MBW’s World Leaders is a daily collection during which we flip the highlight towards a number of the most influential business figures overseeing key worldwide markets. On this function, we converse to Kaori Hayashi, the Los Angeles-based CEO of Japan-headquartered live performance promoter HIP (Hayashi Worldwide Promotions). World Leaders is supported by PPL.
Kaori Hayashi has promoted reveals for a number of the world’s largest artists in Japan.
The broadly revered stay music exec serves as a key hyperlink between main artists from the likes of the US and UK with Japan, the world’s second-largest recorded music market.
Hayashi’s present management place within the international market follows a world background, having grown up in Japan, and finding out on the College of London within the UK. After she graduated, she moved to Los Angeles and labored on the William Morris Company.
Hayashi’s’ journey within the stay music enterprise in Japan began together with her working as an assistant tour supervisor to Mariah Carey on a stadium tour of the market.
Now, as CEO of Japan-headquartered Hayashi International Promotions (HIP), the Los Angeles-based exec lists a few of her profession highlights as selling main reveals in Japan by superstars like Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, U2, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd amongst many others.
“Bruno Mars’ Japan tour needs special mention as I closed the deal and made an announcement at the end of September 2022 for five Dome shows in October,” says Hayashi.
“Normally, tickets go on sale six months prior to show date but here we only had four weeks to sell them and he became the fastest-selling stadium artist in Japan.
“Everybody thought I was mad, including my own staff (so they say afterwards), but we managed to sell out in two days.”
HIP ended up promoting out 5 reveals on the Tokyo Dome for Bruno Mars in This autumn 2022 totalling over 200,000 tickets. The corporate additionally bought out three reveals on the Dome for Maroon 5 in This autumn.
Based over 40 years in the past, stay music powerhouse HIP is the most important live performance promoter in Japan and handles festivals and concert events for each international and home artists.
In recent times, along with bringing varied international superstars to Japan, HIP has additionally been chargeable for taking distinguished US rock pageant manufacturers into the market.
“Everybody thought I was mad, including my own staff (so they say afterwards), but we managed to sell out in two days.”
One such pageant was Ozzfest, in partnership with Sharon Osbourne. It debuted available in the market in 2013 and returned in 2015.
“Ozzfest Japan was really a breakthrough festival for all rock genres,” remembers Hayashi.
“In Japan, there are two categories of fans – international fans and domestic (Japanese music) fans.
“Ozzfest became the first rock festival to integrate both categories of fans together under one roof by providing a line-up of prominent Japanese bands and western rock bands playing on two separate stages side-by-side alternating. It was very cool and Sharon Osbourne helped reunite Black Sabbath for the first Ozzfest Japan which was truly epic.”
HIP achieved success once more with one other American pageant export, Slipknot’s exhausting rock and steel pageant Knotfest, which debuted in Japan in 2014.
Knotfest befell in Japan most lately in April 2023 after being rescheduled a few instances because of the pandemic. “The success of Knotfest has shown that the interest in hard rock is still as strong as ever, ” says Hayashi.
“[Plus,] with our sold-out stadium shows of Bruno Mars and Maroon 5 in the last quarter of 2022, we had seen that the demand for top international talent was enormous.”
Like most international markets, Japan’s stay music sector was badly impacted by lockdowns attributable to Covid.
“For domestic artists, the business effectively closed from March 2020 to July 2020, thereafter, shows did return but with significantly restricted capacities until last year,” explains HIP’s CEO. “For international shows the market was closed from March 2020 until the middle of last year as foreigners were banned from entering Japan.”
Commenting on Japan’s post-pandemic comeback, Hayashi says that the restoration for worldwide acts “has been spectacular” however that “the recovery for domestic artists has been slower but we expect next year to see a full return to 2019 levels”.
Trying to the longer term, HIP’s Hayashi argues that she wish to see “a bigger priority” given to Japan and Asia usually on the worldwide touring circuit.
Hayashi explains that, “for some global tours, the Asian dates are tagged on at the end whereas the importance of the region warrants a greater focus in mapping out tour itineraries”.
Right here, Kaori Hayashi tells MBW about different challenges in Japan’s stay music business for each home and worldwide acts, her views on ticket pricing, streaming, and her total predictions for the way forward for the market’s stay music enterprise…
What are the largest challenges in Japan’s stay music enterprise?
One of many largest challenges is in securing venues for worldwide artists. Japan has a vibrant native music business the place reveals will be booked as much as two years upfront.
With worldwide acts we regularly have a six-month interval or much less to safe a venue. Our largest venue, the Tokyo Dome, is the house of the Tokyo Giants baseball crew which limits the dates out there for reveals. The state of affairs is enhancing with extra venues turning into out there such because the Okay Area opening later this yr with a 20,000 capability.
One other problem is entry to knowledge when deciding to advertise a present. Streaming knowledge is barely out there to the labels and the most important ticketing firms don’t share shopper knowledge.
What inventive or enterprise developments are you seeing available in the market you can inform us about?
We’re lastly seeing using cellular ticketing though Japan remains to be behind many developed international locations in its adoption.
With venues, we are actually seeing the encouragement of personal possession with current tenders soliciting bids from native and worldwide property builders. Nonetheless, most of the well-known venues in Japan are nonetheless owned or partly owned by native governments.
The place are the largest alternatives in Japan for worldwide artists?
The largest alternative for a world artist is to totally cross over to the followers of home music. Japanese acts account for almost 90% of all tickets bought for stay music occasions in Japan. One artist that has achieved that is Bruno Mars. Not solely do you might want to be extremely proficient you additionally want to indicate loyalty to your Japanese followers and often carry out within the nation whereas actively selling your reveals.
He additionally cleverly intergraded Japanese music on stage, talking some Japanese to be one with the followers on stage. I assumed that basically hit Japanese folks’s hearts and so they admire him for it. He makes the hassle.
What are the largest challenges for worldwide artists and their representatives in Japan?
One main problem is to appreciate that your reputation abroad doesn’t robotically switch to Japan. Due to this fact, you could must scale down your expectations for Japan to start with, as a substitute of an area present as elsewhere you could must play in a theatre or perhaps a membership.
As I discussed earlier than, you might be competing in a market dominated by Japanese artists. It is advisable to settle for requests to seem in native TV reveals and different media with a optimistic and easy-going angle which is a problem if, as can occur, you haven’t any thought of what’s going on round you.
What are your predictions for the stay music enterprise in Japan in 2023?
The marketplace for worldwide artists appears very promising. After an absence of over two years, followers have a pent-up demand for main acts as we noticed within the final quarter of 2022 with Bruno Mars and Maroon 5 (pictured inset).
I additionally count on a rise in attendance of native reveals as all of the remaining restrictions from Covid are lastly withdrawn. Followers will lastly be allowed to scream and shout and take away their masks.
plans are being thought of by the federal government in Japan to require concertgoers to hold ID playing cards to attend gigs to assist struggle ticket touting. What are your views on that plan and the way large an issue is ticket touting within the stay business in Japan?
The Japanese authorities has been proactive within the struggle towards ticket touting. In 2019, it banned the resale of tickets for greater than face worth. Though this has not eradicated the position of ticket touts, it has made the secondary ticket market much less engaging for Japanese firms. The usage of ID playing cards isn’t so simple as it sounds because it pertains to a MY Quantity Card, just like a US social safety quantity. The federal government is making an attempt to advertise folks to use for an IC chip-equipped My Quantity Card which isn’t but compulsory. It’s only utilizing such a card that the digital ticket will be checked to an individual’s ID.
Due to this fact, there may be the problem {that a} vital share of the inhabitants have but to use for the My Quantity card and that bodily tickets are nonetheless very a lot in use for a lot of reveals.
There was a number of debate round dynamic ticket pricing. What are your views on this methodology of ticket promoting?
In Japan, dynamic pricing is used extensively within the journey enterprise however thus far has had little influence within the live performance enterprise. I’m certain sooner or later dynamic pricing could have an vital position in Japan, however we do have a powerful fan membership tradition the place artists want to deal with their loyal followers pretty and wouldn’t wish to obtain complaints about completely different ticket costs for a similar class of seat.
What developments are you seeing when it comes to ticket pricing in Japan for the reason that stay business reopened after the Pandemic?
After a few years of zero inflation, we are actually experiencing worth will increase in Japan however far lower than the US or Europe. Because of this, there was an increase in Japanese live performance ticket costs.
Again in summer season 2019, AEG’s Rick Mueller mentioned extra artists within the US have been capable of promote 2,000 to 4,000 capability reveals than at any time in historical past. Is that this rising ‘middle class’ of stay acts one thing you’re additionally seeing in Japan? If that’s the case, how a lot of a spotlight is that ‘middle class’ of stay acts for HIP?
The success of those “middle class” acts in Japan is a consequence of the event of latest venues. Zepp’s been growing a nationwide community of venues of between 2,000 to 2,500 capacities, all following the identical primary design. This has helped us plan nationwide excursions for these “middle class” acts.
How aggressive is the stay market at the moment for promoters primarily based in Japan versus international promoters akin to Live Nation and many others working available in the market?
We solely compete with Reside Nation for worldwide acts, most of our reveals are home acts the place we compete with many Japanese promoters.
What influence, if any, has the expansion of music streaming in Japan had on the stay enterprise available in the market, when it comes to worldwide artists touring in there?
Music streaming in Japan has grown impressively in the previous couple of years however nonetheless lags behind the US and different western markets. The labels in Japan are actually capable of launch worldwide artists by streaming that they in any other case wouldn’t have achieved. Nonetheless, the main target of the labels is on home artists, and, with just a few exceptions, scant advertising and marketing {dollars} are spent on advertising and marketing new worldwide acts.
Bodily music, and significantly CDs, are the dominant listening format in Japan – does this continued demand for bodily music translate to robust merch demand at stay concert events?
The excessive gross sales of CDs can result in some deceptive conclusions. Many home acts embody varied live performance ticket presents, meet and greet alternatives and different promotional gadgets within the CDs can result in followers shopping for many instances over the identical CD.
Japanese followers love well-made merchandising and sometimes queue for hours to purchase gadgets earlier than they’re bought out. I consider it’s from the need to have some bodily memento of the present.
