Taetiseo makes Billboard history with highest charting K-Pop debut album
Girls' Generation sub-unit Taetiseo composed of members Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun, recently sold 3,000 copies of its debut mini-album, "Twinkle," on iTunes. This sales figure was high enough to land the trio at 126 on the Billboard 200 chart, the highest-ever debut for a Korean act to date.
"Twinkle" also debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's World Albums chart, as well as No. 2 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart, held back from the top spot by Australian vocal group Human Nature.
Girls' Generation fans will no doubt be thrilled by this news, given the rather lackluster sales of the group's first U.S.-released album, The Boys." It failed to dent the Billboard 200 chart, missing out by a thousand copies from landing on the list during its first week of release.
Digital strategy to boost sales
In contrast, the impressive sales performance of Taetiseo, listed on Billboard as "Girls' Generation — TTS," was fueled by an interesting digital strategy. If fans bought "Twinkle" in its entirety, they would receive special tracks of Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun introducing each song.
A contest also fanned interest. Fans who bought the mini album and took a picture proving they did were urged to email the picture to SM Entertainment for a chance to win a special gift from Taetiseo.
Teasers had more than 14M views
Another reason for the girls' Billboard triumph is their uber-hot videos for "Twinkle," which Taetiseo promoted with teasers that set the K-Pop-loving Internet on fire.
Taeyeon's teaser was viewed more than 6.3 million times to date. Tiffany's teaser garnered 4.6 million views, while Seohyun's teaser has topped 3.5 million views. Put that together, and previews totaled more than 14 million views.
The official music video, which has been released, has been seen more than 7.5 million times in just a few days! I think we can all agree these impressive numbers prove that Taetiseo's rising star is more than just a twinkle, it's blazing bright!
Catherine Deen blogs for Yahoo! Philippines OMG! She lives, eats and breathes Korean music, cuisine, telenovelas and pop culture. Follow her on Twitter @cathsdeen.
