Gaon Music Chart


The Gaon Music Chart tabulates the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in South Korea. It is produced by the Korea Music Content Association and sponsored by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, with an aim to create a national chart for South Korea similar to the Billboard charts of the United States and the Oricon charts of Japan. It started tracking sales since the beginning of 2010. It was officially launched in February 2010 with a launching ceremony held on February 23, 2010 at the Westin Chosun hotel in Seoul. The launch also included a small awarding ceremony, which awarded girl group Girls' Generation with top artist of January and boy band Super Junior with best album of 2009. Meanwhile, Hit single "We Fell In Love", performed by Jo Kwon of 2AM and Ga-in of Brown Eyed Girls, took the title of best weekly mobile ringtone.
In February 2011, it published information on both online and offline album sales of 2010, including a detailed breakdown of online chart data and was the first time since 2008 that offline album sales were released, since the Music Industry Association of Korea had stopped compiling data.

Music charts

There are two primary charts: Gaon Album Chart and Gaon Digital Chart. The charts lists domestic artists' sales, international artists' sales and a combined overall sales in weekly, monthly and year-end format.
The Gaon Album Chart ranks physical album shipments, including mini and single albums. It is compiled from offline data provided by record labels and distributors such as LOEN Entertainment, CJ E&M Music, Genie Music, Sony Music Korea, Pony Canyon Korea, Universal Music Korea, and Warner Music Korea.
The Gaon Digital Chart ranks best-selling non-physical, digital music sales, and is an aggregate of downloads, streaming and background music. It excludes radio airplay, and different versions of a song are listed as separate entries. It is compiled from online data provided by web-based music providers such as genie, Melon, Mnet, Soribada, Naver Music, KakaoMusic and Bugs. There is no digital album chart because each song is a separate digital download.
All charts rank the top 100. Before mid-2014, the digital, streaming, download, and noraebang charts ranked the top 200.
Chart titleChart typeMethodologyDescription
Album Chartall musicphysical shipments
Album Chartdomesticphysical shipments
  • Ranks the best selling domestic albums
    • Album Chartinternationalphysical shipments
  • Ranks the best selling international albums
    • Digital Chartall musicdownloads +streaming +
    background music

    • Ranks the best selling songs
    Digital Chartdomesticdownloads +streaming +
    background music

    • Ranks the best selling domestic songs
    Digital Chartinternationaldownloads +streaming +
    background music

    • Ranks the best selling international songs
    Download Chartall musicdownloads
    • Ranks digital download sales
    • One of three component charts of the Digital Chart
    Download Chartdomesticdownloads
    • Ranks digital download sales
    Download Chartinternationaldownloads
    • Ranks digital download sales
    Streaming Chartall musicstreaming
    • Ranks streaming from digital music stores
    • One of three component charts of the Digital Chart
    Streaming Chartdomesticstreaming
    • Ranks streaming from digital music stores
    Streaming Chartinternationalstreaming
    • Ranks streaming from digital music stores
    BGM Chartall musicbackground music
    • Ranks background music sales
    • One of three component charts of the Digital Chart
    Mobile Chartringtonesringtones andringback tones
    • Ranks ringtone sales for mobile phones
    Mobile Chartringback tonesringtones andringback tones
    • Ranks ringback tone sales for mobile phones
    Noraebang Chartall musickaraoke
  • Ranks most played noraebang songs
    • Noraebang Chartdomestickaraoke
  • Ranks most played noraebang domestic songs
    • Noraebang Chartinternationalkaraoke
  • Ranks most played noraebang international songs

    • Social charts

    The Gaon Social Chart is a weekly chart that ranks the top 50 most popular K-pop artists using data from V Live, Mubeat, SMR, and Mycelebs.
    The Gaon Weibo Chart was a weekly chart that ranked the top 10 most popular K-pop groups and the top 30 most popular individual K-pop artists in China using data from Weibo.

    Certification

    In April 2018, Gaon introduced music recording certifications for albums, downloads and streamings. Album certifications are awarded based on shipment figures provided by record labels and distributors. Download and streaming certifications are awarded to songs based on online data provided by web-based music providers. Albums and songs released on or after January 1, 2018 are eligible for certification.

    Album

    Download

    Streaming

    Awards