Apple Treats K-Pop Fans to Spatial Audio Experience at New Gangnam Store, South Korea

[MacRumors]

Apple is opening its fifth retail store in South Korea this Friday, and the company has enlisted K-pop girl band NewJeans to woo the country's users, reports Bloomberg.

K-pop girl band NewJeans​

The new store will be located in the central Gangnam district of Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, and in a promotional event on Wednesday, Apple set up a pop-up studio inside the new store where visitors could listen to an exclusive version of NewJean's hit song "OMG" recorded in spatial audio.

The marketing strategy of involving a K-pop band isn't new in South Korea – Samsung has a BTS edition of its Galaxy S20+ smartphone there – with such collaborations often going viral online.

As Bloomberg notes, the move is another signal that Apple is ramping up its post-pandemic offensive in the key Asian growth market. Apple Pay went live in South Korea earlier this month, and local media reports that there are plans in place to open a sixth store in Seoul this year. The capital would then have more Apple Stores than there are in Tokyo, Japan.

Apple Gangnam is Apple's first new retail store to open since Apple American Dream opened in New Jersey in December. Apple now has a retail team of nearly 800 on the ground in South Korea, according to Patrick Schuerpf, director of Apple's retail business in Asia.

Article Link: Apple Treats K-Pop Fans to Spatial Audio Experience at New Gangnam Store, South Korea

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

"exclusive version of NewJean's hit song "OMG" recorded in spatial audio."

OMG Tim and Craig, where the hell are you, its Gangnam time?

 

[Sciomar]

A very cool treat for customers, good job Apple. I have been enjoying spatial audio.

 

[anthogag]

No one in he picture is wearing new jeans. I don’t see any denim fabric. K-what?

 

[Razorpit]

We need a dedicated K-Pop app ASAP! 😁

 

[TinyMito]

Kpop rare to see it on here! 🫶

 

[boyarka]

Kpop is cancer

 

[JM]

I will be expecting my free, no option inclusion of their latest album in my music library in 16.5.

 

[ilikewhey]

Kpop is cancer

how dare you

 

[FightTheFuture]

There’s some heavy Apple branding in the OMG music video if you haven’t seen it.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

This new Apple Store looks different. I don't know what it is but I feel like this is where you would hangout with your rich friends.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640964961013751810

 

[coffeemilktea]

We need a dedicated K-Pop app ASAP! 😁

Apple Classical is good, but Apple K-Pop would surely be more popular.

Kpop is cancer

So much anti-K-Pop grumpiness this early in the morning? 🎵 I guess that's the one that's living in your system, baby- 🎶

 

[spercharged69]

Now that's what I call Gangnam Style!

 

[coffeemilktea]

This new Apple Store looks different. I don't know what it is but I feel like this is where you would hangout with your rich friends.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640964961013751810

It's their flagship store for the entire country, they pretty much have to go all out, I think.

There’s some heavy Apple branding in the OMG music video if you haven’t seen it.

Bixby gets no respect in its own homeland. 🤭

 

[klasma]

That's certainly better than forcing a U2 album onto everyone.

 

[Hank001]

I will be expecting my free, no option inclusion of their latest album in my music library in 16.5.

As a bono fide gesture, you mean(?)

 

[anakin44011]

Kpop is cancer

I have no idea what it sounds like, but there will always be another pop wave in music. Our culture survived just fine through beach music, Monkees, disco, glam, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls...it turns out, people just want to be entertained without always having to pay a lot of deep attention.

 

[klasma]

No one in he picture is wearing new jeans. I don’t see any denim fabric.

There you go:

 

[Ion-X]

Kpop is cancer

Opposing an entire language and culture of music is short-sighted and ignorant. That’s like saying you don’t like Spanish music because you heard one Bad Bunny song and couldn’t understand it.

 

[Ion-X]

I have no idea what it sounds like, but there will always be another pop wave in music. Our culture survived just fine through beach music, Monkees, disco, glam, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls...it turns out, people just want to be entertained without always having to pay a lot of deep attention.

There are plenty of deep K-pop songs. See “Life Goes On” by BTS, which helped me get through the pandemic, for example. It’s just that the highly-polished and addictive pop songs are the ones that go viral and people think that all of K-pop is vapid. I would just say they said the same thing about the silly music of the Beatles in 1964.

 

[TSE]

They are absolutely beautiful.

 

[Aston441]

how dare you

Please asteroid come and end all of us we were a mistake.

 

[Ion-X]

This new Apple Store looks different. I don't know what it is but I feel like this is where you would hangout with your rich friends.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640964961013751810

Gangnam is 100% a rich area. Only the well-dressed with rich fathers tend to go there and spend thousands on a table. It’s super emblematic of the class divide and you can see it vividly mocked in Parasite (2019), when the poor family travels from the green yards of Gangnam to their poor, flooded neighborhood.

 

[MauiPa]

Kpop is cancer

It is not my thing, although it is well performed and produced in general. One thing we can all say is that it absolutely is way better than rap, (and its country cousin crap) any day, all the time

 

[robbietop]

"Hello, welcome to the Apple Store! Would you like to listen and look at Jailbait music?"