International K-pop fans may be growing in numbers, but there is a lot of room for improvement on the level of service provided by Korean music labels, according to commenters on a recent Reddit thread.
The thread was started by the question "What is the one thing you would want K-pop labels to know or do that would make the international K-pop fan experience a better one?" and elicited a bunch of requests and complaints.
The most top-voted response was to allow international K-pop fans to more easily buy merchandise online. For fans, this was a no-brainer since it is can be financially lucrative for agencies.
"Allow me to buy merchandise without going to eBay. Let me give you more money," said Reddit user NateDizzle312. "I was thinking along the lines on having distributors or an international website that sells at reasonable prices. Like I would like to buy EXID towels and photo cards but know that the money I spent are going straight to their company."
International fans also clamored for making it more convenient to stream and purchase music from their favorite K-pop artists, with suggestions ranging from making K-pop songs available on Spotify to making an English-accessible version of MelOn, Korea's top-rated online music store.
Meanwhile, major complaints aired in the discussion thread included the mispronounced or outright nonsensical English lines in K-pop songs, and making cooler-sounding group names. On the latter, a commenter said "I want to be able to tell my friends 'I like [group]' without cringing."
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Mickey is a writer and digital content creator based in Manila. He is a co-founder of ZAVI App and editor of the small business blog IndieMickey. He has also been bitten by the K-Pop fashion bug - follow him on Instagram @mickjami.
