“Merlin was conceived as an outward-looking global organisation, and the Japanese market will be of paramount importance to our international membership,” Merlin CEO Charles Caldas said. “Over recent years, we have also seen a marked increase in members from the Asian territories, while in 2015 Merlin signed its first ever pan-Asian specific deal with KKBOX. For these reasons, the decision to open a Japanese office as an initial step into this region makes strong strategic sense.”
Japan has proven to be a challenging market for some segments of the music industry because of its focus on physical formats. Digital revenue grew in the first half of 2016, but still totaled just $255 million compared with $991 million spent on CDs in the period.