How BTS, Exo, (G)I-dle and NCT 127 changed the future of live music: Covid-19 forced K-pop concerts online – are in-person gigs a thing of the past?

Aug 7 , 2020

Is this the future of live music – BTS during its groundbreaking Bang Bang Con: The Live online concert. Photo: Big Hit Entertainment

No queuing for toilets, no paying for overpriced drinks and in theory a show can’t be sold out – will online live concerts become the new norm post-Covid-19? Using AR, 3D CG effects and live chat interaction with fans, for Gen Z music fans, this is a tough gig to beat

Is this the future of live music? With the coronavirus leading to the cancellation of almost everything, concerts were among the first beloved pastimes to go. But it did force K-pop stars, especially, to come up with new ways to communicate with their fans. Indeed, online concerts by popular South Korean groups may be the most enduring entertainment legacy of Covid-19.

Cheaper than the offline concert and able to be enjoyed anywhere, online concerts can present outstanding performances, pristine presented in cohorts with modern visual technology and effects to frankly stunning affect.

Don’t believe us? Here are a few of the unprecedented K-pop online concerts that broke records – and those coming up that you wouldn’t want to miss.

BTS online concert made the Guinness World Records

The BTS “Bang Bang Con: The Live” online concert was held on June 14 after world-beating boy band’s “Map of the Soul” tour plans got cancelled due to Covid-19. With a virtual attendance of 756,000 it made it into the Guinness World Records as the biggest audience for a paid virtual concert. From the ticket sales alone, the group made around US$18.8 million, with each ticket costing US$22.30 for fan club members and US$32.60 for non-members.

What changed? No more squinting your eyes to catch a sight of the performance or blaming the cameraman for not catching your star in frame. Big Hit Entertainment came together with Kiswe Mobile, a streaming tech company, to show six simultaneous streams, each with different angles, so that fans could choose from close-ups to full=band shots.

With the concept of inviting the fans over to their house, the boys switched into five different bangs (rooms in Korean) with various concepts. Hopping into different rooms, they performed popular songs like Boy with Luv and Anpanman and the concert was credited with boosting the group’s already substantial fan club by an extra 10,000 members.

The perfect collaboration between SM Boy groups and technology