Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management

Istanbul, Turkey, March 7-10, 2022

Factors that Influence Indonesian K-Pop Fans Willingness

to Pay in Purchasing K-Pop Physical Album
Jessica Irena, Marchell A. Putera, Tifany, and Willy Gunadi
Business Management Program, Management Department
BINUS Business School Master Program
Bina Nusantara University
Jakarta, Indonesia, 11480
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract
The growth of K-Pop artists globally in this digital era has brought interest in how a K-Pop physical album in the K-
Pop industry is still the leading interest for fans and artists themselves. This study seeks to explore the impact of
fanaticism, perceived value, and consumer spending self-control variables as the moderating variable towards will-
ingness to pay in purchasing K-Pop physical albums. The data was gathered through an online survey distributed to
K-Pop Indonesian fan-based on social media, which was then processed and analyzed using the Partial Least Square
Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The study's findings show that fanaticism and perceived value
positively influence willingness to pay for K-Pop physical albums. Meanwhile, consumer spending self-control as a
moderating variable of fanaticism and perceived value moderated only fanaticism towards willingness to pay.

Keywords
K-Pop physical album, fanaticism, perceived value, consumer spending self-control, willingness-to-pay.

1. Introduction
The music industry is rapidly expanding nowadays, and South Korea is one of the countries actively spreading its
music globally, having gained massive recognition by global audiences and demonstrating that K-Pop is not limited
to the local and regional markets in East Asia and Southeast Asia, but also the global market (Boman 2019). K-Pop
has been made into its genre because of the diversity and structure of its music that modifies an existing music content
into Korean content and have a unique business model, and it creates a large amount of interest in K-Pop, the artists
and their music in the global market (Oh 2013).

The success of K-pop artists is influenced by the love and support of their fans, and when a certain K-Pop artist
releases a new song, fans are bound to be supportive and want to give the K-Pop artist acknowledgment of their work
through their involvement in increasing the popularity of the artist, which one of the ways is through breaking the
record for the number of sales of their digital and physical album. In this digital era, everything comes in a digital
form that may reduce the physical production, whereas, in South Korea, they experience the shift to digital in market
value and go through the largest shift to digital sales from the physical CD. However, those phenomena did not affect
the physical album sales in South Korea. Korean Music Content Association provides data of album sales through
Gaon Music Chart, wherein 2020 Album Chart, BTS’s 4th Studio Album MAP OF THE SOUL_7 has earned a total
of 4,376,975 physical album sales that ranked first on the chart, followed by BTS’s 5th Studio Album BE with
2,692,022 physical album sales and Seventeen’s 7th Mini Album `헹가래` (Henggarae) with 1,377,813 physical al-
bum sales (Gaon Music Chart 2020). The physical album of South Korean artists has more than just a CD, and it
includes detailed packaging, designs of various concepts and content such as photo books, photo cards, posters, and
other merchandise that is attractive for consumers (Oliver 2020; Veronica and Paramita 2018). Therefore, the number
of physical album sales in the K-Pop industry remains one of the main measurements of success that will increase the
artist's acknowledgment in the K-Pop industry.

Fans can also have the exclusivity of content that can only be available in the physical album, such as access to an
additional special song, different song versions, and a chance to be selected for special events that encourage fans to

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purchase more physical albums. It is in line with the data on Gaon Music Chart (2020) Album Chart where NCT’s
Resonance Part 1 has 1,289,594 number of sales, and when the Resonance Part 2 was released, a high amount of
791,590 number of sales is still recorded although all the track-list in Resonance Part 1 album was included in Reso-
nance Part 2 with additional songs (Gaon Music Chart 2020). For fans with high purchasing power, this may lead to
bulk-buying of physical albums; however, not all fans do the same thing, where some K-Pop fans are purchasing a
physical album impulsively or compulsively, but fans still deliberate whether it is worth it to buy the physical album
or not, which can be seen as a form of their self-control (Haws et al. 2012).

Most studies about willingness to pay relate to products like fashion, food, and beverage, and games (Campbell et al.
2014; Krishnan et al. 2012; Li et al. 2012). However, none of the previous studies refer directly to the willingness to
pay in purchasing K-Pop physical albums, and no study directly explains the combination of fanaticism, perceived
value, and consumer spending self-control variable as the moderating variable towards willingness to pay. Thus, this
study analyzes those variables and defines each variable's influence on willingness to pay.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Willingness to Pay

Willingness to pay (WTP) is the maximum amount a consumer is willing to pay for a product or service, and it may
assess the monetary value a person would give to a consumption or usage experience, allowing for direct comparison
(팡홍 2019). Preferences and demand will change over time; therefore, it is necessary to know the strategy so that
consumers (e.g., K-Pop fans) always have a willingness to pay for goods issued for sale and the strategy that is ex-
pected to have an impact on increasing profits (Campbell et al. 2014). The consumer's willingness to pay is one form
of product evaluation of why people should buy these products (Lewis et al. 2016). If the product is not in demand,
then it must be seen what went wrong; the factors could be quality and benefits. Important reasons that determine the
willingness to pay in purchasing K-Pop physical albums are based on several factors and benefits that motivate them,
such as track-lists, photo cards, album concept, and merchandise in the album, that serves as a motivator and guides
other important interactions in consumer decision-making (Salonen et al. 2020). K-Pop physical albums are sold at
various prices according to the type of released album, a full album, mini album, special album, repackaged album,
etc. The price can also rise as the stocks are running low in the market, and some people resell the album for a higher
price than the original price.

2.2. Fanaticism
The term "fanaticism" is sometimes seen as a negative thing that always does things beyond the limit to achieve desires
for favorite goods to consumption activities that are considered excessive (Chung et al. 2008; Thorne and Bruner
2006). However, fanatical consumer behavior will result in many aspects of life, which can be seen from the positive
and negative impacts (Chung et al. 2018; Redden and Steiner 2000). The positive can be seen if fans have engaged
with the object of fanaticism; they always try to like them continuously and consistently, even helping to promote by
distributing the new and interesting information about the object of fanaticism which can later attract new fans without
the interference of the artist company. Meanwhile, the negative can be seen from fans who always have the desire to
be able to get items that are directly related to the object of fanaticism and do everything they can to achieve their
goals without considering logic, which even later their actions can have a negative impact on themselves and especially
try to always defend the object of fanaticism without wanting to know the truth. Fanaticism is identified as a charac-
teristic of fans who like, admire, and even want to own something they want. Fanatics tend to believe that their be-
havior is appropriate even when it is wrong, ignoring the facts and arguments against them, and often fanatics do not
accept when being reprimanded (Ayunita and Andriani 2018). Henceforth, fanatical fans will join a fan club or fandom
that acts as a form of community and communication platform with other fans of the same group (Abd-Rahim 2019).

There are various behaviors associated with levels of fanaticism. These levels consist of dilettante (e.g., listening to
songs and watching music videos), dedicated (e.g., discussing regularly with friends regarding songs and music videos
from objects of fanaticism), devoted (e.g., writing stories and attending concerts about objects of fanaticism), and the
highest is a dysfunctional level (e.g., committing violence and stalking objects of fanaticism) (Thorne 2011). Their
action of investing their time, money, emotional and physical resources shows that they are devoted and loyal to the
object of fanaticism. They will always support and remain loyal at any time, even if the product or brand performance
is bad (Chung et al. 2018).

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2.3. Perceived Value

Value is an evaluation that balances what consumers receive with what they give up when exchanging. Consumers
assess the product's value based on numerous informational signals associated with the product. Perceived value re-
flects the performance of providers in delivering product offerings to target consumers (Lim et al. 2014). Its ability to
fulfill consumer’s needs and requirements creates consumer’s opinions about the product value (Zehir and Narcıkara
2016). Perceived value is widely known in the marketing literature and applied to determine variables' effects on
future usage of services and goods and purchase choices. The usage experience evaluation is specifically focused on
how valued the perceived content is. Perceived value is determined by customer judgments, influenced by outcomes
such as pre-purchase information, contextual evaluations, and purchase moment (Kim and Thapa 2018). Perceived
value becomes important in the business environment because it influences consumer behavior and provides strategic
implications for its success. Hence, perceived value is the main tool to help service providers gain a more competitive
market position (Alex and Thomas 2011). Perceived value is consumers' whole judgment on the product's utility based
on what is received and provided, with value defined with the four following definitions: (1) value is low price, (2)
value is whatever one wants in a product, (3) value is the received quality for the price paid, and (4) value is what the
consumer gets for what they give (Zehir and Narcıkara 2016). Value is an evaluative judgment that indicates a rela-
tionship between advantages and sacrifices and consumers and products/services association (Sánchez-Fernández and
Iniesta-Bonillo 2007).

2.4. Consumer Spending Self-Control

The ability to control oneself from harmful behaviors, such as resisting temptation and overcoming urges, is referred
to as self-control (Strömbäck et al. 2017). Self-control affects many aspects of life through its differences, thus result-
ing in a general self-control model that provided a broad-based measurement, so it can be applicable for all the self-
control domains and used to develop a domain-specific measure best explains the outcomes (Haws et al. 2016). Con-
sumer spending self-control is one of the domain-specific metrics used to evaluate individuals' spending decisions.
Self-control refers to individuals’ ability to monitor and supervise their spending-related thoughts and decisions based
on self-imposed standards. It has been established that a link between general self-control and consumer spending
self-control exists but is of a different construct. Consumer spending self-control is a stronger predictor of spending-
related decisions than general self-control because it addresses self-control through consumer spending, resulting in a
higher predictive ability as the most domain-specific method (Haws et al. 2012). Hence, it is best used in this study to
examine the influence of consumer spending self-control as a moderating variable for fanaticism and perceived value
to their willingness to pay for a product (e.g., K-pop physical album), which is a spending-related decision.

2.5. Hypothesis Development and Research Models

Before someone becomes a fanatical fan, they become a fan which must be involved with an object (such as K-Pop
artists), and the intensity level of fanaticism that each person has is different, ranging from low to high (Thorne and
Bruner 2006) and certainly that fans incorporated into the fandom. A fandom consists of fans who have the same
values, desires, and feelings, and it is formed into a subculture related to a consumption culture that will develop over
time (Fuschillo 2020). According to Cheah et al. (2019), fanatic consumers who like to buy products related to their
wants can increase their fantasies and self-esteem. Hence, fanatical consumers are considered valuable because they
have a strong consumption driver, thus implying a heavy buying pattern (Chung et al. 2018). Meanwhile, fanatical
fans have a considerable interest in showing devotion, involved in supportive activities, and express the desire to have
items related to K-Pop artists they are interested in, which is an enjoyable activity experienced being a fan (e.g.,
purchasing a physical album to increase the statistical ranking of their favorite K-Pop artists) and there are times when
fans cannot explain why an item is deemed desirable (Thorne and Bruner 2006). The desire to buy physical goods and
make purchases can be considered as a "willingness to pay" in the context of fans who are fanatical about their K-Pop
artists. This study wants to analyze if fanaticism may affect willingness to pay for K-Pop physical album, so we
construct a hypothesis to explain the relationship between these factors:
H1: Fanaticism has a positive effect on willingness to pay.

Perceived value is obtained when purchasing a product that is always sought after by consumers, because according
to the consumer's point of view that product attributes, performance, product quality are very important so that con-
sumers can find out what consequences arise when they decide to purchase and use the product (Alex and Thomas
2011). For K-Pop fans, the perceived value of products related to their K-Pop artists certainly influences their buying
decision, for example, what kind of merchandise they will get and the chances to be involved with the artist more
through fan-meeting or voting ability with the physical album purchase. Perceived value is identified as a central

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psychological component indicating customers' experience evaluations of a product or service. Perceived value con-
sequentially affected customers' willingness to pay (Choi et al. 2015). This study wants to analyze if the perceived
value may affect willingness to pay for K-Pop physical album, so we construct a hypothesis to explain the relationship
between these factors:
H2: Perceived value has a positive effect on willingness to pay.

Using consumer spending self-control to measure self-control determines self-control's role in spending decisions
better. This correspondence to Haws et al. (2016), whereby the general self-control provides an adequate resource to
the study, but the inclusion of domain-specific measures provides higher validity to the tests. Haws et al. (2012)
demonstrated that consumer spending self-control relates to purchasing behavior and is the only significant predictor
of willingness to pay compared to other measures such as general self-control, frugality, compulsive shopping, tight-
wad-spendthrift, elaboration on potential outcomes, price consciousness, and impulsiveness.

Fanaticism is often linked to the act of desire to own the object related to the subject of fanaticism with purchasing
(Thorne and Bruner 2006). For a K-Pop fan, the phenomenon can be seen as purchasing a K-Pop physical album even
though nowadays, digital music platforms that provide K-Pop music are easily accessed, so there is no need to pur-
chase a physical CD. The decision to buy a physical album can be categorized as an act of fanaticism on a devoted
level (Thorne 2011), but because there is the self-control that affects their decision, and the level of consumer spending
self-control may affect their impulse and tendency to raise or lower their willingness to pay (Haws et al. 2012). Indi-
viduals with weaker spending self-control tends to acquire tempting products (e.g., K-Pop physical album). Consum-
ers' perceived value of a product may influence their willingness to pay because the consumer will decide whether to
make a purchase or not based on their consideration on the physical album's benefit for them. However, a low con-
sumer spending self-control individual may still have a high willingness to pay as they strongly want to speed up the
consumption and have strong desire to acquire the product (Haws et al. 2016). Hence, we postulate that consumer
spending self-control moderates the fanaticism effects and perceived value on the willingness to pay. Thus, we con-
struct the following hypothesis:
H3: The effect of fanaticism on willingness to pay is moderated by consumer spending self-control.
H4: The effect of perceived value on willingness to pay is moderated by consumer spending self-control.

The proposed research hypotheses above are summarized in Figure 1.

Fanaticism
H1

H3 Willingness to Pay

Perceived Value H2

H4

Consumer Spending
Self-Control

Figure 1. Research Model

3. Methods
This study's questionnaire included multi-item measurements of fanaticism, perceived value, consumer spending self-
control, and willingness to pay for K-Pop physical albums by K-Pop fans. The items for fanaticism are measured using
four (4) items adapted from Chan and Wang (2015), perceived value using two (2) items adapted from Sukhu et al.
(2017), and two (2) items adapted from Chen and Tsai (2008), consumer spending self-control using six (6) items
adapted from Haws et al. (2016), and willingness to pay is measured using three (3) items adapted from Sukhu et al.
(2017). A Likert scale, ranging between 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree), measures the items.

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4. Data Collection
A non-probability sampling approach with judgment sampling is applied, where the respondent category is a K-Pop
fan and has already purchased a K-Pop physical album, ensuring the needed information and insight (Sekaran and
Bougie 2016). The study was conducted in Indonesia, using an online survey to collect the data distributed through
K-Pop Indonesian fans' fanbase on social media (Twitter and Instagram). The questionnaire was distributed to 304
people, and 296 met the criteria of our sample. The data is processed and analyzed using the Partial Least Square
Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach once it has been gathered. The PLS-SEM approach has a broader
scope and wide range of sample sizes; also, this study aims to develop existing theories to make them more accurate,
and if the structural model is complex because of the moderating variables and there are many indicators it can be one
of the reasons why using PLS-SEM (Hair et al. 2011).

5. Results and Discussions

5.1 Numerical Results

Table 1 presented the demographic profiles for 296 respondents. The majority of the respondents were mainly female
(95.27%) aged between 17 and 21 years old (58.45%). They were mostly college students (64.53%) who has com-
pleted senior high school (65.88%). Almost all the respondents were not married (99.66%), and the majority of them
have an average monthly income under IDR 5,000,000 (84.08%).

Regarding the diversity in K-Pop physical album price, most of them purchased a K-Pop physical album ranging from
IDR 300,000 – IDR 500,000 (61.15%), and many of them have owned less than five K-Pop Physical albums (43.92%).
Most of the respondents have been a fan of K-Pop for more than three years (65.54%), who are multi-fandom fans of
various K-Pop artists (83.11%) with BTS chosen as their favorite artist (33.45%).

Table 1. Respondent Demographics

Demographic Profile Category Total Percentage

Gender Female 282 95.27%

Male 14 4.73%

Age < 17 42 14.19%

17-21 173 58.45%

22-26 72 24.32%

27-31 8 2.70%

>31 1 0.34%

Last Education Junior High School 22 7.43%

Senior High School 195 65.88%

Diploma 7 2.36%

Bachelor’s Degree 67 22.64%

Master’s/Doctorate 5 1.69%

Occupation Student 63 21.28%

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College Student 191 64.53%

Employee 30 10.14%

Entrepreneur 8 2.70%

Others 4 1.35%

Marital Status Not Married 295 99.66%

Married 1 0.34%

Average Monthly Income < IDR 5,000,000 251 84.80%

IDR 5,000,000 - IDR 10,000,000 36 12.16%

> IDR 10,000,000 9 3.04%

Average Physical Album < IDR 300,000 102 34.46%

Price
IDR 300,000 - IDR 500,000 181 61.15%

> IDR 500,000 13 4.39%

Total K-Pop Physical Album <5 130 43.92%

Purchased
5-10 89 30.07%

> 10 77 26.01%

Duration of becoming a < 1 year 19 6.42%

K-Pop Fan
1 – 3 Year 83 28.04%

> 3 Year 194 65.54%

Multi-fandom Yes 246 83.11%

No 50 16.89%

Favorite Artist BTS 99 33.45%

NCT 73 24.66%

Others 56 18.92%

EXO 40 13.51%

SEVENTEEN 17 5.74%

BLACKPINK 11 3.72%

Validity and reliability tests were performed out of all the questionnaire items that have been distributed. Factor load-
ing, AVE, and composite reliability were used to determine the validity and reliability, with factor loading greater
than 0.7 for each item, AVE larger than 0.5, and composite reliability greater than 0.7 (Hair et al. 2011). Table 2 shows
that the factor loading value is more than 0.7, and the AVE of all variables is greater than 0.5, indicating that all

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questionnaire questions in the table pass the convergent validity test. From all the variable indicators, 10 out of 17
items that were valid. Each variable's composite reliability is greater than 0.7, indicating all variables’ reliability.

Table 2. Convergent Validity and Reliability Test Results

Variable/Indicator Factor Loading AVE CR

Fanaticism (FAN):
FAN1 I am crazy about K-Pop artists. 0.811
0.732 0.845
I have strong urges to have a physical album of K- 0.898
FAN2
Pop artists that I like.
Perceived Value (PV):
PV1 K-Pop physical albums offer good value for price. 0.804

K-Pop physical albums offer a variety of interesting 0.751

PV2 0.634 0.838
merchandise (photocards, posters, postcards, etc.).

PV3 A K-Pop physical album is worth buying. 0.832

Consumer Spending Self Control (CSSC):
Sometimes I can't stop myself from buying a prod- 0.843
CSSC1
uct, even if I know if it is very unnecessary. *
0.744 0.853
I often spend money to buy a product, without think- 0.882
CSSC2
ing about the financial consequence. *
Willingness to Pay (WTP):
I would be willing to pay a higher price for a K-Pop 0.887
WTP1
physical album that I like than other artists.

I am willing to pay a higher price for a K-Pop physi- 0.907

WTP2
cal album that I like. 0.776 0.912

I would still purchase the K-Pop physical album of 0.847

WTP3 the K-Pop artist that I like, even if the physical album
of another artist is cheaper.
Note: * Reversed Items

From the results in Table 3, all variables are determined as valid and pass discriminant validity because the AVE of
each latent construct is greater than the square root of the highest AVE latent construct (Hair et al. 2011).

Table 3. Discriminant Validity Test Results

CSSC FAN PV WTP

CSSC 0.863

FAN -0.221 0.856

PV -0.106 0.441 0.796

WTP -0.291 0.428 0.449 0.881

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The results of all hypotheses testing in Table 4 show that three out of four hypothesized paths were supported, and
only one path failed to be supported from the data (H4). The result of H4 shows that consumer spending self-control
had no moderating effect on perceived value to willingness to pay (t = 1.097<1.96, p = 0.273>0.05). Another hypoth-
esis is supported by the findings. H1 and H2 were accepted, showing that there is a positive effect of fanaticism and
perceived value on a willingness to pay for K-Pop physical album (with the respective t = 4.088 and 6.295>1.96, p =
0.000 and 0.000<0.05). Further, H3 shows moderating effect of consumer spending self-control towards fanaticism
on willingness to pay (t = 2.445>1.96, p = 0.015<0.05).

Table 4. Hypothesis Test Results

Path Path Coefficient T-Statistics P-Value Conclusion

H1: FAN → WTP 0.229 4.088 0.000 Supported

H2: PV → WTP 0.312 6.295 0.000 Supported

H3: FAN*CSSC → WTP 0.127 2.445 0.015 Supported

H4: PV*CSSC → WTP 0.058 1.097 0.273 Not Supported

5.2 Discussions
In purchasing K-pop physical albums, fanaticism significantly affects the willingness to pay. The results show that
most younger women prefer more than one K-Pop artist (multi-fandom). The fanaticism of fans towards K-Pop artists
can be seen by fan behavior that reflects the enthusiasm and excitement of fans in encouraging and cheering their K-
Pop artists through songs, fan-chants, banners, and attending concerts that are held even though the concert is not in
the country where the fans live or even try to follow the lifestyle of the K-Pop artist. Fans who are deeply committed
to their fandom are referred to as "vested fans" and they are delighted in thoughts of making the K-Pop artists happy
by owning items associated with them (e.g., exclusive photocards, K-Pop physical albums, concert tickets) could be
one aspect of fanaticism (Redden and Steiner 2000). On this basis, one of the items related to K-Pop artists is the
physical album released every comeback, and fanatical fans are willing to purchase and spend on K-Pop physical
albums ranging from IDR 300,000 - IDR 500,000, according to the data obtained.

K-Pop fans who like more than one K-Pop artist will always be looking for an online shop or fan base group order
that opens the pre-order of the album when the company that manages K-Pop artists releases news of their artist's
comeback. It is not uncommon for fans to buy more than one K-Pop physical album, and there will be more albums
that the fans have to purchase because K-Pop artists can make a comeback every year, and there are repackaged
albums. Fans are supportive and always show their love and interest by purchasing the album to make their favorite
K-Pop artist acknowledge their new album release and hold the title Million or Double Million Seller of the physical
album (Gaon Music Chart 2018). In Korean music shows, K-Pop artists get the first win, and the trophy can make
them proud because sometimes their opponents are quite difficult, and they are well known. For example, on SBS
Inkigayo, the ranking system for purchasing a physical K-Pop album is only calculated at 10%; with the maximum
number of sales recorded on the Gaon Album Chart, only 1,000 albums got counted (SBS Inkigayo 2021). There is
also involvement from the external environment, which makes fans who may have been discouraged from buying a
physical album have a willingness to pay. The external environment can be in the form of an album unboxing video
explaining what merchandise benefits you will get if you buy the album. In addition, if you have frequent friends who
have the same interests or are joined to a fandom, it can influence your fellow fans (Thorne and Bruner 2006).

According to the results, the perceived value of a physical album influences consumers' willingness to pay, with a
high perceived value increasing consumers' willingness to pay for a K-Pop physical album. The worthiness of the
physical album is highlighted through the content of the album itself, whether it has a good track-list of the music and
a complete or unique album that offers various merchandise, photo cards, posters, postcards, and other inclusions.
Moreover, the released K-Pop physical album consists of several versions in one comeback. K-Pop fans thought that
each album version is different even though it has the same track-list because the photobook and photocard of each
album offered are different; therefore, their perceived value of each album can be different; it is all worth buying.

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Benefits such as having the opportunity to join a fan meeting, owning an official physical album that can be collected
as a hobby, and the purchase experience are also a part of the fans' value. This conclusion is consistent with Choi et
al. (2015), who say that perceived value refers to a fundamental psychological component that represents customer
appraisal of a product or service. This consequentially affected consumers' willingness to pay. A substantial perceived
value pushes fans to like the physical album, and with a promotional strategy of the physical album by the artist, fans
will develop more connection and the need to appreciate the album more, hence increasing the willingness to pay.

Consumer spending self-control moderate's fanaticism in their willingness to pay. As a moderating variable, consumer
spending self-control weakens the fanaticism of fans, decreasing the level of willingness to pay for a K-pop physical
album. 65.54% of respondents of this study have been K-Pop fans for more than three years, indicating that the fans
spent much time on K-Pop and liked multiple artists. With high intensity of fanaticism towards K-Pop artists, some-
times the urge to have each of the albums they release is high (Thorne and Bruner 2006), where consumer spending
self-control takes place. Based on this study, 43.92%, which is most respondents, have less than five K-Pop physical
albums, while the other 30.07% of respondents have five to ten physical albums and 26.01% of respondents have more
than ten. Consumers' willingness to pay decreases with their spending self-control on a K-Pop physical album as they
can resist the temptation. One of the reasons fans want to purchase a physical album is to boost sales of their favorite
artist and gain lots of perks, such as the opportunity to win a fan-meeting or video call meeting to interact directly
with the artist. However, newer ways to give their artist a win in a music shows are increasing, added with the devel-
opment of technology for streaming music video, songs, and improvements in social media platforms to watch live
streams and have direct interaction with the artist, making fans with high consumer spending self-control may see
those alternatives as another way to channel their fanaticism, so their purchasing decision towards physical album is
affected by their self-control, and it decreases their willingness to pay for a K-pop physical album.

Meanwhile, for perceived value, the result of this study shows that it is not moderated by consumer spending self-
control. Companies that manage K-Pop artists and sometimes even the artist themself have been innovative with their
physical albums as it is a way to promote and give back to the fans. When the new music is released, it is often
referred to as an era of the artist because many different concepts, music types, and events that the artist makes in each
era can be unique and give a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Several versions of the physical album, along with pack-
aging and design that included different photoshoot concepts and other inclusions, are targeted to the fans with differ-
ent values in each of the releases, and the subjective evaluation of each physical album of their favorite K-Pop artist
leads to the increase of perceived value, and it becomes a reason to purchase the K-Pop physical album (Eggert and
Ulaga 2002). This study shows that consumer spending self-control has no effect on perceived value towards willing-
ness to pay because the worthiness of a K-Pop physical album perceived by consumers is not related to how much
power of self-control the consumer holds. The greater the benefits of the physical album, their willingness to pay will
be higher regardless of their self-control in spending decisions.

6. Conclusions
The growth of K-Pop artists globally in this digital era has brought interest on how a K-Pop physical album in the K-
Pop industry is still the leading interest for fans and the artist themself. Fans' fanaticism and perceived value towards
willingness to pay for a K-Pop physical album are significant from this study's findings. These phenomena happened
since fans' fanaticism supports their willingness to pay for what their K-Pop artist released. Fanaticism in K-pop
communities can impact people's behavior and feelings of pleasure to fulfill their desires (Apriliani et al. 2021). Inev-
itably, fanatical K-Pop fans do not want to feel left out of something related to the K-Pop artist they are passionate
about. If there is any unknown information such as the release of a new album, K-Pop fans will always look for
information on various platforms, and they will not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy all kinds of things related
to their K-Pop artist so that their idols can win awards at various music award events (Tartila 2014), also to satisfy
their needs in wanting to make a bond with the artist, including wanting to have a physical album which is one of the
examples of physical goods released by K-Pop artists. While in this context, a physical album, also they are perceiving
to be able to gain various values such as merchandises in forms CD containing track-lists, inclusions such as photo-
book, photo cards, and posters, special benefits that can only be gained through the physical album and other experi-
ence related to it such as a chance of being selected to join special events held by the K-Pop artists with a physical
album purchase, hence increase their willingness to pay for the K-Pop physical album.

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In this study, consumer spending self-control is included as a moderating variable to reduce both fanaticism and per-
ceived value on the willingness to pay. However, the findings show that consumer spending self-control only signifi-
cantly moderates fanaticism and not perceived quality. Consumer spending self-control influences fanaticism toward
a willingness to pay, whereby the desire to purchase a physical record diminishes when their purchasing decisions are
impacted by self-control. This is because fanaticism may be channeled through activities other than purchasing phys-
ical music. On the other hand, perceived value is not influenced by consumer spending self-control. The value of a
physical album is evaluated subjectively by the fans, increasing the perceived value of the artist's products because it
is worth buying.

7. Suggestion for Future Research

Future studies could carry out numerous limitations found in this research. First, additional and suitable variables
could be added apart from the variables examined, i.e., fanaticism, perceived quality, consumer spending self-control,
and willingness to pay. Hedonism variable can be used to evaluate a phenomenon related to bulk-buying of K-pop
physical albums and their effect on willingness to pay. People who have a hedonic lifestyle can usually be reflected
in their interest in some products because it is related to the pleasure of their achievement after successfully purchasing
or consuming the desired product (Engel et al. 1995). Therefore, people who have a hedonistic lifestyle will always
try to buy what they want, either in small quantities or bulk buying. Artist exposure variable can also be studied, where
popular artists attract more interest and create exposure of their work and product-related stuff. The exposure can be
obtained through cultural offerings or the artist's project, and it will raise the curiosity of people and fans (Xu et al.
2017). The availability of information regarding physical album details or purchasing method that may be influencing
consumer's willingness to pay can also be added in the study, where a lack of availability of information in K-Pop
physical album sometimes bring confusion for K-Pop fans, especially information provided in the Korean language,
and the information that is disseminated sometimes differs from one website to others, and it causes a mistake or
misinterpretation of the current sales information. The availability of information may increase consumer awareness
to find out how far it is in accordance with the product that is being needed or sought with some attribute details
(Clemons 2008). Second, this research sample can get more respondents or only be determined for one K-Pop artist
fandom. Furthermore, this research only focuses on K-Pop physical albums; for the future, it can be better expanded
by Kihno albums research as well. The preferences of each K-Pop fan are different; some only purchase Kihno albums,
or it can be called digital albums that use advanced technology, or those who prefer purchasing physical albums only.

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Biography
Jessica Irena is a student at Business Management Program, BINUS Business School Master Program, Bina Nusan-
tara University, Jakarta, Indonesia. Her interests are marketing and supply chain management, and with a deep interest
in Korean culture and the Korean pop (K-Pop) industry, she begins to explore more about the industry's business
aspects.

Marchell A Putera is a student at Business Management Program, BINUS Business School Master Program, Bina
Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia. He has interests in several industries, such as automotive and music; there-
fore, he is interested in learning more about these industries, especially marketing and supply chain.

Tifany is a student at Business Management Program, BINUS Business School Master Program, Bina Nusantara
University, Jakarta, Indonesia. Her interests are marketing, supply chain, and human resources. She also has an interest
in the K-Pop industry and wants to explore more and deepen her knowledge.

Willy Gunadi is an Assistant Professor at Business Management Program, BINUS Business School Master Program,
Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia. His research interests are in the area of digital marketing, consumer
behavior, and online retail channels.

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