Quote:
Originally Posted by Joyce_Steele
I think the biggest sin the Japanese music industries ever commit is they are too depended on anime industries, only hoping anime will promote their music and music will promote their anime(like K-On!). South Korean music industries don't have anime or its equivalent and succeed without it and gaining more attention to non-Asian fans than Japanese ones.
Where's the likes of Ayumi Hamasaki and Hikaru Utada who both dominated the industries in late 1990's and early 2000's? I haven't heard them for years.
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That is simply not true. The problem with the last few years is that normal Jpop outside of the few established artists are selling so bad, while the otaku music (not only anime but idol groups - both male and female) which bundles in extra goodies has their sales number propped up by the otakus so it looks like the anime/otaku music are dominating and ripping up the weekly charts, but if you really look at the numbers the CD sales are disappointingly small - you are talking 20-30k which could rank first on the Oricon sales chart. The publishers aren't actively trying to make more anime music - the output is more or less the same and overwhelming over-shadowed by mainstream Jpop, however the sales of mainstream music is so bad that it looks like they are more of the anime music showing up on the charts more.
The main problem is that the labels don't really want to actively engage in the promotion of their music as that would involve setting up branches in the countries they want to target, but instead just wants to sit back and get the money through licensing deals. The other reason is there just aren't enough adventurously minded individuals whom wants to take the initiative in breaking out - the are just waiting for the other countries to come to them, or they are simply content in trying to conquer the domestic market. Again Kpop artists trips over themselves for any chance to sell overseas, but this is not the case for Jpop artists, they don't seem to be willing to take a lost lead strategy (such as taking little to no pay for their appearance, whereas Kpop artists reportedly does so) at all. However on the other hand for licensing as I've mentioned before the main issue is that Japan is caught in an economically awkward position with which is reflected in the price they can command, but again the countries most interested in licensing the music are other Asian countries where piracy is rampant and the price of official CDs are just a few US dollars and individuals having very little incentives or the ethical mindset for purchasing official CDs (places like Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Malyasia, Vietnam etc), making the endeavor of licensing Jpop - which usually involves huge upfront licensing fees - pretty much a business proposition which has next to no chance of making back the returns. Whereas Western countries where music is still a somewhat sustainable business has their own pickings to choose from and aren't interested in licensing foreign music, let alone music which seems to be heavily influenced by Western music itself which passes off as not much more than cheap imitations.
EDIT: in the
CD album sales ranking for 2013, the top 50 does not have any anime CDs except for one by Mizuki Nana at 41, but arguably Mizuki Nana is more of a Jpop artist than a pure anime song singer anyway. Likewise for the
singles ranking except for the Valvrave OP by TM Revolution and Mizuki Nana there are also no anime songs on the list. So much for the publishers using anime to sell their music.