You've heard the stories: The music industry is in crisis, CD sales are dropping year on year, iTunes is taking over the world, the future is digital, the revolution is here. While a lot of this may be true, music fans could be forgiven for some cynicism when all about them the music industry seeks to desperately reassert its hegemony, be it through copy protection, restrictions on overseas digital download rights or aggressive prosecution of file-sharing users. Music is going global, but independent bands aren't being invited to the party.
One company that has taken a different approach to the globalization of music is online music store Japanfiles. Japanfiles was started by Tokyo resident Steve Laity, who deals with bands and contracts, and U.S.-based George Trombley, who runs the Web site, finances the business (largely through his other company, the Japanese language school YesJapan), and takes on the CEO role. Finally, the duo was joined last year by David Cirone, who deals with press, promotion and live booking in the United States. Their plan was to focus on the kind of little-known independent bands that usually get overlooked by larger companies, and to sell their music at an affordable 99 cents per track to the growing numbers of fans of Japanese independent music overseas.
The small size of Japanfiles is one of its biggest advantages. Those Japanese bands able to get their tracks onto iTunes in the U.S. are unable to sell in any significant quantities. Laity notes, "I was talking to a label owner who was saying, 'We've got our stuff on iTunes in the States, but they're not promoting it at all.' Unless people are actively searching for it, they're not going to sell to anyone outside of the usual hardcore fans. Because we're smaller and completely focused on Japanese music, we can promote it directly to people we think are going to be interested."