Yang Hyun-suk ushers in a mobile era with G-Dragon’s MichiGo
BigBang’s leader G-Dragon is an epitome of innovation. He is a leader not only in the fashion and music fields and also the expression of his sentiments open a path for a new trend. Perhaps that is the reason G-Dragon chose a completely new way to release his new song MichiGo. He is unveiling it on a global mobile messenger service provider LINE.
What YG Entertainment, G-Dragon’s agency, is doing when they use LINE as a channel to distribute music is that the entertainment is trying something no one has ever done before. The CEO Yang Hyun-suk plays a key role in coming up with this fresh idea of releasing G-Dragon’s new song. The CEO is the main architect in posting YG artists’ music video on Youtube so that their songs reach all corners of the world. Such methods of the CEO had been the bedrock for creating Psy’s Gangnam Style a syndrome around the world.
Apart from this, YG was also the pioneer of releasing digital singles and coming up with multiple music videos for one album. He does not cease to surprise the music industry with his extraordinary methods.
Yang definitely has an eye for new ideas and methods, but his genius comes into even sharper relief when it creates a synergy effect with one of his favorite artists in the agency, G-Dragon. MichiGo is a clear testament to their combined talents. Its long-awaited release date is April 1.
On March 29 YG officially releases G-Dragon’s new song MichiGo for the first time to the public through G-Dragon’s official LINE account. To listen to the new song people first have to purchase a GD sticker called D-DRAGON SPECIAL EDITION on the mobile messenger LINE, and then they will be able to access the music when they enter this sticker into G-Dragon’s official account. It is an entirely new concept of listening to music.
YG explained how the global mobile messenger came into play a role in releasing MichiGo: For the last 10 or more years the music industry reorganized itself, with downloading music at the core of transformation. People universally stream or download music on their computer nowadays, and YG has fully utilized this trend and applied it to their promotion practices.
A related person from YG said, “the number of smartphone users surged and the mobile market expanded, and this allows people to use streaming services to listen to music anywhere they want to. YG has picked up this trend and collaborated with the messenger service provider LINE to let people both listen to music and become personally connected to the artists by engaging with them on their private accounts. And MichiGo is the first experimental project to try out this unique promotion method.”
G-Dragon’s first solo world tour ONE OF A KIND kicks off in Seoul at the Olympics Gymnastic Area on March 30 and 31. At his concert MichiGo will be unveiled. For this concert, G-Dragon will travel to 8 different countries for his 26 performances, and YG anticipates that he will be joined by 550,000 fans in 13 cities.
