Chapter 105: Music Chart War (1)

At TK Entertainment's publicity team’s office, Team Lead Yoo Jin-Myung, who had been so engrossed in monitoring the statistics to the point of eye strain, let out a sigh of relief when all five songs in Petite More's fifth album secured their places in the upper ranks of the music charts.

"Mr. Ma! All five songs have successfully entered the top ten of the chart!"

"As they should."

TK Entertainment had not only uploaded the music video for Petite More's new song 'Masquerade' but also released a second music video for ‘Princess of the Night’ on two consecutive days.

Thanks to this, they achieved the feat of having all five songs rank within the top ten on the music chart websites in real time.

However, Ma Dong-Pal's invisible hand was at work behind the scenes.

Ma Dong-Pal had brought in a famous producer named Teddy Kim for Petite More’s fifth album. Although he was a competent producer, the reason Ma Dong-Pal brought Teddy Kim wasn't just for his exceptional skills—it was because Teddy Kim had close ties with a company that manipulated music chart rankings, making it easy to secure a number one spot on the charts.

"We can't relax just yet. Let's keep pouring resources into this for a while."

"Yes, sir. Understood."

Yoo Jin-Myung sent a KkTalk message somewhere in response to Ma Dong-Pal’s orders.

Watching this, Chief Ji Eun-Hak from Singer Division 1 cautiously approached Ma Dong-Pal.

"Mr. Ma, do we really need to go this far? Having outsiders like Teddy causing a stir is a bit..."

"Risky?"

"Exactly. You might end up bearing all the responsibility, sir."

Ma Dong-Pal gave Ji Eun-Hak a cold stare and said, "That's why we need to make sure it doesn't get out. Right?"

Ji Eun-Hak hurriedly looked around his surroundings at Ma Dong-Pal's low voice.

Manipulating music charts through brokers was an act of changing music rankings using hundreds of mobile phones and illegal programs, typically done by companies who hired these brokers.

It was usually the small to medium-sized entertainment companies who were lacking in fandoms that engaged in chart manipulation. However, it was quite unusual for a large company like TK Entertainment to undertake such a risky venture.

Ji Eun-Hak looked around his surroundings, concerned that someone might have overheard the sensitive conversation, but everyone seemed too busy with their own work to have noticed—or perhaps they pretended not to hear.

Gulp.

Swallowing hard, Ji Eun-Hak once again voiced his concerns.

"Sir, you know that I don't shy away from more severe actions than chart manipulation depending on the situation. But we currently have no competitors and we're in a good position to monopolize the music charts. So why in the world would you take such a risk now?"

Petite More’s potential competitor, Girlfriends7, the girl group originally slated to launch today, had to undergo a complete rework due to a plagiarism dispute with their composer which left their debut uncertain. Also, it was said that the other strong competitor, Golden Road, wouldn't release a new song for at least a month.

Ji Eun-Hak couldn't understand why Ma Dong-Pal was taking such unnecessary risks now.

Hearing Ji Eun-Hak’s concerns, Ma Dong-Pal hardened his expression and said, "Chief Ji, we need to consider Cherry Blossom as well."

Ma Dong-Pal had mentioned before that Cherry Blossom was the reason for changing Petite More’s comeback date—but Ji Eun-Hak didn't believe it. After all, it didn't make sense to change Petite More's schedule just to stomp on a second-tier girl group like Cherry Blossom.

Ji Eun-Hak suspected Ma Dong-Pal had other motives—and he wasn’t the only one within TK Entertainment to feel so.

"What's so special about them anyway..."

Ma Dong-Pal's previously smiling face turned icy. "

Haha.

Chief Ji, do you think I'm joking around?"

At that moment, Ji Eun-Hak was taken aback. "T-then are you saying there isn’t any other reason apart from Cherry Blossom?"

Ma Dong-Pal clicked his tongue and called Yoo Jin-Myung. "Team Lead Yoo. What is the current ranking of Cherry Blossom's new song?"

Yoo Jin-Myung, who was standing in front of the monitor, hesitated to answer.

"Tell me. What rank is it?"

Caught between the two higher-ups, Yoo Jin-Myung eventually spoke up. "It's in seventh place, sir."

"What? Seventh!?" Ji Eun-Hak was taken aback. He had thought Cherry Blossom's new song would be outside the top ten, but it charted in 7th place within just a day.

When he glanced sideways, he could see Ma Dong-Pal's face contorted in anger.

'Fuck. We're screwed.'

Ji Eun-Hak swallowed hard as his mind was in turmoil. He had been underestimating Cherry Blossom in an arrogant manner, but he realized he was the one out of touch with reality.

"You call yourself the chief of Singer Division 1 when you didn't even check the rankings of our potential competitors? You've become complacent."

"I-I’m sorry."

"Get out of my sight if you know you messed up."

Ma Dong-Pal pushed the flustered Ji Eun-Hak aside, thinking it might be time to replace the chief of Singer Division 1.

"Team Lead Yoo, how about the MeTube trend? How much have the views increased?"

It had been a while since MeTube views had more impact on weekend music show rankings than broadcast views.

Following Ma Dong-Pal's instructions, Yoo Jin-Myung hurriedly checked the official music videos' view counts.

At that moment, Ma Dong-Pal and the TK Entertainment staff's expressions twisted again.

"What's going on here?!"

***

[Cherry Blossom's 'Hurry Up!' Views: 445,320 Likes: 28,564]

[Petite More's 'Masquerade' Views: 302,128 Likes: 6,720]

"Yes! We've overtaken them!"

Cherry Blossom's new song 'Hurry Up!' had surpassed Petite More's 'Masquerade'.

The ratio of likes was overwhelmingly in favor of Cherry Blossom. Thanks to the company's publicity efforts and the dance cover videos uploaded on MeTube, 'Hurry Up!' had shot up to seventh place in no time.

[Melang Chart]

1st Petite More 'Masquerade'

2nd Petite More ‘Princess of the Night’

......

5th Petite More ‘Magic Music Witch’

7th Cherry Blossom 'Hurry Up!'

"Really? Are we really in seventh place?"

Lee Dong-Min couldn't hide his pleased smile as 'Hurry Up!' quickly climbed the ranks.

Han Myung-Ho and Sung Min-Suk began to hastily prepare a press release.

"It's already reached seventh place in just one day. Are we about to cause a real stir or what?"

"Wow, it's climbing fast."

But I wasn't satisfied at all. In my past life, 'Hurry Up!' had started at 15th place and climbed to first in just three days.

Even with Petite More mobilizing the power of their fandom, ‘Hurry Up!’’s MeTube views had already overtaken them. Yet ‘Hurry Up!’ was still in seventh place. Moreover, all the songs in Petite More's latest album were still lined up from the first to fifth place.

Something was definitely off.

'Jung Yoo-Jin’s Dance Cover Video’ topped the live search rankings on search portals while 'Miso’s Cherry Blossom Dance Cover Video' came in third place. On top of that, 'Park Seon-Nyeo's Aerobics Students' Bizarre Dance Cover Video' was creating another buzz and ranked second in the live search rankings.

‘We occupied the highest ranks on the live search but ranked lower on music charts?’

This was impossible even if Petite More's fandom, Petite Angels, was working hard to promote them.

High search rankings meant higher public interest from a broader audience, and that should invariably reflect in the music performance because people were naturally curious to listen to a song.

Holding a suspicion, I immediately asked Sung Min-Suk, "Um, Mr. Sung. Could I see the live search ranking graph from the moment ‘Hurry Up!’ entered until now?"

"Oh, sure. Just a moment. I have records at ten-minute intervals... Assistant Manager Park, where's the file?"

"I have them right here, sir."

"Good, then let's project it on the meeting room wall."

Park Jin-Sung projected the real-time graph on the LCD wall of the meeting room. Cherry Blossom's new song 'Hurry Up!' initially entered at 15th place and quickly climbed the ranks subsequently.

But something strange on the graph caught my eye.

"Huh? Wait a minute. Why does the graph look like that there?"

Around 3 a.m. yesterday, all five of Petite More's songs were momentarily pushed back from third to around tenth place for about ten minutes.

'Masquerade,' which was in first place, went down to fourth. ‘Princess of the Night,’ which was in second place, went down to seventh. And at the same time, 'Hurry Up!' had climbed to fifth place.

"Who knows? Maybe there was a tallying error or something."

The graph showed just a one-time reversal, but my suspicions turned into certainty at that moment.

‘It’s a chart manipulation.’

It was hard to believe, but there was no doubt that Petite More was involved in it.

I immediately conveyed my concern to Lee Dong-Min.

"Mr. Lee, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Why? The indicators are good, aren't they? You’re probably not familiar with the singer division, but we can easily hit fifth place in just three days with a chart entry performance like this."

"No, not us. I’m talking about Petite More."

I had previously said Cherry Blossom would take first place, but it seemed everyone considered that nothing more than just my wishful thinking.

I promptly inquired about the competitor’s producer I had asked to be looked into last time.

"Have you found out who the other producer is?"

"Oh, the producer? They say it’s Teddy Kim."

It was said that Teddy Kim had been working with a label in the US and Ma Dong-Pal from TK Entertainment went to bring him over personally.

‘Teddy Kim?’

That's when I came to understand why Petite More's songs had changed from what they were in my past life. A year later, Teddy Kim would be arrested in a chart manipulation scandal reported by reporter Jang Moon-Ki.

[Everyday V10]

[Date: December 22nd, 2021]

-6:30PM (Report) Famous producer Teddy Kim is charged in a chart manipulation scandal.

After confirming that my memory was correct by checking the planner, I approached Lee Dong-Min.

"Mr. Lee, can we talk for a moment?"

"Huh? What is it?"

I led Lee Dong-Min toward the emergency stairs. "I just need a minute. Let’s go somewhere else."

Lee Dong-Min looked around and lowered his voice to ask, "What's going on? Is this some kind of secret talk?"

"Well, it's just that, I think TK Entertainment might be involved in chart manipulation."

Lee Dong-Min tilted his head in doubt.

"Oh, come on. Why would Petite More, of all groups, resort to manipulation? That's going too far, even for them."

"But didn't you see the glitch in the graph earlier? That was clearly a mistake made during chart manipulation."

Lee Dong-Min fell into deep thought, but soon shook his head, unable to believe such a popular girl group, like Petite More, would manipulate charts.

‘Sigh. Prejudice can be so powerful.’

"Yoon-Ho, I know you've worked hard for this album. But seventh place is good enough, isn't it? Just be patient and give it a little more time. The ranking will naturally go up."

Cherry Blossom's second album had peaked at 30th place after entering the chart at 130th. As Lee Dong-Min put it, this result was heaven compared to the last album.

I asked another question, hoping for a different answer this time. "Sir, have you listened to Petite More's latest album by chance?"

"I have."

"Was it better than 'Hurry Up!'? I didn't think much of it."

"To be honest, I didn't like it much either. But what can I do when the rankings are the facts?"

"Then what about the MeTube views? Why do you think the views turned out like this? And the number of likes? High search rankings prove people are more interested in Cherry Blossom than Petite More. Just look at the comments on MeTube."

I opened the comment sections of both the MeTube music videos of Cherry Blossom and Petite More to persuade Lee Dong-Min.

[Cherry Blossom's 'Hurry Up!' Views: 489,540 Likes: 36,564]

(Comments)

-The dance is super easy to follow.

-I've had the "Hurry Up!" melody line stuck in my head since morning. Ah, it's so addictive.

-Came here after watching Yoo-Jin and Miso's video, now I can't stop replaying it.

-The best alarm tone!

[Petite More's 'Masquerade' Views: 322,128 Likes: 7,202]

(Comments)

-Hip-hop warriors? Doesn't quite fit Petite More's image...

-Not bad, but not as good as their fourth album.

-What did you expect from idol hip-hop?

-Stop the negative comments. If you want to listen to hip-hop, go listen to real rappers instead.

Cherry Blossom’s views were now 1.5 times higher and the likes were five times ahead of Petite More’s. Moreover, the difference in the comments was extremely stark.

Lee Dong-Min frowned upon seeing the data. "Even so, it can't be..."

"Have you not heard the rumors about Teddy Kim? Rumor has it that every song he's involved in ranks high only because of chart manipulation."

Then, I also mentioned a few more cases about Teddy Kim that I had known about in my past life.

Lee Dong-Min's expression started to change as he listened to my story.

"To be honest, I did think something was off. But..."

After hesitating for a moment, Lee Dong-Min set his jaw. "Come with me. We need to discuss this with everyone."

I returned to the meeting room with Lee Dong-Min.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing and gather in the meeting room."

Soon, a meeting unfolded around the topic that Teddy Kim might have directed chart manipulation. Arguments flew back and forth from assertions that TK Entertainment wouldn't engage in such risky behavior to mentions of past rumors surrounding Teddy Kim.

But in the end, the consensus was to look into it just in case.

Lee Dong-Min looked at me again.

"Assistant Manager Jung, do you know any reporters who could dig into this? If not, I'll assign someone I know."

"I do know someone."

"Is that so? Then let's start with that reporter. Make sure to follow up thoroughly."

"Yes, sir."

Chart manipulation was a suspicion that could put the other party in a difficult position even without conclusive proof, as long as there was plausible circumstantial evidence.

"Let's all mobilize our contacts and hit the ground running. As soon as you get something usable, cross-verify and then toss it to Assistant Manager Jung."

"Yes, sir!"

The eyes of the Publicity Division and Singer Division 2 staff began to sparkle.

‘Ma Dong-Pal. So you resorted to chart manipulation to mess with Cherry Blossom, huh? Then let's see how you like this.'

I immediately called reporter Jang Moon-Ki.

After all, it was Jang Moon-Ki who had exposed Teddy Kim's chart manipulation scandal in my past life.