University Report: The Success and Viability of the K-Pop Model

This report analyzes the success of the K-Pop music industry, focusing on the business model employed by K-Pop companies. The report examines the key components of this model, including talent management, which involves rigorous auditions, training, and development of young talents, often starting at a young age. It highlights the importance of customer relationships, particularly through the use of social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook, for creating awareness, interacting with fans, and distributing music. Furthermore, the report discusses the strategy of localized product offerings, with albums released in multiple languages to cater to diverse audiences. The report also explores the viability of the K-Pop model in the future, suggesting recommendations for continued success, such as expanding talent search, investing in long-term trainee wellness, and fostering artistic innovation through group dynamics and diverse performance styles. References from academic journals support the analysis.

Success of K-Pop Model 1
The Success of K-Pop Model
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Success of K-Pop Model 2
The success of K-Pop model
K-pop entertainment stars have for the recent decades captivated the global audiences due
to its combination excellent singing skills, attractive appearances, dance choreography, and
styles. The industry is highly competitive because it has reinvented itself to be different with the
rest of the world. The agencies use strategy of a fusion of Asian and Western music style of pop
and use of simple melodies. To this effect, the industry has gained a universal mass appeal, and
this is attributed to their success (Min-Soo, 2012). The model behind this achievement cultivates
rigorous search of talent, through training, customer relationships, and use of social media and
localization of their products because stars can perform using foreign languages (Lie, 2012). To
this effect, the success of K-Pop entertainment demonstrates innovation of nurturing talents and
relationships with customers using nontraditional media such as YouTube to advertise the
products.
Model Employed by K-pop Music Industry
The model used K-Pop companies have made the difference in how the industry related
to its consumers and performers. Various factors such as talent management, localized product
offering and customers relationship among others have defined the success of Korea’s pop
music. K-Pop has excellent strategic talent management which makes them so much different
with the rest of the world in various perspectives. The agencies business model discovers these
talents through rigorous auditions, offer guidance and manage their abilities. For instance,
companies seek young people as young as 10 and guide them to become the next generation of
pop stars. The search for talent does have a wider scope because it is extended across the world
such as United States, Kazakhstan, and other countries (Lie, 2012; Min-Soo, 2012).

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When talents seeking process is over, then training takes place in a place similar to a
camp. In this case, the trainees are brought together and live in residences provided for by the
company where they gain skills until they make their professional debut. In the camp, their
activities that take place include taking singing classes, acting and dancing among others. Also,
they get introduced to foreign languages such as English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean for
those outside the country. In this regard, this prepares the talents produced by K-Pop industry to
international markets, and this makes their song perfect and attentive (Jung, 2014).
On the other hand, customer relationships are established and strengthened through social
media. K-Pop entertainment organizations have mastered the art of tactically using social media
avenues such as Facebook, YouTube to create awareness for upcoming artists, interact with fans
base and distribute music at a relatively low cost because of internet advertising. The reason for
this success is because K-Pop fans utilize social media which makes it easy to provide feedback
regarding activities such as music concerts. The result of this is understanding the market
demand and taking a necessary action (Oh & Park, 2012).
The agencies also provide localized product offerings to reach the audience well. For
instance, K-Pop companies use localized products for their target audiences who are in different
countries and continents. Albums are released in foreign languages like Japanese and English,
and this helps in reaching many audiences, and this is achieved through intensive foreign
language training. Therefore, customization of product to their audiences has made their
performance effective (Oh & Park, 2012).
According to the model used by K-Pop companies, the industry is effective because it is
capable of nurturing new talents to cope with the market demands. Therefore, its competitive
nature emanates from talented singers who can communicate with multiple languages understood

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by many peoples across the world. For example, it can produce in Chinese, English, Korean and
the other main languages which mean their genres are marketable across the board. Besides, they
have dedicated marketing agencies which expand the scope of their reach to many countries
supported by localization of the products (Jung, 2014; Oh & Park, 2012).
Viability of Korea’s Pop Music Business Model
Korean pop music is a wave which has been reinvigorated its global popularity. The
question is the viability of the industry to succeed globally now and in the future. Its model has
made it instrumental to overcome both cultural and language and barriers which face other
industries like in U.S. the article examines various dimensions of the industry such as the
creators, distribution method, consumers and the content. First, the entertainment agencies
producing, promoting and train K-pop music performers. Distribution channels and strategy used
by the music organizations such as social media channels makes a significant contribution to its
international viability. Further, there are consumers and other fans who enjoy and share K-pop
music information such as that of performers. Lastly, there are changes regarding K-pop style of
dancing and singing which is done regularly. Therefore, according to articles analyzing the
viability of the Koreas music industry is viable now and in the future due to the factors
explained, but there is a need to cope with changes over time to remain at the top of the industry.
Recommendations and Conclusion
For Korean industry to be active in future and service competition, the entertainment
companies in Korea especially those dealing with K-Pop entertainment. There is need to develop
a systemized process where new entrants are searched and nurtured to compete with international
stars. This means they should be trained from the beginning and imparted with international
marketing in mind. Further, there is need to ensure that those who are selected are part of the

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cream to increase the competitive ability of K-pop’s industry. The selection channels should be
widened to increase the success of the industry. Therefore, there is a need for trainees to be
selected from broad channels such as global auditions, and recommendations from other
celebrities across the world. Upon this, the organizers need to explore the talent of the identified
individuals to explore the potentially hidden training where only the best are chosen for training.
For long-term survival of its competitive nature, the industry should cultivate a long-term
investment to ensure the wellness of the trainees. For instance, coming up with new dance moves
and introducing more foreign languages common in places like Africa example being Swahili.
Besides, performers need to have the stamina for character building and to engage them in
psychological counseling to keep them from behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol and
other destructive behaviors. Besides, from their training to debut performance, the industry
should train them to endure a stiff competition through survival-style tactics to make them
always emerge on the top. Artists should also be encouraged to form groups and come up with a
new concept, dancing styles by each member’s strengths. This is good for the industry because
synergy reduces the weakness of the members in a group and amplify their strength.

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References
Jung, S., 2014. Youth, social media and transnational cultural distribution: the case of online K-
pop circulation. In Mediated Youth Cultures (pp. 114-129). s.l.:Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Lie, J., 2012. What is the K in K-pop? South Korean popular music, the culture industry, and
national identity. Korea Observer, 43(3), p. 339.
Min-Soo, S., 2012. Lessons from K-pop's Global Success. Seri Quarterly, 5(3), p. 60.
Oh, I. & Park, G. S., 2012. From B2C to B2B: Selling Korean pop music in the age of new social
media. Korea Observer, 43(3), pp. 365-378.