The Japanese Music Industry

[Pandabear 414]

 

I’ve always been curious on this issue so I’d thought I’d make a post. While I feel the reign of giant evil record companies is no more, and that there is indeed no  longer a need to be signed to a label or sign crappy contracts, Japan is a bit behind on the times. Considering how many artists and bands are now do it your self bands that start off in the studio home, and with hard work can easily write, record, publish, promote, and distribute their music all by themselves, I find it curious how this trend has yet to catch on in Japan. At least to my knowledge. 

 

I know there most be some bands and artists who have gone this route, but it isn’t certainly widespread yet. Is it merely that the trend has yet to catch on in Japan, or does it have to overcome cultural obstacles, established views or is the recording gear not cheap enough yet? I don’t know, but I feel it would be really cool to see more bands and artists go the independent and DIY route. Especially, since Japan, is one of the few places where record companies and labels do seem to have a lot of power and treat their artists and bands very unfairly. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories of artists being overworked, underpaid, not receiving royalties or being blacklisted.

 

At the moment I feel the music industry in Japan is bit retarded in the above aspect. I would love to see more power go back to the musicians, and the DIY route would do that. Not only would artists have their own destiny in their hands, but should they ever decide to sign to a label, they would have more bargaining power and be less likely to get a crap contract. 

 

 

What does everyone think? Would you like to see more DIY bands? Do you believe it’s heading down that route or down another route? What changes would you like to see happen in the Japanese music industry? 

 

On a sidenote I would love to see a DIY VK band. A group of cool musicians, who learn how to record, mix and master and self release an album that surpasses the content of all their peers, and aren’t pressured to follow trends, or release a single every 3 months. 

[BrenGun 2261]

I see enough indipended bands around.. only it difficult to really break through without a label.

E.T is one of them.. they got no label doing everything themselves...

And so I know at least 20 more bands.

[doombox 4421]

Japan has a pretty huge independent scene, even among visual kei. In fact, very few VK acts are backed by any kind of major label that I know of... 

[CAT5 9075]

The DIY culture definitely exists in Japan, it's just much less visible to us than certain other areas of Japanese music. There's so much stuff out there that doesn't get recognized my overseas fans. For one, downloads play a big part here since that's how most people abroad discover Japanese music - there's a ton of stuff that never leaks or gets distributed in this way. Part of the reason is that this stuff simply isn't very accessible. When it comes to DIY stuff, since a lot of these people don't operate through labels or belong to small, underground labels, often times, the only way you can obtain their music is at live shows or through local shops/distributors. And even for the DIY stuff that does get pirated, there aren't really many dedicated fandoms to support this stuff - so things like lyrics, interviews, reviews, etc. don't get translated. Information in general doesn't get very far.

Despite the Japanese music industry being a fucking fossil (like most music industries), I don't think their current system will be going anywhere in the near future. However, it does seem like more and more musicians are taking to bandcamp, soundcloud, and other means to get their music out there. Artists seem to be more conscious in general, so that's a step in the right direction at least.

[desparejo86 160]

The thing is that while visual is a niche genre, there's a nice little market for it that's existed for decades. And over time, an efficient system has developed for bringing baby bands along to being serious bands and delivering their product into the hands of those who crave it.

And it didn't happen by accident, the forces of supply and demand created this system; the fact that it's still in place is a testament to it's success and that bands still feel it's the best route to go or else they would be looking to do it another way.

Again, think about what going DIY entails: you have to get the money together for recording, you have to design the merch, you have to get the money together for printing merch, you have to make a website, you have to create and maintain social media accounts, you have to look into copy writing and publishing your music, you have to find or design album art, you have to correspond with venues, pay someone to distribute the CDs you just paid to have made, etc etc etc etc. At the very least you're going to have to hire a booking agent and manager, and if you don't want to do all of the above stuff yourself, you're going to have to pay someone to do it.

So you're going to have to put up loads and loads of money. And if you aren't wealthy, you're going to have to work all the time to pay for this stuff. When are you going to have time to write? Or practice?

In a fiercely competitive scene where lots of bands are offering the "same" product (visual music), and the music DOES matter, the band that has an label doing all the legwork for them (and has an optimized system for doing all this efficiently/low cost) while they just write music, practice, and chat with fans online all day is going to have a MASSIVE MASSIVE advantage over bands that don't.

So, despite some horror stories you hear, VK bands still think the "traditional" route to success is the best way to go at the moment.

[Pretsy 1343]

While necrobumping is not necessarily wanted when it comes to sharing this kind of point of view but here's the thing: has this detrimental effect of major label deals been proven to the very extent? Like, has there ever been some kind of "behind the scenes" revelations regarding how these "cronies" push their agendas towards these poor bandomen to churn out the most mellow stuff they could ever do? Or maybe it is just the lack of flexibility and adaptiveness on artists' behalf?

 

Just wanted to throw this here for everyone to ponder since I honestly feel like this is more or less some kind of sad tinfoil bandwagon fashion when we speak of these "evil major labels". There has been a huge variety of cases where switches to major labels simply extended the scope of these artists and gave them more tools to initiate/redefine their ideas in a new, creative light (e.g. Seiko Oomori, Enon's bands, Alice Nine VK-wise)? As far as the history of popular music goes, you can pull out stuff with audible gusto while at the same time give it a bit of palatable flair for airplays and whatnot - all you need is some *cunning creativity* and industry awareness.

 

This has been reiterated to the point of being tiresome but throwing this as a small recap would tone down these "oh no major label" comments I see a lot even these days.