How Things Get Done Downtown

[HolyMoly]

My tastes in music are, shall we say, "varied." And although I speak no foreign language, I enjoy listening to Vietnamese, Filipino and Korean music. To tell you the truth, I also listen to a lot of English-language music whose lyrics I either don't remember or don't listen to ... simply because the music itself is good enough.

Anyhoo, I wanted to post this for people who don't understand why foreign music sells well in this country when it seems like it shouldn't. And, as an example, I'm going to use Korean music. This is how "business gets done downtown" by sellers of Korean music ... and the RIAA could learn a trick or two from the Korean music industry.

First, the reality. You could watch MTV day and night for a year and never see a music video by a Korean performer. And, only a fraction of the Korean-American population can afford to plunk down the big bucks to get the Korean satellite channels through K.I.S.B. And while there might be the odd Korean-language radio station here and there, there's nothing quite like actual music (or music-videos) to generate interest and sales in any performer.

So ... what do the Koreans do?

YesAsia is perhaps the largest seller/distributor of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese-language music and videos in North America (if not the world). In fact, a visit to their website makes me suspicious that they're really a closet subsidiary of Amazon.com. Currently, from their HQ in San Bruno, California, they market over 3,000 Korean-language music CDs alone - and all are priced substantially lower than most CDs sold by RIAA member labels. Note that these CDs are also imported CDs - and the cost of shipping them from Korea (plus any import taxes/duties) are already included in those prices - making the prices charged for RIAA member-label CDs seem even more ridiculous.

YesAsia has a number of affiliates. And, these affiliates make promotional music files available for direct download off the internet. For example, if you wanted to download and listen to the song "Don't Go Away" by Finkl (a very popular group), simply click HERE to begin the download of the song - in ZIP format. Why ZIP? Because most MP3s use high-ASCII Korean-language characters in their names which some systems cannot interpret ... making it impossible to just click on them and just play. HOWEVER, most Korean-speaking users can unzip the files and use embedded Hangul-font recognition to play the files that you or I might not be able to. But, some affiliates make their downloadable files available in English-translated names. And, while most files are MP3s, some are encoded in WMA format.

Other affiliates offer promotional music-videos for direct download off the internet. They're generally in either WMV or ASF format to minimize bandwidth and are typically 320x240 pixel videos ... meant for computer viewing. They can be converted to VCD format and burned for TV viewing ... but it's a helaciously long process for the filesize. Here's an example. Click HERE to download the "Missing You" music video of the group, Fly To The Sky (only a 4-meg ASF file).

Bottom line? They put the customer in immediate touch with popular Korean artists and, as a result, SELL MORE CDS ... of which the affiliates get a 10% cut on every sale. Easy access to promotional audio and video ... low prices on music CDs ... and a nationwide (if not worldwide) network of affiliates all contribute to the success of Korean labels and, ultimately, Korean artists ... and consequently, piracy of Korean music is far less of a problem than it is for domestic music in the U.S.A.

RIAA, listen up. This is really a no-brainer.

[DudeAsInCool]

I live not to far from Koreatown in LA--I will check out the scene...