An Open Letter To Japanfiles.com
This was inspired by the article posted by Japanator on the illegal filesharing issue between Japanfiles and LiveJournal...
Dear Japanfiles.com,
Let me begin by saying Thank You for your tremendous effort to bring J-music closer to the fans in the west. I am an avid listener to your channel on Live365.com. And I have enjoyed sharing a dialogue with you on your MySpace pages. It is because of people like you that we have the opportunity to discover amazing music we may never otherwise hear.
I also appreciate your dedicated promotion of Ketchup Mania, who are currently one of my favorite bands. I have posted/promoted them many times on this blog. I enjoy listening to your KM "one hour block" every Monday Night, and quite often I purchase a CD after listening to your programming.
I recently read the article regarding your concerns about LiveJournal and illegal filesharing. I know this is a very touchy subject. I do not own an mp3 player, and have never uploaded music or videos on to the internet. I absolutely respect your desire AND your artists desire to protect their artistic and intellectual property. I am also aware that without illegal uploading, I surely would have never discovered J-music in the first place. And as a result wouldn't have had the opportunity to enjoy these amazingly talented artists. It is a double-edged sword. But this is not what this letter is really about...
What really bothered me was an excerpt of an e-mail allegedly sent by you regarding the LJ controversy...
If there is a band/label that you don't see on JapanFiles, it is most likely because (a) the label is not currently interested in USA digital sales; (b) the label is currently prohibited due to other contracts; (c -- and most common) the label is waiting to see how many American customers will support legal purchases Japanese music. (*The Japanese labels clearly see the rampant piracy, even for artists they have licensed to high-profile legal-download services like iTunes. So the view of the American audience is overwhelmingly negative.)
Now I don't want to "shoot the messenger" here. I realize that this is not necessarily your opinion of the American audience, and that you are merely informing us of the attitude about western fans held by the Japanese music labels. However, you seem to have a dialogue with these labels, and maybe you can relay our reaction to their alleged stance.
Perhaps I am misinterpreting what you are saying here. When you speak of "the view of the American audience" being negative. Are you talking about marketing to us? Or do the labels really prefer us not to be fans at all? And is this really because of the supposed "rampant piracy"? Or is there something else going on here? Whatever the motivations are, it is quite surprising to infer that we are "unwanted" by the Japanese labels.
Speaking of "rampant piracy", this is the first I've ever heard of the U.S. being the world hub of pirating CD's and DVD's. In fact, most every pirated product I have ever come across came from East Asia. Yet the japanese labels seemingly don't have a problem marketing their products to these countries. For better or worse, the U.S is one of the biggest "consuming" countries in the world. And I would bet that on a per capita basis, music piracy is equally present in Japan, or any other country for that matter.
Now I am not implying that the labels should actively promote and license all of their products in this country. It's the "overwhelmingly negative" attitude that I do not understand. Personally speaking...
I have purchased over a hundred J-music CD's, over 50 DVD's, two dozen photobooks, and countless other souvenirs. And I have purchased these items almost exclusively from Japanese merchants and Yesasia.com. Between the products and shipping I have contributed thousands of dollars to the Japanese economy. But these Japanese merchants certainly aren't reporting how much of their sales are going overseas. How would they?
As a result of my discovery of J-music, I have traveled to Japan to see the country and attend quite a few J-music concerts. Not only financially supporting these artists, but contributing thousands of dollars to the Japanese tourism industry. And I currently have another trip in the works.
I have attended J-music concerts here in the U.S. like Japan Nite. Thus showing my support for the musicians' presence in this country.
I'm sorry, I just fail to see how these above actions are "overwhelmingly negative".
I am a realist, and I understand there probably aren't enough people like me in the U.S. to substantiate any heavy promotion of the Japanese artists here by their labels. But in my travels I have met quite a few J-music fans with a track record similar to mine. We invest our hard earned dollars to legally purchase their products simply because we love the groups. And we continue to do it despite the labels' attitude. And yes, we have been acutely aware of their attitude the entire time. I am sure if you asked the artists themselves their opinion on the matter, it would be quite different from the label executives. Per usual, it's the corporate hotshots that screw it up for everyone. No different than in the U.S. I would really love to know how the labels feel about American fans like me.
I don't think we are expecting some sort of paradigm shift in the access to J-music here in the west. But as fans, we would simply like to feel welcome.
A J-Music fan
CK in California
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http://ckhp.vox.com/library/post/an-open-letter-to-japanfilescom.html
We appreciate this open letter.
For the record:
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Our correspondence with the LiveJournal community in question did not identify "the U.S. being the world hub of pirating CD's."
These are not our words.
We did not rank the U.S. market above or below any other market in piracy.
*
We have never said the American audience is "unwanted."
These are not our words.
*
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We'll clarify our statement about the "negative view":
Even though we do not carry many artists associated with large Japanese labels, our company maintains an open professional relationship with them.
We constantly compare notes about the Japanese music scene in America because we all want to see it grow.
They have all seen the LiveJournal communities where one of their top artists can have over 100 entries tagged with multiple requests and upload links.
But yet they don't see corresponding sales increases for that artist from the American market, even on a large MP3 retailer like iTunes.
When they look at the numbers, they don't see the results.
They cannot understand the imbalance between proclaimed fandom and actual, measurable results.
The purchases you list are impressive, but the sales figures continually show that this kind of follow-through is the exception, not the rule.
"I am sure if you asked the artists themselves their opinion on the matter, it would be quite different from the label executives."
Artists will always of course value their audience. And artists will always have differing opinions on how best to expose their work to new fans.
But it's a mistake to assume that even if a select number of artists publicly allow copying of their music, such permission should be applied to all.
It's the opposite. It should be regarded as prohibited unless that permission is granted.
It's also a mistake to assume that all artists operate on the same economic level.
We've worked with many bands who keep their day jobs and invest their own money into recording/mastering/CD printing/touring.
When they have to play a live show at night and give 100%, then wake up the next morning to work a full shift at work, we hope you can understand their surprise to see their new CD has been downloaded by a 1000+ users.
Even though most downloaders might not have bought the CD, the fact is that some small percentage of those downloaders are enjoying the music they worked hard to create but no money - zero - came to them.
Again, it's an imbalance with real consequences.
Since we work mostly with indie bands, our work to protect copyright is even more directly connected to the artists in question than the "corporate hotshots" you mention.
Wow! Thank you so much for responding to my post!
I hope you understand that I do agree with your point of view regarding piracy and filesharing, and any concern I have really has nothing to do with you. I see Japanfiles as an entity that is helping bring Japanese music to the states, not hurting the process.
I am also aware that "the American audience feeling unwanted" and "the U.S. being the world hub of piracy" are not your words either. In fact I am sure you feel the opposite. Otherwise there would be no point in your existence. And if the larger labels are indeed interested in the growing success of their artists in the U.S, then I am sorry for my false perception.
But these perceptions are there, and they were there long before I ever knew Japanfiles existed. And I have never fully understood why there seemed to be an overall reluctance by the bigger labels to give non-Japanese fans access to this great music. And when I speak of the artists feeling differently than the execs, I am talking about their music being heard worldwide. Not that they would want their music downloaded for free.
I discovered j-music through YouTube. And at the time I was satisfied with that being my only access to Japanese music. Until one day I read a comment on a video that accused the viewers of being "false fans" because they weren't financially supporting these groups. And ya know, I fully agreed with that statement. This is why I make it a point to purchase their products from Japan. Since I am an exception to the rule (and I know I am) it gives me great pride to know that I am tangibly supporting these groups with these purchases. I want to see these artists succeed. And if they aren't profitable, they'll probably break up, or their label will drop them. And then we won't get to hear them anymore. And that would be a damn shame!
Heck, I even go out of my way to purchase Suntory C.C. Lemon Soda, because I like the drink!
In any case, I just wanted to clarify that I really do support your stance. Even if I purchase CD's rather than mp3's, which I believe is more your business. And my open letter really wasn't meant to be critical to Japanfiles, but more to the labels themselves. I am sorry if I failed to make that clear.
And once again I thank you for caring enough to respond to my concerns!
CK
Great topic. Just got off the phone with my satellite cable TV provider, DirecTV, and they no answer for why exactly ZERO Japanese music programming (even on a pay-per-view basis) is available out there to US audiences. This is the same attitude that keeps Japanese artists from making any meaningful penetration into US markets, because Sony Music and its tributaries tend to block both exposure and availability of Japanese music in the West.
I would kill to get MTV Japan here. What about TV Tokyo and all the cool msuic talk programs, Music Fighter, Haramoni@ and others? It's pathetic how US fans of Japanese music are treated.