While we were not working on our client’s campaigns and hitting the winter music fests we had a peak into some of the things that are really making Japan’s music industry a fruitful avenue for North American bands trying to get a slice of the Yen. In particular, their trendy mobile technology is starting to pick up elsewhere in the world and as the worldwide web brings foreign industries closer and closer together, we think 2010 will be the year that getting distribution deals, bookings and press from our Japanese friends will be easier than you can imagine…

How to get BIG IN JAPAN? I think we’ve cracked it here:

With websites like TOPMUSICJAPAN allowing one to quickly get a .jp music page and promo package, bands can try their luck at selling both music and merch to the Japanese music fan market place.

Japan is enormous, with over 127,704,000 people living there, and a huge entertainment industry, you can imagine how many music fans there are.  It seems like they have really mastered interactive advertising as well and if you think Facebook is the web’s biggest playground think again! In Japan – MIXI is their virtual hang-out and home to over 25 million users and if their steady growth continues we’ll have reached 31 million users by 2011.

Music magazines! This is a great way to get your band out there. In Japan, they are genre obsessed and instead of having a few magazine that cover mostly pop music, they have hundreds of magazines for many many genres of music and styles. The easiest way to find some reliable agencies is asking the new media buyer of a popular major like SONY JAPAN. If you are are fluent in Japanese, go ahead and call the magazines yourself!  Some genres do particularely well in Japan like :Metal, Visual Kei and electronica.  If you have a glam-rock style band SHOXX would be a good mag to advertise in.

Poster downloads and concert promo! if you are touring in Japan you will not be able to resist this service. It enables the mobile population to literally get free downloads and concert info off of a poster via bar codes, augmented reality symbols and what is known as air tagging! (visuals that are linked to your GPS allowing users to seek wireless hot spots, cool new restos, clothing specials and of course concerts!

Before creating your plan of action, study the country and the culture, read some blogs, Google is your friend! Below are some of my favorite Japanese videos that will hopefully help you get a feel for this bustling stylish & entertaining Metropolis and how bands can make it BIG IN JAPAN!

“Japan” from Felix Urbauer on Vimeo.