MPAJ Seminar at Music Matters

ONE ON ONE WITH JEFF MIYAHARA:
A JAPANESE MUSIC ICONMay 26th 2011
The Ritz-Carlton
SingaporeMusic Matters 2011

Music Matters: One on One with Jeff Miyahara●Interviewer : KO

⇒ Ken Ohtake, President, Sony Music Publishing (Japan) Inc.

and Executive Director, MPAJ
●Speaker: JM ⇒ Jeff Miyahara, Producer＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿【Jeff Miyahara Profile】
Jeff Miyahara is one of the most in demand
record producers and songwriters in Japan withnumerous #1 hits and over 18 million in sales.
Since 2009, Jeff has been managed by UM360
and is steadily raising his international profile
as he works with top-tier international artists
such as Boyz II Men, Charice, Vivian Hsu, and4Minute.
Jeff ‟s multi-cultural and multi-lingual background (LA-raised, half Korean, half Japanese)
forms the foundation to his unique approach to songwriting and production and contributes to
his Rosetta stone-like ability to craft songs that resonate across cultural and linguistic
boundaries.

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MC: OK, ladies and gentlemen, on with the show. Sponsored by MPAJ, this L.A. born
producer and songwriter moved to Japan in 1999. He has then become one of the world's
best-known men behind the scenes in the industry on both sides of the globe. So folks,
here is Jeff Miyahara, and to welcome him onto this panel right now, Ken Ohtake.

KO: Hello, I'm Ken Ohtake from Music Publishers Association of Japan. Thank you forbeing here, and thank you having us here. I am very pleased to have Mr. Jeff Miyahara
next to me today. He is the best selling Japanese R&B producer. We will be talking about
writing songs for Japan, Asia and beyond.
Before entering his session, I'll do a quick update on theJapanese music industry situation. As Haji Taniguchi
mentioned earlier today we had a major earthquake inMarch, and we would like to express our sincere
appreciation for all the condolences and donations frommusic communities around the world. All of your support
has mattered significantly to us. Thank you very much.
As you see here (Slide1), the Japanese market for recorded music is in a solid second
place, being close to 90% of America‟s, and this is still the same after the earthquake
disaster happened.

<Slide 1>2Music Matters 2011

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<Slide 2>

The Recording Music Industry
Association of Japan has compiled
these statistics on the past 10 years.
(Slide2)
Withinthegeneraldownward trend, you can see a small
bounce back in 2005 and 2006 due todigital distribution. But since 2008,
even this has been coming down, too.
Even with declining sales of recorded
music, copyright owners in Japan
have seen stable income over the past
10 years. This is because JASRAC has<Slide 3>

been successful in securing newincome sources, such as usage on theinternet. (Slide3)
JASRAC has also succeeded in
improving existing agreements, suchas the blanket licensing agreementswith broadcasters, in the favor of
copyright owners. JASRAC is not the
only society in Japan but still holds
more than 95% of the pie. Among all
JASRAC collections, about 22% is for non-Japanese repertoire.
The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis have affected every aspect of Japanesesociety, including our industry. The market share of the affected region is actually only
approximately 5% of the whole music market in Japan.
But, the biggest impact on the music industry is the influence of the sense of„Self-Restraint‟ throughout Japan. Concerts and live events have been cancelled or
postponed, and many new releases were postponed at least in March. Consumption has
sunk, stores have reduced their hours due to the sense of „Self-Restraint‟, and also thepossibility of aftershocks and blackouts. In fact, according to JASRAC, (that is JapaneseCollection Society), the negative impact on collection revenues is estimated to be about
US$31million for the fiscal year 2011, which is 2.4% of total expected revenue.
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All segments of the industry as wellas many individual artists havecome forward to raise money to help
victims of the disaster. Fundraising
activities such as compilation
albums, individual tunes andconcerts have been planned and theincome generated from those eventsand products is being used as
donations. Also, music industry
organizations have taken some
initiatives too.

<Slide 4>

So, what‟s our task? At the beginning of April, the Agency for Cultural Affairs
announced an appeal concerning cultural and artistic activities that have been affected
since the disaster happened. In terms of economic recovery and providing hope andencouragement to people, a reduction of cultural activities is not desirable.
Unfortunately, many foreign artists have actually cancelled their tours in Japan. We
would therefore like to ask for the support, understanding and cooperation of everybody
here. We are so grateful to Music Matters and JASRAC for taking the initiative as well.
Finally, please don‟t forget to keep thisin mind when you think of Japan‟smusic industry: SYNC MUSIC JAPAN.
(Slide5)
The SYNC MUSIC JAPAN website andaccompanying Twitter feed provide a
steady flow of news and updates about
releases and activities of Japanesemusical artists. It features ranking ofalbum and ringtone sales, artist info,
music samples, and ad links to artists‟
official sites.

<Slide 5>

Not only recorded music, we are dying to deliver as many compositions as possible fromJapan to help reactivate our industry, and I'm very sure that this guy can do this. I'm
proud to introduce Jeff Miyahara to you again, and instead of interviewing him I
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Music Matters 2011decided to be dead silent, giving Jeff the entire remaining hour for him to express whatreally matters to him. Over to you Jeff.

JM: Thank you very much. Hi! My
name is Jeff Miyahara. Thank you verymuch once again for joining us today.
It‟s an honor and pleasure to be here atMusic Matters. Thank you for joining
me today.
BackgroundLet me start with my background. I‟m
34 years old. I‟m half Korean and half
Japanese, and born and raised in Los
Angeles, California. I got a lot of comments about being both Korean and Japanese when
I was growing up because of the historical conflict between the two countries, but now, I
can‟t thank my parents enough for it.
X Generation
I was born in the X-Generation, so I got to experience the birth of MTV, home computers,
and console video games. I‟m sure everyone in this room remembers floppy disks andblack and green computer screens. Music has gone through an amazing transformation,from vinyl, to 8 track, cassette tapes, CDs, MiniDiscs, CD-Rs, and now digital formats. I
remember at every single crossroad listening to totally different genres of music every
single time a new format came out.
Australia/Japan/Korea
Music was great! But unfortunately, for my school grades, it wasn‟t. After barely
graduating from high-school, I was forced to move to Japan for university, as I didn‟t get
into Yale, Harvard or Stanford, (…and I see many Asian faces here today…) as myparents expected. After moving to Japan however, I fell in love with the night-life, andafter 2 years at Sophia University, I got kicked out.
As you can imagine, my parents were very displeased, and enrolled me into a HotelMusic Matters 20115

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Management School which offered the Cornell Hotel Management Degree in Australia.
However, as history has a tendency of repeating itself, once again, after 2 years ofVictoria Bitter Beers and some amazing BBQ, I got kicked out of Hotel School.
However, it was not all that bad. Part of the hotel program required me to intern at a
hotel for 3 months, and once again, thanks to a phone call from my parents to somefriends in Korea, I found myself living smack in the middle of Seoul working at a Hotel.
It was during this time in Korea that I was exposed to the K-Pop music scene, and thefirst time that I had ever stepped into a commercial recording studio, and ghostwrote asong. That song got airplay and it actually sold ok. But instead of royalties and money, I
got some amazing Korean BBQ and a nice pat on the back.
That‟s when I realized that, I didn‟t want to be a hotel manager, or a lawyer, or buy andsell clever www-dot-something-dot-com internet names for a living. That‟s when I
wanted and just knew I had to be a musician. And for some crazy reason, I knew that if I
had any chance in the world, that chance would be in Japan.
Well, it‟s been an amazing journey since then, and in my 8th year in the Japanese musicindustry, I achieved my first big hit. Since then, I‟ve had the fortune of working withsome of the best talent Japan has to offer, as well as having the fortune of watching new
superstars as they grew their wings. Well, it‟s my 9th year in the music industry, and thisis my discography to date.
(Music played)
Can you guys hear this music atall? Can you crank this music up
a little bit? Thank you. Actually
we wrote this in Los Angeles
about six months ago. We
recorded with… Is everyone
familiar with David Foster‟s girlCharice from Glee? We recorded
her as well as an R&B artist
Unique originally assigned to Def
Jam Records in America. A lot oftimes is what we will do is pick up amazing musicians and amazing talent that haven't
been released over in the States. But we will flavor it, the project and all the music to be
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really in tune with the Japanese market. And we will release international music using
Japanese creators for the Japanese market.
Excellent, let's move on.
All things J-Pop and More!
Co-Writing
Let me get into detail of how I write for the J-Pop market. 90% of most of the songs I‟ve
written have all been written with the artists. I remember the first #1 hit I got in 2005, I
never got a chance to meet the artists. It went to number one as a result. I sent them ademo, and 2 months later, they sent me back a CD. That was probably one of the mostunfulfilling and empty moments in my life.
So since then, I‟ve made it arequirement that the artist comes to
my studio, and we write the song
together. Everything from kickdrum to snare drum, to piano riffs
and vocal melody lines, we do it all
together. I make sure that they arepart of that process from the
beginning all the way to the end.
Remember back in the Motown days,
you‟d heard about how they would
stuff a bunch of musicians in a room, and a few hours later, they had next big hit song?
It‟s been a lot of trial and error, but this is my preferred method of writing now.
Most of my big hits in Japan have been made this way. And as a result, each one of thoseartists have all gone to be big successful trend-setting stars who all write most of theirown music now. Some of them have gotten so good, I‟m afraid they‟re going to stop
calling me soon!
Let‟s move on to Karaoke: Who is the king of the mike?
When I first moved to Japan in 94, remember I had been living in LA my entire time. I'mpractically American. I couldn't understand why everyone always wanted to go to
Karaoke. After dinner, let‟s go to Karaoke. After drinks, Karaoke. I couldn‟t understandMusic Matters 20117

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why it was so popular… Until bam!, you‟ve finally discovered your favorite Karaoke
song, and after a few drinks there‟s that moment where you are singing and you feelyour performance is better than the original singer. That‟s when I finally understood themagic of Karaoke, as well as the importance of melodies in the music.
One advantage that I had was the fact that I was non-native in Japanese. That forced
me to do all my storytelling through just the melodies of the music. Well that‟s nothing
new, because if you think about it, classical music and opera have been doing this for
hundreds of years. That is, telling a story through the melodies and arrangements of themusic.
Ah, and by the way, if you‟re interested, or if you have writers that are interested inentering the J-POP scene, write love songs! As I‟ve mentioned, most Japanese people go
to Karaoke rooms, not night clubs. So love songs will always be more successful than big
party songs.
Seasons
Japan is blessed to have four very distinctive seasons throughout the year. It is notalways hot hot or wet wet. This has in turn affected the mood and trends of songs for thevarious months of the year.
For example, especially during this month, I have had a lot of requests for more upbeat
energetic summer dance songs. And in turn I‟ll use lots of guitars and pianos, andBrazilian carnival sounds to really bring the temperature and the mood of the songs. Of
course Spring songs tend to be very happy and uplifting, and Winter songs tend to be alittle slower, and a little more melancholic, with anticipation of finding that special
someone to spend Christmas Eve with together! And I think this is only in Japan but
every year in March and April, we have at least 2-5 songs dedicated to Sakura, Cherry
Blossoms!
TV Commercials: Living in a 15 second world
This is something Japan‟s been doing for a really long time! I would safely bet that atleast 65% of all TV commercials in Japan feature, have some kind of major label releasesong. This is called a Commercial Tie-Up in Japan, and it‟s one of the most important
promotional tools for any song. A good commercial or TV drama tie-up can make or
break an artist. It is so important, so much so, that it‟s common for record labels to hold
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back the release of a song until it has some type of successful TV tie-up that can go alongwith the promotion of the release.
Of course the TV and ad agencies have become very smart to this, and quite frequently,
depending on the scale of the project, the client of the commercial has more of a say inthe creative process of the song than the artist actually does.
So we try to accommodate as much as possible if we're doing Coca-Cola, or some kind of
drinks. Of course we want to make it energetic, we want to make it exciting. We will use
a few key phrases, keywords to highlight the campaign, or any words that will be seenon the screen. But once it gets to a certain point, too much is too much, and we usually
draw the line when it becomes damaging to the image and credibility of the artist.
On the other hand, look at the success of Proactiv. Is everyone familiar with Proactiv
skincare products? They have taken some amazing artists, and along with Proactiv they
have created a lot of presence in the global market. For example, recently we have Avril
Lavigne endorsing Proactiv in Japan. It may be a coincidence, she didn't have many
releases over the past year or two in Japan but at the same time as this Proactiv
commercial, she put out her most recent album and it has been at #1 in the CD charts
since its release in March. So the impact of all these are really important.
Convenience Stores, Laptop Computers and phones
As everyone has noticed, music has gotten louder and louder over the past few years. I‟llbe honest, I‟m a little tired of the loudness wars we‟ve been having, but at the same time,
we still need to have a certain amount of competition. You can't have your song too
dynamic. The song might be amazing but when you play it on the commercials on TV
and all of a sudden the volume gets a lot lower than the previous commercial that you
saw. So it's like a double edged sword.
We do our best to accommodate those smaller speakers, whether that is at the recording
process or EQ process or a final mixing and mastering process. We make sure that themusic shines through these tiny speakers.
Buying Trends in 2011 based on Music Format
As we all know, music has taken an almost exclusive format of being digital. Because ofthis, I‟ve shifted the focus of my production to also accommodate the digital download
markets.
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However, despite declining sales and increased piracy throughout the world, Japan still
has the 2nd largest CD buying market in the world!
Let‟s talk about the difference between people that buy CDs and digital downloads.
1) For example, believe it or
not we still sell CD singles.
I think it is Japan and theUK. In fact last year, agroup called AKB48 sold amillion of just one of theirsingles! And considering
CD singles cost between¥1,000 to ¥1,500 (that‟s$12 to $18 USD) for asingle with maybe 2 or 3
songs, that‟s a lot ofmoney.
2) CD Albums: ¥2,300 to ¥2,900, anywhere between $28- $37 USD, and though
there are not many we still do have artists that can move millions of albums ayear in Japan.
So who are these people that buy CD‟s in 2011?
It‟s essentially core fans of Idols, Anime, Rock bands wearing lots of make-up, I'm sure
you've seen these in Japan, they are called Visual-Kei, and established veteranmusicians.
I would say these are people who acknowledge music as a real form of entertainment.
These people invest time and money to not only buy the CD but also go watch theconcerts, and follow news and updates on the artists I'm sure on Twitter, and all theother SNS (Social Networking Service) websites too. If it‟s a band, chances are, they‟llprobably know the name of the vocalist, as well as the guitarist. If it‟s an all girlidol-group, it‟s more than likely they‟ll have a picture or two of their favorite girl on theirphone.

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So what kind of people buy digital downloads in 2011?
Looking at the price point for a 40 second song, it‟s¥105 yen, about $1.20 USD. That‟s about the same
price as a can of soda or a candy bar in Japan.
Well, the vast majority of digital downloads arefrom mobile phones, not computers. So as you cansee, the majority of people buying these 40 second
ringtones are elementary school kids, and highschool students whose phone bills are paid for by
their mom and dad.
For most of them, they‟re happy listening to 40
seconds of the song and that usually ends up being
the hook or the chorus of the song, in between text
messaging their friends and going to class. Unfortunately, there is very little long term
brand loyalty here.
So what about the full digital downloads? These cost ¥315 or ¥420 per download for a
version with lyrics. Who buys these? In 2011, it seems most of these people are college
students and people in their mid 20‟s. They are most likely paying for their own phonebills, and though limited, have financial independence.
Much like the way they purchase and wear mass-marketed low cost designer clothing
like H&M or UNIQLO, like we see here in Singapore, these are probably the same typeof people that buy digital downloads in Japan, and they are starting to develop loyalty todigital artists.
Let‟s look at the difference between CD artists and Digital artists.
I‟ll show this in a domestic and international format.
Here‟s an example of three top selling domestic and international CD artists. You may
recognize their names and faces. They are what I like to call “complete or total artists”.
Meaning they can sing, as well as perform on stage, and make appearances on TV.

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Let‟s list some pros and cons of CD artists.
Pros
1) These artists can move physical CDs. This is at a completely different price point
than digital, as we saw before.
2) They have other revenue streams, such as concerts, merchandising, licensing
deals, as well as being able to enter other sectors of the entertainment businesssuch as TV and film, and commercial product endorsements as we saw with
Proactiv.
3) A really great famous Sony Records director once told me, and I'll always hold it
to heart: It takes a lot more time and energy to heat a pot of oil than water, but
once it starts to cool down, that oil is going to stay hotter for much longer than thewater will.
Digital Artists:
Pros
1) The startup costs to debut a digital artist is very low compared to a CD artist.
Record companies are hoping that the song catches on fire first, then they figureout how to market and sell the artist.
2) Everyone has a fair chance at success because everything stays within the digital
realm. Most digital artists do not do a lot of big scale concerts. Of course I‟m notgoing to say this in front of the artists but you don‟t have to be extremely
beautiful or extremely “talented” as long as you have a catchy song.
3) Artists and fans can develop close communication, so the label and management
can collect constructive feedback, and can make quick adjustments and decisions
to the planning and execution of that digital artist and with the project for that
year.

Cons
1) You have a chance at a hit, but there is a very limited shelf life on the song, mostly
because you are selling the song, and not the artist.
2) The digital music providers have had trouble catching up with new mobile phone
technology and proprietary formats. Just in Japan we have 3 big different carriers:
Docomo, Softbank, AU that are using different formats, for example a big company
called Recochoku who handles something like 70 or 80% of all digital sales for
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mobile phones has to rewrite and reprogram every single websites to accommodate
all those, not to mention we have the i-Phone and we are getting new Android stylesmartphones using different formats.
3) Digital sales are going down because of YouTube as well as other media driven
websites. That‟s something that has been a big problem recently.

To sum up, basically CD artists are about selling the performing artist, and Digitalartists are about selling the songs.
As you‟ve probably noticed, international artists, as I‟ve listed here Lady Gaga, Black
Eyed Peas and Avril Lavigne, share both charts, but domestic Japanese CD artists andDigital artists are totally different.
It‟s really amazing to see how very few similarities are shared domestically between thetwo formats. However, this domestic market is very important, even though theinternational artists are the same on both CD and digital, domestic sales for the entire
revenue for all of Japan accounts for 72% of the total gross music sales. We‟ve had a few
but not many that have been able to share both CD and digital charts in Japan.
However, there is a new phenomenon we‟ve been seeing over the past few years. A
phenomenon that is able to cross over both CD and digital charts, and both domestic andinternational charts. And that is the K-Pop phenomenon.
I‟m sure everyone here in the room recognizes at least a few names. K-Pop has exploded
into most all of the Asian territories, and recently over to the US, UK, and Europe.
Before we look into how and why they‟ve succeeded so explosively, let‟s look at some ofthe different revenue streams they‟ve penetrated in the Japanese market.
I looked at both the Oricon CD charts and Recochoku Digital charts a few days back,this is March 23. In the top 20 alone, there are the following artists in both charts. Threein digital, and three in CD sales. We have Jang Keun Suk who is actually on both CDand digital. He was actually number 4 or 5, really amazing. These guys are dominating
the music market.
They are international artists when they sing in Korean but they are domestic artists
when they sing in Japanese. It is amazing that these guys have gone through so muchtraining, they can handle interviews, they can handle TV. They can speak and deliverMusic Matters 201113

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music in Japanese without any fraction of a doubt. It is amazing. No one has evergrabbed both markets like this before.
Not only that, but these guys are constantly doing shows. At least one or two Korean
acts are constantly in Japan for concerts and promotions.
The Music of Heart show in Osaka next month will feature 11 of the top Korean acts.
Considering there are anywhere between five to seven Korean performers in one act,
that is 60 to 70 Korean artists packed in one venue. I can‟t even imagine what that flightfrom Seoul to Tokyo must be like.
And here on the right, you‟ll see how Japanese mega fashion brand is collaborating with
K-Pop artists. I believe there‟s a UNIQLO here in Singapore as well, too. Not to mention
Hong Kong, Taipei, NY, Paris. You see a pattern happening here.
That thing in the middle right there is a rice ball with Tuna and Kimchee, sold at
Circle-K convenience stores throughout Japan. If you look really close, that‟s a picture of
SM Entertainment‟s Super Junior there.
The Road to Stardom pt 1： The 1,2,3 of Korean Idol making
So let‟s look at how and why K-Pop has exploded into the Japanese, Asian and World
Market and taken it by storm.
I got a chance to talk with Senior VP of JYP Entertainment in NY, Woo Rhee, who‟s also
a good friend of mine. He‟s given me a lot of insight, and details into how they create
their stars, and he‟s allowed me to share some of this information with all of you today.
Let‟s first look at it from the perspective of the artist. Auditions are open to both maleand female, from the tender age of 9 years old. They usually promote monthly auditions
on TV, as well as on their official homepage. Hundreds and thousands come, but only asmall handful are selected that day. And even among that small handful, Woo has saidmaybe 2 out of 10 artists are allowed to stay.
So for at least the next 3 years, these kids must leave the comfort of home, and live
together in a dormitory with other prospective next generation stars. Their daily regime
consists of intensive vocal and dance training, as well as learning modeling, manners,
speech, and not to mention second and third languages, of course English and Chinese.
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On top of that Woo expresses the importance of scholastics and education, because as hesaid “Having talent is a given. I only want talented and smart artists.” Also, as I
mentioned earlier, only 2 out of those 10 artists actually stay, and he wants to make surethat during their stay at the JYP Academy, they excel at school studies, so in case theydon‟t make it as the next big idol, because of their academics, they can always transition
back into “normal life.” I think it is amazing for a record company to see that far ahead.
At JYP, they‟ve always got at least 30 artists in training, and some are more ready to go
than others. So sometimes it takes months, even years. As I mentioned some of these
Korean acts have 5 to 7 people, some people are more ready than others and sometimes
it takes time to find the perfect pairings to create that next unique super idol group.
Finally, even after the artists have been paired up, they‟ll need practical experience, andwill probably spend the next several months or years in the background of their older
brothers and sisters as back dancers or models at all the shows.
Finally, after all those years of training and perfection, with enough diligence,
dedication, good genetics, and a little bit of luck, these young soldiers of entertainment
are finally ready to debut.
The Road to Stardom pt 2
So now let‟s look at it from the management, record label, and music publishing side.
Let‟s break it down into 4 major groups:
Music Production
They‟ve seen early on in the mid 2000‟s because of artists such as Rain and Se7en thatthe music works for many territories outside of Korea. So the next logical step they took
was to create a sound and product that was competitive with the US and UK artists in
the global charts, and what better way to do that than reach out to the same big
producers? Big names like Will. I Am from the Black Eyed Peas, DeeKay from Denmark,producer for Diddy, Lil Wayne, are now responsible for many of these Global K-Pop hits.
Choreography
The same thing applies to choreographers. The same people training Omarion from B2K,
are training groups like 2NE1 and Big Bang.

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There is always a signature dance that accompanies any new single. The reason for thisis so that the music and the dance routine always go hand in hand, and now, you‟veturned a 2 dimensional song into a 3 dimensional total product. I think that is reallyamazing. Remember the Macarena song and dance from the States? I‟m sure everyone
has heard the song and can do the dance. It just sticks in people‟s brains like that. Well,
K-Pop is like the Macarena song on steroids.
FashionYou see this picture? (Photo1) This was
taken in Paris, France about 2 weeks ago,the fashion capital of the world. These
young kids are protesting because concert
tickets for a SM Entertainment show for avenue of 7,000 sold out in 15 minutes. So<Photo 1>

they want an additional date for the show.
So how does K-Pop market command this type of respect from fashion capitals of theworld like Paris? Well, just like they use the best producers and choreographers in theworld, they use the best fashion designers as well. One example is the late Alexander
McQueen who designed fashion for Lady Gaga, Kanye West, and Katy Perry. You can see
some of his designs being worn by the artists in a lot of YG Entertainment‟s music
videos.
And lastly, NetworkingI‟m sure many of you have used these on the flight here. Many of you may recognize theheadphone design. Yes, those are Monster Cables, Beats by Dre headphones.
There are only six iconic celebrities in the world that have collaborated with Dr. Dre andMonster. Those are Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Sean Combs (aka P. Diddy), basketballstar Lebron James, and the two you see here are JYP‟s 2PM and Wonder Girls. How inthe world they were able to get this done is beyond me but that‟s the power anddedication of K-Pop networking.
Reinventing the wheel without breaking the bank
So now that we‟ve spent the past 20 minutes discussing J-Pop and K-Pop let‟s see how
we can put this together to create the next big global hit without a big budget.
No secrets. I am going to tell you how I‟m going to approach this. So if anyone finds
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anything useful here please give me at least a 6 month head start!
Defining the artist
They must be1) Physically and visually beautiful.
a. Or at least have signs of potential.
2) Highly motivated and hungry for successa. We don‟t need beautiful kids who are spoiled rotten, that will abandon the
project when things become inconvenient.
3) Multi-Lingual
a. Remember English and Chinese is a must. (They don‟t necessarily have toall speak Chinese, but we see how rapidly not only the economy is growing,
but how big the entertainment sector is growing in China.
Whenever I‟m in Asia, I am absolutely addicted to Channel V as well asother Chinese language music channels.
There‟s some really amazing talent there, and in fact, I‟ve been getting a lotof hints from their music scene as well!
4) Freelance, they need to be unsigned.
a. The last thing you want is to have an amazing group ready to go, and themodeling companies or management agencies get greedy, and start
fighting with each other about who needs to be the leader, or stand in thefront of the group. This will only lead to disaster.
Discovering the artist
1) Internet and Mainstream Media Channels
a. Sure, web promotion, radio, are great but your audition might get lost or
unnoticed in cyberspace. Not to mention, I‟ve tried over the past year or sobut to be honest, we haven‟t found anything really exceptional here.
2) Amateur Dance and Club Events
a. It‟s amazing what type of raw talent you might find here but it‟s very labor
intensive to keep going to clubs to scout. So hire a few young eyes to always
be on the lookout.
3) International Schools in Asia
a. Though a lot of the kids we may find at International Schools will fulfill
requirement 1,3, and 4, physically and visually beautiful, multi-lingual andunsigned, it‟s the important #2 that “highly motivated and hungry forMusic Matters 201117

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success” that may be an issue. Again you might get lucky. We constantly
look every year at the International schools and their high school auditions
as well as musical performances within school.
4) Ballet & Gymnastic Schools and Synchronized Swimming.
a. Mom and Dad spend thousands of dollars to send their sons and daughtersto these elite schools to receive exceptional training under very strict
standards. However, only a fraction of these kids go on to become pros. So
don‟t let that training go to waste. Grab them while you can!

Discovering the soundIt must be:1) Adventurous
2) Creating and not Chasing
Trends3) Melodious / Less Cliché based
lyrically
4) Available in several languages
Whatever is hot now will be old 6months from now. Try to imagine
what will be hot 1 year or 2 years
from now.
A good melody will always stand the test of time. How many times have we been in anelevator or supermarket or when the brilliant David Foster songs or even Katie Perry isplayed in a classical music format, muzak. But we immediately recognize it because themelody is there. That is going to stick in our bones a lot longer than maybe just words
and clichés.
Also we are human not synthesizers so try to make sure that the song will make senseeven if it‟s played on piano or guitar.
I cannot stress enough the importance of collaborating with people outside of yourcomfort zone. Reach out to that big music publisher to put you in touch with the greatest
songwriters and producers in the world. Thanks to them, I‟ve been working with hit
makers from Sweden, Germany, Thailand, the UK, and the US.

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By sharing opportunities, publishing, and profit, I‟ve found that you can achieve not
only long-term results, but loyalty, and a buzz within the music writing communities allover the world.
Lastly, developing the artist
1) Sponsor the artists. You don‟t want your next big star working at a convenience store
or KFC. Sponsor your artist. Make sure they are not starving, but hungry enough tochase success.
2) Spend money on good teachers. I cannot stress this enough! Why spend 300k on a
Ferrari, and then not spend money on learning how to drive that machine to the limit?
Always get the best teachers that you possibly can.
3) They must be roommates. Some people say competitiveness is important within
members of a group. But how often have we heard about multi-platinum legendary
bands breaking up because they weren‟t able to get along with each other? Rivalry isgood, but not when it becomes destructive to the whole group.
4) Spend time to bond and develop trust with the artists. Though we have been talking
for the past 15 minutes about training superhuman machines of entertainment, wecannot forget about the fact that they, like us are all human beings. They need to becared for, nurtured, and praised.
5) Tying the ribbon! So now that we‟ve got the next generation of superstars in our camp,
how can we take it to the nextlevel? It seems as though theworld is looking at Asia rightnow. Asia is looking towards
breaking into the rest of theworld. And every industry istrying hard on their own toenter the global markets.
So why not combine the efforts
in the domestic market within
the various territories? You canhave a group of one kid fromMusic Matters 201119

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Thailand, one from Taiwan, one from China, one from Malaysia, Singapore. Why not
combine the efforts in each territory with the domestic fashion, cosmetics, food, andtechnology industries to penetrate the rest of the world? We‟re using different resources
and materials, but let‟s piggyback onto each other‟s efforts to reach that same common
goal.
For me, that is taking Asia to the World.
Thank you and I hope you all enjoyed my presentation.

KO: Thank you Jeff. I know many of you are here to discuss how to monetize the music
and to earn more from the music but I think that we as Music Publishers Association
have to consider seriously how to create better music, great music and tunes, and how
we can communicate with the Pan Asian people to create a huge hit from Asia to theworld.
Thank you very much Jeff and if someone has any questions we have 3 more minutes.
Sure, please.
Q&A
Q: Hi, my name‟s David. I‟m from Australia but I came out of Sweden. I‟ve done a lot ofcuts in Japan. How are you finding the lyric splits? Because traditionally when you takeEnglish language lyrics into Japan and also Korea, there was a time when 50% went to
the lyricist, then it has cut back to equal splits. Are you finding that it is going back theother way now?
JM: That is a great question and it is something that we have to deal with on every
single song that we do because the way that the royalties and the way that the
publishing is split is totally different from territory to territory, especially with the US
and Japan. Again it depends on case by case. Depending on the stature or how
successful that American, UK or foreign based producer is, they could probablycommand their percentage of the lyrics even though the Japanese are translating it.
They might not use a single word in their productions ultimately. They can commandmaybe not 100% of the lyric writing aspect of royalties but at least a very large share ofthat.
I would say that publishing wise too it has been a lot fairer. We are seeing a lot more
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collaborations between foreign-based writers for the Japanese market. I think one of thethings that has been changing that dynamic too is how K-Pop has penetrated Japan.
Did that answer your question?
KO: Any other questions?
Q: Hi, a very interesting presentation, Jeff. I just want to clear up one thing.
KO: That‟s Mr Steve McClure.
Q: Yes. You said Japan is the world‟s second biggest CD market. I think you might havebeen in error there. Rather Japan is the world‟s biggest CD market and the second
biggest music market. Sorry to be so anal about that.
JM: Oh, thank you.
Q: It's really interesting that Japan is still a solid physical sales market. But I will ask areally positive question. I think the idea of putting K-Pop and J-Pop together and taking
over the world is a great idea. But K-Pop is so strong these days, what does J-Pop bringto the table in terms of making a worldwide hit?
JM: I think the biggest thing I've noticed between J-Pop and K-Pop is, I'm sure many ofyou have been to the States, and I'm sure here in Singapore you have a small Little
Tokyo, or little Japanese town, but I'm sure the Korean community is really big. Little
Tokyo in Los Angeles is tiny, that‟s where I grew up, but Korea town just stretched out
for miles and miles. There are just so many American-born Koreans, people with
Western influence going over, studying in the States and taking all that art, all that
education back to Korea. And that's why the music sounds so western I suppose in anutshell.
I think that's one of the really big differences between J-Pop and K-Pop. J-Pop caters
just to the J-Pop market. But K-Pop caters to so many other world markets only because
they have been doing it for so long. Even hip-hop wasn't selling all that great in Korea
but they kept doing it because there were so many hip-hop producers, there were somany hip-hop musicians, and they were so influential. Even dance music wasn't that big
but they kept doing it, they kept getting better, they kept getting more amazing. People
eventually realized it and they started garnering all kinds of attention worldwide.

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J-Pop, I think what we need to do is, if you look at all the videos, and I'm sure many ofus have seen J-Pop versus Korean K-Pop videos. J-Pop videos tend to be a little morecuter whereas K-Pop videos tend to be a little more sexy, a little more dangerous. This isjust a huge cultural difference between the two countries. Whereas in Japan, you can't
be too sexy, you can't be too beautiful; you can't be too perfect because the Japanesepublic cannot relate to you whatsoever.
But at the same time in K-Pop you have a certain amount of sexiness, a certain amountof perfection, and that is what people like. So the cultural values are different, I believe.
Even the conception of love is different between Korea and Japan. It has greatly affected
the outcome, and the end, result of the music.
I would say in Japan, even with all of the Anime that we have seen crossing to all thedifferent territories, Japan tends to be cuter, where Korea tends to be a little sexier. I
think what Japan needs to be doing now, we have been eating a lot of fish, and we havebeen eating a lot of vegetables over the past few years. The Koreans have been eating a
lot of meat and a lot of red blood, really! When was the last time you went to a Japanesebarbecue, a big Kobe steak? You don't see it that often.
Physically we have been different for a long time but thanks to McDonald's, we've got areally great Burger King in Shibuya right now, too. The new generation is eating a lot ofmeat, a lot of junk food, a lot of great Western food. Physically they are starting tochange drastically, you know? Their conception of love, cuteness is slowly becoming
more globalized and internationalized. So I think very soon, we've seen over the CD anddigital charts too, we are seeing these young kids, as well as the older generation buying
digital over CDs too. It would just be a natural progression for Japan to have a big girls
or boys group that would hopefully becompetitive within the next one to three
years. And that is what I'm aiming for aswell too.
KO: Thank you Jeff. I think we need to
go now.
Thank you for your patience and I‟ll lookforward to seeing you next year. Thankyou.
END OF SESSION

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Music Publishers Association of Japan

www.mpaj.or.jp

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