Apple Music opens new recording/radio studio in Tokyo, Japan
Apple makes tools creatives use to do creative things
Apple’s music empire continues to grow, with the company opening up a new Apple Music studio in Tokyo, it’s seventh studio and the first in Asia. Music Business Worldwide reports that Apple Music studios also exist in LA, New York, Nashville, London, Paris, and Berlin.
It’s a shrewd decision in terms of the music market.
Big in Japan
With a value over $2 billion, Japan remains the second-largest recorded music market in the world, according to IFPI data. Apple itself claims streams of J-Pop (Japanese Pop) outside Japan have grown at three times the rate of other genre streams in recent years.
In simple terms, Japan now accounts for c.2% of the global music market. CD sales dominate, but streaming is becoming rapidly more popular. Interestingly, per capita spending on music is higher in Japan than in the US, making the region ripe for Apple Music as the service seeks growth.
Japan is also very keen on live performance, so I imagine Apple may reintroduce those live gigs it once did quite well. I miss those, particularly as ticket prices become increasingly unaffordable to music fans, even as the industry complains it’s dying. One can’t help but wonder if there’s a connection.
Anyway.
Apple Radio, interviews, live sessions
Apple’s new studio in Japan will host state-of-the-art video recording facilities for live sessions and interviews for Apple Music Radio in Japan. The new studio makes its start with a show recorded by a local Japanese pop group, Snow Man with other shows featuring local stars set to appear soon after.
Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s Global Head of Content and Editorial, told Music Business Worldwide that “Japan has an incredibly vibrant and flourishing music community, and we see so much of that growth reflected on our platform as listeners all around the world discover these artists and fall in love with their music”.
Apple is fairly unique in the streaming services bracket for paying artists more cash per stream than anyone else, and for maintaining its investment in the music ecosystem in the sense of artist support and radio shows.
Along with higher royalty models, Apple also provides a suite of artists tools, in the Music for Artists platform, while Apple Music Radio helps new acts find some exposure. Plus, of course, the sound quality excels and the company also offers state-of-the-art music production tools with both Garageband and Logic Pro. So far, this doesn’t seem to have been enough to unseat Spotify, but Apple Music does at least provide welcome competition to ensure there is no monopoly on streaming music services.
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