Why Buy the Same CD Ten Times When You Can Stream? Japanese Music Fans and “Participatory Consumption”

Key Points

• Japan is the world’s largest physical music market. In 2023, about 65.5% of Japan’s music revenue came from CDs and other physical formats, compared with a global average of just 17.8%. That same year, the 139.1 billion yen Japanese people spent on CDs still exceeded the 105.6 billion yen spent on streaming.
• It’s not that Japanese people don’t stream. Listening has already moved to streaming. What CDs buy is two other things: “ownership,” keeping a work close at hand, and “participation,” supporting an idol through bonus items, lottery tickets, voting tickets and sales charts.
• Selling CDs with bonus items took off in the 2000s, with AKB48’s single-CD-one-vote election ballots as the classic example. Buying multiple copies for the bonuses is what turns one CD into many.
• Record stores have changed too. Tower Records went bankrupt in the U.S., but its Japanese company posted record profits in the fiscal year ending February 2024 with a strategy of “supporting the people who support.” In Japan, the CD is turning from a tool for listening into a souvenir of “I was there for them.”

At the end of 2024, Oricon, Japan’s best-known music sales chart, released its annual rankings. That year, it had two “number ones.”

The most-streamed song was “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” by rap duo Creepy Nuts. The theme song of the anime Mashle: Magic and Muscles was played about 580 million times in a year, a record for the chart.

The best-selling CD single was “LOVE TRIGGER / We’ll go together” by boy group Snow Man, which sold about 1.26 million copies in a year. Number two was also Snow Man, at about 1.13 million.

The song the most people in the country listened to and the CD the most people paid for were not the same. If CDs were for listening to music, these two number ones should be pretty close.

That gap reveals something: in Japan, many people don’t buy CDs to listen to them in the first place.

Japanese people do stream. The CD’s job has changed

Start with the numbers. According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan, Japan’s digital music revenue had grown for ten straight years as of 2023, with streaming at about 105.6 billion yen, up 14% in a single year. Japanese people haven’t rejected services like Spotify.

The strange part is on the other side. In the same year, Japan’s CD production value was about 139.1 billion yen, still more than 30 billion yen ahead of streaming. Zoom out to the world and the gap is even starker: in 2023, only 17.8% of global music revenue came from physical formats, compared with 65.5% in Japan. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) also notes that Japan is the world’s largest physical music market.

It isn’t nostalgia, either. At its peak in 1998, Japan’s physical music output was worth about 607.5 billion yen a year. By 2023 it was about a quarter of that. CDs really have declined, just much more slowly than in other countries.

So what are the people still buying them buying? In early 2024, the Japanese shopping site Rakuten Books asked students who had bought a CD in the past year why. The most common reason was “to support the artist,” followed by “to keep the work on hand” (69.7%) and “to get store-exclusive bonus items” (61.4%).

“Tokuten,” or bonus items, are the key to understanding this. In Japan, a tokuten is something that comes with a product and that you can only get by buying it: a poster, a random member photo card, or a lottery ticket for an event.

Put these reasons together and a CD can be broken down into three uses: listening to music (playback), keeping a work close (ownership), and lending a hand to someone you support (participation). Streaming made playback cheap and convenient, and CDs lost on that front long ago. But ownership and participation are things streaming can’t provide.

The best place to see this clearly is a record store.

The U.S. parent went under. Why is this Shibuya record store busier than ever?

Tower Records is a record store chain that started in the United States and came to Japan in 1979. It now has more than 70 stores in the country. Its American parent went bankrupt in 2006 and the U.S. stores closed one after another, but the Japanese business survived. In the fiscal year ending February 2024, Tower Records Japan’s net profit was about 1.88 billion yen, up 85.5% from the previous year and the highest in its history.

Over the same period, Japan’s CD production value fell from about 184.1 billion yen in 2014 to about 139.1 billion yen in 2023. The whole market is shrinking, yet the store that sells CDs is making more money than before.

Its flagship store is in Shibuya, Tokyo. It moved to its current location in 1995 and turned 30 in 2025. In 2012, the store spent more than a billion yen on a major renovation, changing from a shop that simply sold CDs into a place to “experience” music. The basement in-store performance space was upgraded into an event venue capable of livestreaming, event spaces were added on every floor, and a café opened on the second floor, running themed collaborations with bands, idol groups and anime titles.

The customers changed too. The store says that about ten years ago, the people coming to buy CDs were mostly men in their 40s and 50s. Now there are more women in their 20s and 30s, and more anime fans. Foreign tourists treat the building as a photo spot, and the vinyl section on the sixth floor doubled in size in 2024.

The company’s stated policy is “supporting the people who support.” In Japan, all the things fans do to cheer on idols, artists or characters are called “oshikatsu,” and your “oshi” is the person you support most. Going to concerts, buying merchandise, celebrating your idol’s birthday: it’s all oshikatsu. Tower Records decided that it wouldn’t just sell records, but would serve these people too.

Its first success was something small. At Japanese concerts, the stage often fires out huge amounts of silver streamers that rain down over the audience. Tower Records noticed fans making their own keychains from the streamers they’d caught, and in 2015 it began selling keychains designed to hold silver streamers. Ten years on, they’re still a bestseller. Later came charms for luck in ticket lotteries, each one blessed at Kurumazaki Shrine in Kyoto before shipping. Data from 2019 showed that about 80% of the customers buying these oshikatsu goods were women.

A record store selling streamer keychains and good-luck charms looks far removed from music, but it makes sense. The customers it serves never came only to “listen” to music.

One CD, one vote: how “participation” got into the jewel case

Selling CDs with bonus items isn’t new. Akinori Ideguchi, a professor in Rikkyo University’s College of Sociology who studies the sociology of music, believes that a large part of why physical music in Japan has held on until now is the “tokuten business model” that spread in the 2000s, using bonus items to drive purchases. It has now been going for about 20 years. In this model, the product’s value lies mainly in the bonus, and the CD can sometimes feel like the freebie.

The most famous example is the girl group AKB48. AKB48 billed itself as “idols you can meet,” with its own dedicated theater in Akihabara, Tokyo. Its CDs might include a ticket to a handshake event or a ballot for its annual “general election.” In the election, fans voted to decide which members would appear on the next single and who would stand in the center.

In 2014, a CD with a ballot cost 1,600 yen. One CD meant one vote, and you could vote again and again. To vote, you had to open the CD, take out the ballot, choose one of 296 candidates, and enter a 16-digit serial number. Each vote took at least a minute. If you wanted to cast 1,000 votes for your favorite member, entering serial numbers alone would take about 20 hours.

The election started because fans wanted a say in who stood in the center. That used to be decided by management, which eventually handed the decision to the fans. From then on, a CD had a new use: it was a ballot, a way for fans to actually change an idol’s fate.

Not every group holds elections, but ways to “participate” are everywhere. Many idol singles are released in several editions at once, “Limited First Press A,” “Limited First Press B” and “Regular Edition,” each with different videos or bonuses. Record stores then add their own exclusive bonuses on top.

One office worker in her 30s who supports a boy group explained her buying habits this way: if the bonus is a random member photo card and she wants the full set, she starts by buying as many copies as there are members, then trades duplicates with fellow fans. She admits it costs a lot, but to her, that’s part of what she works for.

Then there are the charts. Oricon’s singles chart ranks releases by the number of CDs actually sold, and first-week sales get compared and reported in the news. For fans, every extra copy adds to their idol’s numbers. Buying ten copies of the same CD really means buying nine more chances to participate.

A hundred thousand discs a month: where do the CDs go after purchase?

The cost of participation ends up somewhere unexpected.

A recycling plant in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, processes more than 100,000 CDs a month, over ten tons. They arrive from all over Japan, mostly in delivery boxes, and a single box often holds 50 to 100 copies of the same CD. Mitsunari Hoshiyama, who runs the operation, says that as of 2024 the recycling service had been going for about six years. It spread by word of mouth on social media, and now people send discs from all over the country. Some fans even tuck a letter into the box.

This picture shows the three uses very plainly. These CDs completed their “participation” function the moment they were unwrapped and the bonus taken out. Whoever sent the leftover discs had no plans to listen to them or keep them.

This way of buying is changing too. The Billboard JAPAN charts count streaming, downloads and radio play as well as CD sales. Seiji Isozaki, who oversees the charts, observed that between 2017 and 2020, the mass multiple-buying common among girl idol groups declined, while boy groups and K-pop groups grew. The main players in multiple-buying have changed, but fans’ desire to support their idols through something physical hasn’t.

Carved bears and CDs: what Japanese fans buy is proof that “I was there”

Ideguchi offers a comparison. People who travel to Hokkaido often bring home a carved wooden bear. Nobody needs a wooden bear. You buy one because it reminds you of the trip and shows your affection for the place. He thinks CDs and CD shops will become more and more like these souvenirs and souvenir shops. CDs are unlikely to become the main way people hear new songs again, but they won’t disappear, just as theater survived the arrival of film, and film survived the arrival of television.

That’s the answer to “why do Japanese people still buy CDs in the age of Spotify?” They handed listening over to streaming long ago, and Creepy Nuts’ 580 million plays are the proof. CDs survive because they do a job streaming can’t: they’re a certificate you can hold in your hand, vote with, line up with for a handshake, and put on the charts.

Streaming sells the right to listen. Japanese CDs sell proof that “I took part.” As long as fans want their support to be seen and counted, CDs will keep selling in Japan, only looking less and less like records and more and more like tickets and souvenirs.

Tower Records has a slogan, “NO MUSIC, NO LIFE.” It started in 1996 as a one-month campaign and went on to become Tower Records’ signature around the world. The people who walk into that Shibuya building today already have the world’s music on their phones. They come here to take home something they can’t hear but can hold: a bonus item, a good-luck charm, or a CD that proves they were there for someone.

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Notes

• The figures of 65.5% (Japan) and 17.8% (global) for physical formats’ share of music revenue in 2023 come from a Gendai Business article interviewing Akinori Ideguchi. The Recording Industry Association of Japan calculates “production value” and “digital music revenue” differently, so comparing them only gives a rough sense of scale.
• The figure of about 607.5 billion yen in 1998 is the peak production value of recorded audio products (mainly CDs) that year.
• The Rakuten Books survey on reasons for buying CDs covered 132 students who had bought a CD in the past year and reflects only that group’s tendencies.
• The buying habits of the office worker in her 30s come from a Money Post WEB interview in December 2024. The article did not disclose her name or the group she supports.
• The details of AKB48’s 2014 general election voting (1,600 yen, 296 candidates, 16-digit serial numbers) come from a column on nippon.com at the time.
• Oricon’s 2024 figures cover the chart dates from December 25, 2023, to December 16, 2024 (actual tallying period: December 11, 2023, to December 8, 2024).

References

1. ORICON NEWS｜オリコン年間ランキング2024: Snow Man takes first (about 1.263 million) and second (about 1.133 million) in annual single sales, Creepy Nuts first in streaming (about 580 million plays)
2. ORICON NEWS｜Creepy Nuts takes three annual titles: 579,258,724 plays of “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” the chart’s all-time high, tallying period
3. Recording Industry Association of Japan｜日本のレコード産業 2024: 2023 CD production about 139.1 billion yen, streaming about 105.6 billion yen, 1998 peak about 607.5 billion yen
4. Forbes JAPAN｜音楽配信、11年連続でプラス成長｜2025-03-07: 2024 digital music 123.3 billion yen, streaming 113.2 billion yen, CD purchases and oshikatsu
5. Music Business Worldwide｜10 takeaways from IFPI’s Global Music Report 2026: Japan as the world’s second-largest music market and largest physical music market
6. Gendai Business｜タワーレコードが日本で生き残っている理由｜2026-07-07: Akinori Ideguchi on the tokuten model, physical share 65.5%/17.8%, the wooden bear comparison and the future of CD shops; Tower Records entering Japan in 1979, more than 70 stores, U.S. bankruptcy in 2006
7. J-CAST Kaisha Watch｜Rakuten Books survey｜2024-03: students’ reasons for buying CDs and percentages
8. ITmedia Business Online｜なぜ今「タワレコ」が好調？(1/2)｜2024-12-27: net profit of 1.883 billion yen for the year ending February 2024, up 85.5%; CD production 2014–2023; silver streamer keychains, Kurumazaki Shrine charms, about 80% of oshikatsu goods buyers are women
9. ITmedia Business Online｜なぜ今「タワレコ」が好調？(2/2)｜2024-12-27: origin of “NO MUSIC, NO LIFE.” in 1996, stores reinvented as “places worth going to”
10. Money Post WEB｜「渋谷タワレコ」30年間の変貌｜2025-03-16: the Shibuya store’s 1995 move, 2012 renovation costing over a billion yen, changes by floor, changing customers, vinyl expansion, “supporting the people who support”
11. Money Post WEB｜サブスク全盛でもタワーレコードの業績好調｜2024-12-16: idol fans buying one copy per member, Limited A / Limited B / Regular editions
12. nippon.com｜AKB48 general election column｜2014-07-22: one vote per 1,600-yen CD, 296 candidates, 16-digit serial numbers, origins of the election
13. Toyo Keizai Online｜推しに会いたい！「CD大量購入」の深い沼｜2024-12-28: the Ebina recycling plant handling over 100,000 CDs a month, Mitsunari Hoshiyama
14. Real Sound｜Billboard JAPAN チャートが向き合う”ヒット”の定義｜2025-07: Seiji Isozaki on changes in multiple-buying from 2017 to 2020