Originally posted by Dust2 Here's how Twinkle did in the first 5 weeks May 5 "Twinkle" Girls' Generation-TTS 604,870 Week 2: 330,363 Week 3: 247,457 Week 4: 213, 895 June 2 "Twinkle" Girls' Generation-TTS 163,646 SNSD I Got A Boy Week #1 - 319,824 MP3 prices in South Korea increased starting January 1st, 2013. That probably had some effect. But the price was raised from $0.125 to $0.20 per MP3 so it was still dirt cheap. Is a $0.075 rise in price deterring people from purchasing MP3? I doubt it. The only other explanation is that the song wasn't that good.

Right, but people aren't paying for mp3's on a per-song basis, they're subscriptions we're talking about. The price for the average subscription is up by 3,000+ Won (to between 11,000 won and 16,500 won, depending). So higher subscription fees could certainly detract from people signing up in the first place, especially the general public who aren't hardcore fanboys.

Personally I can't stand this song and think its garbage, but let's wait a week to see how the new prices effect sales across the board. Even Baek Ji Young who's usually a digital beast under-performed this week, and with a ballad at that.

Originally posted by Yarotska 2011 was the PEAK of digital music sales in Korea (and IU). Music sites got into trouble over the prices at the time. They've since gone up and sales aren't as high as in 2011/early 2012. It's been months since a song has even sold over 500k in 1 week. The highest opening week in 2012 was 758,000 back in June by Big Bang. Girls' Generation has had the #1 song with 2 different songs 2 weeks in a row and their album selling power is unmatched by all but Super Junior (who don't do well digitally at all). I'd say they're doing just fine with such a risky song choice.

Originally posted by Pluto Right, but people aren't paying for mp3's on a per-song basis, they're subscriptions we're talking about. The price for the average subscription is up by 3,000+ Won (to between 11,000 won and 16,500 won, depending). So higher subscription fees could certainly detract from people signing up in the first place, especially the general public who aren't hardcore fanboys. Personally I can't stand this song and think its garbage, but let's wait a week to see how the new prices effect sales across the board. Even Baek Ji Young who's usually a digital beast under-performed this week, and with a ballad at that.