Billboard Japan Women in Music – Billboard

signboardSince 2007, the Women in Music event has celebrated the artists, producers and executives who have made a significant contribution to the music industry and empowered women through their work. In 2023, Spotify Japan’s Noriko Ashizawa has been selected for this respected list.

Billboard Japan launched its “Women in Music” initiative last year, highlighting women in the Japanese music industry through projects such as interviews with leading figures in their field. As the next guest in this series, Ashizawa talked about his commitment to supporting up-and-coming artists as Spotify’s head of music planning and operations in Japan. She also shared the company’s efforts to extend the reach of domestic artists and their work across borders to new listeners and fans. Having been involved in the process of streaming services becoming the mainstream way of listening to music in Japan, how does she see the future of the music industry?

Congratulations on being on Billboard’s Women in Music list for 2023. Could you tell us how you feel about this honor?

Noriko Ashizawa: As someone who works in Japan, I never expected to be selected for such a prestigious award, so I was honestly surprised to hear this news. It still feels unrealistic, but I would be very honored if Spotify’s various efforts in Japan were recognized.

Spotify encourages female creators in music through the global EQUAL project. What are the results so far?

Spotify’s EQUAL program selects 700 female ambassador artists from around the world in various genres, The associated playlist features over 4,000 acts. We launched our localized program EQUAL Japan in 2021 to continue spotlighting the work and voices of Japanese female artists and creators through playlists. So far, various female artists have been appointed as ambassador artists, such as the female band CHAI, rapper Awich, and Wednesday Campanella’s Yutaha. In the future, we would like to further increase the awareness of the program itself and increase the significance of artist participation.

The more artists the platform highlights, the more opportunities there are for users to discover them. By the way, the 2022 Billboard Japan Top 100 chart at the end of the year has 58 male artists, 27 female artists, and 15 mixed gender groups, showing a remarkable gender imbalance. Spotify also has its own annual rankings. What trends do you see?

Spotify releases various annual rankings at the end of each year. Looking at last year’s ranking in terms of gender balance, the “Top 50 Most Streamed Domestic Artists in Japan” list has 11 female artists, including solo artists and groups, and 3 mixed groups with female main vocals. there were. Similar results were seen in the “Top 50 Most Streamed Domestic Songs in Japan” tally, with 10 of the 50 songs by female artists. In the year EQUAL was launched, the percentage of women published globally was her 1 in 5, so it can be said that there is still a gender imbalance at the global level.

However, there were some significant differences between the global and national rankings. Looking at the “top 5 most shared artists” worldwide, Taylor Swift ranked 1st, Lana Del Rey ranked 4th, and female artists ranked high. In Japan, the top three were boy bands, JO1 and BE:FIRST. , INI — and the “Top 10 Most Shared Songs” list was dominated by songs from these three groups of hers.

Interesting result. Do you know their fan demographics?

The majority of listeners who support these boy bands are women. Supporting your favorite artists and taking action in a visible way is called oshikatsu in Japanese. Momentum to support artists has increased. In fact, when this ranking was announced, many female fans of each group posted comments of joy on SNS. Looking at K-POP, many female artists are popular among women in Japan as well, but in that case, the psychology of “I want you to listen to me”, which includes feelings of empathy and admiration, is working. It seems that Rather than actively expressing support for those artists.

It’s interesting to hear that men are dominating the charts, fueled by female power. How do you make sense of the fact that women make up only one-fifth of the most-played songs and artists on Spotify both in Japan and around the world?

I suspect that there is a gender imbalance in the number of creators in the first place. There are many next-generation artists, such as Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, who aim to become stars, but I think it will take a little more time for this situation to change significantly.

What do you think about the gender balance on the production side of the music and entertainment industry?

There are a lot of women working at Spotify, and if you look at the workplace at Spotify or any other company in Japan, there doesn’t seem to be a significant shortage of women these days. However, looking at the management team in this industry, I feel that there are still many men, and I think there is a difference between the situation of the front line and the management.

can you share Please tell us about your background. Did you envision a particular female figure you wanted to grow into?

I don’t think I’ve ever considered men and women separately. I personally disagree that being a woman should be given special consideration. That’s why I admire the type of woman who can make decisions as a person in order to achieve her goals in any situation.

I’m sure you’re a person who sticks to the values ​​of making decisions as an individual, going beyond the labels and existing frameworks imposed on you by others. How did you come to work in the music industry?

I have loved music since I was a child, and vaguely wanted to make it my career. I was interested in English because I listened to Western music (including J-POP), so I studied abroad during my university days. After joining Sony Music Entertainment Japan and building a career in the overseas music department, I gradually became interested in production work, and changed jobs to a domestic label, where I was in charge of A&R for several years. After that, I moved to Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2014 and was involved in the launch of PlayStation Music. Until then, I had only been involved with artists and labels that make and deliver music, but by being involved in the digital platform side for the first time in my life, I was given the opportunity to gain a new perspective.

It was just around the time that I began to think that the way we listen to music in Japan would shift from physical to streaming. After that, I was fortunate enough to be involved in the launch of Spotify in Japan as an external partner of PlayStation Music. Spotify is exploring the many possibilities of streaming as an innovative platform that opens up more opportunities for diverse creators by enhancing discovery between listeners and artists.

Reaching a global audience, which was previously a hurdle, is now relatively easy through streaming. For example, Fujii Kaze’s “Shinunoga Ewa” topped Spotify’s viral charts in 23 overseas markets last year and spread all over the world. I believe that the more successful Japanese artists we see, the more potential there is in the Japanese music industry, and we can work together to make this unprecedented dream a reality.

I think it was a time when people thought it would be difficult for streaming to penetrate the Japanese market, but you made a bold decision. Since then, you and your team have supported a variety of artists to build careers in ways that may not have been possible before. Are there any female artists or acts you would like to speak to at this time?

Rina Sawayama’s recent success has been particularly remarkable, and her message of embracing diversity has encouraged many people. In 2020, she was selected for Spotify’s Japan year-round new artist support program “RADAR: Early Noise”, and she is now a superstar with fans from all over the world. Nemuri Haru is one of this year’s RADAR:Early Noise artists, and it’s encouraging to see Japanese artists like her, who deliver strong messages from various angles, gaining more support overseas. I hope that this movement will spread even more in Japan than it does in Japan.

—This interview with Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.