Maltine Records
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Since the mid-2000s, a
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
has taken place where numerous
netlabel A netlabel (also online label, web label, digi label, MP3 label or download label) is a record label that distributes its music through digital audio file format, formats (such as MP3, Vorbis, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, or WAV) over the Internet. While s ...
s, online labels that release their music for free, located in Japan have been formed and garnered a huge amount of publicity which, according to writer Patrick St. Michel, has shaped how popular Japanese music is produced. Japan's netlabel phenomenon was the first time in the history of the nation's music industry where underground musicians could produce their works however they wanted to and have their music noticed by the public; this is an aspect that was previously absent at a time when major labels in the country followed a conservative method where they managed how artists would produce their music. Starting in the 2010s, the netlabel scene has crossed over to the mainstream music landscape and all across the world, with netlabel producers transitioning into working for bigger labels and western producers like
Cashmere Cat Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ and record producer. Often in tandem with Benny Blanco, he has been credited with production work for artists including Kanye West, the Kid L ...
and
Ryan Hemsworth Ryan Hemsworth (born 23 April 1990) is a Canadian record producer and DJ. He specialises in electronic music and sampling. He has produced tracks for Tinashe, Tory Lanez, Mitski, and E-40. Biography Raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Hemsworth a ...
being influenced by the music of Japanese netlabels.


History and notable labels


Lost Frog Productions

Lost Frog Productions is a
noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...
,
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
, and
electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...
label founded in 1992 by Haruo Ishihara. In the Japanese underground, they are considered the oldest Japanese netlabel in existence. Their website activity was logged starting in 1996, with the invention of the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
, and their first release in
audio file An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The bit layout of the audio data (excluding metadata) is called the audio coding format and can be uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size, o ...
format was on April 20, 2003, with the release of Surfers of Romantica's Heavy Metal. They were, and still are, a netlabel that heavily encouraged the free and/or inexpensive distribution of music, having all of their digital releases up for download on their website, and later reissued their previous albums released on CD to reflect this mentality. As time went on, Lost Frog's musical focus drifted from musical
experimentation An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
and
noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...
, to other more rhythmic electronics, such as
breakcore Breakcore is a style of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high ...
,
speedcore Speedcore is a form of electronic music that is characterized by a high tempo and aggressive themes. It was created in the early to mid-1990s and the name originates from the hardcore genre as well as the high tempo used. Songs are usually clas ...
, IDM,
footwork Footwork may refer to: * Footwork (cricket) *Footwork (dance) *Footwork (genre), a genre of electronic music, also known as juke *Footwork (martial arts) Footwork is a martial arts and combat sports term for the general usage of the legs and ...
(alongside its breakcore-infused variant, footcore), and various other sampling-based electronic genres.


Minus N

Ryosuke Hidaka estimated that
Netlabel A netlabel (also online label, web label, digi label, MP3 label or download label) is a record label that distributes its music through digital audio file format, formats (such as MP3, Vorbis, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, or WAV) over the Internet. While s ...
s began increasing publicity outside Japan around 1999 and 2000.St. Michel, Patrick (March 18, 2013)
"Not All Imprints Make CDs – Enter the Netlabel"
''
MTV 81 MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
''.
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2005), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Pa ...
. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
Minus N began formation in 2003. While Minus N set the model of distribution of Japan's netlabel community in that every release was issued for free online, it garnered the most attraction from Western territories due to acts from all across the world on the label.


Maltine Records

Maltine Records is one of the most popular imprints in the netlabel scene of Japan. There have been more than 130 releases under the label as of December 2014. In 2005, high school freshmen Tomohiro Konuta, also known as Tomad, and Syem, his real name not revealed, formed the
electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
netlabel Maltine Records as a way to distribute their music. Konuta explained, "During that time, there were a lot of internet labels starting to pop up overseas, and people uploading their music online for free—this influenced me and gave me the idea to start Maltine." With Maltine, the two also released tracks from artists they found on internet
bulletin boards A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. ...
and services such as 2chan and
Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
. In the words of journalist Patrick St. Michel, the label gained attention due to "a combination of reoccurring musicians and one-off releases."St. Michel, Patrick (May 19, 2011)
"Online Maltine learns old-school tricks"
''
The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...
''. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
Starting in the early 2010s, Maltine has used methods to spread their music around to those who don't have computer internet access; this included making and releasing the compilation album ''MP3 Killed The CD Star?'' (2010) on CD and a free
iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
application for listening to music by the netlabel. Maltine has crossed over into the mainstream ever since the 2010s.Harwood, Nick (June 30, 2014)
"Meet the Man Behind Ryan Hemsworth's Favorite Tokyo Label, Maltine Records"
''
The Fader ''The Fader'' is a magazine established in 1999 as an outlet for Cornerstone Agency, a marketing and public relations firm established by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. History and work It is owned by T ...
''. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
In 2013, Maltine collaborated with
Tokyo Girls' Style (stylized as TOKYO GIRLS' STYLE) is a Japanese girl group formed in 2009, and was the first idol group created under Avex Trax after SweetS. The idol group originally consisted of five members: Miyu Yamabe, Hitomi Arai, Yuri Nakae, Konishi Ayano ...
for its producers such as
tofubeats , known professionally as Tofubeats, is a Japanese singer, record producer, and DJ. Kawai began producing music at the age of 14, under the name "DJ Newtown". He initially distributed his music online through websites such as 2channel and YouTub ...
, Avec Avec and okadada to create remixes of songs by the girl group in what was titled ''Maltine Girls’ Wave''. ''
The Fader ''The Fader'' is a magazine established in 1999 as an outlet for Cornerstone Agency, a marketing and public relations firm established by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. History and work It is owned by T ...
'' described the project as "wonderfully weird fusion of corporate-sponsored pop and quirky internet funk." Maltine's music has served as stylistic influences for the works of Western artists such as
Cashmere Cat Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ and record producer. Often in tandem with Benny Blanco, he has been credited with production work for artists including Kanye West, the Kid L ...
and
Ryan Hemsworth Ryan Hemsworth (born 23 April 1990) is a Canadian record producer and DJ. He specialises in electronic music and sampling. He has produced tracks for Tinashe, Tory Lanez, Mitski, and E-40. Biography Raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Hemsworth a ...
; Hemsworth has featured Maltine's music on the mixes and live sets. According to St. Michel, almost every track Maltine releases are dance music re-interpretations of
J-pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...
: "None of the songs scattered across Maltine's website resemble
AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol musical girl group named after the Akihabara area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48 has sold more records than any other female musical act in Japanese history. AK ...
, but rather are a re-imagining of Japanese mainstream pop created for the dance floor rather than an ice-cream commercial." Maltine began releasing
breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...
and
gabber Gabber ( ; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as hardcore, and is characterised by fast beats ...
tracks before they expanded to releasing music of various styles such as
synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...
,
house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
,
drum 'n' bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre ...
,
techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
,
ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...
, 2-step,
jersey club Jersey club (originally called Brick City club) is a style of electronic club music that originated in Newark, New Jersey, in the late 90s/early 2000s. It was pioneered by DJ Tameil, Mike V, DJ Tim Dolla, and DJ Black Mic of the Brick Bandits ...
,
indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...
and
rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...
. St. Michel wrote that most Maltine releases are "strange" takes on the way electronic dance and pop music is made; for instance, several music released by the netlabel contain
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
and
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
samples over "normal" dance instrumentals, thus creating "faster releases imagining a world where
Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...
really liked ''
Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 60 individual chapters (later reorganized into ...
'' and decided to incorporate it into his music." A track by Maltine regular contributor Gassyoh is a house song featuring samples from the
role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...
''
EarthBound ''EarthBound'', originally released in Japan as is a 1994 role-playing video game, role-playing video game developed by Ape, Inc., Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the second e ...
'' (1994).


Bunkai-Kei Records

Bunkai-Kei Records is an ambient and
glitch music Glitch is a genre of experimental electronic music that emerged in the 1990s, which is distinguished by the deliberate use of glitches in audio media and other sonic artifacts. The sounds featured in glitch tracks usually come from audio recordi ...
netlabel that is also one of the biggest imprints in the Japan netlabel scene. The netlabel had been around a few years before Maltine began, but did not start gaining attention until after the popularity of Maltine. One of their releases is a record by
Vocaloid is a singing Speech synthesis, voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project between Yamaha Corporation and the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. The s ...
musician kz. Their later works included singing from vocalists such as Tokyo singer Smany, pornographic actress Yura Sakura, and
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
-based singer Abigail Press.


Bump Foot

Formed in 2005, the netlabel Bump Foot release two types of records: "Bump House," which issues techno and house albums, and “Foot Side,” which is for "music meant to be absorbed," as St. Michel wrote. Bump Foot has the most releases out of all the Japanese netlabels (More than 400 as of December 2014), and also features the highest number of non-Japanese artists.


MarginalRec.

The Tokyo netlabel MarginalRec. has released what St. Michel described to range "from remixes of popular J-pop songs, to anthemic floor fillers, to fidgety built-for-headphones numbers." He cited it as an "essential" to the Japan netlabel community for its heavy focus on live nightclub events known as Another Weekender, which are also streamed to the internet via
Ustream IBM Watson Media (formerly Ustream and IBM Cloud Video) is an American virtual events platform company which is a division of IBM. Prior to the IBM acquisition, it had more than 180 employees across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest office ...
.


ALTEMA Records

ALTEMA Records has issued music in a variety of electronic music genres, including
brostep Brostep is a harder form of dubstep that emerged during the late 2000s and early 2010s and pioneered by artists like Skrillex and Rusko (musician), Rusko. In 2011, dubstep gained significant traction in the US market, by way of a post-dubst ...
,
intelligent dance music Intelligent dance music (IDM) is a style of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, defined by idiosyncratic experimentation rather than specific genre constraints.''"…the label 'IDM' (for avant-garde, 'intelligent dance music') see ...
and tracks featuring samples of sounds from 1990s computer programs. St. Michel spotlighted the netlabel's heavy emphasis on anime, with many of the cover arts including cute anime drawings. He noted ALTEMA's aesthetic as an example of the obsession towards anime art that is commonplace in Japanese netlabels.


Trekkie Trax

The netlabel Trekkie Trax originated as a party titled "Under 20" that took place in the
Akihabara is a neighborhood in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan, generally considered to be the area surrounding Akihabara Station (nicknamed ''Akihabara Electric Town''). This area is part of the and Kanda-Sakumachō districts of Chiyoda. There is an ...
area of Tokyo. It soon transformed into an online label that issued dance music touching on genres such as
juke house Ghetto house or booty house is a subgenre of house music which started being recognized as a distinct style from around 1992 in music, 1992 onwards. It features minimal Roland TR-808, 808 and Roland TR-909, 909 drum machine-driven tracks and som ...
, 2-step, brostep, and
grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust Music * Grime music, a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * "Grime", a 2023 song by Macklemore from ''Ben'' * "Grime", a 2024 song by Kittie from ''Fire ...
-influenced
dub music Dub is a musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican reggae, p.&nb ...
. In 2014, the label gained international attraction through appearances on the Tokyo radio station block.fm. On April 11, 2014, the Finland label released ''Trekkie Trax Japan Vol. 1'' (2014), a
compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...
of the works of Trekkie Trax. The compilation was one of many ways Trekkie Trax "fought against" a law in Japan that stated people were not permitted to dance in nightclubs without "dancing licenses." The law ended in 2015.


Skull Triangle Skull

Netlabel created in 2012 by Satomi Fukada. Mainly for witch house & vaporwave music. Located in the city of Sapporo.


Otherman Records

Otherman Records is a
breakcore Breakcore is a style of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high ...
netlabel that began in 2010 and have released works with elements of
chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...
and drum'n'bass. It has released the harshest-sounding music that has been a part of the netlabel scene.


Indie netlabels

While a majority of music that comes out of the Japan netlabel landscape is based on electronic dance music, there have also been Japanese netlabels that have mainly issued
indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...
and
rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...
.


Canata Records

Formed in November 2011 by producers Azusa Suga and Yoshiki Iwasawa, Canata Records is a Tokyo-based label for bedroom musicians from around the world. Iwasawa was inspired to start an indie label following a conversation with a book store buyer who suggested there was going to be an indie revival in Japan, a "third
Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. As many as 100,000 people, mostly young people, hippies, beatniks, and 1960s counterculture figures, converged in San Francisco's Haig ...
" that would be “partly influenced by Japanese indie music and anime culture.” Thus, the works of Canata include aspects of anime series and indie music. Canata's music has touched on styles such as
shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with dream pop) is a subgenre of indie rock, indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion (music), distortion and effects, a ...
, indie pop,
Vocaloid is a singing Speech synthesis, voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project between Yamaha Corporation and the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. The s ...
rock and, in the words of St. Michel, "nostalgic,
sample Sample or samples may refer to: * Sample (graphics), an intersection of a color channel and a pixel * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of something * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample ...
-heavy"
chillwave Chillwave (originally considered synonymous with glo-fi and hypnagogic pop) is a music microgenre that emerged in the late 2000s. It is characterized by evoking the popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s while engaging with notions of ...
and
vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s and became well-known in 2015. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, 1970 ...
works by founder Azusa Suga. St. Michel noted the label's "weird" experimentation of the indie pop genre; an example would be its first releases by the groups Mane Laundering and The Hatsune Mikus, who works combined Vocaloid singing with indie and twee-pop elements.


Ano(t)raks

The label Ano(t)raks began on July 1, 2012, by Dai Ogasawara, also known by the moniker Twangy Twangy, and focuses on guitar-heavy
twee pop Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that originates from the 1986 ''NME'' compilation '' C86''. Twee pop gets its name from the aesthetic of twee, which is known for its simplicity and childlike innocence. Some of its defining features are boy-gi ...
inspired by the works of
Sarah Records Sarah Records was a British independent record label active in Bristol between 1987 and 1995, best known for its recordings of indie pop, which it released mostly on 7" singles. On reaching the catalogue number SARAH 100, the label celebrated i ...
.St. Michel, Patrick (October 25, 2012)
"Netlabels Ano(t)raks and Canata Records give the old DIY spirit a go with some new tools"
''
The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...
''. Nifco. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
The name of the label is a play on the word
anorak A parka, like the related anorak, is a type of coat with a hood, that may be lined with fur or fake fur. Parkas and anoraks are staples of Inuit clothing, traditionally made from caribou or seal skin, for hunting and kayaking in the frigid A ...
, clothing that is often associated with most indie-pop artists from the United Kingdom. Ogasawara formed Ano(t)raks out of desire to release music with the groups The Paellas and Post Modern Team that he first met via
Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...
. Ano(t)raks' first release was an extended play by The Paellas. On September 14, 2012, they released what St. Michel described as "the best snapshots" of Japan's indie scene, a compilation album titled ''Soon V.A.'' which features music from indie acts throughout the country, such as Old Lacy Bed from
Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
and Homecomings from
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
."Soon V.A."
Ano(t)raks Official
Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...
. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
The album received attention from music blogs across the world, and led to some of the bands featured on the record gaining gig opportunities according to Ogasawara. Ano(t)raks is cited as one of the few labels to increase the popularity of indie pop in Japan in 2012. Homecomings and the Paellas, two acts formerly from the netlabel, have gone to become part of major labels.


Tanukineiri Records

Tanukineiri Records is a Japanese netlabel that St. Michel highlighted for its lack of stylistic "identity" uncommon in the scene. Their styles range from
four-on-the-floor Four-on-the-floor (or four-to-the-floor) is a rhythm used primarily in dance genres such as disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4)."The Dance ...
dance music to
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
to experimental
lo-fi music Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...
to Indonesian indie pop. While most of their music is issued for free online like all the other Japanese netlabels, they've also released some works on
compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
.


Origins and impact

''
Kill Screen Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...
'' writer Caty McCarthy summarized that the ability to create whatever music an artist wanted to in Japanese netlabels was "welcome in a music scene where cookie-cutter idol groups are common, and diversity among their style is rare." She categorized Japan's netlabel scene as a
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
against the nation's major labels who would've otherwise not allowed how producers in the netlabel community made their work: "For largely the first time, underground musicians were given the voices and agency they so desperately desired."McCarthy, Caty (January 28, 2016)
"Pop, politics, and everything in between: the virtual families of netlabels"
''
Kill Screen Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...
''. Archived from th
original
on May 27, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
She also highlighted the Japan netlabel landscape to have more of an "actual, tangible community" than netlabel scenes in other territories, noting it to have "grandiose roster-wide celebrations" and "subterranean bass-heavy parties." As St. Michel wrote, "the most influential Japanese netlabels have already helped shepherd a new generation of producers to greater awareness while shaping the future of popular Japanese music."St. Michel, Patrick (December 3, 2014)
"10 Essential Japanese Netlabels"
''
Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...
''.
Conde Nast Conde is the Ibero-Romance form of "count" (Latin ''comitatus''). It may refer to: * Counts in Iberia *List of countships in Portugal Places United States * Conde, South Dakota, a city France * Condé-sur-l'Escaut (or simply 'Condé'), a com ...
. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
In a March 2013 interview, Hikada said that around 2008, there were approximately 20 netlabels located in Japan; he saids that the amount rose to around 150 five years later. An attribute to the success of Japanese netlabels is the popularity of
social networking service A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interest ...
s like
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
and
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
that the imprints use to promote new artists and releases. Hikada marks this social network element of the scene to also come into play into live performances that are a part of the community. As St. Michel explained, "Hikada says party goers spend a lot of time tweeting at these nights, using hashtags to keep up with everyone else there and using the social-media site to toast one another. At one Maltine party in 2012, a large swath of attendees brought laptops with them, and many
live-streamed Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming media, streaming of video or Digital audio, audio in real-time communication, real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature ...
themselves dancing on the floor…to others in the same room." In the 2010s, the scene started to cross over in the mainstream. Netlabel musicians that transitioned in working for mainstream labels include Avec Avec, Yoshino Yoshikawa, tofubeats and Fazerock; tofubeats became a solo act for Warner Bros. Japan, collaborating with American singer Liz and providing a mix for the radio series '' Diplo and Friends''. However, in a December 2014 feature, St. Michel also wrote that many Japanese netlabels have very short lifespans: "browsing the “links” pages of still-thriving netlabels leads to lots of 404 errors or domain-for-sale pages. Minus N's site is now riddled with script mistakes."


Live performances

There are very few netlabels in Japan that have the budget to set up and hold live events. However, all of the live events that have occurred have been successful, St. Michel analyzed. In December 2012, the
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
nightclub
Womb The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', : uteri or uteruses) or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans, that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more fertilized eggs until bi ...
held "an all-netlabel party" featuring acts from netlabels such as Maltine, Bunkai-Kei, No Disco and On Sunday Recordings.


References

{{Music of Japan Netlabels Net 2000s in Japanese music 2010s in Japanese music