was a US

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

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, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

that was launched in 2003 to distribute

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese Sony artists in the United States until its closure in 2007. Their first signed artist was T.M.Revolution, and they used the

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

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. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to the Walter E. Washing ...

2003 was successful, drawing an audience of over 5,000. Tofu Records' second signing was with L'Arc-en-Ciel. The label kicked off publicity for the group with a concert at 1st Mariner Arena in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

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

Nami Tamaki is a Japanese singer. As a teenager under the Sony Music Japan label, she had four top-ten albums, two of which reached number one. Her singles were used as theme songs for animated shows such as '' Mobile Suit Gundam Seed'', '' Gundam Seed De ...

High and Mighty Color High and Mighty Color (stylized as HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR and abbreviated as H&MC) 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 w ...

, ZONE, Miss Monday, Rhymester, Soulhead and Polysics. 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 Group Corporation and is opera ...

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, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

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