버추얼 아이돌

'이터니티(ETERN!TY)',

'DTDTGMGN' 뮤직비디오

조회수 600만 돌파

공지 Are virtual idols for real? Tech, entertainment companies partner up to explore new frontier in K-pop market

IITERNITI First Offline Concert at IVEX STUDIO


From getting good songs and choreographies to holding in-person concerts, things are tough for virtual idols in the highly competitive K-pop scene.

There are two types of virtual K-pop groups — those with humans behind virtual characters and those created via artificial intelligence only.

“In the beginning, we could hardly get any songs for Iiterniti (virtual K-pop girl group). But they have begun to make a name for themselves and we now have people wanting to give us their pieces,” Heo In-kyung, director of Marketing at Pulse9, told The Korea Herald.

Pulse9, a tech company that specializes in the fields of artificial intelligence, created and manages IITERNITI.

IITERNITI, a group of 11 members also with real humans behind them, debuted on March 22, 2021 with the single “I’m Real.”

Not only is getting competitive songs difficult for virtual K-pop groups, when their concept is yet unfamiliar to most people, but getting trendy choreographies is hard too.

Meanwhile, Pulse9 works with K-pop labels to recruit K-pop trainees and artists who wish to experience working as a virtual idol.

“We’ve implemented the K-pop system so we have K-pop trainees and even artists that have already debuted, who wish to debut as virtual idols. We pick one member who is good at acting, one good at singing, one good at dancing and so on, to create a virtual group with all of their strengths,” explained Heo. “There are many who debuted as a member of a K-pop act that failed to rise to stardom looking for a second chance who choose to go behind the screens to work as virtual idols.”

Despite the difficulties and barriers virtual idols face in the K-pop scene, their presence in the industry continues to expand.

Iiterniti held a two-day offline concert “Iiterniti Begins: The Fist Journey” Oct. 14-15 last year at the Ivex Studio in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul.

It is not just the flawless appearance of these virtual idols that draws fans. They are seen as providing content from “another world,” content that cannot be executed in real life such as performing in space, using magic, traveling in time and space and communicating in diverse languages.

Indeed, one of the many advantages that virtual idols, especially those that are purely a product of AI, have over real idols is that they are free from private life controversies such as drug abuse, school violence, driving under the influence of alcohol and more that can mean the end of a career overnight.

Another advantage is that the intellectual property of virtual idols can be used in diverse genres such as webtoons, web novels and video games.

Taking advantage of this expandability, agencies with virtual idols are developing diverse intellectual properties revolving around virtual idols.

(The fragment about Pulse9 was taken from The Korea Herald News, full version is available at https://news.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20240303050195&md=20240306003306_BL)