Video game music is no longer just for games. Game Music Academy, launched by NexTone’s distribution team, marks a new initiative to deliver game music as a brand to audiences in Japan and abroad.

Setting itself apart from existing distributors, NexTone is carving out new markets through metadata management and copyright strategies tailored to each platform and user needs. To learn more, Billboard Japan spoke with Tomofumi Tani, Head of the Overseas Strategy Group in the company’s Distributor & Marketing Division; Kai Hasebe and Yuuho Akimoto from the same division’s PR & Marketing Group; and with Submerse, a U.K.-born artist deeply versed in game music who has joined the project as a partner. Together, they discussed the background behind Game Music Academy, its expansion into overseas markets, and the fresh possibilities this initiative is set to explore.

Could you start by explaining NexTone’s distribution services?

Tani: We deliver music owned by rights holders — such as record labels and game companies — to digital music platforms. On top of that, our company also handles promotion, PR, and marketing for those works.

We first launched the service in 2003 through our predecessor company, and have been expanding the business for over 20 years now. Thanks to that growth, we currently work with more than 800 contracted accounts and manage a catalog of 1.3 million songs. As NexTone, we’ll be celebrating our 10th anniversary next year.

When did your company begin focusing more closely on game music?

Tani: Through our copyright management business, we’ve always had very close ties with game companies, and we’ve been involved with game music for a long time. In the course of our daily work, things like data analysis, we’ve been increasingly struck by just how influential it is.

Around mid-2024, the music from Persona 3 Reload, developed by Atlus, began gaining traction outside of Japan. It even appeared on Billboard Japan’s Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart, which ranks Japanese songs that are making waves internationally, and was also nominated at MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2025 in May. I think that was a particularly memorable moment not only for our company, but for the entire industry.  

So given the growing attention toward game music, NexTone is actively targeting not only the domestic market but also overseas opportunities.

Tani: Through our research and analysis of streaming performance, we realized that game music is being listened to worldwide — not only in North America and Europe, but also in South America and across Asia. And with that overseas audience continuing to expand, it’s hard to see it as anything other than a major opportunity.

Could you give us a sense of the scale of the overseas market?

Tani: According to data released last year by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan’s content market is worth roughly 13.1 trillion yen (approx. $88.1 billion). By comparison, the global content market is estimated at around 135.6 trillion yen ($912 billion) — about ten times the size of Japan’s market.

In addition, Japan’s content exports account for approximately 4.7 trillion yen ($31.6 billion), or roughly 40% of total sales. Within that overseas share, about 60% comes from games, surpassing even anime. (Source: Entertainment and Creative Industry Policy Research Committee materials.)

With Japan’s population declining, focusing solely on the domestic market won’t be sustainable. The question now is how to make up for areas that were previously supported domestically by expanding overseas. I think this is a key point that the entire Japanese content industry is paying close attention to.

Could you tell us about your approach to registering music data on each platform?

Hasebe: With game and anime music, it’s common to register tracks under the “game title,” “content title,” or even “character name” or “composer name.” The problem with that is it creates a proliferation of artist pages. For users, that makes it harder to find everything they want in one place when they think, “I want to listen to the music from this game or anime.”

To address this, we first establish a single main artist name, and then organize all the tracks under that name. This gives users a clear, centralized page, improving the listening experience and concentrating plays in one place. As a result, it also impacts rankings and monthly listener counts, helping to highlight the scale of the content. Another advantage is that the consolidated data can be used for analysis.

Akimoto: The information included on a track page is commonly called metadata, and the specifications vary greatly between streaming services. In some cases, you can assign an artist per track; in others, you can’t. It’s important to carefully assess these differences and provide the optimal solution for each service.

In our case, we customize the information provided by rights holders to fit the requirements of each platform. By keeping the perspective of streaming service users in mind while staying flexible, we see this as one of our strengths. 

Could you tell us the main reason behind the launch of Game Music Academy?

Tani: Looking back at the history of music, I feel that Japanese music and artists have had a huge influence on artists all over the world. But they’re often seen only as individual acts, without being viewed collectively. Take K-pop for example — by building a major brand, it’s created a movement that individual artists alone could never have achieved.

By framing content within a larger structure, we felt there was potential to achieve something even greater. That was a big part of our team discussions, and it led to the idea that if game music is something Japan can truly showcase to the world, why not build the same kind of framework there? That’s what led us to launch Game Music Academy.

We’d also like to hear about how Japanese game music is perceived from overseas. Submerse, as someone from the U.K., what are your thoughts?

Submerse: Personally, I find Japanese music from the 1990s really fascinating. Not just game music — even back in the ’70s and ’80s, it was heavily influenced by Western music, and I think Japanese artists were learning from that while creating their own output. But it wasn’t just a straight copy of those influences; there was always a distinctly Japanese essence added in. That gave it a slightly different feel from the music that was popular overseas at the time — and that’s the real charm for me.

And just as the increase in game memory capacity expanded the range of musical expression, I feel like something similar is happening in today’s game development. You can especially see it in the indie game scene. Development costs and timelines are now easier to manage than before, which has allowed for a flood of unique games, and I believe the indie game market will continue to evolve. Alongside that, I expect the music in indie games will keep evolving as well.

—This interview by Yuki Tatsuta first appeared on Billboard Japan