Korean Music Charts - August

Well, as long as I am posting the movie charts, maybe I should try doing the music charts, too. Fortunately, the Music Industry Association of Korea only publishes this information once a month.

Unfortunately, music charts are not what they once were. Especially in Korea. In 2005, physical music sales (of CDs and cassettes) made up just 113.8 billion won (around $118.5 million). Digital sales (mobile phone ringtones, Internet subscription services, etc.) came to a hearty 248 billion won ($258 million). Impressed? Digital music in Korea is nearly 2.5 times bigger than "regular" music sales (regular to old people like me who like to have something to hold).

This trend is just going to continue, too. Physical music sales once was around 400 billion won a year (416 billion won in 1996). Most people in the industry will tell you that piracy and file sharing destroyed sales. I would tell you that stale, uncreative, juvenile product had at least as much influence, but what do I know? Anyhow, the important thing is that, thanks to the Internet and mobile phones, Koreans are spending more money than ever on music. I read an industry analysis once, made by a local securities company, that predicted the digital music market will top $1 billion by 2010.

Anyhow, I babble. On with the charts. First up - Korean albums sales for August:

This Month	Artist	Album Name	Release Date	This Month's Sales	Total Sales
1.	Shinhwa	Vol. 8 - State of the Art (Special Edition)	5.10	40,440	201,892
2.	Psy	Vol. 4	7.24	22,926	38,375
3.	SG Wannabe	Vol 3 - The Third Masterpieces	4.07	19,968	276,773
4.	Yoon Do Hyun Band	Vol. 7 - Why Be?	8.10	18,041	18,041
5.	Big Bang	We Belong Together (single)	8.28	17,159	17,159
6.	Turtles	Vol. 4	7.20	15,554	29,833
7.	See Ya	Vol. 1	2.24	13,996	78,887
8.	Super Junior	Vol. 1 - U	6.03	12,097	65,127
9.	Park Jung-ah	Vol. 1 - Yeah	8.25	10,544	10,544
10.	Cherry Filter	Vol. 4 - Peace N' Rock N' Roll	8.17	9,432	9,432

(source: MIAK)

Foreign pop chart to come soon (when I am in the mood). Since the top-selling foreign acts usually would not make the Korean top-10, I will post them separately. FYI, at the moment, Korean music makes up about 62% of the CD market, with foreign music around 23% and classical around 15%.

UPDATE:

Okay, here is the foreign chart:

This Month	Artist	Album Name	Release Date	This Month's Sales	Total Sales
1.	Christina Aguilera	Back to Basics	8.14	11,514	11,514
2.	Dong Bang Sin Gi	Sky (Japanese edition)	8.25	10,852	10,852
3.	Various	Mammo Mia OST	6.04	7,370	25,633
4.	Jo Sumi	With Love: Best of Jo Sumi	8.25	7,000	7,000
5.	Arashi	Aojorapedal	8.02	6,451	6,451
6.	Various	Club Hip Hop	8.10	3,143	3,143
7.	Sweetbox	Best of 1995-2005	4.21	2,390	86,946
8.	Various	Diamonds	8.24	2,319	2,319
9.	Outkast	Idlewild	8.22	1,980	1,980
10.	Paris Hilton	Paris	8.22	1,785	1,785

(source: MIAK)