K-pop climate activists rallied at the HYBE label demanding action.
On April 21st, climate activists in the K-pop scene called 'Kpop 4 Planet' gathered at the office of HYBE Label in Seoul. They collected and donated physical album CDs throughout the month of March for their rally and performance in celebration of Earth day, which is April 22nd.
A total of 8027 copies of albums collected were then transformed into an art piece to raise awareness regarding the environmental damage the entertainment companies are inflicting. The art piece delivered the message "Art Should Not End Up Here", to show that artists' works should not end up being plastic waste.
'KPop 4 Planet' explained they chose the HYBE label as 15.23M copies out of 57,089,160 copies of physical albums sold in 2021 came from the label alone. The organization also pointed out how the entertainment labels have been encouraging the sales of physical albums through gimmicks such as photo cards when only a handful of fans actually listen to the CD.
Since smaller companies such as IST Entertainment were able to release an album without physical CDs, they say bigger labels can do better regarding its environmental damage.
"No K-pop On a Dead Planet", says the organization.
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HYBE is not really the issue but K-pop as whole. The industry has pretty much become dependent on using photocards and other goods to guarantee their artists will sell over 600k albums but as a result trees are being cut down for the sake of creating something that some people are only keeping 1% of as the rest is thrown down the trash since they've already purchased 50 copies of the album. Even reselling or donating doesn't change anything since eventually these albums just end up in a dumpster.
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