The 1st Edition of the Professional Seminar Public Series (Korea Edition) was held on July 22nd as part of the CEIPA x TOYOTA GROUP “MUSIC WAY PROJECT,” a joint project between the Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (CEIPA), a general incorporated association established by 5 major organizations in music industry and Toyota Group.
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| Public Series 1st Edition (Korea Edition) held at Toyota Motor Corporation Tokyo Headquarter |
About the Professional Seminar Public Series
The "MUSIC WAY PROJECT" is a project that aims to promote the globalization and sustainable growth of essential Japanese music by co-creating a path for young people who will pave the way for the future of Japanese music, with the aim of further disseminating Japanese content to the world.
The project kicked off at the YouTube Cocktail Party, an official cocktail party for the MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2025, the largest international music awards ceremony in Japan, held in Kyoto in May and hosted by CEIPA. They also announced a partnership with Berklee College of Music, one of the world's most renowned institutions for contemporary music education.
The Professional Seminar will hold a "Public Series" once a month from July to November 2025, featuring pre-recorded video lectures by professors from Berklee College of Music. This will provide an opportunity for participants to systematically learn the content they are actually teaching locally while staying in Japan. It has also been announced that seminars and social gatherings will be held on key markets for overseas strategies, such as Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia. Approximately two months after the announcement, the first edition (Korea edition) finally took place, filling the B1F main hall at Toyota Motor Corporation's Tokyo headquarter.
Shuichi Kurita (CEIPA Executive Director) opened the event by giving a message to all participants.
"Through this Public Series, we hope to provide information and promote human resource exchange in order to globalize the music industry and help artists growing in abroad. We hope you will find friends here who will share our goal of 「Go Global」!"
Next person who talked on the stage was Takeya Kito, a member of the MUSIC WAY PROJECT project team and Director/Head of Music Partnerships at YouTube Japan/Google.
Kito led a 10-minute small talk session to warm up participants before the main session. Through the theme "Words that convey your feelings," he talked about the mindset needed to communicate the appeal of the artists you work with in the international business setting.
Before we even get into English techniques, we need to think about what we really want to communicate and what words we should use to express it. The book succinctly summarises the important points, including the differences in cultural background from Japan.
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| Small Talk Session by Takeya Kito: "Words that convey your thoughts" |
Analyze the data to understand your audience and identify your targeted countries and cities with Berklee College of Music's practical overseas expansion skills.
The first main session was a video lecture by Alexandre Perrin, a professor at Berklee College of Music in Valencia who has long experience as management consultant, researcher and lecturer. Perrin is engaged in research and education on entrepreneurship and leadership in the fields of music and data, as well as the music industry as a whole. In this lecture, the speaker answered the questions from Masako Masuda (VP of The Orchard Japan) from the MUSIC WAY PROJECT project team, explaining how artists should utilize metadata (basic data such as song title, performers, lyricist/composer, sampling, music publisher, music genre, as well as more detailed information used by copyright organizations to pay royalties for songs) in order to perform overseas.
In the streaming era, it's now possible to know where and what kind of audience listened to a song, and analyzing this data, it's possible to understand where an artist's fans are and the level of their attachment to the artist. Furthermore, the analysis results can be used to determine as the guidelines for overseas activities, such as "which countries and cities to make tour concert" and "which artists they should perform with" (Payne emphasized the effectiveness of international collaborations between artists). In this lecture, Payne carefully explained the types and characteristics of the data, the process for obtaining it, and the analysis method.
Through the lecture, it became clear that these endeavors are entirely possible even for independent artists and their staffs. In the modern music business, it's necessary to accurately understand the data surrounding artists, and when they expanding to abroad, it is essential to not only analyze audiences but also take into account the national conditions of each country and determine targeted countries. The content is extremely practical and backed by a vast amount of knowledge, and considered that this kind of lectures are scheduled every time in the Public Series, so the expectations for the next have been greatly risen.
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| Lecture by Alexandre Perrin of Berklee College of Music, Valencia |
Marketing, production, live performances... Three experts delved into the current reality of the Korean music market from multiple angles
The next main session was "Market Deepdive #1 (Korea Edition)," featuring three experts introduced by Masako Masuda and Eri Komazaki (Sony Music Labels) from the MUSIC WAY PROJECT project team.
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| Jayden Son |
Jayden Son (aka jxxdxn), co-founder and CEO of HYPEER Inc., led data-driven marketing campaigns and grew a passionate fan base strategies at Sony Music Korea. He now serves as a global music strategist, connecting the cultures and markets of Korea and Japan. The theme of his session is "Locally Rooted Marketing and PR Strategies."
It's known that the strong fandom support the rapid growth of K-POP, but his study showed the importance of segmenting fans into general listeners, light listeners, heavy listeners and loyal listeners, and creating a hyper-fandom consisting of 10% of loyal listeners.
He also explained that when expanding overseas, different strategies should be devised for each target country. This process is divided into three stages: positioning (the artist's position in the new market), culture code (how to be accepted in that country), and tuning (when and how to implement event campaigns and web promotions). Specific examples of promotions for Japanese artists were also given. Particularly memorable phrases from the lecture included "balance the artist's break with the track's break," "become an artist that your fans can be proud and love," and "it's not what you make them listen, but how you can make them feel, that's important."
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| SJ (SINXITY) |
AXIS founder and CEO SJ (SINXITY) served as creative director for BLACKPINK and other artists at YG Entertainment, leading creative projects for top K-POP artists. He currently serves as lead creator for COSMOSY, a 4-member Japanese female K-POP vocal and dance group under NTT DOCOMO's "Studio & Live" project. His session's theme was "Creative Production and the Battle for Fandom Design."
COSMOSY has released a 3-part single and they were currently promoting globally through K-pop market. His production strategy offers many useful insights. He explained that the reason for selecting the members and incorporating Korean (a fusion of Hangul and Japanese) into their lyrics is not to be accepted as K-pop idols, but to gain support from J-pop fans and those who enjoy otaku culture as a whole. Rather than partnering with a major local company, he is focusing on a scheme that will reach their target audience, such as participating in Anime Expo and promoting with the women's professional wrestling organization "SUKEBAN." The amount of investment in choreography, appearances on music shows (including the creation of original stage sets), promotional videos, and digital marketing was also clearly stated in the seminar, making for a very realistic lecture.
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| Cecilia Soo-jeong Yi |
Cecilia (Cecilia Soo-jeong Yi), co-founder and Artistic Director of the DMZ Peace Train Music Festival, has been in charge of curation, artist booking, artist relations and international relations at Korean festivals. The theme of her session was "Market Expansion Through Live Performances and Festivals." She introduced the current situation of the Korean live performance market while showing how Japanese artists can enter the Korean market through live performances and festivals. The Korean live performance market is centered around Hongdae and Itaewon district in Seoul, South Korea where are the center of youth culture. Including Incheon and Busan where are the locations of major festivals. If Japanese artists want to perform the live shows, Seoul could be their base of the operations.
The line between major and indies seems to be becoming blurred in recent years, but indies still dominate the live music scene. Festivals are a mix of local and global activities and Japanese artists are often welcome to perform. Effective ways to promote live shows is Instagram, Melon (Korea's leading music website/app), and Namwiki (Korean Wikipedia), and it is very important for international artists to have a page on Melon or Namwiki.
She also said that factors that determine whether or not a live performance can be held in Korea including whether there is a Korean label that shares the artist's musical style and whether there is a long-term promotion plan. She also mentioned the possibilities of receiving the support from government-run arts information platform "KOPIS" (Korea Performing Arts Integrated Computer Network), the correlation between Korean venues and concert promoters, and case studies of Japanese artists performing in Korea.
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| Live Q&A |
There was undoubtedly "encounters," "learning," and "opportunities" at Toyota Motor Corporation's Tokyo headquarters that day. Each speaker unanimously stated that "expansion strategies is different depend on each country," and we must attend for the next session (Thailand edition).
The next session, the 2nd Edition (Thailand Edition) will be held on Thursday, August 14th, continue with video lectures provided by Berklee College of Music, and feature with experts on Thailand market.
Date: Thursday, August 14, 2025
Doors open at 3:30 PM, start 4:00 PM
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