--There seems to be a lot of bands who are doing well in both their concert ticket and merchandise sales.
Yokoyama:
Yes, merchandise and concert ticket sales are doing well. Most especially for touring bands, merchandise sales really is their life line. People will keep attending concerts as long as these bands stay cool. Why? Because you may be able to create copies of CDs and books, but you can never copy experience.
And that is why these bands can still earn a living through their concert sales even if their CDs don't sell well. But whatever the case, these bands will still need a manager, for example, a person who could negotiate with the concert venues how much they will be able to earn per concert.
But just doing concerts aimlessly won't bring in the profits. These bands should look at things on a long-term perspective, make use of various connections, and only then will they be able to earn a living from touring. But it has become increasingly difficult to achieve such dreams of being a musician, and to once again achieve the glory that the Hi-Standard achieved back in the '90s. This is truly mortifying as a musician, and I also feel a bit sorry for the bands now since we were able to have a taste of the good life when the times were still in the music industry's favor.
--You feel sorry?
Yokoyama:
There are times that I feel bad when I see stuff like Yamaguchi-kun of Sakanaction's tweets. I'm sure that this band could have sold a million records, or 2 even, if they were just around 10 years earlier. I also feel this way for the CD shops that are so desperate now. I'm sure that there were a lot of shops back in the late '90s which earned money when they sold our CDs, and other artists' CDs. This is also true for the other retail stores. I feel bad, since they're all going up against this goliath called Amazon... How are you planning on going up against that?
Entire interview here:
Ken Yokoyama
http://realsound.jp/images/20131016-yokoyama-03.jpg
Sakanaction
http://sp.ro69.jp/images/entry/640x520/61315/1.jpg
Ichiro Yamaguchi
http://magabon.yomiuri.co.jp/special/voice/common/images/photo255_02.jpg
