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

wearethechange.carrd.co/
Hi guys!!! I'm here to answer the question I get asked all the time "What is an SMini, Kihno, Platform album etc..." I hope this helps anyone that was curious about this and how to use them~ I definitely went way into detail, hence the kind of long video. I tend to do that since I talk a lot as some of you may know HAHAH apologies for that :')
You can get all these smart albums from basically any kpop store that sells regular albums. This is just something that is happening these days to be more environmentally friendly~
Also excuse the bad quality of audio... I had to film on my old iphone 8 since all the apps were on my current phone LMAO
Thanks for watching~
♡My social media♡
Twitter: / shawolzenl
Instagram: / shawolzenl
Sale & Trade Acct: / shawolzenlsale
Tumblr: / damntaehyun

[@shawolzenl]

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 😭

[@stability8714]

Ohh but cd with photobook is much better in my opinion so they should just make one version for each comeback, that's much more environmentally friendly. No need to make members version and jewelcase. I like that smini keychain it so cute but yeah now that i think digital album shouldn't exist because everything is on spotify and youtube music so why make more music apps. But i really enjoy kpop album because they come with many different version and inclusions 😢 idk (sorry i'm confusing)

[@danielrubinstein896]

​@@stability8714I miss those times when they would release 1 pb version of an album and call it a day, now you have to pick from a million version of one album. So not cool

[@kalkxx]

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

[@LOONAppears]

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

[@violetta903]

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!

[@xlorisyao]

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)

[@Saikas]

not them stealing your codes omg 😭they wasted NO TIME

[@eraeusboorwel]

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.

[@kate.on.mercari]

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

[@shawolzenl]

newbies 😭😭 hahahaha thank you 🫶🏻

[@anotterbookworm3355]

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"

[@homophobesnotwelcomed2308]

It’s nothing like that it’s just a gimmick

[@Davidy-ix3ck]

I remember on 2000s era one of the grocery shop owner buy cd maker, he sell fake cd since the real western artist not distributing their cd here. He became conglomerates in 10years😂 and i remember in 2017 one of local artist says he only get $1 for 1physical album sell (his album $11 each)~ dang~ i wonder if they had to split it to 7 member😅

[@yanashvetsova6237]

if I'm not mistaken, smini can be used just once, just like QR-codes. Also people say that music quality better than on Spotify/Apple Music etc.

[@shawolzenl]

it’s just sm’s latest cash grab 🤩

[@iankneecox4098]

a space sever i guess???

[@elenaishere8909]

Excellent video- outraged to hear about the code thief.

[@qqsln]

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!

[@eri.chuuu_]

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

[@anastasiasaint-claire2596]

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

[@ji377]

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

[@maticate]

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

[@myeprops]

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

[@yvetteb.4549]

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

[@kaniashinta]

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.

[@khloemcintosh4502]

Omg girl 😭 not them stealing it 29:09

[@shawolzenl]

ugh only me bruh. serves me right for not covering the code properly. i had higher expectations of people but what do i expect. kpop fans out here stealing photocards from albums at target. no one gives a damn DSKDNDK

[@khloemcintosh4502]

@@shawolzenl we have to redeem the faith of the kpop community in stealing 💀💀😭

[@danielrubinstein896]

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

[@stability8714]

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

[@stability8714]

It's crazy people can steal the codes! Ok now i know. Be careful from now on

[@feedmekiwis]

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

[@AvaG-eo7zm]

So helpful thank you :) ❤️

[@merik14]

And I love your username!

[@MoonBin-fd1kq]

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

[@Victor-ni8ok]

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

[@merik14]

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.

[@punkrightnow]

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.

[@DarkYozora]

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.. 😭

[@triple_chajun_no]

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

[@kpcenti]

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.

[@user-ey5yl1uv2h]

SHINee also did a khino for mttm

[@kriskollects]

Please put chapters in the video!

[@tifa7103]

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

[@Tyunsa.1004]

Still waiting on ur collection haul >

[@takecarebilly_]

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.

[@quintessappy]

I think it can only be re-scanned if the previous scanner deletes their Smart Music Card account. I know this bc I accidentally scanned two SMinis on a different account on the same device (I had two accounts). I deleted one account and re-scanned the album on the other account, and it worked!

[@strawberry-shortcake2]

First! ❤

[@YoSoyIrene]

❤❤

[@beesarin]

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😄

[@FreezyLeo17113]

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

[@victoriaconner4555]

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

[@JungSookai]

5th!

[@thegiraffe_kpop]

3rd!

[@YejiChaeryeongChaeji]

2nd!

[@seandiaz9405]

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

[@Esprit_Shonen]