14 DAY TRIAL // 2005 was "Year of iPod in Japan" according to the The Daily Yomiuri.
Apples' music player took the market by storm and held it. "As of the middle of November, iPods had a roughly 60 percent share of Japan's portable digital music-player market, according to Tokyo-based industry publication WebBCN Ranking, leaving Arch-rival Sony well behind at just under 10 percent of the market," Steve McClure reports for The Daily Yomiuri.
The iPod sales went hand in hand with the local iTunes Music Store, which was launched on the 4th of August. In just four days after being opened, the Japanese Music store sold over 1 million songs, becoming the number one music download site in Japan, according to Apple.
The iPod explosion did have a Shockwave and renewed concern, among record companies and artists in Japan, regarding potential loss of income, due to the copying and sharing of songs using the digital devices. In early December, a government committee rejected the request placed by the Japanese music industry for a so-called "iPod tax," which would have expanded the current levy on digital recording media to include hard-disk and flash-memory devices such as the iPod.
"Despite all the hoopla surrounding iTunes' long-awaited debut in Japan, PC-based downloads still account for just a fraction of total music sales in Japan. Even so, PC download sales by the RIAJ's members in the July-September quarter totaled 2.3 million tracks, up 125 percent. Meanwhile, mobile-based downloads (including full single tracks, ring tones and master ring tones) totaled 72.1 million in the same period, up 25 percent," McClure reports.