Kokopelli Times » japan

Japan’s ’10 Summer Sonic Festival

Erik Rostad — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:58:54 +0000

Jay-Z, Smashing Pumpkins, the Offspring are all set to play at this year’s Summer Sonic Festival in Japan, which runs from August 8 – 9. This festival usually holds around 50k people per show and has been going on since 2000. Other bands making the trip are the Pixies, Nickelback, Sum 41, Slash, 30 Seconds to Mars and Pendulum, among others..

Japanese Digital Music Sales

Erik Rostad — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:37:28 +0000

According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), the digital music sales trend in Japan shows Internet downloads of music rising while mobile downloads are staying steady when comparing 2008 & 2009. Japan is known for their extremely high rates of mobile downloads. In fact, in 2008, 91% of music downloads were on mobile devices (including ring-tones, full-length tracks, ringback tones, etc) and only 9% were Internet downloads.

The market breakdown for 2009 was as follows:

Total digital sales – US$993 Million – roughly equivalent to 2008
Ringtones – $178 Million – down 19%
Ringback Tones – $107 Million – up 15%
Full-Length Tracks – $538.7 Million – up 4%
Other – $168.5

The Japanese music industry is interesting to watch because they are music lovers and early adapters to new technology and of new ways to deliver technology.

Japanese Music Market Production

Erik Rostad — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Overall music production in Japan has fallen 8% in the 1st Quarter of 2009 compared with the same period last year. This translates to an overall production of audio units of 54.8 million.

International repertoire production in Japan was also down 18% to 10.88 million units.

These numbers show a pretty drastic decrease in the value of music production in Japan. Yet, people still listen to music and still produce music. These numbers were released by the Recording Industry Association of Japan and likely just include the production of audio units under record labels. What it likely does not include is music production from new media such as YouTube.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com
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Japanese Summer Sonic Music Festival

Erik Rostad — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Creative Man Productions out of Japan has just announced some of the bands that will take part in this year’s Summer Sonic Music Festival. The festival takes place over 3 days in 2 different cities – Tokyo and Osaka. Bands perform in one city one day and the other city the next day.

The int’l bands in this year’s lineup include Linkin Park, Flaming Lips, and Nine Inch Nails. Past artists to the festival have included Green Day, the Beastie Boys, Cyndi Lauper, Coldplay, and Alicia Keys.

The festival draws more than 50,000 fans to the two locations. It is a great way for US bands to make an entrance into Japan, and in fact, for many of the bands in this year’s line up, it will be their first trip to Japan.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

Delicious Deli

Erik Rostad — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:04:00 +0000

Universal Music in Japan is charting new territory by starting a new label for Japanese artists. The new label will be called Delicious Deli Records and will start operations in January of ’09.

The label will originate under Universal International but will really seek to build domestic Japanese artists. Universal has 5 other labels within Japan (Universal J, Nayuta Wave Records, Universal Sigma Records, Far Eastern Tribe Records, Milestone Crowds).

The focus of Delicious Deli will be to find Japanese artists who are either active or are based in other parts of the world and bring them to the motherland in an attempt to build homeland support. Conversely, Delicious Deli will seek to export popular Japanese artists internationally and to connect them with collaborating partners around the world.

I think this is a great idea. Especially with Universal seeking to connect people musically. My main concern though is that this happens at the corporate superficial level as opposed to a natural, grassroots collaborative effort amongst willing musicians. We’ll see how this new label turns out in this difficult time for the music industry, specifically the record labels.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

Japanese 1Q Music Sales

Erik Rostad — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:56:00 +0000

I am interested in following mobile & pc-based digital music sales in Japan. The market is so extraordinary in that mobile sales make up a larger % of sales than digital sales. Here are some other interesting facts from the first quarter of this year:

- an over rise of 6% in digital sales to 120.8 million units
- digital sales (mobile & pc-based) rose 28% ($215.2 million) from Jan-Mar ’08
- ringtone sales fell 16%, ringback sales rose 18%
- mobile-based full-track downloads rose 48% ($109.2 million)
- pc-based music downloads up 34% ($19.9 million)

I will continue to monitor sales in Japan since many hope digital sales in the USA follow the example of Japan who is far ahead in 3G mobile technology.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

Ke-Tai (Mobile in Japanese)

Erik Rostad — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:50:00 +0000

Japan clearly beats every other country when it comes to new and sexy mobile devices. Not only are their phones better designed, the technology is years ahead of most other countries. So as users begin to consume and purchase more of their music on mobile devices, music industry professionals would be wise to visit the Japanese market.

It was just announced that the Japanese company KDDI’s service called ‘Chaka Uta-Full R’ (Music Ringtone Full) just had it’s 200 millionth Over-the-air (OTA) download. For the Japanese, 40% of digital sales are of full track mobile downloads. And an astonishing 91% of total digital sales in Japan (ring-tone, full length, ringback, etc.) were mobile as opposed to 9% online. Compare that to just 33% mobile sales in the USA.

The Chaka Uta-Full R service has over 120,000 songs available from 50 different record labels.

The mobile device really has a chance to be a big money-maker in the USA. For example, an ipod is limited as a device of self-expression. It is usually listened to by one person through headphones. However, when phones ring, everybody around hears the ringtone. It is a big expression of who you are and the music that you like.

Additionally, user rewards could lead to more sales. For instance, a mobile music provider could add an option to receive mobile news updates about the band of the music recently downloaded. They could also add the social networking element of it so you could see which other of your friends had downloaded the same songs.

The mobile music market in Japan will be one that companies around the world can only hope will develop in a similar way in the USA.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com