It has been over a month since singer Nilo and his agency Limez Entertainment were slammed with allegations of chart manipulation or sajaegi.

Nilo
Image source -Limez Entertainment

Many have alleged that Nilo and his management have bought his songs, conducted viral marketing, and more after his 2017 ballad “About You” rocketed to the top of music charts with no explanation and overtook popular K-pop idols. Currently, the singer is still reigning at the top of music charts. In fact, Nilo consistently ranks in the top 10.

However, as a result of Nilo’s abnormal performance, the Korean Management Association asked the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Sports to investigate the matter. If there was any room for illegal methods that affected charts, it would violate fair competition laws.

Following the launch of an official investigation a few weeks ago, the ministry provided an update on the situation. On May 10, a ministry official said Limez Entertainment sent relevant documents and supporting evidence to defend their position of denial last month. Additionally, they are “collecting opinions” on his performance from “relevant industry officials.”

The ministry has also made it clear that they are fully aware of the discovery of chart manipulation through the illegal purchase of users’ ID, which is then used to stream songs. The method was discovered by Melon Music, Korea’s largest music streaming service, on April 25 and led to additional accusations towards Nilo.

However, an official from Melon Music made a statement about their charts to the ministry and reported that “there were no anomalies” in Nilo’s graph. Still, the streaming service promised to continue monitoring the singer’s performance as they implement new security and filtering policies.

Interestingly, as time passes the attention paid to the controversy is slowly decreasing. Given the weakened attention, it would not be surprising if the case, which the ministry expects to last several months, completely drops from the public’s attention.

 

 

Original article

Translated by O.C

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