UPDATE: New York-based Teen Top fans made NYC the first city to hit the social demand thershold and is now in the pre-funding stage on Krowdpop. At press time, fans had bought enough tickets to raise 41 percent of the $150,000 goal. If the goal is met in the next four days, Teen Top will play New York’s Best Buy Theater on March 23. Tickets can be bought via Krowdpop here.
For the first time ever, American fans have the power to bring K-pop boy band Teen Top to their city.
For the U.S. portion of their 2014 world tour, the sextet have revealed that supporters will be the ones choosing the cities they hit next month via a new kickstarter-esque concert platform for K-pop fans, Krowdpop.
How It Works: According to the company, Krowdpop fields general requests for K-pop artists to perform in registered users’ specific cities and countries. Once KPOP UNITED, the global K-pop fan organization/company that runs Krowdpop, identifies enough interest for a specific act in a territory, the company will work with South Korean music agencies on how to make a show happen.
Social media is certainly key here; local fans will need to work together to drum up support for specific artists.
Should talks prove successful, KPOP UNITED will approve requests to register an event for a Krowdpop campaign. Each campaign has a goal number of interested attendees that will need to express interest in the show by a certain deadline in order for the concert to have a remote chance of happening. (For an example, see the Teen Top campaign with six days left.)
Should the campaign net the minimum amount of interested users, the next stage requires fans to buy “Krowdpop tickets,” which are concert tickets sold at a discounted price compared to normal ticket prices — Krowdpop adds that these tickets will typically include “exclusive fan interaction benefits” too.
Tickets bought will go towards a cash minimum that needs to be hit in order for the concert to be put on. If the minimum number of tickets needed to be sold is hit, the concert is on. But if the minimum is not sold, the concert will be canceled with Krowdpop ensuring full refunds. The site adds that unsuccessful campaigns can be restarted if enough interest is reignited.
Regular tickets will eventually go on sale to the public, and Krowdpop users can pick up their tickets at will call the day of the concert.The platform is a genius idea for famously-dedicated K-pop fans to prove their excitement about concerts while South Korean music labels can rest easy knowing that they can spread their music to the highly-coveted American music market in a financially sound way.
Teen Top Talks ‘Rocking’ & Most-Memorable Fans: Exclusive Video Q&A
At press time, the precampaign for Teen Top’s tour dates saw New York garnering the most support in first place, with Los Angeles, Dallas, Toronto, Orlando and San Francisco in Nos. 2 through 6, respectively. Voting for the cities ends in six days before fans can confirm the band coming to their city — or possibly prove the financial means are not there if not enough tickets are sold.
Teen Top visited Los Angeles when the band performed at KCON 2013. The band most recently hit the Top 10 of the K-Pop Hot 100 with “Rocking” in October.
Krowdpop is not the only service that looks to give a voice to K-pop and music fans. MyMusicTaste.com has a similar model, but features all types of artists. Similar platforms are expected to debut in 2014 too.