Why Carats Should Pull Ourselves Together (Or, Why Carats Should Vote & Stream)
Before you scroll past, just read this with an open mind.
We’re a huge fandom (considered the 4th biggest male group right now), with tons of fans and sales. Yet despite Seventeen’s popularity, relatively, they don’t reach as high with rankings or votes as they could. Even some smaller fandoms reach more than we do.
“Yeah yeah,” someone may say, “but awards season is just a popularity contest/rigged/whatever, and it’s not important.”
Not important? Really?
When Seventeen still fears Carats will leave the fandom?
When Seungcheol asked for a dasaeng at a fansign and carats... aren’t trying to get it?
When k-pop is a business and streaming and buying directly give money to groups, and awards bring them more attention and opportunities for advertisements, brand deals, show appearances, dramas, and so on?
When the lack of support make people believe that Seventeen is “slept on” despite actually being well known as the 3-4th biggest fandom of male k-pop groups?
When carats are labeled lazy by other fandoms?
So... why don’t we rank higher?
Because carats don’t have a culture of voting or streaming. And other fandoms do. If carats did work together as a whole, we genuinely would rank about 4th highest in votes, among male groups. But because it seems like only around half of (international at least) Carats even vote or stream casually, our fandom is split and the half that are doing what they should have to work unfairly hard to even reach low positions, rather than easily achieving the high rankings we fairly easily could, if all of us would do it.
What if I don’t have time/money to support them?
Obviously I know that some people don’t have access to stable wi-fi to vote and stream, or don’t have the money to buy physical albums. Other carats may not really have the time, either, to diligently stream and vote.
However, I would like to point out that buying only the title track digitally costs $1.29 USD (before tax, if your area charges tax like mine rip), and that voting can take as little as 30 seconds in some cases. If you have a little extra you can afford to spend,
Streaming can be as easy as plugging in your earbuds to your device (but not wearing them if you don’t want to), and playing it in the background while you’re doing something else. For me, I do this while studying or using tumblr. Sometimes I’ll stream on apple music while getting ready in the morning (only during comebacks because that’s the only time it’s really important) to get a group’s international ranking higher. It really doesn’t take that long, and can be built into your existing schedule. I am not recommending mass streaming where you sit down for hours, because mass streaming requires complete attention on streaming itself. I am simply suggesting a few views a day: casual streaming.
It’s really only important to stream during comebacks, as that’s when it matters for award criteria. In addition, streaming and voting should never come before important real life obligations, even Seventeen themselves tell carats to focus on their own lives first. And if you truly do not have the money to spend, either, then of course that isn’t expected of you!
If these still don’t work for you, then obviously, don’t worry about it!
I just don’t know how!
Twitter always has tutorials, and I also made a tutorial for the voting platforms here!
I still think it’s a waste!
Umm, I don’t know how to help you there. Feel free to PM me or send an ask and we can talk lol!
As always, your love for a group determines being a fan, not the time you spend voting. However, in case you do want to vote, here’s your guide! We’ve done amazing so far, but it’s time to work even harder.
MAMA: 6 PM (KST), Nov 1-11:59PM Sunday Dec. 9, (KST).
How to Vote: Up to 10 accounts. Vote resets at 12 AM KST. Vote for all categories. You will be prompted to enter a verification code, do not leave the webpage until you get a “Thanks for voting!” message.
Important info: do not save your votes, vote every day
Asia Artist Awards: Round 2 begins Nov 2. if you don’t already have the app, download it, and make an account.
How to Vote: Can watch 10 videos a day + earn votes through the ads program (make sure to not close out of the chosen ad before completing it, or you will not earn the rewards). Can vote 2x a day. Please check twitter for updates about voting because some carats there are forming a strategy to save about half of your votes.
Fandom School: Round 2 begins soon (despite research I cannot find the exact day). If you don’t already have the app, download + make account.
How to Vote: There are red hearts and pink hearts. Red hearts are voting currency, pink hearts help you earn red hearts by playing games or exchanging. If you are multi-fandom, go ahead and do the multi-fandom quizzes to help you turn your pink hearts into red ones. However, if you’re not multi-fandom the quizzes are too hard and it’s best to just use your pink hearts to exchange.
