I cant get into this the way i wanted to because the data is just not publicly available yet which (TRASH) but it's deeply disturbing and a consumer to see how the the MX deal with Epic, I won't speak for the UK deal w Columbia, did not include US distribution for korean releases

They signed this deal in May, and released several English language songs and then released a korean mini (though i'm loath to call it that when it's only 2 songs shy of their last album length) and this was not distributed in the US - and i'm gonna talk about what i mean here

it's available in the US, you can BUY it on amazon, but the cost to ship it from SK is built into the price. It is not being distributed from a stateside vendor, amazon is the third party handling the sale between US fans and SSE

What this means for US fans is that the price is double or triple what they'd pay if it was distributed locally. What this means is large swaths of US fans did not buy it because they know if MX tours in 2020 those tickets are $200+, & may include travel. The math doesn't work

That difference in price is immense, it's also absurd. MX has been touring internationally for 3 years, slowly building an audience that has lead to larger venues. They have not been touring off english language content, so why are these barriers still here?

What is the point of signing with a US label, who could and SHOULD be handling the US distribution and still having us have to pay to ship from fucking SK? The only thing this does is depress international sales. Because the fan base? is not rich

ME? I'm an adult who works full time at a pretty well paying job so I can afford all this shit including the shipping, but there are plenty of fans who cannot and want to support them in this way! But this a significant barrier to entry.

And these kinds of actions also eliminate casual fans. You have plenty of people who may have heard who do you love on the radio & dl'd the track or saw them on we bare bears and remembered to look them up. But you have just as many who would forget unless they saw it in store

It is absurd that anyone would operate with the knowledge that you can sell 10-16K in seats in 22 cities and then make it as hard and expensive as possible for those people to purchase your physical album, which you are counting for your sales that year.

And I just cannot fathom WHY. They clearly got that deal because MX has a fanbase in the US, but that fanbase has been going to concerts that are 99% in Korean for years! Those fans WANT to purchase those things, let them do it easily and without having to sell their firstborn

And again I come back to the question of WHY: why would you sign a deal w a US label for english language work only without including distribution of the korean language work that built the audience? WHAT IS THE LOGIC HERE?

We won't discuss how this same Korean language album wasn't even available for preorder on US itunes, didnt even APPEAR until the day of release. what is the logic