A live performance from Taiwanese rock band Mayday, one of the acts signed to A-Sketch. Photo Credit: Great Dream
Another day, another major label acquisition – this time from Universal Music Japan, which has scooped up a controlling interest in A-Sketch.
Universal Music Japan disclosed its deal for 17-year-old A-Sketch this morning. Initially established in partnership with telecom giant KDDI (TYO: 9433) as a subsidiary of artist management firm Amuse (TYO: 4301), A-Sketch itself manages acts and functions as a label.
And besides serving as the professional home of talent including Saucy Dog, Flumpool, and Ayumu Imazu, A-Sketch operates MASH A&R and oversees a “popular catalog.”
(A-Sketch’s roster also appears to feature several virtual acts, and per the appropriate website, the company has a hand in releases from Mandopop star Jay Chou. Chou partnered with Universal Music back in 2023.)
As for the deal’s terms, Universal Music Japan opted against divulging the price tag at hand. But the UMG division did make clear that it’d secured “the stake in A-Sketch currently owned by Amuse.”
On the personnel front, A-Sketch head Nobuyuki Soma is expected to continue leading the business – while reporting to Universal Music Japan CEO Naoshi Fujikura.
In a statement, Soma touched on the perceived “significant opportunities for international expansion” that the agreement will unlock.
“We are very excited to announce that A-Sketch will be joining Universal Music Group,” Soma relayed, “the global leader in the industry. This partnership will provide our artists with significant opportunities for international expansion, and we look forward to finding new synergies across all of our creative endeavors.”
On top of attracting international fans to A-Sketch releases, today’s transaction will, of course, bolster Universal Music’s positioning in Japan.
Despite already boasting the second-largest music market in the world, the nation of about 125 million is gradually embracing streaming – meaning, among other things, that the coming years are poised to deliver new revenue possibilities.
(Against the backdrop of continued music-sector growth in China and many other Asian nations, there are certainly adjacent commercial advantages to expanding in the region’s largest market as well.)
Running with the point, Warner Music last year reorganized its own Japan division and, in December, kicked off a “full-scale entry into” anime music under an NBCUniversal Japan pact. And today, Warner Music Japan officially announced the signing of Japanese boy band Psychic Fever.
With Elliot Grainge’s 10K Projects part of the tie-up to boot, Psychic Fever intends to reach “a wider audience in America and around the world,” 10K co-president Molly McLachlan spelled out.