TOKYO, Japan (CelebrityAccess) — Ingrooves, UMG’s indie distribution, marketing, and rights company, announced they are expanding to Japan with the opening of a new office in Tokyo.
Digital licensing veteran Ryukatsu Son has been tapped to oversee the expansion and will serve as Managing Director of Ingrooves Japan, the company announced on Wednesday.
Prior to his new gig at Ingrooves Ryukatsu served as Head of Licensing, Digital Music at Amazon Japan, where he helped to oversee the launch of the company’s high bitrate streaming platform Amazon Music HD, the first such service to launch in Japan.
Ryukatsu’s C.V. also includes senior roles at Fujipacific Music and Spotify Japan, as well as from the more traditional label side of the business, including almost a decade at Warner Music Japan, where he led the Legal and Business Affairs department.
“Japan has an incredibly vibrant domestic music market and is a key area of focus for us moving forward,” said Bob Roback, CEO of Ingrooves. “Ryukatsu Son, a respected industry veteran with a background in both the label and DSP sides of the business, is the perfect executive to lead our expansion into Japan. He will focus on offering our best-in-class services to local labels and artists while also enhancing the marketing of our global clients in Japan.”
Ingrooves expansion in Japan comes on the heels of the company’s expansion into Brazil in January with the opening of an office in Sao Paolo.
