When buying the increasingly popular K-Pop albums as well as the associated merch items, there are a few things you should pay attention to in order to avoid disappointment. After all, where do you get your dream album at a fair price, undamaged and fast?
For long-time K-Pop fans this is probably nothing new, but for newcomers to the world of K-Pop it is often a challenge.
What are the Hanteo and Gaon Charts? What is the difference and what role do they play? Where is the biggest selection of albums and where can you order safely and duty-free? You'll find out all of that here.
The Key Points in Brief
- Factors. When buying, you should keep the following points in mind: selection, customs fees, shipping costs, customer communication and shipping.
- Options. When buying, you have the following options: music stores, shops in Korea, Amazon & eBay as well as online shops for the European market.
- Nolae. Nolae is a German online shop that promises an uncomplicated purchase and a large selection of K-Pop items, with good customer communication.
- Charts. The so-called Hanteo and the Gaon Chart play a big role in the K-Pop world. Both album charts take shipped units of physical music media into account, but look at them from different angles.
Where can you get K-Pop products and what do you need to keep in mind?
When looking for K-Pop products, there are several options for getting your dream album. We'll show you what to keep in mind when buying and what advantages and disadvantages the different options have.
Music stores
K-Pop albums are usually not that easy to find - they are normally not available in regular music stores, and even in specialty stores it is hard to find your dream album at a fair price. On top of that, there is only a small selection in Germany, which is why fans increasingly lean towards other options.
Shops in Korea
An alternative to regular music stores would be ordering from a Korean shop. The selection is a lot bigger here, but unfortunately there are a few pitfalls here as well. For one, shipping costs are relatively high - sometimes almost higher than the actual product costs. Customs fees are another hurdle. When importing from Korea to Germany, no customs fees apply to a purchase price of €22 including shipping costs. From €22, however, 19% import VAT will be due. From €150, further customs duties are added depending on the type of goods. In addition, customer communication is usually somewhat more complicated. Shipping also takes a little longer and there is a risk that the package could get lost.
Amazon & eBay
Of course, there is also the option of ordering via Amazon or eBay. On eBay you mainly find older albums and special editions. With used albums from private sellers, however, the popular photocards or similar items might be missing. Another drawback is that products bought via Amazon often arrive damaged. Here, too, customer communication is not always ideal.
Online shops for the European market
Because of some difficulties that the other options cause, there are more and more online shops for the European market that specialize in importing and distributing K-Pop products.
This is where Nolae comes in!
Advantages of Nolae
We noticed how hard it is to get K-Pop products in Europe. Our mission is therefore to make it possible for all K-Pop fans to buy easily, so that no stan gets disappointed.
- We import directly from Korea and can therefore offer you a large
selection - Our Korean partners are all Hanteo Family members, so your
purchase will be counted in the ranking - At Nolae we also try to respond to individual product requests and offer various K-Drama OST
CDs that other shops, for example, don't have. - You don't need to worry about hidden costs or dubious service providers - you only pay the
price you find on our site
- Our packages are always shipped well protected, so that your products arrive undamaged
- Nolae offers customer service that can be reached both by email and via social media - no
question goes unanswered!
But what exactly is the deal with the different charts? And what role do they play when buying K-Pop products?
Hanteo Chart
Unlike the Gaon Chart, the Hanteo Chart is a “real-time chart”. Counting happens in real time and is not accumulated over a certain period. The chart draws its data from Hanteo-certified stores, which report their actual sales to end customers. This data also feeds into the scoring of the weekly music shows.
However, the results are not accessible to everyone, because no complete results are published. To access the complete results, you need a “Korean Social Security Number” and a paid membership with Hanteo. You can find a general overview without a membership as well here.
Gaon Chart
The Gaon Chart was launched in 2010 and gives insight into the weekly best-selling songs and music albums in South Korea, which are also factored into the year-end evaluation - into the calculations of the award shows.
The Korea Music Content Industry Association obtains the data used from the largest online shops and stores in South Korea. The chart is based on the sales figures of distributors worldwide, but these are often adjusted downwards due to returns from resellers when they were unable to sell the singles or albums.
The Gaon Chart is similar to the US Billboard charts. The Gaon Chart also has its own award show, the “Gaon Chart Music Awards”.
You can find the results here.
Now a few things should be clearer for newcomers too!
