BTS, the K Pop Korean boy band, gamed the charts once again.
Their sales for this past week fell 96% from their debut week for the album “Map of My Soul: 7.”
According to Buzz Angle, album sales went from 157,800 to 5,500. All in, including streaming, the total for the first week was 218,014. The second, sales dropped to 29,200. That’s an 86% drop.
Every new BTS album that’s released immediately swamps iTunes in real time, taking over every chart position from 1 to 20. The album goes to number 1. There’s a press frenzy. Then later it turns it the whole thing was rigged. And it happened again.
This may be why The Orchard, a tiny record label, is listed as having a higher share of the music market than Epic or Warner Bros. records. Something is rotten in that Orchard.
You never ever hear BTS’s music on top 40 radio either. They have no song that’s gotten into the culture. Are they the new Beatles? That’s a laugh.
So whatever the con is, the kids know. They’re not buying BTS. And I’m not buying their numbers. They’re pulling a “Parasite” on us.