‘Now Japan’ Event Playing Billboard Japan & Luminate: Recap

The third installment of the business conference, now playing Japan, organized by Billboard Japan and Luminate, was held on February 6 at Billboard Live Tokyo.

At this event, leaders from Billboard Japan and Luminate gave presentations on the latest domestic and international trends in music consumption. In addition, Tatsuya Nomura, President of the Music Awards Japan Executive Committee, and Yutaka Inaba, Vice President, as guest speakers to discuss the Music Awards Japan, which will be held in May 2025.

Scott Ryan, CEO Vice President of Luminate, first took the podium to discuss global trends for 2024, including streaming growth, gene trends and audience insights using Luminates “2024 -year relaxing report.” By 2024, the global on-demand soundflow grew 14% compared to the previous year to reach 4.8 trillion currents, representing an increase of approx. 75% from 2.7 trillion flows by 2022. While 30% of this streaming volume originates from the United States, growth is growing from 2023 to 2024 for countries outside the United States 17%, indicating that streaming marketing is rising on a global scale. He also explained that when he focused on Japan, the total number of streaming users (including both Premium and Ad-Supported) grew by approx. 13%and the number of premium users grew by more than 10%.

In addition, Ryan introduced a new metric developed by luminate, “Luminate Export Power Score.” This metric is designed to evaluate a country’s ability to export recorded music globally and consists of four data points. The United States is first ranked in this metric, where its top importers are Canada, Australia and New Zealand; Brazil ranks 10., where Portugal, Bolivia and Peru are the best importers. Japan ranks 14. In this metric. Ryan also noted the country of origin of artists as an point of interest and revealed that English -speaking markets losing share to import will be a new trend. Meanwhile, in non-English-speaking markets, domestic-produced works are winning market share over imports from English-speaking countries (Japan also falls into this category).

Ryan also mentioned that luminate, now with data reimbursement services, has begun to access songwriting work data and can now share on a wider scale, more information about how songwriters run cultural exchange and activity. By taking the top 1,000 global on-demand sound songs and then analyzing them using data enrichment services from the team previously known as Quansic, Luminate can now identify the best songwriters. The top global songwriter was Taylor Swift followed by Max Martin and The Weeknd.

Looking at regional and market-based trends, the amount of J-pop-water races outside Japan was mentioned as a remarkable trend. The number of premium users is also growing globally, with Asia, Europe and Latin America, showing the greatest growth of 2024 from the previous year. While Latin America has generally been the fastest growing region since 2021, when he focuses on 2024, Asia and Europe show a faster growth compared to other regions.

Ryan finished by indicating four key points: “Streaming in Japan and continues to grow with double-digit percentages, faster than in Western mature developed markets”, “Percentage of local content increases in Japan and many non-English-speaking countries that now fall in English-speaking markets such as the United States, UK and Canada,” Quansian music and matching “And the audience and the audience and the audience and the audience and the audience and the audience and the audience and” New insights will soon come to Japan and other top global music markets, enabling strategic planning. “

Next, Tatsuya Nomura, President of the Music Awards Japan Executive Committee, and Yutaka Inaba, Vice President, Vice President, The Scene for a discussion on the theme “The importance of hosting an awards show in Japan today.” Billboard Japan’s Naoko Takashima served as moderator.

The preliminary Music Awards Japan will be held on May 21 and 22, 2025 in Kyoto with a award ceremony and performances. The event on May 22 will be released on the NHK, including some BTS coverage, and will also be available worldwide on YouTube with a delayed stream. Unlike traditional Japanese music awards, the Music Awards Japan are designed with a global perspective. One of the main reasons for determining this award was changed in Japan’s music industry from a CD-centered model for streaming, a transition accelerated by Covid-19 Pandemic, which highlighted the growing international reach of Japanese music.

Nomura and Inaba emphasized that Japan lacked a transparent, democratically structured prices that appears to be the Grammy Awards. Nomura explained: “In the US, the Grammy Awards recognize the best music of the year, and I thought Japan needed something similar. While Japan has different prices, they often lack transparency and industrial accession. We wanted to create an opportunity where people could participate democratically, engage thought -provoking and voice with genuine interest. “Inaba added,” this award is jointly managed by five major music industry organizations, which means it is in favor of the industry rather than any single unit. If any revenue is generated, it will be reinvested in Japan’s music industry. Many companies have resonated with this vision and have chosen to support us as partners. The more people are interested in music, the more it will enrich and revive different aspects of society. “

The Music Awards Japan will have six main categories in addition to more than 60 other price categories. The primary selection of nominated artists will be based on Billboard Japan’s charts using publicly available data to ensure an objective and quantitative perspective that quite captures the listener’s response. After this, over 5,000 professionals in the music industry will vote to decide the winners. The voting criteria will switch from quantitative analysis to a qualitative approach and evaluate artists based on their creativity and artistic expertise. Inaba noticed, “Even if we narrow the top five artists based on short performance, industry professionals can have different opinions about who is really the most excellent artist, regardless of general fan -popularity. We want to encourage deeper discussions about music. ”

Nomura also revealed some of the challenges involved and said: “The more we ensure transparency in the selection process, the more difficult the artist bookings become.” In addition to the awards, the committee announced plans to support the global and digital expansion of Japanese music throughout the year by organizing showcase live performances around the world. Already scheduled for March is an exhibition event in SXSW, which is expected to continue annually, as well as “Matsuri ’25: Japanese Music Experience Los Angeles” at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with Ado, Atarashii Gakko!, And Yoasobi. In the future, the committee aims to create more opportunities for artists to engage with local J-pop fans not only in the United States, but also in Asia, Latin America and Europe. To support the industry in addition to live performance and artist activities, there is also a training program for the music industry professionals to launch this spring.

Seiji Isozaki from Billboard Japan delivered the final presentation under the theme “Reflections on the delivery of global data.”

Isozaki outlined the various services currently offered by Billboard Japan, including “Global Japan Songs EXCT. Japan “diagram,” Chart Insight Global “data analysis service, and Luminate’s Connect Service for Corporate Clients that highlight their respective advantages. While he acknowledged that some companies are hesitant with the high cost of these services, isozaki pointed out that relying on cheap peripheral data often leads to just “predictions” that can eventually put businesses into a disadvantage. Isozaki then emphasized the benefits of using accurate data to make informed decisions. He also repeated the importance of improving music and artist identifiers, a topic raised on the previous Convention in September. Currently, tens of thousands of millions of songs are streamed by millions of artists, including their derivative versions, across hundreds of platforms in dozens of language. He expressed concern that this explosive growth in content has led to lost opportunities and revenue abroad. Isozaki emphasized that improving metadata accuracy can help increase revenue, warning that the use of lower costs alternative services with limited coverage rates would require work with multiple providers, which ultimately leads to higher costs. He called for consideration of updating metadata through luminate, which would allow for higher matching accuracy.

Isozaki also discussed the potential impact of the Music Awards Japan and presented comparative data on streaming trends before and after the broadcast of several songs during the 2024 end of NHK Kouhaku UTA gas. The graphs showed a significant increase in streaming numbers for all highlighted songs after the broadcast. He explained that the Music Awards Japan, like Kouhaku, has the potential to become an internationally recognized program affecting the audience both in Japan and globally. He also confirmed Billboard Japan’s obligation to fully support the initiative and closely monitor its influence.

–This article by Haruki Saito and Maiko Murata first appeared on Billboard Japan