You would think that for a music crazy nation like Japan, Google Play Music would have been part of the lives of this music-loving (and buying) culture. But the surprising truth is, the service just launched a month ago in the country. And now, to promote this “new brand” to the public, they’ve managed to bring digital into a live experience through this awesome interactive billboard on display in Shibuya, one of the busiest areas in Tokyo.
There is probably nothing like this billboard anywhere in the world. It has more than 13,000 headphone ports and the dots around them spell out Google Play Music in both English and Japanese. The billboard has more than 35 million songs loaded into it, and people can just plug in and listen to random tracks. If you had nothing better to do, you can actually stay at the billboard for hours just listening to the various songs playing in the various headphone ports.
Google is banking on this billboard bringing interest to the Google Play Music service. While there are a lot of other music streaming services available in Japan, the tech giant is hoping to tap into this lucrative industry. Japan has one of those unique markets where local music is infinitely stronger than international music. Despite being a technologically advanced nation, digital music has only been making headway the past few years, because local record labels offer other “extra” features when fans buy physical records/CDs of their favorite Jpop/JRock artists.
If you’re in Tokyo, you only have a few days to catch this musical billboard as it will only run until October 24. No word yet if it will move in other parts of Japan after this.
VIA: Japan Trends
