[old news] Ayu ringtones 'chaku-uta'

[JinHamasaki]

Japan Times Jobs
Saturday, December 11, 2004


Cell phones answer music players' call
'Chaku-uta' craze downloads potential threat to iPod's market dominance

By TAIGA URANAKA
Staff writer

After e-mail, Internet access and cameras, music will likely be the next killer application for cell phones in Japan, where online distribution is yet to catch on.

News photo
KDDI Corp. spokeswoman Nami Terai listens to music on a cell phone at the company's headquarters in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

While cell phones may not become an instant threat to portable music players like Apple's iPod, their sheer volume -- some 85 million in Japan -- presents a vast potential pool of portable music-playing competitors.

Late last month, the country's second-largest wireless carrier, KDDI Corp., started a music downloading service for its au brand of mobile phones. Instead of offering the usual 30-second sample, however, the Chaku-uta Full (Ring Tone Songs Full) service sends the entire tune, just as online music services do for computer users, in the widely used MP3 format.

Owners of au's three latest 3G handset models can download a full song from a list of some 10,000 titles for about 300 yen a pop.

KDDI officials said the number of daily "chaku-uta" downloads might have already surpassed that of any online music distribution service for personal computers in Japan. They refused to quote specific numbers.

Label Gate Co., one of the largest domestic online music sites for PC downloads in terms of songs available, said it sold 270,000 songs in November.

The idea for chaku-uta came from the music industry a few years ago. Back then, "chaku mero" (ring-tone melodies) were the fad as phone makers gradually tweaked their handsets so they could handle increasingly elaborate chords.

Record companies were watching the boom with chagrin. Despite the millions of tunes being downloaded, the only ones who were profiting were the original composers of the tracks, who received part of the proceeds for the rather primitive renderings.

"We were spending money and energy on creating these hit songs" used in the melodies, said Yasushi Ide, corporate vice president of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. "We thought if we could provide parts of original songs for ring tones instead, proceeds could be shared among record companies and lyrics writers as well as the music writers."

Anticipating the boom, Sony Music, Avex and other record companies established Label Mobile Inc. to offer music for cell phones in July 2001.

The first chaku-uta service got off the ground two years ago, when companies started allowing customers to use parts of original songs -- including vocals -- as ring tones. This proved much more popular than the simple digital rearrangements.

Now chaku uta services are hugely popular, with some 130 million songs downloaded so far. That's nearly as many as the 150 million Apple has sold through the iTunes Music Store as of mid-October. The store opened in April 2003.

After starting with a mere 300 songs, some 70,000 chaku uta titles are offered today, covering just about every genre of music from pop to classical.

Its success has helped KDDI boost its subscriber base and prompted rivals NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Vodafone K.K. to follow suit.

Record companies insisted on charging 100 yen per tune, even though they were partials. Apple's iTunes store sells an entire song for 99 cents.

"We thought 100 yen per song was too expensive, and that 30 yen was an appropriate price for such a service," said KDDI chaku uta official Tatsuo Yagi. "Back then, some people told me it is just a part of a song."

But as it turned out, people were willing to pay 100 yen.

Avex Group Holdings Inc. said there were 12.5 million chaku uta downloads during the April-September period, compared with 5 million a year earlier.

The company's offerings include Ayumi Hamasaki's hit single "Inspire," which has inspired some 660,000 downloads -- more than the 420,000 CDs that have so far been sold.

What's behind the mania?

KDDI officials said few users are actually downloading chaku uta purely for use as ring tones. Instead, many are doing so to listen to songs with classmates and colleagues.

"It is being used as communication tool, such as for enjoying hit songs and old tunes with others," they said.

They attribute chaku uta's success to the sheer ease with which the songs can be downloaded. Unlike portable music players, cell phones don't need personal computers to download music.

Sony Music's Ide said the billing system has also been a big factor, because consumers are still apprehensive about using credit cards on the Internet. In Japan, music downloading fees automatically appear on one' monthly phone bill.

At Sony Music, chaku uta downloads are running some 30 times higher than PC-bound downloads, which number about 100,000 a month, he said.

With the arrival of Chaku-uta Full, the mobile phone industry here is starting to compete directly with iPod and other portable music players.

But KDDI officials said that issues of memory capacity and sound quality make them unsure whether cell phones will pose a major threat to the iPod anytime soon.

"We are not completely satisfied with current handsets' performance as portable music players yet," Yagi said. "But unlike iPod, users can download very easily, and if the handsets' memory capacity increases, cell phones may become a significant presence as portable music players."

The Japan Times: Dec. 11, 2004
(C) All rights reserved

[mui-gei-tal]

wow...interestin'! thanks.
people sure know how to make money =)

[DarkWanderer]

wow ringtones in Japan are really popular!! I didn't know so many people downloaded the 'INSPIRE' ringtone. Thanks for the info