The differences of music releasing between Japan, Korea and China/Taiwan
 

I'm sorry if this has already been posted, but I just can't find a thread like this :dead
Anyway, I'm very curious and I hope someone can explain me...

I'm cognizant when comes to Japanese releasing of music. I know they have their Orican chart, and that they always release few singles before album, to support and increase their sales.

But I've noticed that they release only digital singles in Korea, including mini albums, and of course full albums.

In China / Taiwan I can't see any singles released from popular artists, for an examle - Jolin Tsai.

Am I wrong, because it's impossible for me to know all artists' discographies, but that's just smth I noticed, so I want to check it. Why is so?

Nope, artists in China or Taiwan never release singles. I didn't know what a single was until I learnt more about Ayu because living in HK and surrounded by the music here, I was just never exposed to "singles".

The reason for this is because CDs just don't sell much locally here, let alone singles. There's really not much point bothering with single promotion because it won't make much profit anyway. Artists are better off releasing in albums all the time because those sell marginally more. (It's different in China since China has a huge population, except, most people buy bootlegs.) It's the same in Taiwan as it is in Hong Kong.

That's why I find the Japanese music industry so much more prestigious. :P Japanese people actually do *buy* CDs. A lot of people here don't follow the rules quite as closely like that! It's also a slight cultural thing. :P

@keikeiaznqueen Hmm I see, thanks. I guess that's the same in Korea? And what about charts in China?

In countries were there are no physical singles, usually the songs choosen for radio play or that has music video are the "singles"

I personally don't really care about Japan's way of doing this, and I think that considering the actual moment, tha same thing may happen over there

jsyk korea has physical singles. they're not as common as albums/mini-albums, but people do release them.

I also know that in Korea, because rapid album sales declining, mini albums are becoming REALLY popular. Seems like all the releases I've seen in K-pop over the past year are all mini-albums.

My friend told me that in Chine they release albums like crazy...

Like two albums+ a year o_O

And that's why people like Jay Chou have so many albums or something.

they released A LOT version of an album

the best example: jolin tsai

and a lot of times, they dont announce a single, but rather than a new song which only played in radio or in the TV, for example: jolin's attraction of the sexy lips from dancing diva was played a few months before the real album came out

I seriously prefer the Japanese way of doing music. I really like their idea/strategy of releasing singles before the actual full album as it gives their fans a taste of what or how their (the artist) sounds will be like. :yes According to my cousin who is a big fan of K-Pop, it is currently a so-called trend for artists to release digi-singles and/or mini-albums. IMO, the korean music industry adopted the U.S music industry marketing strategy, where an artist releases an album, and they release singles afterwards. Quite the opposite from the Japanese marketing style/strategy. Actually, I won't call it as releasing singles but more like promotional tracks to promote the album. :)

Artists do release singles/EP in Taiwan, but very rarely, I notice mostly popular artist do that like Jay Chou and Wang Lee Hom

Taiwanese artists usually release one album per year, but there's many different version to it
Version 1: CD only
Version 2: CD+DVD
Version 3: CD+DVD+celebration concert
Version: CD+concert+DVD+1 extra MV

And all these different versions have different covers

I wouldn't dare to collect a Taiwanese artist's discography