Several weeks ago, 116 pop music artists and 24 concert-related companies bought full-page advertisements in two national dailies. The ads publicized the signatories' determination to combat the practice of reselling concert tickets on the internet, which has resulted in hugely inflated prices for popular acts. By squeezing out fans who couldn't afford these prices, the message said, the resale market was threatening the very existence of popular music.

Exactly what these artists and companies are going to do about it, however, isn't clear; nor, exactly, is what they can do, short of convincing the government to ban ticket resales over the internet. Reselling tickets is basically online scalping. Parties buy as many tickets as they can for popular shows through proper channels and then immediately resell them at high markups on specialized ticket resale sites such as Ticket Camp.

Though the international media makes a big deal out of the fact that CD sales still remain relatively strong in Japan, the fact is, revenues for recorded music here are dropping, just not as fast as they have in other countries. Live music is still a profitable endeavor, which means the music industry relies more and more on concerts to survive. Takao Nakanishi, the president of the Association of Concert Promoters, one of the organizations that placed the ad, recently told the Tokyo Shimbun that "resales that go beyond the realm of sensible have become commonplace, so many fans who want to attend concerts are being shut out." In addition, "it hurts the artists," since none of the extra money being spent on tickets is going to them. People who spend more money than they expect to spend on tickets do not buy merchandise at the concert venue, which now makes up a considerable portion of music income. More to the point, the extra money spent on resold tickets isn't going to promoters and record companies either.