“The No. 1 song in Japan in 2005 was ‘Seishun Amigo’ by male duo Shuji to Akira, but you could say the year’s biggest hit was really Apple Computer’s iPod music player. As of the middle of November, iPods had a roughly 60 percent share of Japan’s portable digital music-player market, according to Tokyo-based industry publication WebBCN Ranking, leaving arch-rival Sony well behind at just under 10 percent of the market,” Steve McClure reports for The Daily Yomiuri. “Helping spur iPod sales was the Aug. 4 launch of Apple’s iTunes Music Store Japan, which claimed to have reached the 1-million-sales mark in its first four days of operation. Apple also claims that iTunes is Japan’s top music-download site.”
McClure reports, “Despite all the hoopla surrounding iTunes’ long-awaited debut in Japan, PC-based downloads still account for just a fraction of total music sales in Japan. Even so, PC download sales by the RIAJ’s members in the July-September quarter totaled 2.3 million tracks, up 125 percent. Meanwhile, mobile-based downloads (including full single tracks, ring tones and master ring tones) totaled 72.1 million in the same period, up 25 percent.”
Full article here.
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Related articles:
Texas expands tainted CD lawsuit against Sony BMG – December 21, 2005
Texas sues Sony BMG for ‘spyware’ on CDs – November 21, 2005
Sony Boycott continues: Sony recalls XCP-tainted music discs, offers Red Book compliant CD exchanges – November 17, 2005
Boycott Sony – November 14, 2005
Sony BMG ‘temporarily suspends’ production of music CDs with copy-protection scheme – November 11, 2005
Boycott Sony products: Sony music CDs can install kernel extensions on Mac OS X – November 10, 2005
Computer security firm: ‘Stinx’ virus hides within Sony’s copy protection scheme – November 10, 2005
Sony sued over copy-protected CDs – November 10, 2005
SonyBMG antics may well cause public to turn on them and turn many people onto Apple Macs – November 06, 2005
Report: Sony copy-protected CDs may hide Windows rootkit vulnerability – November 01, 2005
Analyst: Sony BMG’s boycott of Apple’s iTunes Music Store Australia won’t last long – October 24, 2005
Apple launches iTunes Music Store Australia – October 24, 2005
Japan music labels look to impose ‘iPod Tax’ while Sony, Warner still not signing with Apple iTunes – October 10, 2005
Why aren’t Sony, BMG, Warner, Victor making their artists’ music available on Apple’s iTunes Japan? – October 06, 2005
Sony and Warner holding out on Apple iTunes Music Store Australia – September 08, 2005
Musicians stage mutiny against Sony, defiantly offer music via Apple’s iTunes Music Store – August 10, 2005
Record company causes Apple to hit ‘pause’ on Australian iTunes Music Store – May 05, 2005
I’m not surprised.
First! And Go Apple
damn YOU! 😀
You may remember me from such Japanese music articles as “Apple tramples Sony in Japan” and “iPod Godzilla – 1000 songs in your city.”
Inside Sony HQ: “If we rootkit all the XP and Mac OS machines, we can easily become #1”
They did it WITHOUT Sony Music.
eric,
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I thought Sony’s rootkit would not work on the Mac OS?
Yet another example of how most software doesn’t work on Mac’s
Ahhhhh-ha-ha-ha-haaahhhhh! Pearl Harbor in reverse.
Sweeeeet.
The Other Steve,
Yes it CAN affect OS X, but ONLY if you enter an Administrator password after accepting a Licence Agreement. More info in the link:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/11/sony_bmg_mac_drm/
Sales: iPod #1, XBox 360 disappointing.
The Japanese are discerning shoppers!!!
MW: problem. “Hello, Redmond? We have a problem”
Wonder how much money sony left on the table by not piggybacking on itunes and the peripheral market. I said it long ago … ‘Abandon all hope ye who seeketh to….’
MW: What now, sony, change of plan?
Applezilla defeats the once mighty Sony Mothra. Film at 11.
Wait … no! This can’t be happening ….?
Windows …. Windows Media Player …. Help me!
Windows …. must …. … glarrggggg ….
Cheap …. cheaper …. cheapest ….
Must ….. shut …… down ………..
BBBlllllooooommmmmffffaaaaaarrrrggggg!!!!
“PC download sales by the RIAJ’s members in the July-September quarter totaled 2.3 million tracks, up 125 percent. Meanwhile, mobile-based downloads (including full single tracks, ring tones and master ring tones) totaled 72.1 million in the same period, up 25 percent.””
No wonder the mobile phone companies are protective of their download business.
I am amazed how retarded people are. Why the hell is anyone willing to spend more money for a 20 second ring tone than they do for an actual song? Someone please explain this to me.
You are 100% on the money critic. I know of a person who allowed her niece to download ring-tones on her phone. That phone bill was really disappointing for her. Four bucks a pop really can add up. =(
“Why the hell is anyone willing to spend more money for a 20 second ring tone than they do for an actual song? Someone please explain this to me.”
critic, it’s because EVERYONE has a mobile phone in Japan, and it is a status symbol to have custom ringtones as a means of personal expression. The average person only downloads a few ringtones, so the cost is negligible to them, but if the majority download just one or two ringtones, it adds up quickly. On the other side, only a small percentage of computer users purchase music online. The majority either download illegally or purchase from traditional music stores. I think it’s safe to assume that the average online music purchaser buys way more songs than the average cell phone rington purchaser buys ringtones.
The online music business has the potential to be far bigger than the ringtone business. If half as many people who purchase ringtones start buying music online as well, the online music business will be far bigger than the ringtone market just because online music buyers will buy in larger volumes. It’s only a matter of time.
Andy
“I am amazed how retarded people are. Why the hell is anyone willing to spend more money for a 20 second ring tone than they do for an actual song? Someone please explain this to me.”
I’m pretty sure you answered your own question! People have also bought pet rocks, psychic readings, cans of bicentennial air, every version of Windows, Scooby Doo Chia pets, everything on QVC, Vegemite, Performas (personally guilty of that one), Corel Office, unicycles, Buddha statues with clocks in the stomach, Mona Lisa bath towels, Eisenhower commemorative china, snow globes, talking toilets, colored Saran Wrap and so much more.
downloaded music may be only a small fraction of all music sales but, as the saying goes, “a small fraction of a large number is also a large number”. it’s great to see an American company kicking the buttocks of a japanese company, for a change.
Jim: No one has ever explained what exactly Sony’s “Mac rootkit” does. Yes, there is a Mac app on the CD, and yes, it installs kernal extensions if you enter your admin password, and yes, those extensions appear to be part of a DRM scheme, but has anyone ever discovered just what, precisely, the extensions do?
“just what, precisely, the extensions do?”
Other than make your hair appear longer, not a clue.
(I’m no help. I know. Just having fun before the holidays.)
Ampar, I hereby condemn you to a lifetime of staring at my belly-clock while you listen to Britney Spears on a Windows 98 PC running WMP.
Dear Buddha (or Siddhartha Gautama from the small Sakyan republic:
O.K., that’s cool. I’ll accept my punishment as long as it’s SE and not ME.
But wouldn’t being condemned to listening to Nirvana add just the right amount of irony to your dictum?
Ampar, listening to Nirvana wouldn’t be a punishment, now, would it? And it’s Windows 98, not SE, not ME. Now put on those RCA Lyra headphones and enjoy.
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Actually Buddha, it would since I’m not a fan of grunge. I could listen to Britney longer. Her videos are actually pretty good with the sound off.
At least it’s not Zamfir, the pan flutist. Oh crap, now I’ve done it.
Cut it out you two. Neither of you exist.