AEG and Avex team up
 

I’m not entirely sure what section to post this. But yeah. This should’ve happened years ago. I’m not sure if Avex is going to tap Ayu to do this, probably, or if she’ll accept. Koda will for sure

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bts-and...er-11614441600

Totally shld have done it long ago!

Yeah, Arama posted an article about it, making sure to do their usual bitchy, gossipy anti-Avex sneering at the same time. :rolleyes I hate their attitude, I wish I knew another place for general news in J-pop in English.

Well, maybe another will open thanks to this. <3 Avex has been looking outward for awhile with Intersection and FAKY and Beverly and so on. Time to get their names out!

lol they need subscription or log in for the full story, so I skipped

but it's great to see that snippet of the CDL1920 opening on the header of a Wall Street Journal story :yes

If this happened earlier, Koda Kumi would immediately become super popular because of this song.

https://i.imgur.com/piWSZy0.jpg

Ayu would get compared to Madonna and get many international notice.

Namie Amuro would possibly hit an international milestone for the song HERO.

Exile might be another BTS but Japan version.

^ lol. But I doubt that could have happened. Japanese artists have tried in the past and it didn’t work out. BoA (she’s not Japanese but her success and Japan’s career were equal as being so) is the perfect example, the budget was great, the promotion too, the music quality was awesome, but it flopped. Utada as well. Modern Kpop is a different whole story, why it did become so successful? I don’t have a clue. Right circumstances at the right times I guess.

It's directed at an exchange of concerts and live performances.
AEG also co-owns some live venues in Germany, would be cool to see some avex artists here, not only Sony with e.g. Perfume and Baybmetal.

Oh, there is, e.g.:
https://neotokyo2099.com/?__cf_chl_j...6BdkuwUR2is0ag

There are lots of factors. Kpop is successful because of fandom and social media. At the time when Japanese artists tried, social media and fandoms were not as strong as now. I bet modern Kpop companies create the fandom/memes online that could help.

Not mentioning the kpop music style.. because I don't really listen to kpop..

Here's the full article, in text only:

BTS and K-Pop Took Over the World. These Companies Say J-Pop Will Be Even Bigger.
Concert promoter AEG, Japan’s Avex team up for global touring with AEGX
J-pop star Ayumi Hamasaki performing at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium on Dec. 31, 2019. Credit: Avex
By Anne Steele

K-pop has become a global sensation, with acts like BTS and Blackpink amassing fans far beyond Asia.

J-pop—which ranges from the electronic synth sounds of YOASOBI to the pop-punk anthems of One OK Rock and catchy rock ballads of LiSA—will be even bigger, AEG Presents is betting.

Anschutz Entertainment Group’s concert promotion giant is teaming up with Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Entertainment Inc. to spread J-pop wide and further expand the Asian market for U.S. artists. The two companies have formed a new joint venture, AEGX, to pool resources and local expertise on developing artists, venues, festivals and global touring.

Coming to a Stage Near You: J-pop

Japan has the second-largest recorded-music market in the world, thanks to avid fans who snap up multiple copies of vinyl and CDs. Yet 90% of revenue in music sales is generated by Japanese artists, according to Avex.

The rise of streaming, however, has broadened musical tastes in Japan and beyond, executives say. J-pop’s share of all plays outside Japan jumped 117% from January 2019 to January 2021, according to Spotify Technology SA .

“Streaming has kicked down the borders of music discovery and acceptance on the world stage,” says AEG Presents Chief Executive Jay Marciano. “It’s made music borderless.”

K-pop acts like BTS and Blackpink—which AEG helped break into the U.S.—provide a blueprint for how non-English-speaking artists can amass global appeal. (BTS had the world’s sixth-highest-grossing tour in 2019 at $170.3 million, according to Pollstar, with the seven-member Korean boy-band notching in between the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi.) Now Japan is starting to look outward as fans are discovering artists from all over as they come online with streaming.

“For many years Western artists have come to Japan and there have been many successful events with big artists, but not a lot of Japanese-audience artists going out to a global audience and performing really large events around the world,” Avex Chief Executive Katsumi Kuroiwa said in an interview, adding, “we believe now it’s time for these artists to go around the world.”

Started in 1988 as a dance-music label, Avex has grown into the largest entertainment company in Japan, with music, artist and talent management, concerts, events, merchandising, fan clubs, anime, and a music- and video-subscription service. It has championed J-pop stars like One OK Rock, Kumi Koda, Ayumi Hamasaki and Pikotaro, and is betting it can secure more Asian artists’ touring rights in Japan with the new partnership.

Breaking foreign-language artists into the West presents challenges. BTS, the biggest of the K-pop groups, has sold out stadiums stateside, but lacks the radio play typical for big mainstream acts, despite impressive streaming and sales numbers and its avid fan “ARMY.”

AEG’s bet on Japan’s importance to the future of live music comes as all corners of the music industry are scouring the globe for growth. Streaming services are bringing new markets online; labels and publishers are expanding their footprint outside the U.S., signing local artists and songwriters around the world, in a race to maintain market share. Spotify on Monday unveiled plans to launch in 85 new markets across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Superstars like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have long played in Japan, typically stopping for a show or two in Tokyo and Osaka en route to or from Australia. It’s a market only the biggest acts can afford to visit, but it’s also a wealthy one, with fans willing to spend on concert tickets, says AEG.

AEG’s Mr. Marciano envisions tapping Avex’s local expertise to help U.S. artists big and small build a Japanese base and make the country a 15-city leg for tours. The island nation, smaller than California, could grow from under $50 million in revenue to a $200 million market annually for AEG in the next five years, estimates Mr. Marciano.

Both companies see opportunities to tack their artists onto the other promoter’s tours to attract new fans—an up-and-coming U.S. artist could open for a J-pop group in Japan, and J-pop stars could support a Western artist stateside.

That is in addition to the hundreds of slots on AEG’s 27 festivals across North America and Europe, including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In 2019, the last year before the pandemic put the festival on hold, Blackpink performed their first ever full-length show in America there before starting their U.S. tour.

Performing live remains essential to building artists’ careers—and businesses.

“It’s not enough to hear the music, you need to see the artist,” says Mr. Marciano. “That is what turns a fan of a song into a fan of an artist.”

The companies also plan to partner on opening new venues and festivals.

Before Covid-19 struck, the concert industry was on track for its best year ever in 2020. Global revenue from live shows rose to $26.1 billion in 2019 before tumbling to $6.5 billion in 2020, according to Midia Research, an industry data provider. Although the industry will go more than a year without staging any major events, executives, analysts and investors say they expect pent-up demand to make business bigger than ever when concerts resume.

The “when” question is a big one. While some sporting events have hosted limited numbers of fans, relying on broadcast and sponsorship rights to counteract lower ticket sales, concerts don’t make financial sense at partial capacity, live music executives say.

Mr. Kuroiwa, speaking through an interpreter, says he’s hopeful the Summer Olympics, scheduled for July in Tokyo, will restore confidence in live events. The Avex CEO estimates the concert industry in Japan will be back to 50% to 70% of its pre-pandemic business in 2022.

Mr. Marciano said that, while arena concerts remain a further out possibility, he’s hopeful AEG will be able to open its more intimate clubs and theaters—which host hundreds to thousands of fans—in most parts of the world by this fall.

^ thank you for pasting the whole article!

Does that mean Ayu might have a worldwide tour?

I actually got a lead into Avex several years ago, maybe 2008 or 9. Can't remember exactly.

Avex wanted $250k PLUS Ayu and her entourage's first class flights and accommodation paid for to perform a very basic concert back then. I shudder to think what they'd expect to earn for a multi-stop tour with sets and stuff haha

That's wild.

I wonder if with her performing the much simpler Christmas Live she could do a stripped back concert. I'm not hopeful though. I don't think that even in her prime when she did more simple productions she would have been successful because her voice was pretty idiosyncratic and her songs are very Japanese.

I think Ai Otsuka might have done well overseas because her songs are very catchy and very comfortable to western ears.