CJ E&M, Victor join hands for Asian music market

By Kim Ji-soo

The entertainment conglomerate CJ E&M and Victor Entertainment of Japan vowed to jointly pioneer the Asian pop market, establishing CJ Victor Entertainment Inc.

“Our goal is to combine the powers of K-pop and J-pop to discover and nurture new artists that will represent Asia,” said Joon Ahn, senior vice president and head of the music business unit at CJ E&M and Nobuhiko Yonemitsu, vice president of Victor.

Each company contributed 5 billion won to launch the new joint venture.

CJ Victor Entertainment will focus on promoting Korean singers in Japan, promote Japanese artists through the CJ E&M network, and combine the systems and expertise of the two companies. Officials from the two sides are expecting synergy from the joint venture; while the Korean music market thrives on music distribution online, the Japanese market has close to 80 percent of its production dominated by CDs.

As one of its first projects, CJ Victor Entertainment will take Korean singers to the Japanese music market and also release albums of famous Japanese solo artists and bands this June.

Starting next year, the company will promote musicians from diverse genres overseas.

The new joint company will be involved in management, concerts and event organizing as well as distribution of content and publishing.

CJ E&M said that it will continue to partner with companies overseas including the United States.