Line Music has officially launched in Japan. It will offer two price tiers, the first costing 500 yen (about $4) a month for 20 hours of streaming. The second tier costs 1,000 yen (about $8) for unlimited listening on the platform. The streaming service is owned by Japan-based messaging company Line, and it also has involvement from Universal Music Japan. The company debuted Line Music in Thailand for a trial last month.
Japan has been a notoriously challenging market for streaming music services. None of the major platforms have entered that nation because Japanese listeners have shown a preference for physical formats. However, Japan’s entire music market saw a contraction of 4.5% last year and CD sales fell 6%.
