Chart Korean Charts 101 - Major Charts, Instiz, All-Kill Explained (1 Viewer)

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*work in progress*

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Different Chart Brands in Korea
   1. Melon
   2. Genie
   3. Bugs
   4. MNet
   5. Naver
   6. Soribada
   7. Previous Charts
   8. Chart Manipulations and Methods Implemented
2. Instiz Chart Aggregator
   1. Instiz All-Kill
   2. Certified All-Kill
   3. Perfect All-Kill

 

[Administrator2]

1. Different Chart Brands in Korea

Korean charts are a significant factor for every Korean mainstream artist. They are a measure of success during weekly Music Shows as well as a popularity index within the general public. These charts measure digital success of artists songs and albums. The confusing part is that there are several important charts when it comes to Korea and all of them will be dissected in this thread. Majority of these charts work the same way but unlike the well-known and popular charts (such as Billboard Chart in the US, UK Big Top 40, etc.) these charts are updated hourly. Some of them update every 5 minutes! Newly introduced rule freezes these charts from 1 AM until 7 AM as to prevent chart manipulation. More on this we will discuss later. It is up to each chart to decide what will be counted towards chart score, but all of them are relying on streams and downloads. The ratio of these two is what affects different positions as it will be explained below.​

It's debatable what is the most important Korean music chart. Korea doesn't really have "the most important one" in a sense that everyone is following it. Below, a closer look of each and every one of these charts will be provided, so our users have a much better understanding of the chart system in Korea. The charts that will be tackled here are:​

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... as well as a handful of others. Each of these have their own quirks and methods so it is time for them to get dissected.​

 

[Administrator2]

1.1 Melon​

First and arguably the most important Korean chart is MelOn. No, it is not named after a fruit, it is supposed to be short for Melody On. You know Koreans and their abbreviations. MelOn is owned by a company called Kakao M (you might know them better under the name of LOEN Entertainment). It has well over 28 million subscribers to its name, which is basically half of entire South Korea. This brings it an overwhelming market share of 70% when it comes to music chart services of Korea. The default website for MelOn chart is Melon. According to their website, the chart data comprises of 40% share of streaming on MelOn and 60% of downloads. Screenshot 1 shows the main page of MelOn chart.​

Screenshot 1

As it can be seen above, there are five different tabs for five different types of charts: real-time, soaring, daily, weekly and monthly chart. Each of these can be searched through the past as well. The following screenshot shows "The MelOn Graph".​

Screenshot 2

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The graph shows real-time positions of top 3 songs in the past 24 hours. If you click on the arrow pointed by a red bubble text, you can see real-time charts for every 5 minutes, like shown on Screenshot 3:​

Screenshot 3

Nobody really knows the values behind the graph, but the higher a song is, the more streamed and downloaded it is. Which brings us to MelOn Rooftop Hit (Screenshot 4).​

Screenshot 4

Above we can see a song marked with green line achieving a MelOn Rooftop Hit one hour after the midnight release of the song. Basically what this means is that the song was extremely dominant over the #2 and #3. It is really unknown as to what is needed to achieve a Rooftop Hit, although one thing is for sure: that particular song was listened to and downloaded many times. The system changed a couple of times, each time making Rooftop Hits harder to achieve, so nowadays they are pretty rare. Rooftop Hit can be reached multiple times, even in consecutive hours. Obviously, a well-known name will have no issues while reaching the Rooftop but a mediocre #1 will have difficulties getting there. Screenshot 5 displays a competitive top 3 that isn't really dominant and nowhere near the Rooftop Hit.​

Screenshot 5

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While the graph updates every 5 minutes, the actual real-time chart updates once an hour (except during the Freeze Time).​

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One last thing that should be mentioned is the Melon All-Kill. This is not to be mixed with Instiz's All-Kill. Melon All-Kill is when an artist occupies all top spots of the real-time chart with their own songs from the same album. Melon All-Kills are super rare and only an amazing album and an amazing artist can achieve it. Recent example would include EXO achieving a MelOn All-Kill with Don't Mess Up My Tempo, as shown on Screenshot 6. The one I remember before that would be IU's Chatshire, released in 2015.​

Screenshot 6

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[Administrator2]

1.2 Genie​

Genie Music is a subsidiary of KT Corporation. Genie is a South Korean company that specializes in the production and distribution of music content. Its music streaming service is the second most used in South Korea with 2.5 million subscribers. As a result, it also has its own charts. The main website for Genie Charts is https://www.genie.co.kr/chart/top200.​

The main difference between Melon and Genie is that Genie displays Top 200 instead of 100 entries on the real-time chart. As such it features twice as many songs at the same time and songs generally have a longer life span on Genie than on Melon. Just like MelOn, Genie data is comprised of streaming + download. Screenshot 7 shows the main page of Genie Charts, with some relevant translations.​

Screenshot 7

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Genie also features a graph, but unlike Melon where 3 songs are featured, Genie displays a graph for top 5 songs. Additionally, while Melon shows statistics such as a number of unique listeners as well as their demography (age, sex), Genie gives a bit more information on chart-topping. For example, 누적 (as above) displays total number of hours spent on #1 (in the case of the song above, 10 hours). Similarly, 연속 displays consecutive number of hours spent at #1 (in the case of the song above, 1 hour). There is also a Rooftop Hit on Genie, but if you notice closely on the left side of the graph, there are clouds, sun and rainbow. Rainbow is what is considered a Rooftop Hit on Genie and in addition to consecutive and total number of hours spent on #1, you can also see number of Rooftop Hits (rainbows), which can be seen on screenshot 8 which displays Jennie achieving a Rooftop Hit 4 hours after the release of SOLO. Number of Rooftop Hits can be seen in lower right, next to the rainbow image.​

Screenshot 8

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Unike MelOn, Genie does not have 5-minute update for their graphs, but the actual real-time chart updates once an hour (except during the Freeze Time) just like MelOn..​

 

[Administrator2]

1.3 Bugs

NHN Bugs Corporation (formerly Neowiz Internet Corporation, acquired from Neowiz Holdings in 2015), which trades under the Bugs! brand (often stylized as SUPER SOUND Bugs!) held a 15% share of South Korea's music streaming market at the end of 2016, according to an IFPI survey of Internet users. It is a subsidiary of NHN Entertainment Corp, a South Korean developer, publisher and distributor of mobile and PC games founded in December 1999 under the name Hangame Communications, Inc. With 15% share of the streaming market it is placed third behind MelOn and Genie. The Bugs Charts website is 슈퍼사운드 벅스. Unlike the previously mentioned charts, Bugs operates real-time, daily and weekly charts (no monthly or accumulated charts). It features Top 100, just like MelOn. Real-time updates every hour, based on streaming and downloads as well.​

Screenshot 9