How music show voting works: Music Bank's K-Chart

Music Bank (뮤직뱅크) is a weekly music show on KBS 2TV that has been on air since 28 December 1999 and ends each edition by naming one song the week’s number one. That number one is not a producer’s pick and it is not a straight vote either. It is the top of a score called the K-Chart (K-차트) — the programme’s own weekly ranking, which belongs to this one show rather than to the industry — and KBS builds that score by adding five separate measurements together.

This guide follows the sum from end to end: what the five parts are and roughly what each is worth, which days of data they cover, where the fan-vote part is cast and who is eligible to be voted for and where KBS publishes the result. It also says, in the two places where it applies, what KBS does not publish. By the end, any week’s Music Bank chart post can be opened and read for what each figure in it actually is.

The steps below describe Music Bank and no other programme. The formula and the dates here were read against KBS’s own programme site, and the newest post they were checked against is dated 20 August 2026.

1. Read the formula KBS prints under every weekly chart

KBS publishes the K-Chart formula itself, in writing, under every weekly chart post on the Music Bank programme site. The line reads: digital music 60% + broadcast count 20% + K-POP fan vote 10% + album 5% + social media 5%, with a footnote defining social media as YouTube, supplied by Circle Chart.

In plain terms, the five parts are:

• Digital music score (디지털 음원 점수), 60% — how much the song was streamed and downloaded on music services.
• Broadcast count score (방송 횟수 점수), 20% — how many times the song was actually played on KBS’s own channels.
• K-POP fan vote (K-POP 팬 투표), 10% — a vote cast by people in a smartphone app in the days before the programme.
• Album score (음반 점수), 5% — sales of physical albums.
• Social media score (소셜 미디어 점수), 5% — YouTube figures, which KBS obtains from Circle Chart (써클차트), the Korean chart operator run by the Korea Music Content Association that collects licensed listening data from music services and publishes charts from it.

The weights are not set week by week. The same formula string appears under the weekly K-Chart posts from the chart of 25 January 2026 through the chart of 20 August 2026.

Taken together, the digital and broadcast parts are 80% of the score and both are counted rather than voted: four fifths of the total is measurement. The remaining fifth is the fan vote at 10%, albums at 5% and social media at 5%.

2. Check which week’s data the score covers

A K-Chart is not a ranking of the day it is read out. Each weekly post carries a counting period (집계기간) — the stretch of days whose data that week’s score is built from — and that stretch has already ended before the programme airs.

• The chart announced on Friday 21 August 2026 covered Monday 10 August to Sunday 16 August 2026.
• The chart announced on Friday 31 July 2026 covered Monday 20 July to Sunday 26 July 2026.

KBS prints those dates every week. It has not published the window as a rule in words, so the accurate statement is that the periods KBS printed ran Monday to Sunday and closed before the week of the broadcast — not that KBS has published a rule requiring it.

3. See what the 60% digital score counts, and what KBS no longer publishes

Digital music is the largest single part of the score at 60%. It is the streaming and download figure for the song on music services.

Which services KBS counts is not published today. The last time KBS stated the list was a notice dated 2 November 2020, which said that from the third week of November 2020 the digital score was counted from Melon, Bugs, Genie, Naver VIBE and FLO. That is a 2020 statement and it is recorded here as a 2020 statement only. KBS has published nothing on the subject since, and the list should not be read as current. On the evidence of that same notice, KBS’s practice is to announce a change to the counted sources by notice when it changes — which is why the absence of a newer notice is itself the honest answer rather than a reason to guess.

4. See what a broadcast play is, and how narrow the radio part is

Broadcast count is 20% of the score, and it means something narrower than the words suggest. It is not radio airplay across Korea. It is the number of times the song was played on KBS’s own output. KBS’s most explicit definition of it comes from a notice in July 2020: the broadcast count is the total number of times the music was played during KBS programmes.

The radio portion is narrower still. In a notice dated 19 May 2022 KBS stated that the radio part of the Music Bank broadcast score is counted across seven programmes on KBS Cool FM — one of KBS’s radio networks — that no KBS radio programme outside those seven is counted at all, and that the standard is applied identically to every song every week. KBS does not name the seven programmes.

Both statements carry their own date: 2020 for the definition, 2022 for the radio rule. Neither has been restated since.

5. Find the fan vote, which closes before the programme airs

The K-POP fan vote is 10% of the score, and it is a pre-vote (사전 투표) — a vote that opens and closes in the days before the broadcast. There is no voting during the programme. KBS’s own list of the items reflected in the K-Chart has exactly five entries: digital music score, broadcast count score, K-POP fan vote score, album score and SNS score. None of them is a live or on-air vote. The app’s Google Play listing describes itself the same way, as a pre-vote reflected in the K-Chart.

The vote is cast in a smartphone app called coogoong (쿠궁). Its name has changed twice in twelve months, which is worth knowing when reading an older page about it:

• Until August 2025 the app was AllChart (올차트).
• From episode 1262, broadcast on 29 August 2025, the K-POP fan vote moved to Fancast (팬캐스트).
• Fancast was rebranded as coogoong on 24 July 2026, and the K-Chart fan vote has run on coogoong since episode 1301, broadcast on 31 July 2026. KBS stated that existing accounts and the way of taking part carried over unchanged.

KBS publishes the rule for who appears on the ballot: ranks 1 to 50 of that week’s K-Chart, plus the acts appearing on that week’s programme and acts that have asked to appear.

KBS has published the dates of exactly one round. For the 31 July 2026 edition, the pre-vote ran from 26 July to 29 July 2026. That is one published round rather than a standing schedule: KBS has never published a general rule for when a round opens and closes, and each round’s dates appear in the app.

6. Check who makes the voting app and what its store listings declare

coogoong is not made by KBS. Both the App Store and Google Play give the publisher as QUICKWINSTUDIO — (주)퀵윈스튜디오 in Korean — an outside developer, and Apple’s listing gives the developer website as coogoong.com. KBS names the app as the one the K-Chart fan vote runs on; it does not operate it.

What the listings state:

• The download is free.
• The currency used for voting can be obtained through free activity. The listings give watching advertisements and daily check-ins as the examples.
• Google Play declares that the app contains ads and offers in-app purchases. The App Store listing also carries in-app purchases.
• Apple lists the app’s interface languages as English and Korean, and the same app appears in non-Korean App Store storefronts, so it is not a Korea-only release.
• The two stores rate it differently. Apple’s Korean listing gives 12+; Google Play gives Mature 17+, flagged for user interaction and in-app purchases. Each rating is that store’s own, and nothing published reconciles them.

What happens inside the app — how an account is created, what identification it asks for, how a ballot is submitted, how many votes one account may cast and what a unit of its currency represents — is set out inside the app itself and is not published on any public page. This guide does not describe it, because there is no official source to describe it from. Whether registration requires a Korean phone number is likewise unpublished, either way.

7. Find the last two parts: physical albums and YouTube

The remaining tenth of the score is two components of 5% each.

The album score (음반 점수) is sales of physical albums — CDs and other physical editions. Who supplies that figure to KBS today is not published. The last KBS statement on it is a notice dated 31 July 2017, which said the album score was based on the Hanteo Chart and converted into a share-of-total score. That is a 2017 statement and is recorded here as one. KBS has published nothing about the album figure since, and the supplier of the social-media figure should not be assumed to supply this one as well.

The social media score (소셜 미디어 점수) is the other 5%, and KBS defines it in the footnote under every weekly chart post: social media means YouTube, supplied by Circle Chart. The current wording names YouTube and nothing else.

This 5% is the newest part of the sum. Until the fourth week of February 2022 the formula was digital music 65%, album 5%, broadcast count 20% and a viewer preference survey worth 10%. From that week the digital share was reduced by five points to 60% and a 5% social-media score took the five points, as Ilgan Sports reported at the time. KBS’s own notice from July 2020 records the earlier formula in the same shape.

8. Read the result where KBS publishes it, and check the notice board for changes

The five parts are added together and the top of the sum is announced on air, at the end of the Friday programme. Music Bank airs on KBS 2TV; since Friday 10 July 2026 it starts at 5.15 p.m. Korea Standard Time, and the programme site gives the slot as 5.15 p.m. to 6.35 p.m.

Each week’s K-Chart detail is posted on the programme’s own site under 매거진 › K-차트. That board is where a past week can be looked up. When the programme does not air in a given week the chart is still decided: when the 2 August 2024 broadcast was pre-empted, that week’s K-Chart was announced through the official website instead.

KBS also corrects itself in public. A notice dated 23 January 2026 records an apology for a caption error during the number-one announcement on episode 1277, and corrections of that kind are posted on the programme’s notice board, 알려드립니다.

That notice board is the answer to “has any of this changed since”. Every change described in this guide — the app’s two renamings, the broadcast time, the radio rule — was announced there first. It is the page to re-read and the official channel for anything about the chart or the vote; a fan account or a community post is not a substitute for it. For the app itself, the support address published on its Google Play listing is coogoong@gmail.com.

This guide covers Music Bank only. The other weekly music shows on Korean television each build their own sum from their own components and weights. They are handled separately and are not described here.

Frequently asked questions

Is a Music Bank win decided by fan voting?

Only in part. KBS publishes the sum: digital music 60%, broadcast plays on KBS 20%, the K-POP fan vote 10%, physical albums 5% and social media 5%.

Can a viewer vote while the programme is on air?

No. KBS’s published list of the items that count has five entries and none of them is a live vote. The fan vote is a pre-vote that closes before the broadcast, and the app’s own Google Play listing describes it the same way.

Which app is the Music Bank fan vote cast in?

coogoong (쿠궁). It was called Fancast (팬캐스트) until 24 July 2026, and the change applied to the K-Chart from the 31 July 2026 edition, episode 1301. Before August 2025 the app was AllChart (올차트).

Does the app cost money?

The download is free, and the currency used for voting can be obtained through free activity such as watching advertisements and daily check-ins. Both store listings also declare in-app purchases, and Google Play declares that the app contains ads.

Is the app made by KBS?

No. It is published by QUICKWINSTUDIO — (주)퀵윈스튜디오 — an outside developer. KBS names it as the app the K-Chart fan vote runs on.

Who can be voted for?

KBS publishes the rule: ranks 1 to 50 of that week’s K-Chart, plus the acts appearing on that week’s programme and acts that have asked to appear.

Does “broadcast plays” mean radio airplay across Korea?

No. It counts plays on KBS’s own output, and on radio only seven KBS Cool FM programmes are counted at all — programmes KBS does not name.

Has the formula always been this?

No. Until the fourth week of February 2022 digital music was 65% and there was no social-media component; the digital share was cut by five points and a 5% social-media score took its place.