G-Dragon's USB release album is not recognized

On June 8, K-pop singer sang rap G-Dragon released the EP Kwon Ji Yong, his first solo product after 4 years. Unfortunately, it was not included in the charts as an album.

KMCIA's Gaon Chart of KMCIA includes 2 charts: Gaon Album Chart ranks albums released in regular form and Gaon Digital Chart ranks singles based on total downloads, streams and background music that it is used.

KMCIA said that with his format, G-Dragon's Kwon Ji Yong could only be put into Gaon Digital Chart - a USB connected to YG Entertainment's website, allowing downloading EP and related files after entering the number. series KMCIA said it was not an album because the USB device itself had no music.

This organization defends its position based on Korean copyright law, that the album must be an existing product containing music. Although it is possible to consider the design of each USB, the case of Kwon Ji Yong is still ambiguous. USB is an existing product but it is not something that can be used to download albums.

G-Dragon's USB release album is not recognized Picture 1
G-Dragon's album is released as USB

Last year, according to the Korea Times, copyright law was revised to recognize digital albums when officially released, but KMCIA still believes that the album must be released on a new disc to be considered an album, they said. If we include digital albums in the same category as the hard-copy albums, it will break the line between digital charts, download charts and album charts. "

The songs in Kwon Ji Yong still count on Gaon Digital Chart, where the "Untitled, 2014" single is currently No. 1. But album sales and sales are also important factors for its success. In the US, all album formats are available on Billboard's BXH, as long as sales are reported to Nielsen Music. In addition to KMCIA and other social charts like Japan's Oricon, Taiwan's G-Music also only considers the traditional disc to rank albums. Although accounts in Asia account for $ 14 worldwide revenue.

"We think the problem here is structure, these organizations also think the old way and not accept the new changes," a representative from YG Entertainment said. "It's hard to understand why limiting music storage devices to CDs. Even people 70 and 80 years old don't listen to music from CD players. Why do you have to store music on CD? It's absurd."