PROMIC, the foundation for promotion of Japan's music industry and culture, has launched a new service called Japan Anime Music Lab., which aims to support the overseas expansion of anime music (anisong). Also known by the abbreviation JAMLAB., the service provides a free portal in which international rights buyers can communicate directly with music industry professionals.

JAMLAB. was first introduced last October at the 14th Tokyo International Music Market. In a seminar held at the event, Shirou Sasaki and Shunji Inoue, presidents of music publishers Flying Dog and Lantis, respectively, discussed their experiences with launching the anime music streaming service ANiUTa and the international concert series Anisong World Matsuri. Sasaki and Inoue emphasized the need for Japanese music publishers to collaborate with partners around the world in order to support the growing anisong market.

In statement provided to MyAnimeList, PROMIC director Tak Furuichi indicates JAMLAB. will serve as "an official information hub to connect international audiences and entertainment industry professionals with the echelon of Japanese anime music and artists and their respective official representatives." At least 16 record companies including Avex Pictures and King Records, many of them members of the Recording Industry Association of Japan, are participating in the service. Works by popular artists such as Maaya Sakamoto and LiSA are among those listed.

Anime music is a 28.5 billion yen market in Japan, according to 2016 industry data compiled by the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA). It makes up approximately 2.3 percent of domestic animation revenues. Overseas, however, anime music only accounts for less than 0.5 percent of anime-related copyright sales. (Income from copyright sales form the core of overseas anime-related revenues.) This gap presents an opportunity for publishers to offer their anime music titles to rights buyers overseas.

The AJA is confident that the untapped overseas market presents a growth opportunity for Japan's music publishers. It also believes that the popularity of J-pop live entertainment in overseas markets will pave the way for the entrance of anime music in various countries. "Because it is easy to capture the actual situation of overseas expansion through music, if growth in this field becomes clear, it will also reflect the true progress of Japanese anime overseas," according to the AJA report.

"Anime songs are sung in Japanese everywhere in the world," said Sasaki, Flying Dog's president, during his Tokyo International Music Market seminar. Through JAMLAB., Japanese anisong artists will be able to channel their growing global popularity with the help of overseas distributors to gain new audiences and to tour internationally.

Official site: http://www.japan-animemusic.com/


Original reporting by arsonal for MyAnimeList.