The Groove Music Life

Welcome to TGML’s contribution to Wota Wonderings, a group of English-speaking Japanese music bloggers brought together once a month to answer questions posed by johpan. We strive to be creative and entertaining, and we may even shed a bit of new light on interesting musical and cultural topics. Any questions about how we work should be directed to johpan. Don’t forget to check out the other posts from this month at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

This month’s question: If you were someone in the Japanese music industry who could influence a change, what would your New Year’s resolution be?

If I were in such a position, I would  start reaching out towards the growing Western audience. The Japanese music industry obviously know we’re out here – and not just for the nifty Japanese editions of American albums with the otherwise rare bonus tracks. I could easily go on and on about what certain artists/agencies/labels should and shouldn’t do but I won’t go into specifics here. What the J-music industry can do for a very good start is simple, given that the audience outside of their native country exists and is strong and devoted: Make their product more easily obtainable to the Western audience.

We know that Puffy AmiYumi and Dir en grey have done Western releases of their albums and done tours, and that BoA has already started to make inroads here with a digital single. Then there’s the Japan Live package tour, now about to enter what I think is its third season (last year’s lineup introduced the great all-girl punk/powerpop quartet SCANDAL, carrying on the Whiteberry/Zone tradition to the point where they signed with Whiteberry and Zone’s former label Sony Japan), the recent advent of JapanFiles.com and HearJapan.com, the mysterious appearance of some Hello! Project/Up-Front Works and Avex releases on US iTunes, and I’m not even counting all those appearances at anime conventions.

But that’s only a small tip off of this particular iceberg, and legal digital downloads only go so far. The best next/first step the J-Music industry can do for its growing Western audience is start making physical copies of its most wanted artists/releases available here in the States on both vinyl and CD.

Without going into too much major detail, the smartest thing for the J-music industry to do is deal with independent labels that have more than adequate nationwide/worldwide distribution. (I’ve detailed how bad Tofu Records’ distribution and promotion was in past blog entries.) Unlike the major labels, a good independent label like Matador, Saddle Creek, or Merge would work their releases long term, rather than the typical major label short-term push more interested in high first-week sales than having a steady selling title. It would be equally as smart to have the releases come out in all three major formats here – CD, LP, and online.

What happens? Simple. Western fans can then get their J-pop at a more domestic price be it in a physical format or through a legal download. No asinine amounts of hype needed (as has been suggested elsewhere). If the sales of these domestic editions do enough to justify bringing more J-music acts over these shores to perform, and those concert appearances in turn serve to sell more records… well, you can guess the rest.

But domestic releases of more J-music? I’d be snapping them up in a heartbeat even if I already had the Japanese editions.

(SIDE NOTE: I don’t know how good JapanFiles.com’s distribution is regarding the American release of the Hangry&Angry EP Kill Me Kiss Me, or even if they are doing any physical distribution of the domestic CD edition beyond online sales, but since their focus seems wholly niche at the start it’s a bit of a moot point.)

Wota Wonderings 1: New Year’s Reolutions (Solo Space)
Wota Wonderings 001: New Year’s Resolutions (Merry Go Round)
…on The Japanese Music Industry (Stardust)
[Wota Wonderings] New Years Resolution… (Renai Revolution 21)
Wota Wonderings: Resolutions, anyone? (boylikesmusic)