SEOUL, May 5 -- A growing number of K-pop stars are carefully timing their music releases for maximum impact.

Artistes like TXT, Jin of BTS, BoyNextDoor, and EXO's Baekhyun are among those choosing to release new music at either 1pm or 6pm Korean Standard Time (KST) - which is one hour ahead of Malaysian time.

These times are not random - they're strategic, according to The Korea Herald.

Releasing music at 1pm KST aligns with midnight in the US Eastern Time zone, making it ideal for targeting global listeners and the Billboard charts.

South Korea's evening peak time is 6pm KST, when most domestic listeners are online.

Korean music platforms changed their chart rules in 2018 to prevent fandom-driven spikes in midnight streaming, which...