How to book Japanese artists?

[Twisted]

Say i want to organize a concert or festival with Japanese artists, like L'Arc~en~Ciel or Hikaru Utada or any of the other artists that are constantly topping the Japanese charts.
How would i book such artists? Should I approach their recordcompanies or are there special management-agencies to turn to?

Does anyone have (web-)adresses or phonenumbers which could be usefull to me?

Thanks in advance,

Peter Zoon

 

[thomas]

Hi Peter,

my wife used to work in a Tokyo-based concert agency, we'll be back with more info later today.

 

[Nahoko]

Peter,

if you would like to book groups such as Arc-en-Ciel, it's best to directly approach their promotion agencies, in their case it's Maverick

MAVERICK DC GROUP

MAVERICK D.C. GROUP は、L'Arc～en～Ciel、ムック、シドなどが所属する音楽プロダクションです。

maverick-dci.com

They should be able to provide you with further info. Record companies like Sony Music are not involved in such deals. The best is to visit a group's or singer's official website, their agencies are usually linked.

It seems you have big plans!

 

[Twisted]

Thanks for the URL, Nahoko.

It will provide a good start.

Actually, i'm not planning to organize this myself.
A friend of mine works for a concerthall in Amsterdam and she wants to organize a Japan-festival.

For this festival to be succesfull there should be some big names.

Currently, she's working hard to get the funding together because we reckon those big Japanese names don't come cheap.

We're actually hoping the recordcompanies would chip in, because they also have something to gain when it comes to promoting Japanese music. I mentioned L'Arc~en~Ciel and Hikaru Utada, because they both have already been featured on international soundtracks, so it's obvious the recordcompanies have bigger plans with them.

Frankly, we have no idea if there is even a market for Japanese music in Holland, but i suppose that's just a matter of good promotion.

Thanks again,

Peter

 

[Nahoko]

Hi Peter,

sorry for the late reply. I am quite sure it needs a lot (of money) to lure groups like "Laruku" to Europe. I generally think that there's a strong trend towards "all things Japanese" in Europe, be it anime addiction or jpop craze. Anyway, I wish you good luck with your project, I hope you keep us posted...

 

[Twisted]

Originally posted by Nahoko
I generally think that there's a strong trend towards "all things Japanese" in Europe, be it anime addiction or jpop craze. Anyway, I wish you good luck with your project, I hope you keep us posted...

I noticed that too. Through the years this trend comes and goes, but every time it comes back it appears to be more intense.

I sure will.
Actually, next week i will go to a small Japan festival here in Amsterdam with the Japanese band eX-Girl as the main attraction. This band is currently touring through Europe and this concerthall built a small festival around this performance. Other guests are DJ Hito (from Berlin) and Momiji (a local band doing JPop / JRock covers).

Anyway, it should be interesting to see what kind of an audience turns up at this event.

Greetings,

Peter

 

[A-chan]

Whooah, cool!!
I'm sure a lot of people will LOOVEE you for doing something like this..

 

[moyashi]

Why don't you book bands that have fallen from the charts?

Utada Hikaru would be like oogles and oogles ... her father pee'd on the industry trusting in his daughter's talents. She dissappeared for a bit cuz of it too.

Get folks like :::
Hirai Ken (apparently he travels a lot, Seiko Matsuda (she might fall in love with you ... she's got a thing for younger foreign men), White Berry (they just disappeared) zone (new group trying to gain record sales recognition) and such ...

Or try to get groups on the coming up side ...

 

[TomAsInfinity]

If you get Garnet Crow, Brilliant Green and Do As Infinity under one roof, I will fly out to the Netherlands especially to support my future wife, Tomiko Van

 

[Twisted]

Right Tom, I'll see what i can do for you.

Mind you, i'm not sure what the current status of this project is. But next week i will meet the person involved, so i'll ask if the budget got through.

Peter