SEOUL, MAY 5 — A growing number of K-pop stars are carefully timing their music releases for maximum impact.
Artistes like TXT, Jin of BTS, BoyNextDoor, and EXO’s Baekhyun are among those choosing to release new music at either 1pm or 6pm Korean Standard Time (KST) – which is one hour ahead of Malaysian time.
These times are not random – they’re strategic, according to The Korea Herald.
Releasing music at 1pm KST aligns with midnight in the US Eastern Time zone, making it ideal for targeting global listeners and the Billboard charts.
South Korea’s evening peak time is 6pm KST, when most domestic listeners are online.
Korean music platforms changed their chart rules in 2018 to prevent fandom-driven spikes in midnight streaming, which has led to this shift in release times.
At exactly 1pm KST last Friday, TXT dropped its new single, “Love Language”.
Jin of BTS will follow suit with his second mini album, Echo, also scheduled for a 1pm KST release on May 16.
BoyNextDoor, a rising rookie group, is opting for a 6pm KST release for its fourth mini album, No Genre on May 13.
EXO’s Baekhyun will also go with a 6pm KST release for his fifth mini album, Essence of Reverie on May 19.
This trend shows a clear pattern —1pm KST releases are for global markets, while 6pm KST targets domestic K-pop fans.
“Though it varies by artiste, release times are usually tailored to the target region. For instance, if the US and global music markets are the focus, the release is set to coincide with midnight in that region.
“During daylight saving time in the US, this translates to 1pm KST. Otherwise, it’s 2pm KST,” an unnamed official from one of the major K-pop agencies, told The Korea Herald.
How 1pm/6pm came about
With daylight saving time currently in effect, 1pm in Korea is midnight on the US East Coast.
Because Billboard tracks chart performance from Friday to the following Thursday, releasing music at 1pm Friday KST is a smart move for artists targeting Billboard rankings.
Big-name global stars like Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus and Drake also tend to release music on Fridays.
For K-pop acts focusing on the Korean market, 6pm has become the go-to release time.
“Definitely many more users access music platforms after 6pm, so it has become a general rule to release music then rather than during weekday daytime hours, when people are at work or school,” an official from JYP Entertainment was quoted as saying.
Before 2018, midnight was the most important time for K-pop fans awaiting new releases.
While this dedication showed the strength of K-pop fandoms, it also raised concerns over fair chart rankings.
To address the issue, platforms like Melon and Genie changed their chart calculation rules in February 2018.
They decided to only count streams of songs released between noon and 6pm KST for their daily charts.
“I remember they staggered the timing so that fans couldn’t just band together and secure a No. 1 spot through immediate repeated streaming on the day of release,” pop music critic Lim Hee-yun told The Korea Herald.
Still, some artistes choose unique release times for creative reasons rather than strategy.
IU, one of Korea’s top singer-songwriters, released “Autumn Morning” at 7am on September 18, 2017.
Despite the early hour, the song was a huge hit and topped multiple music charts for a long time.
