New Singer Debuts From Video Sharing Site, Then Performs In Real Space At Record Shop
New male singer "Clear" introduced his first album last Wednesday, its sales surpassed 13,000 copies by the end of last week. It's ranked in the 9th place for Japan's Billboard-like company Oricon's weekly album sales chart[J].
He started his 'singer' career by posting his performance videos into the "I just tried singing out" section of Japan's largest video sharing website Nico Nico Douga[J]. He may cause a sensation following Hatsune Miku (see these for her) as the talents who have debuted from the video site. Every time he has a live program on Nico Nico Douga, an audience of more than 2,000 fans signs in to watch on his music performance. And finally, that new talent just appeared in the real space. He had a live performance at Tower Records in Shibuya[J] yesterday, which was also streamcast on Nico Nico.
In a similar case, Japanese female singer and song writer 'Tamurapan[J]' was broadly promoted on MySpace Japan, where she has published new songs and engaged new fans using the power of social networking.
For Japanese music and entertainment industries, these ways might be a new good channel to find budding stars.
See Also:
- Clear's community top page on Nico Nico Douga[J]
- A list of videos tagged with 'Clear' on Nico Nico Douga[J]
Author Information Masaru IKEDA has co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms in Tokyo. He has been contributing serial columns to nationwide newspapers and IT periodicals, also he's currently serving as tech consultant for several web companies. His biography is here. His private blog is here. 
