![]() But there seems to be some Japanese people with a collector’s instinct, who liked the physical box in their hand, they probably like to put it up on the shelf and take a look at something that they bought. You know, while the rest of the world was shifting towards Spotify, most artists and companies here were still putting all of their focus on physical albums and singles that you had to get at stores like Tower Records.īrancaccio: You and I are both careful about generalizing across an entire population. And as a result, physical media, especially CDs have been the dominant mode of how people listen to music in the country, all the way until recently. Services like Spotify and Apple Music didn’t come to Japan until late in the 2010s. With music in particular, a lot of big companies and labels have always been really hesitant to embrace the internet or streaming. Michel: Yeah, besides having that backing by a massive telecom company, it helps that the Japanese entertainment industry, especially the music arm of it, has been quite slow to embrace technological and delivery changes in how people consume entertainment. But besides that, you have a theory as to how this chain was able to keep at it over there? Now, in Japan tower is owned by a gargantuan corporation, NTT DoCoMo, that’s the big telecom company over there. ![]() ![]() You know, it didn’t make it in part because it was behind the ball on technology it seems, but also lots of debt, they expanded too quickly, the film argues. Michel: Yeah, you can go into Tower Records’ physical stores all over the country, in major cities to malls like scattered in the more rural areas of Japan.īrancaccio: Now, Tower Records which started in Sacramento, as the film shows us, Sacramento, California. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.ĭavid Brancaccio: So you can still go into Tower in Japan? Michel about why physical music is still a big feature in the Japanese music industry. ![]() Marketplace’s David Brancaccio spoke with St. Michel, a freelance writer based in Tokyo. And many locations are a “total music experience,” said Patrick St. But that location is small potatoes compared to the 76 stores across Japan. After more than a decade, a new location is opening in the U.S. Tower Records is now seeing a revival, of sorts, in the U.S. But other hand, you know, someone who has as a record label like me, independent label could survive well because we still sell the CD too,” said Nori Shiota, a musician, producer and owner of Steelpan Records in Japan. “Like now, CD sales going down little bit. Streaming music is gaining traction in Japan, but the CD remains a huge cornerstone in the industry. In an interview with Marketplace, the head of public relations for Tower Records Japan, Tatsuro Yagawa, said via translator that the company is following Solomon’s business direction “very faithfully,” while keeping up with the latest trends. ![]() But Tower Records Japan still follows the business principles set out by the company’s late founder Russ Solomon. company and is now owned by the telecommunications giant, NTT Docomo. Tower Records Japan is separate from the original U.S. Last month, we watched “All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records.” Remember Tower Records? Well, turns out, physical Tower Records shops are still big … in Japan. It operates 89 stores in the country, where it is a household name for CD and DVD sales.Marketplace’s Econ Extra Credit series explores one documentary film a month with business and economic themes. parent in 2002 through a management buy-out. Tower Records entered Japan in 1979 and gained independence from its now bankrupt U.S. It did not release a price for the increased investment announced Monday. The company also offers a mobile fitness service and its own app store, with billing integrated into monthly call charges.ĭoCoMo took the original stake in Tower in 2005 in a deal worth over US$100 million at the time. Japan's mobile market is largely saturated, with little growth each year, and the company is hoping to woo consumers and fatten margins with such offerings.Īs part of its service lineup, the company said last month it would expand its cloud services, which include a translation feature for text messages, an online voice-activated concierge similar to Apple's Siri, and a photo storage service that offers 5GB of free space. The operator is Japan's largest but has lost subscribers to rivals, in part because it does not offer Apple phones and tablets. ![]()
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