This K-Pop Star Cashed In Big—But Wait Until You See WHAT He Sold (No, It’s Not Used Stage Glitter)
Added on August 9, 2025 inMusic News Cards
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Ever notice how Mercury retrograde can make your phone glitch, your coffee turn cold, and your career move sideways—until suddenly it just doesn’t? You wake up one morning, scroll through Instagram, and—wait, is that Kevin Woo trending everywhere? Apparently, the stars got bored and decided to toss a little extra cosmic glitter on the K-pop universe. If the universe can snatch Pluto’s planet status, why can’t it catapult a musician into superstardom overnight? In the past month and a half, Kevin Woo—who’s survived more K-pop phases than my Taurus mom’s had skincare routines—went from solid solo act to intergalactic phenomenon. And no, it’s not just because he lent his golden voice to Mystery Saja in Netflix’s wild, unexpected smash, KPop Demon Hunters (though, let’s be honest, that movie has more plot twists than my last Mercury retrograde breakup) .
Suddenly, Woo’s picked up over 100,000 followers faster than you can say “streaming royalties are a joke”—and that’s just the beginning . His Spotify monthly listeners exploded from indie rooftop gig to stadium show in the same time it takes the Moon to cycle through two signs . Makes you wonder, on a day like today—Venus in Leo, by the way, so watch your DMs—what does it actually take to turn viral success into lasting stardom? Apparently, it’s less about chasing streams, more about another “S” word: superfans . And a little app called OpenWav just might be the magic wand .
Is Kevin Woo K-pop’s answer to “manifesting your own destiny”—or is he just way better at monetizing that moment when the universe points every social media star in your direction? Either way, today’s astrology says: don’t fight the cosmic current . Splash in the fame, ride the wave, and maybe—just maybe—cash in on your own pop-up before Mercury switches signs again . LEARN MORE
Over the past month and a half, K-pop veteran Kevin Woo’s career has skyrocketed thanks to the unexpected global takeover of Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters.
Woo’s been in K-pop for much of his life, starting with the boy band U-KISS back in 2008 before starting a solo career in 2018, but he’s having the biggest moment of his career today, after providing the singing voice for one of the characters in the film, Mystery Saja. Demon Hunters has drawn him over 100,000 new followers online, he says, and the soundtrack songs he’s on alone have pushed Woo’s monthly listener count on Spotify from just over 10,000 a few months ago to over 28 million.
“I loved the songs and knew they were great, but we didn’t know it was going to be anything like this,” Woo tells THR.
Now, Woo is looking to turn this unexpected moment of virality into a larger moment for the rest of his career, and he’s hoping to do it through a new, do-everything fan engagement app called OpenWav.
Last week, Woo sold about 2,500 tickets on OpenWav for a pop-up event in downtown L.A. timed to KCON, where he cosplayed as Mystery Saja and hosted a flashmob to the Demon Hunters track “Soda Pop” with over 2,000 fans in attendance. He started selling them in the app about a week earlier (most were free except for about 100 $50 VIP tickets) and through OpenWav, he also designed, listed and sold about 3,000 pieces of limited-edition merchandise in the three days following the event. The whole experience netted him “a healthy five figures” in revenue, a representative for the app says.
As Woo says, it’s a more realistic alternative to relying on streaming income, which remains paltry for all but the biggest acts in the business.
“It’s really hard to make a living just off of music; a lot of musicians have side hustles just to pay their rent, it’s incredibly difficult to monetize just off of streams,” Woo tells The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom. “But there’s a fan base that I’ve already built, and this is the time for me to take ownership of my music and events. OpenWav was willing to collaborate with me for that.”
OpenWav was co-founded by longtime music-tech entrepreneur Jaeson Ma, a co-founder of the record label 88Rising. OpenWav officially launched in June, and rapper Wyclef Jean serves as Chief Music Officer. The app has received backing from the likes of Warner Music Group, the CAA-backed Connect Ventures and Goodwater Capital, among others.
Ma created OpenWav hoping it can give smaller acts a break from the streaming economy, calling the current dynamic “broken.” Rather than competing with the 100,000 songs uploaded every day on Spotify with the hopes of getting hundreds of millions of streams, Ma says the more sustainable option is finding “one thousand true fans,” the ones who will actually buy in not just on music, but with merch and tickets. Ma is one of many who are growing more focused on these so-called superfans, as the industry has identified that as an area of potential growth now that streaming is becoming increasingly saturated.
“Kevin’s the perfect artist to show this thesis, that a thousand fans can mean a sustainable career to build off of,” Ma says. “Back in March, we did a beta drop, Kevin had less than 10,000 monthly listeners. He had maybe 100 superfans on OpenWav. Two merch drops did over $20,000 in sales. It takes a million streams for a few thousand dollars, and that’s before what you pay for distribution, to your management. Do the math.”
OpenWav takes a 20 percent cut of revenue on the service, while the artists keep the rest. Ma likens OpenWav to WeChat, the Chinese super-app where its users can do everything from send messages to pay their bills. Fan engagement, Ma says, is fragmented, and he hopes drawing fans to one spot where they can listen to music, talk directly with the artist and buy products will make it easier for artists to build and monetize from their fan base.
“There’s no other place where you can do all this in one space, and it can be overwhelming for artists to manage fans across so many different platforms,” he says.
The biggest selling point for artists, though, could be for merch. Ma spent the past year and a half securing partnerships with factories overseas to develop a drop-shipping platform where artists can sell merchandise without taking on inventory. In the app, artists can design a basic mock-up for shirts, phone cases and more; list them on their OpenWav shops right after; after which the merchandise is made to order and shipped from the factories.
Woo himself calls that model “a testament to urgency” that comes with being an independent artist. “I’ve got this momentum with this film in my career and I’m able to act immediately, and I think Jaeson and OpenWav have understood that.”
Ma hopes OpenWav can empower artists to keep their independence and control over their careers, saying that “the message we keep telling independent artists is that you can own your music, your masters, your data, and that starts with owning the connection to your fans.”
It’s a philosophy Woo is embracing.
“The strategy I have now is still me being the forefront and the captain of my own ship and taking what I need to get my music out there,” Woo says. “I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a traditional label, where they have full ownership of my career. I feel like I need to have the full say and control, and things like this help.”
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