The word gaon, which means 'middle' or 'center' in Korean, was chosen to represent fairness and reliability.

Girl group Girls' Generation was awarded the Top Artist of January, boy band Super Junior won Best Album of 2009, and Jo Kwon and Ga-in's "We Fell In Love" won Best Weekly Mobile Ringtone.

This was the first time that offline album sales had been released since 2008 when the Music Industry Association of Korea stopped compiling data.

[5] The Gaon Weibo Chart was a weekly chart that ranked the top 10 most popular K-pop groups and the top 30 most popular individual K-pop artists in China using data from Weibo.

Album certifications are awarded based on shipment figures provided by record labels and distributors.