The

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

, a region that includes Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan is a rapidly growing

economic sector One classical breakdown of economic activity distinguishes three sectors: * Primary: involves the retrieval and production of raw-material commodities, such as corn, coal, wood or iron. Miners, farmers and fishermen are all workers in the p ...

that is home to some of the world's largest music markets.

Milestones

In 2003,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

became the world's first music market where digital music sales surpassed those of physical formats. In 2012,

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 n ...

surpassed the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

as the world's largest recorded music market for the first time, according to the

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

. Though the U.S. remained the largest if licensing fees are included into the figures. However, in the following year, Japan fell back to the second-largest music market after experiencing a 16.7 per cent decrease due to the country's reliance of CDs and slow adoption of digital services. In 2019, there were 750 million digital music users in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. It was also estimated that its digital music market hit a yearly revenue of approximately 13.2 billion yuan in 2020. China is expected to become one of the largest music markets in the world by 2020.

Contrast with the global music industry

Although global physical music sales (such as CDs) have been declining in recent years, in

(particularly

and

), however, physical music sales have been rising consistently. The

credits this phenomenon to "

K-Pop K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, go ...

fans who want high-quality physical formats and deluxe box sets". According to a music executive from

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

, CDs are becoming "the new merchandise in Asia".

Controversy

Several controversies have arrived based on the way the industry has been treating its artists.

Control of artists personal lives

It is not uncommon for record labels to prohibit their pop artists from dating for a certain period of time or for as long as they have a contract with the company. In Japan managers may attempt to discourage their artists from dating or engaging in behavior that may tarnish their images by keeping a busy schedule and only letting artists know about their schedules a day at a time. Artists who break this contract, as in the case of Minami Minegishi from

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with i ...

, run the risk of getting dropped from their music group or contract. Korea has similar rules for musical pop artists. Artists have more freedom to date and get married, however managers have strong control over their personal lives and behaviors. In Taiwan, artists are also expected to behave in certain ways, as they cannot discuss taboo topics such as politics.

Ranking

The following table lists the total revenues of the music markets of East Asia: Notes * The ranking is based on IFPI Global Music Report 2022. Since IFPI does not release the data below the top 20 since 2011, the rank for Taiwan and Hong Kong is based on the 2010 report.

References