Japanese radio and TV web broadcasting gets a little easier September 12, 2006
Posted by fukumimi in IT, Japan, Music.add a comment
JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) and CPRA (Center for Performers’ Rights Association) have announced that they will begin centralised management of rights and royalites starting October. (Asahi article in Japanese here)
The royalty fee is apparently 5.45% for programming which is more than 50% music. (It is not clear if this is the combined fee split between the two organisations, or it is 5.45% each, which would mean a 10.9% royalty which seems rather steep)
(Lower fees apply for programming where music is incidental (1.8% to each organisation for content which includes less than 10% of music, 2.7% for 10-20%), such programming would include TV dramas, TV/radio documentaries with incidental background music, etc)
One of the main barriers to web based music content was the fact that rights and royalties had to be negotiated with each individual rights holder prior to this centralised system.
NHK and community radio stations apparently baulked at the license fee structure and declined to participate.
More details should emerge when the respective organisations publish their official fee structures. Other royalty payments are structured with a “per work fee or % of revenues which ever is higher” type structure, and the details might reveal some hidden surprises.
Setting aside the question of the size of royalty payments, a centralised system of royalty collection will make it easier for on-line music services to begin in earnest.
Last.fm have begun offering services in Japan, and it would seem that this announcement will allow it to begin its web radio services including Japanese content in earnest. Other web music services are hopefully set to follow.
Link to Mixi CTO’s technical presentation September 8, 2006
Posted by fukumimi in IT, Japan.2 comments
For the technically minded readers out there who want to get a look into the technical issues behind running a wildly popular SNS, here’s a link to a presentation given by the CTO at the MySQL Users Conference this year. I believe Batara Kesuma gave this presentation in Japan as well, as the content of the presentation is familiar and was covered by some of the local IT press. (I doubt they attended the conference in Santa Clara)
Hat tip to Gen for the link.
Japanese regional newspapers unite to set up federated news portal September 7, 2006
Posted by fukumimi in Internet, Japan, Media.2 comments
It has been announced that the Nikkei Shimbun will head up an effort to drag the regional newspapers into the digital age. Nikkei along with 46 regional newspapers will be setting up a company which which incorporate content from a total of 51 media outlets.
The idea apprently is to provide a consolidated media portal which will help drive traffic to the individual portals operated by regional players.
Most of the regional media outlets aren’t very progressive, and have not had the on-line success which has been forthcoming for certain regional media outlets in the US for example. I doubt that many people read the SF Chronicle or Seattle Post-Intelligencer before they started exploiting the web, now these media outlets (and similar outlets which produce interesting and nationally relevant content) have been able to expand their readership significantly.
Many Japanese regional media outlets do have web presences, and in my personal experience, I have visited these sites when they are linked by Yahoo Japan (or similar web news portals), but strictly on an article by article basis.
The “journalism” and reporting in most of the regional media outlets is staid and doesn’t really leave much of an impact. Additionally, the web page designs on the whole appear to make no real attempt to entice people who stumble upon the site to explore the site further.
It’ll be interesting to see how the portal develops……
CNET Japan launches new site focussing on IT technology ventures September 6, 2006
Posted by fukumimi in IT, Internet, Japan, Media, Uncategorized.add a comment
CNET Networks Japan, the outfit behind CNET Japan and ZDNET Japan, launched CNET Venture View (site in Japanese). The new site features news and press releases, blogs written by business leaders, entrepreneurs and VCs (Masa Kobayashi from Globis Capital Partners, Ryu Muramatsu from GMO Venture Partners, Yozo Kaneko from Netage Capital Partners, and Hisashi Katsuya from IBM Venture Capital Group has an editorial thing going), editorials, and a directory of IT ventures.
Most of the content isn’t really new, the news and press releases are the same as what was being published on CNET Japan, as are most of the blogs. (some new bloggers have been recently recruited to bulk up the blogger pool)
The directory is a new feature, and the site features tags which may be a useful feature as content is built up. There does seem to be a lot of content which has been transplanted from the main CNET Japan portal, bringing everything together in one place does make it easier for people following the sector.
The trial of the year starts September 4, 2006
Posted by fukumimi in IT, Japan, law.add a comment
Takafumi Horie, ex-CEO of Livedoor, has turned up at the Tokyo District Court for the first day of his trial. He didn’t turn up in his usual white t-shirt and jeans, but rather in a sombre suit and white shirt (no tie).
He has plead not guilty to all charges, and has assembled a formidable defense team. It is expected that his ex-colleagues will testify against him, so we have an interesting few months ahead….
[Horie arrived at the court house without a tie but apparently put one on before entering the court room - a dark blue tie if anyone cares about these things. The trial certainly looks like a media circus unfolding, today was day 2 and it was again the top item on the 7pm news]
