Interesting! I figured I watched less movies this 2017 than I did in 2016, but turns out I got a couple more films/hours logged. And there were a couple more titles that I didn’t log because they’re not on Letterboxd. They just happened to be not current movies, I suppose.
I’m still, currently, very much obsessed with Mamamoo, though. LOL That’s 30% of my movie-watching time doing Mamamoo-related stuff.
2018 doesn’t look to be an improvement to 2015 levels xD
I’m also not sure whether Ryo Kase is my Most Watched Actor this year, considering I went on a non-logged marathon of Shweta Menon movies— like 4 or 5. But, once again, latest highest-rated movies reflect some of my movie-watching; a little American indie, a little Indian and a little Chinese.
Well, that was an exciting early morning. I got really hyped 10min. before the pre-orders for Moosical Bluray started because I wasn’t sure I was gonna get a copy, after what people went through while getting Solar’s Emotion. But everything went well, and then I was attacked by Paint Me (칠해줘).
I, obviously, have all the feels. The song DOES get better with replays. It did sound very West power pop ballad to me, which is explained by the fact that the song was composed by Mich Hansen, Peter Wallevik, Daniel Davidsen, Chelcee Grimes, and Kara DioGuardi, who happened to have worked in Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics, which I loved. What really sold me the song are the lyrics, though. Written by JYP’s Jowul (조울), the structure of the song is telling the story of lovers— the beginning of love, the happiness of being in a relationship, the passion, and the heartbreak, with an abrupt ending that works thematically. It’s also a freaking sexy song, so I won’t lie that I wasn’t thinking that my favorite Kpop MV director, Hwang Soo-ah, should’ve done it. LOL
The song really called for a MV with storyline, but I know Mamamoo’s strengths aren’t on acting (‘Be Normal’ xD) and I also understand that Mamamoo aren’t in the position of not showing their face on their MV yet. But I imagined a very intimate MV with actors xD
I’m really looking forward to what they do in the album, even though I’m not looking forward to Sleep in the Car (잠이라도 자지) [1] AND Paint Me being in the same album [see: making albums].
Having said that— the promo photos. Whee-in, you bias wrecker, you. So I finally decided to put together my favorite era looks for each member ^^ Continue Reading…
There was a time, a long time ago, when I really took to streaming music. My music buying habits, but specially my music download habits, changed to basically streaming to the point when licensing and catalogs began changing, and I found my music collection shrinking. In the end, I started downloading once again.
I have come to the realization that I buy less and less physical albums, or it takes me longer to buy them. :(
As I found myself deeper and deeper into Kpop fandom once again, so deep into Mamamoo fandom that I begun to get irked by fans who publicly post about their illegal downloads AND complain about numbers of comebacks/group activities. I ended up writing this nonchalant post about music earnings, as well as other Mamamoo activities fans can support besides comebacks [1][2][3]. Yes, I’ve become that type of fan. The old one. LOL
As a grown-up who loves the arts, I always try to remind people that if they love and support their artists that they should buy instead of stream because streaming doesn’t pay. I was literally shook when Hyori mentioned that she had learned that PSY’s Gangnam Style only made $38k [1]; even though I knew some of the horror stories like the one of musician Lee Lang (이랑) who, during her acceptance speech for winning Best Folk Song at the Korean Music Awards, stated that she had only made $370 USD in total earnings on the month of January, so she decided to auction her award starting from the base price of her rent [1].
You can support Lee Lang by buying her album, Playing God (신의 놀이), on Bandcamp :)
And to my surprise, one of my favorite groups this year~~~ the lovely girls from Bolbbalgan4, who are considered digital monsters with their songs almost always charting within the Top10 of Melon, South Korea’s most used music site, had made only $61k USD by August this year [1]. Red Diary Page.1 didn’t drop until a month later, and all 5 songs in the album charted within the Top15. But that’s still besides the point. The point being that your faves don’t make money because you stream music on YouTube or Apple Music or Spotify.
So stop demanding expensive music videos that can cost from $100k-$500k for an average medium size budget, or go up to $1M for the splashy ones that we don’t often see nowadays. At the height of the music video era in the 90s, Michael Jackson and Madonna’s most expensive videos hovered the $5M budget without adjustments for inflation [1]. Stop demanding multiple comebacks a year with infinite number of physical prints (these cost production budgets AND storage budget for large stocks) that you will be waiting for price drops and re-sellers.
So now, let’s do some math~
Let’s say a physical album, a regular jewel case priced at -let’s say- $10 USD. According to prices in 2017— Apple takes a 30% cut [1], Bandcamp takes a 15% cut for digital sales and a 10% for merch [1], whereas CD baby takes a 9% cut off digital sales and $4 USD off physical sales [1]. That means that by selling a $14USD album, the independent artist makes $10USD. In the parallel universe in which your fave is an independent, they keep $7 of those $10 in iTunes, but if there’s a label, the artist (meaning singer) probably gets $1 of those $10. If they’re their own lyricist, musician, producer or sound engineer, fees are different.
Streaming is a whole different beast— according to this post on Digital Music News from 2016, to make a single dollar $1 in Tidal, Google Play, Apple Music and Deezer; you gotta play the song +180 times. 196, to be exact, for Apple Music and Deezer. Make that 279 times on Spotify, 483 times on Vevo, 766 times on Soundcloud, and… at the end of the list, YouTube, where you gotta play songs 776 times to make that one dollar. That means a song/music video that has 100 million views on its YouTube official channel, has made roughly $125k USD, which would be made by selling 12.5k physical albums on CD Baby.
So remember, the next time you complain about X official store prices or limited stocks, it’s because all adds up to the price. If you found a cheap album, it’s because someone along the way lost money.
Yes, I’m low-key talking about Bizent LOL I’ve compared prices with YesAsia, and since I don’t get YesAsia free shipping, that’s paying double shipping because the YA price includes the Bizent $20 shipping fee. I’d rather that money go directly to Mamamoo. xD
A moomoo, I don’t know if it’s 붕붕 (with this current twitter handle, amoo0619), released all the remixes they had done with Mamamoo soundbites after Moonbyul had asked about the Hwasa x Ghost soundbite from their MMMTV; and it’s hilarious – especially if you know where the soundbite comes from xD.
So, of course, I added it to my library.
xD Hardcore moomoo now, na?
Also~~~ is anybody else smelling of low-key comeback? Whee-in was just asking for a Hwasa Lion soundbite. What if… they release a troll album O_O with Sleeping in the Car as lead single xD
I had so much fun watching Moosical last night, and though I’m waiting for the Bluray release, I might keep the DVD if the BR release doesn’t match the current packaging for Mamamoo goods RBW has going so far. I also had so much fun overnight listening to the usual MMM streams we don’t get to attend. Thank you, Tale~
So Chan Whee (소찬휘)’s Tears, Love Battery (사랑의 배터리) AND Bingeul Bingeul [1]? I was in heaven already before I got to listen to Recipe LIVE. Blessed.
And a complete version of Sleep in the Car (잠이라도 자즤)? Geez, I need RBW to release that ASAP. You’ve spoiled me rotten.
This is the actual first time I’ve ever given my info to MAMA. LOL
The only blind-votes are for Best New Male Artist, Male Groups categories, and I wasn’t too in love with any of the MV nominees.
Do vote for HYUKOH, Bolbbalgan4, IU, Hyori, SNSD, Chungha, Zico and F.O elder YJS xD ^^
Also do vote for the dumb European MTV Awards and their buzz-grabbing international awards for Best Korean Act, on top votes for KOHH or Suiyoubi no Campanella for Best Japan Acts, and Henry Zuo [1] for Best Greater China Act. I thought I was old AF, and done with MTV and EMA stuff, but I guess not. LOL
And if EMA history serves me right, well~ and Henry Zuo passes to the next rounds. He’s gonna win it, just like Chris Lee did, just like BiBi and Jane Zhang. Coz, you know. China. LOL And I don’t wanna see y’all moaning.
Mamamoo and being a Moomoo has made me realize that I should be a better fan to my idols, so I’ve been reconnecting with my Everlasting roots. Bless Brown Eyed Girls, bless JeA, bless Miryo, bless Narsha and bless GaIn. They were my original favorites back when I got into Kpop, but never had enough to really get into them. I swear, if there was a MamamooTrans version of BEG back then, I would totally be a hardcore Everlasting.
BEG are so SO funny, I’ve been recently watching their Mepsi appearance, and I don’t even have an interest in makeup or actually get half the show since it’s a mix of Korean with Chinese subs, and my makeup-beauty Chinese vocabulary is poor. LOL I caught a glimpse of them learning Mandarin and I couldn’t resist, though. I’m usually a JeA racoon-leader stan [1][2], but I’ve gotten acquainted with my new-found love for Miryo. I really lost it when she try telling her model that she’d be doing her eye makeup, but came out as “Wo EYE Ni” xD
Then there was their presentation on Weekly Idol, of course. Weekly Idol was one of the shows that got me into Mamamoo as well, and I remember watching BEG’s and finding it hilarious. They can be so much alike in their Random Play, but also comically true Adult-dols, especially JeA and Narsha asking for Red Ginseng and Oriental Raisin Water xDDDDDDD
Of course I’m still hung up on the perfection that was Sixth Sense, I do not regret buying the regular version AND the collector repackage. It’s really my most precious BEG possession.
Also! Request for having a show with Mamamoo or BEG where they learn a language. There’s actually several shows on NHK where idols/actors learn French, Spanish and Chinese (and various English language shows), so this can totally be a concept.
Confession; I had been considering revoking my 24/7 moomoo status for a more casual one where I would just listen to the good music, but that doesn’t seem the case after Mamamoo’s Purple Party in Taiwan this weekend. LOL They won’t let me.
I had been considering it because, though my music consumption has gone up, I need to increase my movie consumption. I also need to find the time to exercise once again, which I could easily do while watching movies, but can’t while watching Mamamoo fancams. LOL You’re watching fancams for a reason, you can’t NOT watch them without missing details. They also seem to be doing well financially to the point that they can afford brand stuff that I can’t or would be willing to afford xD
However, after the Taiwan event with fans and listening (then watching) Solar be so moved, asking whether she deserves all this love, it seems unlikely in the near future that I’d be soft ‘drop’ them. I also wanna give a shout out to the Mamamoo Taiwan MooMoo Union because- JOB WELL DONE, you guys~ teaching the fanchants, and doing the event, feeding the staff and even the journalists. You guys did amazing, pushing the bar for fans to behave and show their idols all your love~ You guys make me want to be a better Moomoo.
So I finally read the official translation of Chapter 91 of What Does the Fox Say, and I’m still a f*cking mess when I read it. It wasn’t as bad as when I read the fan-translated version a week early, when I literally ugly-cried for seven pages straight.
