Dog Ear Records is a music production company and

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

founded by composer

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton ...

in November 2006. The company publishes video game soundtracks and original albums on disc and digitally through

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. The website includes community features including a bilingual blog, YouTube channel, radio program and information related to live performances taking place in the Tokyo area.

Outline

The company is based in the Meguro area of the city of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. In February 2007, the "DERBLOG" weblog launched, reporting on the company's releases and live events. In October, of the same year, an online radio program called "Inu Mimi Radio" began, hosted by Uematsu. The show invited guests including participants of

The Black Mages The Black Mages were a Japanese instrumental rock band formed in 2002 by Nobuo Uematsu, Kenichiro Fukui and Tsuyoshi Sekito, who were three video game composers for Square and Square Enix. The band arranged Uematsu's ''Final Fantasy'' video game ...

concert series, including

Kenichiro Fukui is a Japanese video game composer and electronic musician. Before working at Square Enix, he was employed at Konami. He was also an arranger and a keyboardist in the band The Black Mages. Additionally, Fukui arranged Angela Aki's " Kiss Me Good- ...

, Michio Okamiya, and Arata Hanyuda. The first Dog Ear Records live showcase took place November 24, 2008, and featured Keita Egusa, a pianist whose album "KALAYCILAR" was published by the record label.

History

The first international event Dog Ear Records participated in took place October 20, 2007, in Stockholm, Sweden. Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy featured selections from Uematsu's music from the

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

series performed by the

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra ( sv, Kungliga Filharmonikerna or , literal translations, "Royal Philharmonic" or "Royal Philharmonic Orchestra") is a Swedish orchestra based in Stockholm. Its principal venue is the Konserthuset. His ...

. Shortly thereafter, the company organized a live event on November 19 titled "Microsoft Presents 'Orchestral Pieces from LOST ODYSSEY & BLUE DRAGON'" taking place at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo. In March 2008, Dog Ear Records announced the release of the album THE BLACK MAGES III Darkness and Starlight. A live concert took place at the Yokohama Blitz in August. The same month, the company began international digital releases via the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

Staff

*Nobuo Uematsu *Hiroki Ogawa *Itsuki Iwasa *Tsutomu Narita *Michio Okamiya

Discography

2006 *''

Blue Dragon Blue Dragon may refer to: Biology * '' Glaucus atlanticus'', a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Glaucidae * '' Glaucus marginatus'', a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Glaucidae * '' Pteraeolidia ianthina'', a she ...

'' 2007 *''Anata wo Yurusanai'' *''

Lost Odyssey is a Japanese role-playing video game developed by Feelplus and planned by Mistwalker for the Xbox 360. It was published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2007 in Japan and 2008 in western territories. The story follows Kaim, one of a select group of ...

'' 2008 *''The Black Mages III - Darkness and Starlight'' *''KALAYCILAR'' *''saru monkey breaks'' 2009 *''

Lord of Vermilion is an arcade-based fantasy collectible card game developed by Think Garage and distributed by Square Enix in which players control combat cards on an arcade play surface. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy team's Arcana Stones and ...

'' *'' Sakura Note: Ima ni Tsunagaru Mirai'' 2010 *''

Xenoblade Chronicles is a series of action role-playing games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. It is a part of the '' Xeno'' metaseries created by Tetsuya Takahashi, but was formed after Nintendo's acquisition of Monolith Soft in 2007. The se ...

'' 2011 *''

The Last Story is a Japanese action role-playing game, developed by Mistwalker and AQ Interactive for the Wii video game console. Nintendo published the title in all regions except for North America, where it was published by Xseed Games. Initially released in ...

'' *''

Earthbound Papas The Earthbound Papas are a Japanese progressive rock/metal band performing songs and interpretations of music from video games, notably including the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Nobuo Uematsu, the acclaimed composer of music in the ''Final Fanta ...

: Octave Theory'' 2012 *''

Fantasy Life ''Fantasy Life'' is a role-playing life simulation game developed by Level-5 for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was self-released in Japan in 2012 and was published worldwide by Nintendo in 2014. The game was written and produced by Akihiro Hino ...

'' 2013 *''

: Dancing Dad''

References

External links

* Japanese record labels Record labels established in 2006 {{record-label-stub