CDs Rule Japan's Music Market

Thanks to Girl Groups and Add-On.

Ritsuhiko Tajima has about 100 CDs by his favorite artist, Japanese girl group AKB48, many of them copies of the same disc. The attraction? The CDs often include tickets to events where he can briefly meet his idols.

Fans such as Tajima helped increase music sales to consumers in Japan by 3 percent last year, to $4.3 billion, surpassing the U.S. to become the world’s biggest market, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

Read more... Japanese consumer music revenue rose in 2012 for the first time in five years