SUPERKIND Official / TXT Official
K-Pop keeps growing as a genre, each year more groups are being released, and they keep improving the quality of their work. New trends and technologies are adopted to develop the K-Pop industry and keep up with the rest of the world. Those days, people are hooked on the trends of AI technologies and the existence of the Metaverse. Two virtual assets that are slowly, yet surely, making their way into the K-Pop world.
You probably already faced some very developed virtual content about K-Pop and K-Pop singers, without even realizing it. The virtual world is now playing a big role in the K-Pop industry, with virtual merchandising and computer-generated groups, but how far can that technology develop in the K-Pop world?
Let's dive into those codes and systems to see all the benefits and flaws of AI-related content in the K-Pop industry.
1. Virtual merchandising meeting divided opinions from fans
Weverse Shop
For a long time, K-Pop photocards have been one of the fans' most treasured pieces of merchandise. That was also one of the main reasons that pushed them to buy physical albums instead of simply downloading the tracks on streaming platforms. However, those days, it is not rare to come across 'AR cards' or even 'virtual photocards'. AR cards are usually found in specific physical versions of an album and only contain a QR code, but some do remain with a regular picture on it. However, AR cards are not regular photocards. May it be a picture or a QR code, fans will be able to scan them with a designated app, and new content will be unlocked. For cards with a QR code, it can lead to a simple picture, but also a video or even a vocal message. As for AR cards with a picture on them, they usually lead to a video of the idol at the moment of taking the picture, or a miniature version of the member on the photocard. That was the case for ONEUS' AR photocards from their album "MALUS". The use of AI technology enabled to recreate the member dancing to the new song, or even saying a few words as if he were just in front of the fan.
But AR cards are not the only merchandising making use of virtual features. Indeed, virtual photocards are a new thing in the K-Pop world. Those cannot be found when buying an album, but are more likely on communication platforms such as Bstage, or when participating in an event such as a fan call on certain platforms. Virtual photocards are exclusive pictures of an idol that are being sent to fans through e-mail or designated platforms, giving the uniqueness of the original photocards while having the benefit of being directly on one's phone or computer. While this sounds very convenient - no more losing photocards, buying binders after binders to fit them all - many fans complained about this system. Having virtual photocards took out the excitement of pulling out random cards and being able to expose them somewhere. Some fans also noticed that albums or events including virtual merch did not always differ much in price compared to physical albums or events, while there was no paper to be printed, making look like they were being taken advantage of.
So, while the new virtual merchandising system has some benefits and trendiness to it, it is not quite flawless, and physical photocards are still the main piece of goods fans are looking for.
2. K-Pop groups with computer-generated members
PLAVE Official
The core of K-Pop groups is to have members making music and performing in front of their fans, however recently, the industry started switching things up. There are now a few groups that count one or more virtual members. Those members are entirely part of the group, performing with other regular members, and even having their own content on the group's social media. That is the case of the group SUPERKIND. They were the first group to introduce a virtual member, and they were quite the talk during their debut year. But if it started from one member, there are now a few groups that are completely composed of computer-generated members. You probably saw MAVE: or PLAVE before, they are gaining more popularity each day among Korean fans while having no physical members. Those groups display the technological progress of Korea, especially in the K-Pop industry, and show that nowadays, it is not necessary for a group to physically exist to be successful. That is very cost-efficient for agencies, and probably they could generate twice as many K-Pop groups using this technology. However, considering that none of those members are existing people, with a mind of their own, they cannot fulfill all tasks that K-Pop idols are currently doing. Such as fansigns, or mini-fan meetings during the group's promotion. As those groups are computer-generated images, they cannot be projected anywhere at any time. And we all know how precious those events are for both fans and idols, seeing them disappear would be a shame, certainly, regular K-Pop groups will live on for many more years.
3. K-Pop groups in the metaverse
Triple iz Official
On top of groups with virtual members, K-Pop groups are also diving into the metaverse. The metaverse is no other than a virtual world based on existing elements, where people can create avatars and live a whole new life. In the past, we saw many collaborations between K-Pop groups and metaverse platforms such as Zepetto, one of the most popular metaverse platforms in Korea. Those collaborations included clothes collections inspired by K-Pop groups' outfits being added to the website wardrobe, or even virtual projections of the group's concerts. But such collaborations are now in the past as some groups are now being fully active on the metaverse while existing in the real world as well. That is the case of Triple iz, a rookie group debuting both in the real world and in the metaverse. Each member has an avatar on the platform with unique content for fans to discover. It will be the first of its kind, but probably not the last. The metaverse is only starting to merge with the K-Pop world, we are yet to see the possibilities of this new technology.
4. AI-generated communication platform
CreChat Official
That is probably the newest trend in the K-Pop world, using AI to generate private chats between fans and idols. It is the services provided by CreChat, a new communication platform for K-Pop fans, using AI technology to generate idol's voice, visuals, messages, and more. The AI is using existing data about the idol to recreate an accurate version that will chat with fans. This platform offers exclusive content, also AI-generated, such as New Year messages and more. While it sounds crazy to recreate an idol using AI, considering that the idol already exists, it allows more private interaction with fans in any language and easily made content, no need for the idol's time, a photographer or cameraman and such, just a computer can do the trick. It is another very cost-efficient technology agencies could make use of. However, that new system is facing mixed reactions. While the content on the platform is purely AI-generated, it is not impossible that some fans get too much into it and end up requesting the actual idol to act as the AI-generated version of him or herself. Plus, as AI-generated content grows within the K-Pop community, fans get more and more opportunities to turn their desire into reality through virtual content. That is what concerns most fans, they fear that people with bad intentions could make use of those same technologies to create twisted content that could cause damage to K-Pop idols. Hopefully, it won't get to that stage and agencies will be careful about the content being shared, even by AI.
5. K-Pop and AI from covers to filters, anyone can become a K-Pop idol
YouTube
As mentioned previously, many platforms are now using AI-generated content, especially SNS such as TikTok or Instagram. People can now play with filters to add cute decorations to their pictures and videos, and as AI technology develops, the range of possibilities is only getting wider. Nowadays, you can listen to your favorite K-Pop idol singing any song of your choice with AI-generated covers. Those can be made by anyone, tutorials are even being shared on many social media, and it uses AI technology to match an idol's voice on an existing melody. While this is harmless and is great entertainment for fans, other AI content could become a problem if used with bad intentions. It is the case of the K-Pop idol AI filter that can be found on TikTok. That filter uses AI technology to turn your face into an idol's face. Many filters of this genre had been done before, but none looked realistic. The new version of the filter, helped by AI, matched your natural facial features with the idol's to make it look super realistic. With that, people can film any type of content, looking like their favorite idols. It is a very nice filter when it comes to funny content or K-Pop-related content such as dance cover, vocal cover or even reproducing idol's make-up, but it could easily become an issue if the wrong type of videos were filmed using this filter. For now, the filter is very obvious when turned on as it shows a big square above the user's face mentioning the idol's face that is being reproduced. But if this part of the filter were to disappear, it would be harder to know if a filter is on or not. The development of AI in the K-Pop industry can be very beneficial to some extent, but it must not go over the line to avoid urgent issues in the future.
Overall, the merging of new technologies such as AI with the K-Pop industry proved to be beneficial in many aspects and could constitute a big part of the future of K-Pop. However, it is not flawless and needs to be supervised properly to not turn into a threat to K-Pop idols. And no matter how much the world is growing and technologies are taking over, fans are still very much attached to the traditions, meaning physical groups and merchandising. So even if the K-Pop world is changing, what we've known so far is not about to disappear, but it could become something new, something greater than all we've had.
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