“
Around %50 of our releases were sold in Japan, so the size of the scene you think the U.S./Europe has, divide that in half, the US is only buying 100-250 copies of our cds at most, same for Europe. The rest are going to Japan. The Japanese have the highest per square foot real estate costs, but yet they are the ones buying the most physical copies of music releases (vinyl on top of that!). So the big secret you all don’t know, is that without Japan, a lot of the indie labels you know and love, would be a lot worse off or not exist. So thank Japan for helping keep a lot of the music you love, coming out. There’s a reason every Warp album comes out in Japan 3 weeks before the rest of the world and has a bonus track on it.
— From the Merck proprietor’s blog: http://www.gabekoch.com/?m=200712
