Winter album sets new sales record for S.M. seasonal releases

S.M. Entertainment’s special winter album has made a successful return after a 10 year break, racking up highest sales among all seasonal project releases from the K-pop powerhouse.

According to S.M., the album, “2021 Winter SMTown: SMCU Express,” has notched up over 416,000 units since its release on Dec. 27.

The star-studded album from SMTOWN -- which refers to the collective of artists affiliated to S.M. -- was the first special winter release since the release of “2011 Winter SMTown: The Warmest Gift.”

This year, the album featured some of the label’s most popular K-pop stars, including BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation-Oh!GG, SHINee’s Onew, Minho and Key, Exo’s Kai, Red Velvet, NCT units and Aespa.

The 10-track album not only includes songs from each of the groups, but some first-time collaborations.

To promote the album, S.M. conducted a multi-content project, held a media art event on Thursday, and hosted a free online concert on Saturday.

SMCU, which stands for “S.M. Culture Universe,” is a virtual world that links all S.M. artists under one coherent storyline.

By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)