What is a "Smart" Kpop Album? - Kihno, SMini, Platform, Weverse Etc... & How They Work! 

i think companies try to paint these smart albums as an “environmentally friendly” version of physical albums but at the end of the day, they’re all just cash grabs with these random photocards they come with!!!! LMAO also excuse the random audio changes here and there. i filmed on two different phones 😭

sminis really are sooo cute but the fact that they cost basically just as much as a regular album would..😓 as someone who doesnt collect albums (most of the time i just buy one version of each) i would much rather just buy the normal version lol

i’ve never liked these types of albums. if i wanted a digital album i’d get it on itunes 😭😭😭 not to mention that the whole “more eco-friendly” marketing is suuuuuch bs! it’s literally just another way to sell more albums

additional note but there's also another 'version' companies are doing called PLVE ^^ from what i've seen there's different ways of packaging it, some companies do it like poca/platform/qr/weverse albums and some do them like sminis (starship, yuehua from my experience but i think theres other companies too) but really good informational video!

sminis will forever be cool to me it's like a mini cd and i love it!! sm honestly is the best at coming up with these little things and random merch (i buy too much they should slow down on the merch a bit)

not them stealing your codes omg 😭they wasted NO TIME

too many apps to download... but thanks for showcasing all of these types! I guess I'll stick to regular versions with a cd 😂

Excellent video- outraged to hear about the code thief.

People sometimes leak their codes accidentally because they don't know how the codes work or that they're one-time-use, or they don't actually care about the code only buy the smart versions for the photocards like any other kind of album. Yeah, it sucks if you weren't intending to share your code and it gets taken, but you just have to be more careful and blur the code out completely, either that or always redeem your codes before or during unboxing and not upload your video before the code is redeemed. Even if you hold your thumb over the QR, those ones with alphanumerics underneath them can still get leaked if you move your thumb around and don't block out all the characters each time. The code can still be pieced together in some situations.

Katie is always the best 👍💕. Thank you so much for explaining everything so well 😊

i love this ! u were my first kpop collection acct i got into and now to see all these newbies coming in ,, omg it’s crazy feeling

I really enjoyed your explanation. I really think people will unterstand better how albums without a cd work!😀

i'm a sucker for photobooks, even more than pcs so i don't think i'll ever get one of these (even tho smini are cute as a keychain hehe); good explaining video!

I really liked this video! I always wondered how this worked

This is totally informative!👍🏻 I might consider buying this just to have another choice of apps to play the songs, hihiiiii😊

sm also did a membership card version with the smcu palace album in 2022 :)

thankyou for the video Katie, such a detail explanation. So helpful for me. anyway do you buy new Wendy's album? cant wait to see unboxing video if your copies arrived.

thanks! i saw this in a store and it was so cool and tried to find info on it which is hard to find

Each company calls or brands it differently but at its basic form its just a digital album with photocards.. and access is through an an app via qr or nfc.. And i prefer those that give complete member set photocards lol.. like tbz.. even jyp uses the yg tag style of smart album packaging but unlike yg that gives random cards we actually get selfie poca sets which i love

Did not get the point of SMinis, but I can imagine kids in school these days having them on their bags, sharing them to to download- "oh, you haven't heard my ults new album? Here's the SMini you better listen to it buddy"

Omg girl 😭 not them stealing it 29:09

So helpful thank you :) ❤️

At first i thought kihno is japanese ver album haha. Korean album really creative, they make so many album version for everyone. Like if you just want cd you get a jewelcase/digipack, if you want a concept photo/postcard you get a photobook, if you want a keychain you get smini, and etc The qr version shocking me because all this time i thought it's all nemoz app but minirecord also made a music app! So many to choose I can't 😮 What i wanna see is for all kpop artists release a vinyl record album like american artists. I wonder if korean doesn't like vinyl record that's why it's rare to see 🤔 But overall it's nice to see all of mini digital kpop album, I'm looking forward to what version they will come up in future

I accidentally brought THE BOYZ Thrill-ing Mini Record Card online when it was on sale because I thought that was the Photobook version of the album.. 😭

And I love your username!

changkyun did a smart album for his overdrive album and called it a poca version! same with dreamcatchers villian album :)

Is the nemo version pronounce as Ne mo? I pronounce it like Finding nemo 😂

Thanks for the explanation, I always wondered what these were and how they worked. but it sounds so annoying to download all these different apps. Do you have to make a separate account on all of them too? what a hassle.

I bought a Nemo album of TRI.BE and they actually uploaded more photos in the gallery few days/weeks after the release of the album. It was photos from music shows, like behind the scenes ones in the backstage ... I guess all artists/groups can do the same in these digital albums but that's a thing to know about

Great video. Admittedly these are just made as an extra way to get money from us. Simply add pcs to them and we buy it. Really serves no purpose when everyone uses a streaming service of some kind. It’s basically a physical version of a digital copy. Similar to how Blu-ray’s come with digital copy code papers

I dont buy digital album except smini. I hate kinho. It is not practical at all. You need to connect the kinho to your phone every time you want to play songs. I dont like all the card versions either because they are all just paper. They dont look like albums to me. People dislike smini too but I actually like it😅 It is so cute and I found audio quality kinda better than streaming app. I like that there is an option for instrumental too😄

I don’t know why people want to steal your codes, I truly thought nobody used them? You’ll have to be extra vigilant to spite them in your future unboxings.

The very first kihno was actually a plastic card. 2 examples are : Vixx's Chained Up. And Mamamoo's melting.

i have a little question: can I take the pictures from these albums out?

Still waiting on ur collection haul >

SHINee also did a khino for mttm

😢It doesn’t download as the actual audio/image files. Too many apps too

Please put chapters in the video!

just a little nit picking, but the data isn't from the NFC. The NFC is more like a token/password saying, hey you own this, so I will go ahead and download it.

I wonder if SMini can be scanned through multiple devices ? I want to buy a preloved album as it costs lower, but didn’t know if the tag thing could scan to a new device.

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First! ❤

"the nost different looking weverse album" le sserafim's unforgiven would like word 😭 why tf did they do POSTERS in their weverse version

5th!

3rd!

2nd!

so apparently i just watched a whole video explaining why this generation of music is being made solely for consumerism. the whole point of buying music physically is to have it being used offline without the need to have your smart devices or the internet to listen, and still get the highest quality straight from the production. this whole “smart album” concept is against and ruining everything the original purpose of buying physical music. one person can simply be so obsessed with a photocard and still respect the rest of the album like the cd and photobook. taking those things away from a packaging and leaving with just the photocard is just one of the worst ways to listen to the music especially if you still need to go to your phone to listen. i just don’t understand. i’m happy i don’t fall for this whole “eco friendly” thing. because it is still irresponsible for both parts to produce and consume physical media irresponsibly

It's so sad someone just stole it when you bought it with your own money 🥲