{"id":52953,"date":"2025-10-15T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=52953"},"modified":"2025-10-14T23:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:15:14","slug":"sony-musics-monopoly-over-aniplex-anime-means-non-associated-musicians-have-a-hard-time-scoring-openings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-musics-monopoly-over-aniplex-anime-means-non-associated-musicians-have-a-hard-time-scoring-openings\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Music&#8217;s monopoly over Aniplex anime means non-associated musicians have a hard time scoring openings, artist says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>During a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/rpnM1lxMvT4?si=kuYHqrfzWKVzGNuP&amp;t=2649\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;livestream<\/a> on his personal YouTube channel earlier this year, Ichiro Yamaguchi, lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Sakanaction, talked about the band\u2019s work on \u201cKaiju\u201d \u2013 the opening theme for the Madhouse-produced anime Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. As this was the band\u2019s first anime opening in a long time, he loved the challenge and expressed his desire to produce music for more anime titles. However, according to him, <strong>Sony Music\u2019<\/strong>s involvement with popular anime productions like <strong>Aniplex<\/strong> is making it difficult for those outside of the company to score openings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30a2\u30cb\u30e1\u306e\u4e3b\u984c\u6b4c\u306b\u307e\u305f\u6311\u6226\u3057\u3066\u307f\u305f\u3044\u3002<\/p>&mdash; \u5c71\u53e3 \u4e00\u90ce (@SAKANAICHIRO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SAKANAICHIRO\/status\/1898892822541128135?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 10, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Post translation: I want to give anime theme songs a shot again.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Aniplex is a Japanese entertainment company and a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan dedicated to producing and distributing anime. Given that its parent company is one of the biggest music producers in Japan, it makes sense for Aniplex to hand theme and score composition duties over to Sony Music Japan\u2019s in-house producers and associated bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, Sony Music Japan\u2019s exclusivity of Aniplex-produced anime means that bands like Sakanaction have a harder time scoring them. That said, Sakanaction\u2019s record label, Victor Entertainment, has an animation-related video and music software subsidiary called FlyingDog. Should FlyingDog ever produce an anime, Yamagushi says there is a good chance that Sakanaction will be able to produce music for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u30b5\u30ab\u30ca\u30af\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3 \/ \u602a\u7363\u3000-Music Video-\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/a8dgNdJVluc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yamaguchi reveals that a way for bands not associated with anime productions to get into the anime music business is to look for titles that don\u2019t have a record label on the production committee. Madhouse, the studio behind Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, is not associated with any music label, allowing Sakanaction to easily work on Orb: On the Movements of the Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the livestream, Yamaguchi said he is open to hearing business proposals from manga artists and anime companies who are interested in working with Sakanaction on a future theme song, so it might not be long before we get to hear Sakanaction on another anime opening again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related articles: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/nongaming-news\/creator-behind-evangelion-iconic-cruel-angels-thesis-opening-song-admits-to-never-having-watched-the-anime\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Creator behind Evangelion\u2019s iconic Cruel Angel\u2019s Thesis opening song admits to never having watched the anime<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/netflixs-devil-may-cry-opening-credits-sequence-has-a-bunch-of-references-to-past-games-and-anime\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Netflix\u2019s Devil May Cry opening credits sequence has a bunch of references to past games and anime<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sakanaction&#8217;s frontman Ichiro Yamaguchi talks about how difficult it is for musicians score deals for anime openings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":52955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[73,17,66],"class_list":["post-52953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-anime","tag-japan-related-news","tag-non-gaming-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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