was a US

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 ...

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

that was launched in 2003 to distribute

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese Sony artists in the United States, and that closed in 2007. Their first signed artist was

T.M.Revolution is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, voice artist, radio personality, and businessman. He performs under the stage name T.M.Revolution (TMR), which stands for , stemming from the famous '80s pop electronic band TM ...

, and they used the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

fandom community to spread the word. T.M.Revolution's U.S. concert debut at

Otakon Otakon ( ) is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. It stands for Otaku Convention. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to ...

2003 was successful, drawing an audience of over 5,000. Tofu Records' second signing was with

L'Arc-en-Ciel L'Arc-en-Ciel ( French: 'The Rainbow', stylized as L'Arc~en~Ciel), also known as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band, formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitarist ...

. The label kicked off publicity for the group with a concert at

1st Mariner Arena CFG Bank Arena (originally the Baltimore Civic Center and formerly Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore Arena and 1st Mariner Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Convention ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

during Otakon 2004. L'Arc-en-Ciel made 1st Mariner Arena history by being the first music group from Japan to headline there. The concert drew an estimated 12,000. In 2006, Tofu Records also published the ''

Splurge ''Splurge'' is a Japanese-language pop album by Puffy Amiyumi that was released on June 28, 2006 in Japan. It was released in the US on July 25, 2006, after their East Coast Tour. On tracks 12 and 13, "Camel Country" and "Security Blanket", the v ...

'' album by pop rock duo PUFFY. They also represented

Nami Tamaki Nami ( ar, نامي, ja, 波 ('wave'), ('regular'), etc.) may refer to: Given name * Nami (, , , , ), Japanese feminine given name * Nami Akimoto (born 1968), Japanese manga artist * , Japanese film director, screenwriter and editor *, Japanes ...

High and Mighty Color High and Mighty Color (stylized as HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR) was a Japanese rock band active from 2003 to 2010. They had two vocalists; a male and a female. History Formation and Anti-Nobunaga The band started in Okinawa when Sassy and Meg left a ...

ZONE Zone or The Zone may refer to: Places Climate and altitude zones * Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span * Frigid zone, ...

Miss Monday Miss Monday (born 1976) is a Japanese hip-hop and R&B artist.Deming, MarkMiss Monday Biography, Allmusic, retrieved 2011-06-19 She sings as well as raps, and has collaborated with other artists such as Sowelu, JAMOSA, and Youngshim. She began he ...

Rhymester Poetaster , like rhymester or versifier, is a derogatory term applied to bad or inferior poets. Specifically, ''poetaster'' has implications of unwarranted pretensions to artistic value. The word was coined in Latin by Erasmus in 1521. It was fir ...

Soulhead Soulhead (known as SOULHEAD in Japan) is a Japanese urban contemporary/ R&B duo consisting of sisters Yoshika Sawayama (よしか) and Tsugumi Sawayama (つぐみ). Both were born in Hokkaidō; Yoshika was born on July 20, 1978 and Tsugumi was bor ...

and

Polysics is a Japanese Techno/Electronic Music band from Tokyo, who dubs its unique style as "technicolor pogo punk". It was named after a brand of synthesizer, the Korg Polysix. The band started in 1997, but got their big break in 1998 at a concert in ...

. In March 2007, Tofu Records closed. Releases on

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

now appear on Columbia or

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

through a new deal.

Releases

''All releases listed at discogs.com.''"Tofu Records"
''discogs.com''. Accessed 14 April 2013.

References

External links

Official site at archive.org
{{Authority control Sony Music Entertainment Japan Former Sony subsidiaries Record labels established in 2003 Record labels disestablished in 2007 Defunct record labels of the United States Rock record labels Pop record labels Companies based in Santa Monica, California

Releases

See also

References

External links