Marketing Proposal

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Music in Japan
Proposal
By: Samantha Donelson
Full Sail University
Global Media Management

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Didyou know that Japan has thesecond largest music industry in theworld?With
revenue amounts larger than many othercountries not including theU.S. Theaverage price of
a CD in Japan costs 24 yen or twenty-two cents of a U.S. dollar.Japan also has over 2,000 CD
and DVDrental shopsthat allowcustomers to rent albums for 2.50 yen. Downloadsand
streaming combined account for only18% of theJapanese music market. (De Vido,2017) Also
Japanese record companies and their distributors’ and retailers allhave great relationships
among themselves. Theyallalso have a great relationship with their government which help
keep the pricing structures and distributionmodelson track.
As of 2017 thetotalrevenue in theJapan music industry was estimated at $7 billion,
which was made by live, recording, and publishing music. Over 90% of alllive and recording
revenues come from domestic acts, while publishing is considered the most foreigner-friendly
part of the industry with only 20-25% of revenues generated byinternationalartists. (Sound
Charts Blog,2019) In 2017 live entertainment rang in at $3 billionand therecording industry at
$2.6 billionin music sales, and then thepublishing industry with $975 million,which even
though is thelowest producing it is themost stable.
According to the2019 Investment Climate Statements, Japan has theworld’s third
largest economy,and theU. S’s fourth largest trading partner. Thelevels of corruptionare very
low and therelationshipsbetween firms and suppliers are very strong, which can cause issues
for theforeign firms coming to the localmarkets. Foreign investors also face a number of
problems and theJapanese government has seen these challengesand are looking into ways
to make investing easier.

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Music in Japan has grown over therecent years, it is more expensive, with theaverage
song on iTunes being 250 yen or $2.50 USD. Youwould think that theindustry wouldbe
declining but it is actuallythriving.The album prices in CD format are more expensive and they
are protected bythegovernment from discounting. With thedigitalmusic age just starting in
2013 thephysicalsales outnumber the digitalsales.
Although,livemusic in Japanis a hugerevenue source theshortageof venues to
perform in is a major issue. With the2020 Olympicscancelled that mayaffect theindustry
significantlybut thearena that was built can now be used as an entertainment venue for future
events. According to theRecording Industry Associationof Japan, thedomestic music market
expanded for thefirst time in three years to 304.8 billionyen in 2018, up 5%from theprevious
year. (Imahashi, 2020)
Spotifyisbecome very big in Japan due to therelativelylow cost of adoption.They
offer thechance to discover new artist byanalytics from theusers listening historyand then
listing songs theymay like.The artist can let potentialandcurrent fans know when they have a
new record coming out and also share their latest tour dates. Even with theease of the
streaming the physicalsales of CDs continue to surpass thestreaming and account for almost
70% of theJapanese market. It is quite theoppositeinthe U.S. as the streaming is much higher
than thesale of CDs. I believe thereis such a great opportunityfor growth in themusic industry
with our own record labelto beopened in Japan. It is more promising than any othercountry
outsidethe U.S. As I have shared abovethelive music and entertainment industry in Japan
accounts for almost 90% of therevenue along with therecording and publishing.I believe

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Japan is our best chance at boosting theindustry and breaking that internationalbarrier into
theJapanese music industry.
Vido, R. (2017, July 05). Why is the music industry in Japan so strong?: Scandinavian Traveler.
Retrieved May 31, 2020, from https://scandinaviantraveler.com/en/lifestyle/why-is-the-music-
industry-in-japan-so-strong

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Ucaya. (n.d.). Market Intelligence for the Music Industry. Retrieved May 31, 2020, from
https://soundcharts.com/blog/japan-music-market-overview
Japan - United States Department of State. (2019, August 29). Retrieved May 31, 2020, from
https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-investment-climate-statements/japan/
Redirect Notice. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2020, from
https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse