Since starting a new Japan-themed audio / video podcast earlier this year, I've become pretty interested in the music industry in Japan, and particularly the way it's changing and trying to deal with the digital revolution.
The artists I've spoken to (and who have played live on the podcast) are finding it tough to make any money the old way, as CD sales have collapsed - a song at number 20 in the charts recently only sold 3,000 copies!
In episode 11.5 of Japan Podshow, ('DRM-Free Sumo Wrestlers') we heard from an American chap who loved Japanese music so much he started a Japanese music download service called Hear Japan. After a few years he's now got over 2000 artists signed up - it's pretty impressive really.
It's cool what he's managed to do, because all of the music is DRM-free MP3s: digital downloads of Japanese music are usually heavily copy-protected, so he's had to really push the boundaries of what is 'normal' in the industry.
One interesting thing I found was that over 70% of music downloads in japan are done via mobile phones, very different from other countries.
George (my co-presenter) and I are running a competition to win up to ¥5,000 (US$55) of credit for free Japanese music downloads, and ¥200 of free credit for everyone who listens to the podcast. They've got some pretty cool music there so do check it out. Or we'll spank you. ^^
(We've also got a video up from the trip to the sumo I live blogged about here on Dannychoo.com a couple of weeks ago - let us know what you think!)
You'll find the podcast at
www.japanpodshow.com
The music download site is
www.hearjapan.com
How do you get your music? CDs from your local record store? Online downloads? Via your mobile phone? Direct from artists at live gigs?
Joseph
This is a
Tokyo Live Blogger post posted from the iPhone.
You can read more by this and other live bloggers or follow them
via RSS.
