CD-Loving Japan Resists Move to Online Music

CD-Loving Japan Resists Move to Online Music
(NY Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/b...ell-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

Love it!

 

I wish that the rest of the world would catch on:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/japan-loves-cds-85-of-songs-still-purchased-on-plastic-disks/

 

It's funny that the article treats this like it's a problem the music industry is trying to fix/solve. Shut up and let us all enjoy our CDs. We're buying them, what's the problem?

 

Way to go, Japan! And here's the New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/b...apan-resists-move-to-digital-music-.html?_r=0

 

I can relate... just opening a shipment from Amazon now.. perhaps I'm turning Japanese...

 

Me too

 

Apparently they're selling the most CDs but not enough CDs. They're not making up for the lack of CD sales with digital downloads or streaming.

So basically are they saying that people in Japan are just not listening to music except from their own country?

 

Nope. They are buying tons of western music. Stones, Beatles, etc you name it.

 

JJ
Capitalist are 'fighting' Germany & Japan again!
JJ

 

The article states that they buy mostly Japanese music. The issue seems to be is that they're not buying enough western music + not enough Japanese music CDs and they're not streaming either one.

 

No physical artefact in hand, no fun. I have recently talked to an early stealing&streaming adopter, who had got rid of his music collection and amassed a world-class music library on his hard drive. He has confessed me that he slowly started to rebuy the albums he likes the most on LP and CD, because he... lost pleasure in listening to his loot. All the music one may imagine at his fingertips and... no satisfaction! And he is only 30. Go figure.

 

Interesting, I don't get that from the article. Of course, there is no doubt they are buying their own pop music, which if you have heard it, is
god awful...lol...but I still think western artists sell very well. There are a slew of Japanese reissues released every month of classic rock titles.

As a matter of fact some titles have ONLY been remastered for Japan...like a bunch of Jeff Beck albums.

 

They are just waiting for SHM-downloads

 

Smart, those Japanese.

 

I've heard a lot of Japanese pop music. Some of it is god awful, some of it is great, sort of like in other countries.

 

Um..no..it's awful...I am actually quite a collector of non western pop..African, Middle Eastern, Asian, Eastern European, Latin....

Korean and Japanese pop ranks among the most plastic and disposable crap I have heard.

Certainly, this is my opinion.

 

I really think so (think so...think so...)

 

They're clinging to their obis...

 

If the western classic rock was not selling there, the record labels would not be remastering and releasing all those titles on CD. They are selling big time. I wish some of those remasters would be released on CD in the US - instead of imports. Yeah I know, the record labels whine that they won't sell here so they won't release them here.

 

Exactly...and the import prices are rather absurd.

I will say that I find the Japanese CD word games rather hilarious....SHM CD, Platinum SHM CD, Bluspec CD2, Mini LP,....

 

Not surprising, seeing as they get all the good bonus tracks.

 

It certainly is!

 

~~~

After the United States, Japan is the second largest music market in the world. And while the country is usually seen as an early adopter of new technology, digital music sales haven't taken off. In total, 85 percent of music in Japan is purchased on a flat, plastic circle called a "compact disc" or "CD."

The New York Times takes a look at Japan's music situation, which surprisingly trails the rest of the world in the move to online distribution. Japan's online music sales are actually going down—online sales have gone from almost $1 billion in 2009 to just $400 million last year.

Japan has proven a tough nut to crack for the music industry's move to online, with the chairman of the Universal Music Group saying “Japan is utterly totally unique." Part of the reason CD sales are still going strong is Japanese culture's love of collecting things. There's also a general "protectionist business climate" within the Japanese music industry, which is suspicious of digital sales. (Where have we heard that before?)

This distrust of digital sales by the music companies means there aren't many good options for online music. Spotify and Rdio, which The Times says are "widely seen as the industry’s best new hope for new revenue," don't have music licenses for Japan. The top online service is actually Sony's Music Unlimited service, and that lacks many of the top hits in Japan.

Even Tower Records, the legendary brick-and-mortar music store chain that went bankrupt in 2006, still exists in Japan. There are 85 stores—almost as many as were in the US—that do $500 million in business a year.

Japan's overall music sales have been falling for the last decade, and just last year they dropped 17 percent. Ken Parks, Spotify’s chief content officer, was quoted as saying, "When the decision makers finally feel that the heat is intense enough that they have to do something different, they will. I think we are approaching that moment in Japan."

~~~

Source:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/japan-loves-cds-85-of-songs-still-purchased-on-plastic-disks/

 

Bigger than Europe?