With the arrival of Line Music this month, and the possible arrivals of Spotify and Apple Music on the horizon, Japan's powerful CD industry could see some arguably necessary shakeups. Up until now, though, 2015 has been much the same in terms of sales.
Idol pop, boy bands and anime soundtracks have dominated the charts with help from the usual non-music-related gimmicks like tickets to handshake events, but June sales saw some bona fide musicians also do well: Superfly, Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Mr. Children.
According to chart service Oricon, Veteran pop-rock group Mr. Children sold 355,268 copies of "Reflection" in its first week. It came out in two formats, "Naked" and "Drip." "Naked" is a ¥9,000 box set with a USB flash drive equipped with 23 songs, while "Drip" is a standard 14-track CD. The album is so far not on Line Music, though, which could foretell the obstacles facing music-streaming sites in Japan.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.