Last year marked a historic milestone in the South Korean music industry as annual domestic album sales surpassed 100 million copies, reaching an all-time high. Notably, 29 albums achieved the remarkable feat of selling 1 million copies within the first week of their release. However, amidst this celebratory moment, concerns are growing regarding the environmental impact of the plastic CDs and accessories that constitute this abundance of records.

Entertainment companies are now taking steps to release eco-friendly albums in response to criticism that the industry's traditional practices are unsustainable. Nonetheless, some critics argue that these efforts amount to little more than "greenwashing," where companies merely pretend to be environmentally friendly without making substantial changes.

According to data from Circle Chart, album sales last year (weeks 1 to 50) reached a staggering 111,512,375 copies, representing a substantial 49% increase compared to the previous year, which saw 77.11 million copies sold. This continuous and significant growth in album sales has been evident over the past five years, with figures escalating from 24.59 million copies in 2019, 41.7 million in 2020, 57.08 million in 2021, 77.11 million in 2022, and finally, exceeding 111.51 million in 2023.

One major factor contributing to this meteoric rise in album sales is the prevalence of pre-sales and speculative bundle sales, driven by agencies' strategic marketing efforts. Popular music critic Kim Do Heon explained, "With the shift towards incorporating streaming chart data in the late 2010s, competition for chart rankings intensified. Idol fandoms began to gauge their group's status based on first-week album sales figures from Hanteo Chart, leading to an uptick in initial sales."

Idol group albums often include random elements like entry tickets for fan signing events and randomly distributed photo cards. This element of chance prompts fans to purchase numerous copies of the same album in pursuit of their desired photo card or to enhance their odds of securing a fan signing event ticket. Consequently, the phenomenon known as 'album junk,' where the surplus copies are discarded, has emerged. In response to criticism about this practice, K-pop agencies have started releasing eco-friendly albums that replace traditional plastic CDs with QR codes for accessing audio content or incorporating eco-friendly materials into album components.

However, fans face challenges when it comes to selecting eco-friendly albums based on their preferences. Due to the randomness of certain elements, such as photo cards, individuals may end up buying more albums than necessary, failing to address the root issue. While eco-friendly albums offer QR codes for audio access, the packaging and containers still contribute to environmental waste, rendering them only a partial solution. Regardless of the materials used, they can still result in significant eco-friendly waste.

Park Jeong Eum, the head of the Resource Circulation Team at the Seoul Environment Federation, highlighted the divide in album purposes, stating, "Albums can be categorized into those intended for genuine ownership and those sought for fan signing events. Collecting albums for personal enjoyment isn't a major issue, but fan signing events encourage unnecessary album purchases by fans who do not require them for numerical achievements." She urged agencies to reevaluate whether such practices are warranted and consider their environmental consequences.