Singer and actress IU (real name Lee Ji Eun) candidly expressed her views about fans’ spending on merchandise, drawing attention
On September 25th, a video titled “The Ultimate Successful Fan ≪IU Special Guest≫” was released on YouTube. The video showed IU discussing fan culture, merchandise, and photocards with Jindol and Hidi.
In the video, after hearing that fans welcomed the diverse official merchandise releases, IU shared her worries.
She explained that following an album release, concerts, and joining the 9th fan club, fans naturally end up spending a lot. She added, “That means, in any case, there’s a lot of expenses involved,” and expressed the hope that fans would “choose only what they like.”
Taking it a step further, IU said, “Then let’s reduce the merchandise.” She explained that they even considered reducing the types of merchandise to lessen the burden on fans.
In response, Hidi, who introduced herself as a longtime fan of IU, emphasized that “Are you saying to reduce it here? Choosing and narrowing down is our role,” stressing that fans have the right to select merchandise themselves.
Hidi also mentioned that buying merchandise or concert tickets can become a source of motivation in daily life. Thinking about the merchandise or concerts they want, fans feel compelled to “get back to work,” making their consumption as fans a kind of encouragement.
IU also revealed that she has concerns about the annually released Season’s Greetings.
Given that albums are already released, adding Season’s Greetings could make fans want to buy more. IU said she has been discussing this with her company and even considered boldly skipping Season’s Greetings for a year.
Regarding photocards, which are one of the main reasons fans buy multiple copies of albums, IU shared honest thoughts.
She said that in the past, she couldn’t easily understand the culture of fans buying multiple copies of the same album to collect photocards, thinking fans could just print out her selfies posted on social media, fan communities, or fan platforms.
However, IU now fully understands fans’ desire to collect photocards. She said, “Now I’ve accepted it all,” acknowledging that collecting photocards is a meaningful fan activity.
Nevertheless, she said it remains difficult to determine whether fans prefer selfies posted on social media or photocards provided in albums.
