In Japan the live music is performed in rai-bu houses (live
houses), that hold 50 to 500 people. These venues are all very
popular all over Japan including hundreds in Tokyo alone and in
most major cities and even smaller towns. The venue does provide
the Artist with all drum kits, amps, effects, cables, PA, and other
stage/lighting/recording equipment and engineers. It is easy to set
up a tour through Japan if you want to purchase the event yourself.
Individual bands, record labels and event producers can pay to rent
a live house. In Tokyo, rental fees for a decent live house can
range from $1,000 to $5,000 for a Friday, weekend, or holiday
night. You get the venue from about 3PM to 11PM; this time includes
set up, sound checks, a 2 to 3 hour show, and clean up. There are
hefty charges if you go overtime. Some live houses will hold
auditions and then "book" bands for certain nights. 3-5 bands may
be booked for the night. To assist with the costs of the venue the
artist is required to sell tickets for the event. For Foreign
groups auditions are via video submission and if the promoter of
the venue has heard about you, can ask about you, or find some
presence of your group on a Japanese site in Japanese then the
Foreign Groups can get these requirements waved if the venues
believe that you will bring them in money. There are also several
festivals and events through out the country that have foreign
independent artist on the ticket. The Artists chosen are the ones
that have fans in Japan, a Japanese web presence, and know the
right people to send the Artist’s press kit to. Since Japan is
about the size of California State and the train system vast, fast
and reliable, it is possible to play gigs in many major urban areas
throughout Japan. The two major metropolitan areas are Tokyo and
Osaka which together have a population of 21 million people. Nagoya
is the 3rd largest city. The bullet train can take you to northern
cities like Sendai and Niigata or southern cities like Fukuoka and
Hiroshima in several hours. Japanese Radio Market is very different
than American systems. There is no ability to really “pay for play”
because there is no such thing as rotation. It is a spin by spin
basis solely based on the person in control of that segments
programming on the station. This means that an unknown Artist could
send there CD but the likely hood of the music being played if you
are an unknown is very unlikely. As an Independent Artist you need
to have a relationship with people who can deliver your music
personally to the people who control the spins. The Independent
Artist also needs to have some form of fan base or awareness in the
stations area. Unlike in the West, in Japan you do not have to pay
thousands of dollars for "radio promotion" because there are only 3
major FM radio network companies in Japan: JFN, JFL and Mega Net
(and a few independents). Each prefecture in Japan has at least one
FM station under the big 3 and maybe an independent. FM in Japan is
from 76 to 90 MHz, resulting in a very limited number of possible
stations due to Japan's geography; it is very mountainous. In Tokyo
and Osaka together there are only a handful of FM radio stations.
However, like in the West, there is now broadband radio which is
now taking over a major market share. To Assist the Artist in
setting up a productive Japanese tour we submit video footage from
the group to various venues throughout Japan. We wait for a
response from the venues on what it would take to set up a tour for
the group. The venue will notify us if they are willing to waive
the requirements for the Artist or if the Artist has to rent the
venue. If the Artist is an unknown usually the response is for the
Artist to rent the venue. In these instances we have two options;
we can go forward and rent the venues, have more than one group go
on the tour to share costs, or we can do a minimal marketing
campaign to introduce the Artist to the areas we are wanting to
tour, test out the music in the markets, and view the response to
start building awareness and a fan base. We will primarily focus on
three areas of marketing the music to Japan; Viral, Venue/Club and
Radio Marketing
Viral: We will create you a website on
major Japanese website translated into Japanese. Then promote this
site through various Japanese music blogs and networking sites. If
the Artist have ITunes or other sites that have Japanese downloads
available this will be promoted also.
Club/Venue:We distribute you music, press kit, and
additional information on the group that sets them apart. We will
keep them informed of all press received through the viral
marketing. We will also stay in contact with them on the Artists
group’s behalf.
Radio: We will submit your music and product to the
station and programming director with your information in Japanese.
We stay in communication with these individuals to assist in
getting them to spin your music and eventually become fans. Any
promotional material the artist’s group has, will be forwarded over
to these individuals also. This initial campaign will start to
establish the Artist group as a force in the Japanese market. It
will also let us know if we are going the right direction with the
artist and how we can improve the profitability of the Artist in
this Market. The Japanese were the number two music purchasers in
the world and the country is only the size of the state of
California.
