| Qobuz, the French pioneer of high-quality music streaming since 2007, takes a major step with its launch in Japan, the world’s second-largest music market. This strategic expansion marks a decisive turning point in the international development of the platform, reinforcing its trajectory towards profitability and its commitment to a musical experience that combines quality and discovery. A strategic expansion in a key market After establishing a presence in 25 countries, Qobuz now enters the Japanese market, its twenty-sixth territory. This step forward is part of the French platform’s accelerated international expansion. Since its launch in the United States in 2019, Qobuz has opened in 15 new markets in just four years. Qobuz’s move into Japan, following the acquisition of e-onkyo music in 2021, marks its commitment to a high-potential market. While streaming dominates the global music market with over 67% of revenue, Japan presents a unique landscape where the physical market still accounts for over 50% of sales. Paid streaming, while lagging behind with less than 30% market share (compared with over 50% in other major markets), is showing remarkable growth in a country where the offering remains limited and dominated by a few major players. With an expansion rate of almost 13%, compared with less than 7% in the US, Japan appears to be a promising market for Qobuz. Japanese music lovers, known for their high standards when it comes to sound quality, are an ideal audience for Qobuz’s high-quality offering. Georges Fornay, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Qobuz, comments: “Our move into Japan marks a major turning point, bringing us closer to our goal of profitability. We are proud to offer Japanese music lovers a valuable musical experience combining exceptional sound quality, editorial richness, and musical discovery. This expansion into the world’s second-largest music market, where streaming is booming, comes at an ideal time and strengthens our position as the undisputed benchmark for high-quality streaming and downloading.” Qobuz, the alternative to the streaming giants A pioneer and global benchmark in high-quality sound, Qobuz stands out for its singular approach. Dedicated exclusively to music, the platform offers a unique experience combining three fundamental pillars: high-resolution streaming, high-resolution downloads, and cutting-edge editorial content. The platform offers an incomparable listening experience thanks to its uncompromised, uncompressed audio quality, ranging from 16-bit CD quality to 24-bit/up to 192 kHz, and now DXD and DSD, faithfully reproducing artists’ and engineers’ original intent in the studio, and setting new standards for the streaming industry. Beyond streaming, Qobuz is a true cultural medium, offering a dedicated community of music enthusiasts an environment conducive to rich and varied music discovery. Qobuz Magazine features a plethora of editorial content, including artist interviews, in-depth articles diving deep into genres, labels and music history, and of course a section dedicated to Hi-Fi gear reviews. The editorial team, made up of passionate music experts, puts together eclectic musical selections and hand-crafted playlists every week, covering all genres, from rock and jazz to classical, pop, R&B, electronic, and metal. Qobuz enriches its catalog of over 100 million titles by integrating high-resolution tracks from e-onkyo music and a repertoire of Japanese music, including specialized genres such as J-Pop for its launch in Japan. Subscribers in Japan will benefit from the complete Qobuz offer, combining streaming and downloading. Discover the City Pop, which dominated the Japanese music scene in the 70s Discover Japanese music with our selected playlists: Studio GhibliNujabesJapanese City Pop |
| Key figures, source IFPI 2024 : ● Global music streaming market in 2023: 67.3% of music revenuesPay-per-view streaming: subscription growth: 11.2% (10.1% by 2022) ● Japanese music market :Physical market: 55% of salesPaid streaming: 28.7% of the marketPay-per-view streaming growth: 12.8 ● Comparison of growth in paid streaming :Japan: 12.8United States: 7% France: 9.5 |
Sex Farm Is on the Charts in Japan (Joke Explained, Spinal Tap Size)
In the 1984 cult classic This Is Spinal Tap, there’s a scene where the band’s manager casually tells them, “‘Sex Farm’ is on the charts in Japan.” To the casual viewer, it’s just another throwaway line in a film loaded with dry humor and absurd one-liners. But to longtime fans of Spinal Tap—a movie that walks the line between satire and love letter to rock culture—the joke hits deeper. It’s not just about Japan. It’s about how delusion, desperation, and denial define the arc of many a fading rock band.
Let’s unpack the joke.
“Sex Farm” is one of the fictional band’s most ridiculous songs. The lyrics are crude double entendres with agricultural themes—lines like “working on a sex farm, trying to raise some hard love” are delivered with total sincerity by a band that doesn’t seem to realize how far they’ve fallen. When we hear that the song is “on the charts in Japan,” the band lights up, suddenly optimistic about their future. After being reduced to playing small venues and army bases, they take this one sliver of good news and inflate it into a full-blown comeback.
The punchline lies in the absurdity of the situation. A washed-up band, with a song that would never pass radio censors in most Western markets, is somehow gaining traction in Japan. Why Japan? Because for decades, Japan has been seen in the music world as a place where Western artists—particularly hard rock and metal acts—could still find an enthusiastic fanbase long after their popularity waned elsewhere. The Japanese market has long had a reputation for loyalty, collecting, and niche musical obsessions, and Spinal Tap exploits that perception for comic effect.
In real life, plenty of legacy or B-list bands have had unexpected second winds overseas. Artists who couldn’t fill a club in the U.S. might sell out stadiums in Osaka or Tokyo. Labels have long produced Japan-only releases, special editions, and bonus tracks for that very reason. So while the idea of “Sex Farm” becoming a hit in Japan is patently absurd, it’s rooted in just enough truth to feel believable—especially to those familiar with the music industry’s weirder edges.
It’s also a commentary on the way aging rock acts cling to relevance. Throughout Spinal Tap, the band is portrayed as totally out of step with current tastes. Their Stonehenge stage show is laughably small. Their songs are dated. They argue about dressing rooms and sandwich platters while their careers nosedive. Yet every time something goes wrong, they grasp at anything that resembles success. A song charting in Japan becomes a sign that they’re back, that it’s all turning around, even if no one really knows what “charting” means in this context. Is it #98 on an indie chart? Did it get played once on a late-night Tokyo college radio station? It doesn’t matter. It’s something.
The humor in Spinal Tap often lies in the space between perception and reality. The band sees themselves as serious musicians, still climbing the charts. The viewer sees them as a parody of every band that took itself too seriously while its audience moved on. That’s where the “Sex Farm” line lands so perfectly—it’s an example of the band clinging to a warped sense of success in a world that has passed them by.
There’s also a layer of satire here aimed at the music industry’s tendency to chase numbers and headlines without context. “Charting in Japan” sounds impressive if you don’t ask too many questions. It becomes a kind of euphemism for minor or symbolic success. It’s the kind of PR line that gets trotted out when nothing else is going right. And because Spinal Tap so brilliantly mimics the cadence and structure of real music documentaries, it’s a joke that’s easy to miss unless you’ve seen enough rock bios to know how often these kinds of “success stories” are padded or reinterpreted for public consumption.
Finally, the joke also works because of the band’s sheer inability to grasp irony. In Spinal Tap, everything is delivered straight-faced. The band members don’t know they’re funny. That’s what makes it funny. So when they’re told “Sex Farm is on the charts in Japan,” they don’t laugh. They celebrate. They don’t realize the absurdity of their situation, and that lack of self-awareness is what gives the moment its punch.
Like much of This Is Spinal Tap, the “Sex Farm in Japan” line walks a fine line between satire and tragedy. It’s a funny moment, yes—but it’s also a sad one. It’s about a band that doesn’t know when to quit, a band that confuses novelty with momentum. And it captures a universal truth about show business: sometimes, the only thing harder than making it is admitting you didn’t.
So yes, “Sex Farm” is on the charts in Japan. And for Spinal Tap, that’s all they need to believe the dream isn’t quite over. Even if the rest of us know better.
Wait, the Spinal Tap song?! That IS good news. I lost my original LP of the black album lending it out. Never again! Oh to miss Big Bottom forever! Sigh… Sex Farm WOMAN!! Legendary.
I just left Qobuz to come back again after a second 2 month run of Tidal. Tidal is second because their interface lacks for all types of new music to be presented clearly and colorfully, but simply. With Qobuz, the sample rate and other key connection data is presented really obvious information and user friendly.