日本人對ＣＤ熱情不減----中壢英文補習班－金學堂英語的部落格

【聯合報╱By BEN SISARIO╱王麗娟譯】

Japanese Still Love CDs,Going Against the Trend

TOKYO — Around the world, the music business has shifted toward downloads and streaming. But in Japan, the compact disc is still king.

On a Sunday afternoon recently, Tower Records’ nine-level flagship store here was packed with customers like Kimiaki Koinuma, a 23-year-old engineer . “I buy around three CDs a month,” he said .

Japan may be one of the world’s perennial early adopters of new technologies, but its continuing attachment to the CD contrasts with the rest of the global music industry. While CD sales are falling worldwide, including in Japan, they still account for about 85 percent of sales here, compared with as little as 20 percent in some countries, like Sweden, where online streaming is dominant.

“Japan is utterly, totally unique,” said Lucian Grainge, the chairman of the Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music conglomerate.

That uniqueness has the rest of the music business worried. Despite its robust CD market, sales in Japan — the world’s second- largest music market, after the United States — have been sliding for a decade, and last year they dropped 17 percent, dragging worldwide results down 3.9 percent.

Digital sales — rising in every other top market — are quickly eroding in Japan, going from almost $1 billion in 2009 to just $400 million last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

Turning Japan around has become a priority for the global music business, which has struggled to regain its footing after losing about half its value since 2000, when digital technology began to disrupt the album-based business model.

But change has been difficult, according to analysts and music executives in Japan and the West, in part because of a protectionist business climate in Japan that still views the digital business with suspicion.

Streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio, widely seen as the industry’s best new hope for new revenue, have stalled in efforts to enter Japan. Spotify, the biggest such player, has been stuck for two years in licensing negotiations with music companies in Japan, where homegrown pop idols by far outsell Western acts.

In addition to Japan, some big markets like Germany remain reliant on CD sales.

Peculiarities of Japan’s business climate have shaped its attachment to the CD, but cultural factors may also be at play, like Japanese consumers’ love for collectible goods. Greatest hits albums, for example, do particularly well in Japan, perhaps because of the elaborate, artist-focused packaging.

Tower Records closed its 89 American outlets in 2006, but the Japanese branch of the chain still has 85 outlets, doing $500 million in business a year.

Globally, the struggling music recording industry is waiting for the day when sales will rebound.

“It’s inevitable that this market comes back to growth,” Mr. Grainge said. “What I’m not going to predict is when.”

日本人對ＣＤ熱情不減

在世界各地，音樂商業已轉變成下載和串流的形態。但在日本，光碟唱片仍是王道。

最近一個周日午后，此間淘兒唱片九層樓的旗艦店，擠滿像23歲工程師鯉沼王明這樣的顧客。他說：「我每月大概買3張光碟。」

對於新科技，日本可能一向是全球最早採用的國家地區之一，但日本人對光碟唱片仍情有獨鍾，這點與世界其他地區音樂業背道而馳。儘管包括日本在內，全球的光碟唱片銷售均告下滑，但在日本，光碟唱片仍占總銷售額的85％，反觀瑞典等國僅占20％，在這些國家，串流才是主流。

全球最大音樂財團、環球音樂集團董事長葛蘭吉說：「日本是最最最獨特的國家。」

這個獨特性令音樂業界其他人士憂心忡忡。儘管日本的光碟市場依舊強勁，日本這個僅次於美國的全球第二大音樂市場，音樂銷售額已持續下滑10年，去年還下跌17％，拖累全球跟著下滑3.9％。

據日本唱片業協會統計，數位音樂銷售額在全球其他頂尖市場雖持續上升，在日本卻迅速下滑，從2009年的近10億美元，跌至去年的僅4億美元。

讓日本市場起死回生已成為全球音樂界的第一要務，自從2000年數位科技開始打破以唱片為基礎的商業模式，導致市場價值跌掉將近一半後，音樂業一直努力重新站穩腳步。

日本和西方國家的分析師和音樂高級主管表示，音樂業想翻身困難之至，部分歸因於日本的保護主義商業氣氛，他們仍以懷疑眼光看待數位商業。

提供串流音樂服務的Spotify和Rdio等公司，普遍被視為業界新增收入的新希望，但這些公司已暫停進軍日本的努力。串流音樂服務的最大咖Spotify與日本音樂公司談判授權陷入膠著已兩年，日本本土流行音樂偶像的音樂銷售遠高於西方樂手與樂團。