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Yamaha Annual Report 2005 19
enough to be accessible to beginners while providing a genuine feel.
This series is also helping to broaden the base of potential musicians.
Professional audio equipment
With an excellent technical reputation for its cutting-edge sound tech-
nology, Yamaha’s commercial audio equipment is used in many of the
world’s concert halls, theaters, churches, television studios and other
venues. Yamaha offers a full range of mixers, amplifiers and speakers
that blend advanced technical expertise with well-designed human
interfaces. Digital mixers such as the PM1D and PM5D (launched in
the year under review) are becoming established as global standards.
Yamaha continues to develop these various product ranges to offer
the best total commercial audio solutions.
In January 2005, Yamaha acquired Steinberg Media Technologies
GmbH, the world leader in computer software for music production. The
acquisition promises to accelerate the Studio Connections joint develop-
ment project that Yamaha had initiated with Steinberg in April 2004, with
the goal of creating a seamless fusion of music production software and
hardware (including synthesizers and mixers) to satisfy the needs of
music creators everywhere.
Music schools
With the aim of introducing the joy of music to as many people as pos-
sible, Yamaha operates music schools in more than 40 countries
around the world. Enrollment levels currently exceed 700,000 students
worldwide.
In Japan, Yamaha successfully reversed a more-than-a-decade-long
decline in student enrollment numbers at music schools by tailoring mar-
keting more closely to modern lifestyle trends. Major factors were a tele-
vision commercial campaign that targeted student recruitment and the
development of a new UnistyleTM range of music schools in suburban
locations offering various high-quality services.
Yamaha continued to target the “active seniors,” many of whom
now have the time and money to pursue musical interests that they per-
haps had to abandon in their youth. Yamaha continued working to ignite
this stealth boom with marketing campaigns offering special music les-
sons to pupils in their 50s and other musical primer courses for adults.
Yamaha aims to open a core of 100 music schools specifically for adults
by March 2007. The opening of 14 facilities in the year under review
brought the cumulative total to 65. Elsewhere, Yamaha pursued other
initiatives to stimulate growth in the population of musical performers by
promoting instrument rentals and developing venues for concerts and
other amateur performances.
Content businesses
The market for ringtones in Japan has
expanded to around ¥80 billion due to
the success of mobile Internet services.
Yamaha has been a leading player in
this business, taking advantage of the
synergy of the company’s large music
database and production of LSI sound
chips as the platform.
Yamaha’s web portal for ringtone
services (MelocchaTM) and related sites
provide a wide range of popular services
for mobile download. Examples include a site that offers over 3,500
tunes for music boxes and MelodicLoverTM, a ringtone melody service
that covers many modern music genres including hip hop, techno and
house. Yamaha has also launched ringtone services in more than ten
other countries, including Taiwan, China, the U.S., Europe and Australia.
In January 2004, Yamaha took the ringtone concept a stage further
by offering downloads of original song clips by Yamaha recording artists
to subscribers of the EZweb network offered by Japanese mobile carrier
KDDI Corporation. This song-based content distribution service (Chaku-
UtaTM, using the UtacchaTM portal) has since been extended to Japan’s
other two major mobile networks. In March 2005, Yamaha inaugurated
an upgraded version of the service that allows a complete song to be
downloaded. These sites’ originality and technical excellence continue to
build sales revenues from mobile download services. Future develop-
ment includes exploiting Yamaha’s strengths to create opportunities
linked to media and networked musical instruments.
Note: Chaku-UtaTM is a trademark of Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
MelocchaTM, ringtone melody
distribution service
Synthesizer MOTIFTM ES8