GEO FOCUS JAPAN
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Big in Japan F
rom world-recognised audio brands, to a bustling live industry and a huge music market in the US, Japan is by-and- large one of the healthiest pro-audio industries in the world. According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan, the country is the second-largest music market in the world following the US, with sales reaching $4.42 billion in 2012 (which amounts to 26.8% of worldwide sales).
Although digital music sales dropped 25% in 2012 (the last year that precise fi gures are available), the country saw an overall increase of 3% across the total value of recorded music and digital music sales, the fi rst in fi ve years. T e big news, however, is the continuing strength of sales of physical albums, with sales in Japan the highest out of the top 20 grossing markets worldwide at 80%. Yet, despite this, many within the music industry are concerned by the health of the market and the long- term eff ect of the obsession with ‘Idol’ acts.
Japanese Idol groups are
manufactured pop acts admired more for their representation of youth and cuteness than musical abilities. A small handful of these groups with obsessive fans make up the majority of the Japanese music market. T e groups regularly release several versions of each record with diff erent covers or packed with tickets for concerts or ‘shake-hand’ events (basically the opportunity to line-up and meet a member of the group for
14 July 2014
approximately 10 seconds). AKB48, one of the largest girl groups in the country (as of May 2014 the group includes 140 members), has sold more than 30 million records and can attract up to 200,000 fans across Japan and neighbouring countries to shake- hand events for a single release. T is mass manufacturing of music has led to a decrease in commercial studios and concern over audio quality. Home recording is more standard and most production companies are building their own studios (mostly software-based and ITB).
“I think there is no way to get Japanese people to return to the real traditional recording style again. Everything is digital-based now and people have forgotten about analogue gear, especially young kids. It’s all plug-ins with very few live instruments,” comments a music producer in the country who asked to remain anonymous.
Live Music
Despite issues with the outdated Fueiho laws (which restrict dancing in nightclubs without a special licence) Japan, and Tokyo in particular, has an impressive live music scene from small to medium- sized concert halls (called ‘live houses’) to massive productions and festivals.
Tokyo alone has hundreds of live houses scattered across the city with higher concentrations in neighbourhoods such as Shibuya, Shinjuku, Shimokitazawa, and
Long known for its high level of quality manufacturing, Japan is home to a number of infl uential pro-audio brands, and has been a breeding ground for technological advances over the past few decades. But have these advances helped or hindered the recording, live, and broadcast industries? Jory MacKay fi nds out.
Koenji. However, unlike in most other countries where the venue will book and pay bands, most Japanese bars and clubs work on a pay-to-play system where the artists need to sell a certain quota of tickets or otherwise pay the diff erence.
While this raises the question of why an act would potentially pay just to step on stage, most venues supply a high-quality sound system and a full backline, and with the artists ostensibly becoming the venue’s ‘customers’, the staff and engineers cater to almost all of the whims of even the smallest indie act (something anyone who has played shows in other countries will almost never see).
Outside of the live house scene, the trend for massive summer festivals has also been wholly embraced with productions such as Fuji Rocks, Summer Sonic, and Rising Sun Rock Festival attracting crowds to see both domestic and international acts.
Broadcast
Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, has been developing what it calls ‘Super Hi-Vision’, which pairs a picture with 16 times as many pixels as HDTV with a 22.2 multichannel three-dimensional audio format. T e NHK Science and Technical Research Labs has been working on the project since the early 1990s with BBC R&D collaborating since 2008. While the technology has been tested at a number of events, it was the capture and playback of events at the London 2012 Olympics that showed
POPULATION: 126M (10TH IN THE WORLD)
the format’s real true potential. Game Audio
As the birthplace of the videogame industry, the Japanese games industry realised early on the importance of music and sound.
“For a long time, Japan didn’t have an indie game development scene like in the US or in Europe. However, aff ordable game engines (Unity in particular) and new dedicated events such as BitSummit in Kyoto have been catalysts, as was the emergence of the mobile game market,” comments Nicolas Tsugi, a 20-year game audio veteran who worked with companies such as Konami, EA, and Sony, before starting his own game audio technology company Tsugi. “All this translated in the need for more audio content, and often on smaller projects. It changed the game audio landscape and encouraged newcomers and well-known musicians/sound designers to become independent themselves, in the same way that some famous Japanese game producers/designers like Keiji Inafune from Capcom (creator of Megaman) have started their own smaller companies. “Although there are still huge audio departments in companies such as Capcom, which employs up to 60 people in their audio group in Osaka, smaller companies are being created by ex-employees of the big ones.
“Attic in Tokyo is an example of a recently created small studio which is dedicated to game audio.”
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