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Japan Becomes World’s #1 Music Market by Wide Margin

Japan has now definitively surpassed the USA as the world’s #1 music market.

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I’ve written repeatedly about the music market in Japan. One of my favorites is here: Why Good UK and USA (Western) Independent and Alternative Artists Cannot Get Record or Publishing Deals in Japan.

I’ve also been doing my new morning show on InterFM called, “WTF?” (What the Friday?) Where we always try to play lots of new music. Many of the foreign artists we play tell me that their Japan sales have surpassed their US sales. I always tell them, “Because, in Japan, people still pay for music and CDs still sell here.” (Musicians! Come “Like” our FB page: https://www.facebook.com/WhattheFriday)

Now, I’ve found a wonderful article that backs me up.

Here’s a nice tidbit:

“Food, taxi rides, cinema tickets and even iTunes downloads are all way more expensive in Japan than in the USA. So a big part of the reason is that every download sold in Japan earns over twice the amount of money that it does in the USA. I will repeat this. To sell music is over twice as profitable in Japan as in most other countries specially the USA. That factor alone would almost completely explain the sameness in revenues of a country half the size.”

Read the full article here… https://indigoboom.com/4-reasons-why-big-in-japan-is-no-joke/