PLAVE: The virtual K-pop boy band sweeping South Korea

PLAVE is quickly becoming one of K-pop’s biggest sensations, and not just because they're all virtual idols! Here’s the story of how this virtual boyband got so popular.

All images in this gallery are from VLAST unless otherwise stated.

PLAVE is a five-member virtual boy band group managed and formed by VLAST.

The members of PLAVE are Yejun, Noah, Bamby, Eunho, and Haemin.

All members are represented by a unique virtual avatar and have real people behind them. The identities of the members behind PLAVE have not been officially revealed to date. They have chosen to have their real-life identities kept separate from their PLAVE identities.

PLAVE is also able to hold live streams and concerts, interacting with fans. Forbes describes that they do this via motion capture technology, which allows them to interact in a natural manner despite their virtual identities.

Image: MBC

According to Newsis, PLAVE debuted on March 12, 2023, when they released their first album, ‘Asterum’.

Image: MBC

Despite having debuted for only a year, PLAVE success is one for the books as Forbes described the band as “beating out human rivals” and becoming one of Korea’s top bands, earning a Top 10 on Korean music charts.

According to the Korea Times, PLAVE's secret to success may lie in the group's 'humanist' aspect, in which each avatar effectively showcases the personalities of the human band members who make up PLAVE.

As such, the same report from Korea Times continues that this allowed for PLAVE to successfully have an authentic human appeal unlike other virtual idols, and their popularity is evident too with sold-out concerts and winning the top spot on MBC’s ‘Show! Music Core’.

Yonhap News reports that PLAVE’s success in South Korea has allowed the group to plan for further expansion, with not only building up an augmented reality world for the idols but also with plans for global expansion.

According to Yonhap News, PLAVE is already in talks about possible collaborations with other well-known K-pop groups, including those managed by YG Entertainment. When it does happen, it will take K-pop in an interesting new direction, where the virtual meets the real.

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