Saving money and planning).

The only ones that benefit is SME, so perhaps they think that this could make them bank more in the long run, it also makes sense now that DC has been moved to October. And who was on the board that decided that move? SM.

Of course its shady, its been months in the making, and of course their stock value increased. At the end of the day, the one thing that concerns shareholders and possible shareholders is SMEs Black Sheep SNSD.

It doesnt affect others because fans who buy the albums are too busy actually supporting the artists like DBSK, SHINee, BoA and Super Junior. And their reputations are a hundred times better than SNSD could ever wish to have.

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Very good points. It's a little scary too me though, because I've already seen other artists get pushed by the wayside. I'm really concerned that what's going to happen is SME is going to spend the remainder of the year building up SNSD and only trot out other artists when they need extra cash.

Or is that already happening?

^ already happening ^^ hahahah

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I suspected it with SJ's departure, but I want to wait and see how long SHINee gets to promote their album. Hopefully they'll make it to August.

Labakittie wrote:^
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I suspected it with SJ's departure, but I want to wait and see how long SHINee gets to promote their album. Hopefully they'll make it to August.

Hopefully but we all know SME's inability to promote more than one artist at a time (I'm speaking in terms of heavy promotions, AVEX does well with Promoting Multiple artists at the same time. They don't throw one group aside and promote the other more-from what i've seen that is) However if you take into account the fact that SHINee has also promoted the same time as DBSK last year, you can clearly see the difference. While I do not usually follow SHINee, it was pretty obvious that DBSK got the more shows and promotion than SHINee.

Not to mention SNSD coming back in Jan. when no one is around, leaving when SJ comes back, SHINee coming back near the end of SJ's promotions, then SNSD coming back when SJ finishes....I doubt SHINee will get much promotion if they do last until August.

SME's lack of efficient management skills has already caused many groups from the label to be pushed aside and, eventually, dropped/broken up.

Might I add, ZLY's comeback album started recording in Feb. however we have yet to hear any more recent news regarding the COMEBACK DATE. (Yes we know about the MV and Donghae staring in it, and the filming date but no news about a predicted Comeback date.

Greedy greedy SME also shoved DBSK and CSJH in Japan since they must have realized that AVEX has the power, money, brains, and time to promote artists into possibly huge artists in Japan. DBSK for example, yes they are not at the top but it's undeniable that they are rising in popularity. They went from nothing --> Tokyo Dome (capacity of around 55,000 full but adding stage and others, probably around 40,000 or a bit more). Put SME in that same situation and they would've been dropped from the label after 3-4 non-Oricon topping singles.

As BB has mentioned, SME is trying to push SNSD into our faces for the sake of their shareholders, if not then they risk the decrease of stock prices, not to mention a bad reputation for their own company

HOW CAN IT BE POSSIBLE???
I mean the Music Bank award, today
Gee? 1898 album sell????
Anyone can explain this for me?
Plz!!!

THIS IS SO SHADY!!!

Oh, and this

Labakittie wrote:
Now remember, this is considering CD sales alone, which is probably why Super Junior didn't make the top 5.

I don't get it? "SORRY, SORRY" isn't CD or what????
In Hanteo chart, Super Junior 3rd Jib: 108,*00, but as I know, over 215,000 units have been sold. Can someone tell me why there is the difference?

So as snsd's gee, in Hanteo chart, it said 72,*00 units were sold. but SM announced SNSD's minialbum with Gee has sold over 100 000 copies.
Do you think SM lied about Sorry, Sorry too?

p/s: I love SUPER JUNIOR, I'm E.L.F so Don't get me wrong!!!^^
And Sorry if there is any spelling mistakes :D