Your albums paths the roads of Super Junior….[PLEASE READ]

What we buy is not just an album, but hopes of SJ’s future, please buy 5JIB from the right way.
For promotional purpose, everyone must spread this note, many thanks!
Still remembering the same time last year, all of us were saying…
【See you in 4jib, no change of heart.】

Looking back, the sentiments are still high.
We have put in so much effort for 4jib. When the album was released, we bulk purchased, we voted in digital voting, we did physical voting, on top of all these, we still attended all sorts of concerts & contests. In order to let our men see the sea of sapphire blue, we could hardly take a breath in between all these activities. Stacks of albums (purchased directly from Korea) could be found in our homes, loads of ELFs can be seen around them wherever they go. Sometimes, you may complain of exhaustion & tiredness, but we found our own pleasure, we are doing this for the ones who are worth our efforts.
In the past, Leeteuk, DongHae used to remind us not to band hop, not to have a change of heart, like they are always worrying about losing us. Perhaps, they have suffered too much, making them unsure of how to handle such blessing that is difficult to come by. Perhaps, it’s the wish to own it forever, that they constantly worry about losing it.
I believe all of us are aware that the hyungs will be enlisting soon. My friend used to joke:” Yong Woon did not eat enough in the army, when he returns, (we) must buy him more meat.” I would reply: “Going forward, there will be more boys waiting to be fed by us”. Actually, short parting should not a heart wrenching experience, as long as we are willing to wait, one day, we will get them all back. They will greet us with their loudest, most confident voices: Wuli Nen Super Juni Or Ye Yo!
We are tasting bitter sweet, but we can afford to wait, can’t we?
It is a fact, 2010 is filled with heartache. Low budget mvs, low cost performance costumes, & degrading award ceremonies. I can only say, the house of sapphire blue is never the favourite child in the company, we are not the apple in the eye, we are more like adopted children. Nevertheless, despite wearing old clothes, despite not complete, despite getting no attention from the “parents”, our men still stood tall on stage, performing, in the name of Super Junior. Though not competed in numbers, they stayed committed together, retaining the innocence since beginning. Regardless of the times when they experienced valley lows, or the current days where they are standing mountain high, they still hold close to them, the purest heart they used to possess. This, is a great blessing that heaven has given us.
Soon, the fifth album (5jib) is coming.
Maybe, you have said those discouraging words, “I am not going to fan/ship them anymore, I am going to look for new love, I am going to love myself more”. You know what? In actual fact, the house of sapphire blue has grown a lot for the period of 2 years, between 3th album (3jib) and 4th album (4jib). We have, from a disunited bunch, congregated to a solid force, like a plate of dry sand, add some water, you can build a sand castle. We know we have to treasure what we have, because we know these did not come naturally for us, these are through sheer hard work of all. What can be more precious than those times we have gone through together? We should thank those who spite us to move on, its you whom had given us the extra push to move forward, to put in even more effort.
Golden Disk Award (GDA) Daesang, we had it, we “lost” it, what’s there to be afraid of anymore? Now, we all knew that whatever Daesang, are nothing but illusion. What we care the mose is not whatever Daesang anymore, we only wanted to given a beautiful memory to our 83liners, before they enlist, to let them know, whether they are going in or coming back (in the future), ELF will always be with them, will never abandon them.
At the same time, please think about it, 4jib was released based on the good sell through of 3jib, with the possible release of 5jib, was 4jib successful? To speak the truth, we have made it, but we lose to those in power. We always thought 5jib will be a long way to come, but the grand album sales of 4jib brought us just that. The two hyungs will be enlisting soon, 5jib will be the paving stone, how well will 5jib sell? This will decide the fate of SJ’s future. Lets think about it, we were never treated as own, if 5jib sales are bad, what will become of SJ in the company? (everyone should know by now, they have re-contracted.) In order to ensure their comfort zone in the company is preserved, we have to make 5jib a success, by hook or by crook. So what if we lose the awards? We are still here, we can break our own record, we can always get them back, what’s there to be afraid of? ELF are the best, we will not be beaten by such minor setbacks, will we?
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Let’s talk about the concept of pre-order/pre-sales.
Pre-order/pre-sales does not equals to actual album sales. Put it in simple terms, pre-order is what the retailers have ordered from SM, only after the retailers have sold these albums out, that the sales are counted.
【Regarding album sales, it is very simple.】

(1) Bulk purchase should focus on Hanteo chart as a priority.

• The percentage contribution of Korea’s top 3 charts are very dis-proportional. Looking from 2009 data, Synnara takes up 17.6%, Hottracks takes up 10.5%, but Hanteo contribute to 71.5%. Due to whatever reasons, there was no official data provided for Hottracks in 2010, while Synnara doesn’t even have any charts. Since Hottracks is now mergewd with Hanteo, you can imagine the importance of Hanteo. Even tough Hanteo chart does not reflect ALL of the albums sold in Korea, but it is the ONLY chart that record real time albums sales, and it is a chart that is representative with authority. Doing bulk purchase via its chain(such as HOTtracks and leesmusic), will ensure the albums we purchased are all counted, & reduce the probability of being ‘swallowed’.
• Hanteo franchise overview: Hottracks have many branches; leesmusic supports online purchase; synnara, told to have joined Hanteo’s chain of stores too, has many branches and also offers online purchase; The rests are YES24, Cooltrack, applemusic etc.However, Hanteo did not reveal the list of stores under them, thus there are still many uncertainty. what is 100% sure, are Hottracks and Leesmusic, so please try as much as possible to buy from these 2 chains.
• Those K music shows (Music Bank, InKiGaYo, M!CountDown) mostly got their album sale records from Hanteo chart (If Music Core doesn’t change, this show won’t have chart system). Do you remember Eunhyuk said in twitter that he wants 13 champions from the music shows? We missed them when 3jib, and failed to get them in 4jib due to great competition. If you want 13-weeked champions for 5jib, Hanteo is the only way.

(2) Korean Album Sales chart ONLY recognize K albums sold from Korean cd shops.

• Taiwan version, Jap version, HK version, foreign versions & pirated version, together with any album bought from websites(YESASIA/DVDheaven) or wholesalers are ALL NOT COUNTED into Korean’s album sales data.
• If your nearby CD shop boss tells you that their volume are counted, THAT IS A LIE! This is because they all bought those albums at wholesale prices from SM company. Well, I can’t actually say that they lie to you, rather, he doesn’t even know what is official album sales records. There were witnesses whom experienced seller answering doubts about whether album sold are counted “They are all counted, since they were directly purchased from the company”. You need to remember, they are ONLY businessmen, they don’t care about your so-call album sales. Verbal commitment is only to gain the trust of customers, otherwise how else can they do business?

(3) You must get an official receipt with tax paid

• The official receipt showing tax, proves that CDs are bought legally, and taxes are paid. With this, SM can claim for their copyright fees, SJ will also get their bonus on copyright fees.
• If what you bought does not come with such receipts, it only meant the CDs are sold, but taxes are not paid. These CDs could be cheaper. Even though they are also originals, produced & distributed by SME, they are not counted towards records, they will not be useful for SJ on winning any year-end trophies, they also will not be part of the progression SJ’s history.
• As a matter of fact, most wholesalers in your countries choose to purchase directly from companies that artists belong to, at a lower price. But the bonus any artists collects, can only be based on sales provided by shops that are counted in the official data, those albums sold via companies are not counted. Using a lower wholesaler price to buy in the albums, retailers can then price it at the price they are comfortable with, or put a lower price to attract customers, or claiming that such direct purchase from companies are part of data, some many even forge receipts to be able to command a higher price, thereby getting a bigger profit for themselves. These profits gained, not counted as part of official records, are gained by which parties, we do not need to elaborate.
• If you plan to buy from admins or groups that are doing bulk purchase, that they said they bought direct from Korea, please be absolutely clear about your bulk purchase’s authenticity & sources, and insist on a Korean tax receipt. If the source cannot disclose which stores are they under (for Hanteo chart), please refrain from using them.

(4) Focus on buying Version A

• GDA counts all versions; Seoul Music Gayo only counts version A; GAON Chart calculate the sales of individual versions of each album, and not the combine sales of all versions in one album. But, regardless of how many versions company is releasing, if you can afford, please focus on pushing up the sales of Ver A.  (If Ver C is for the 2nd comeback, since it’s vital for Music Chart placement later on, we still have to boost its sales.)
• In 2010, we were taken advantage of, simply because the leading gap of our version A is not huge enough. GDA Daesang was given out base on Hanteo chart data. If all these sales under GAON (which are from other channels) were also reflected in Hanteo Chart, then we would not have been taken advantaged off, being brushed off as “Oh, the difference was small, so we decided to give the award to another”. Also, please do not give them have a chance to make excuse by claiming that those charts (that do not disclose sales) has higher sales data of other artists.

【Lets take a look at 4jib comeback, data provided by Music Bank:】

1st week (5/13-5/16): Ver A-62270, Ver B-not released (MB data total 12145)

2nd week (5/17-5/23): Ver A-41204, Ver B-28417 (MB data total 10387)

3rd week (5/24-5/30)：Ver A-6286，Ver B-11053(MB data total 5505)

4th week (5/31-6/6)：Ver A-4603，Ver B-3603(MB data total 2394)
5th week(6/7-6/13)：Ver A-2811，Ver B-836(MB data total 1917)
We all know that, 4jib relied heavily on album sales to get into the charts (According to MB, the scores of chart system includes digital listening, favourtism, album sales & performance). We had 3 weeks of No. 1 in Music Bank, every time, it was because of album sales. When our album sales droped, ranking in the chart droped immediately, we couldn’t even get in as no 2.
About boosting album sales, we have a suggestion: when we bulk order, we should coordinate with K ELFs about when to do bulk purchase. Please do not bulk purchase at the same time, within the first week or first day. As it affects chart ranking, in order to make them stay longer in the chart, we hope everyone can volume purchase by batches(It will be best if you can do the bulk purchase after the 2nd week), let our sales flow long & strong, so they can get more of No 1!
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My main point is, we rather spend a few more dollars, paying hard cash buying a CD directly from the chain of shops belong to Hanteo (with tax receipt), than to save these money but ended up buying a cheaper YET totally useless albums that cannot boost sales data. It is worthless & meaningless, don’t you agree?
We have a huge foreign ELF base, if every one of us buy an album, the result will be phenomenal.
If there be a 6jib, it will not be in the near future.
About the unknown, there is no point to worry about it now, we can only treasure the present, be serious about everything, be committed to do the best!
For the longest time, we are the only ones putting in efforts. The house of sapphire blue do not rely on promotions to prove popularity, we do not take anything that does not belong to us. What we have, is from pure hard work and ability, sweat & tears, we paved the road ourselves, step by step, we move up to the stage which says: Asia, and even the whole world.
We hope everyone can work as a team.
If we make it, we are the family of sapphire blue.
If we screw it up, we are still the family of sapphire blue.
We are the family of sapphire blue, who will embrace & progress together.
See you in 5jib, Never have a change of heart.
If you truly love, please love deeply.
P.S. We are not forcing anyone to buy 5jib, we do not have the right to do so. But we sincerely hope that all ELFs can act as a solid backing for SJ, just for the name of ELF. We try to do what we can within our means, as they have suffered & are exhausted all these years. If even an ELF is not willing to give, then all their sufferings are wasted. Still the same old phrase, please continue to support SJ, continue to bulk purchase 5jib, continue to create the glory belonging to SJ and ELFs!

Written by 蕾蕾, Michelle Fung, Jeslyn Ho, Man Kyuu
Translated by Jeslyn Ho
Reference: 每天得瑟一点点吧&蓝瑟吧
Photo of 4JIB’s bulk purchase, CR: Monick Jaranilla
Posted by: uksujusid (www.sup3rjunior.wordpress.com)
TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS