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Business News Labels & Publishers
CD sales rise in Japan in 2012, but digital future still key
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 29 January 2013
Oh Japan, you contrary music market you. According to the Recording Industry Association Of Japan, labels in the Japanese market saw CD shipments rise year-on-year in 2012, with the number of units shipped up 9%. Didn’t Japanese music fans get the memo that CDs are in terminal decline?
According to local trade mag McClureMusic, this is the first time CD shipments increased year-on-year since 1998. Though, of course, physical music sales overall are still significantly down on the 1990s, and the growth in sales in 2012 has been put down to just three releases, and in particular CDs sales generated by the local girl group franchise phenomenon that is AKB48.
As previously reported, when it comes to digital Japan is someway behind Europe and North America, mainly due to local labels that are both powerful and digitally resistant. To date the most successful digital services in Japan have been mobile-based though, just as mobile music is taking off elsewhere in the world, sales in that domain were down in Japan last year.
Labels in the Japanese market will now likely be hoping that those digital services that have prospered in Europe can finally gain some traction there too. Sony Music Japan finally licensed its catalogue to Apple’s iTunes in the country last year, and launched its Sony Music Unlimited streaming service too.
Other subscription platforms are now also plotting Japanese launches, label licenses permitting, with both Spotify and Rdio thought to be getting close to launching there. Indeed Spotify is recruiting for its Tokyo office as we speak.
