This was supposed to be the year that changed the Japanese music business.

Back in March I wrote that major international streaming services Spotify and Rdio would likely launch in Japan "sometime in the next few months." That, I confidently predicted, would be a sign that "the Japanese music business is abandoning its Galapagos-like isolation and is entering the music-streaming mainstream."

Well, I was wrong. Mea culpa. Maxima, already.