Babymetal to the World!

I think this might be a first.

Someone in the Japan music industry pushing a new act overseas [1][2]. This New Year’s message of the group/trio that comes with English subtitles seems to prove my point, as well as SU-METAL’s blunt “Our goal is to become the artist that has global impact and move a step closer to our conquest of the world!”

Metal might not be a Billboard HOT 100 thing any longer, but remember the days when you used to listen to hard rock and stuff? MAN, remember when Marilyn Manson was controversial? Papa Roach and Slipknot used to be on Top# rankings at one time.

Babymetal, under Toy’s Factory’s sector for Ju Otobe RECORDS (重音部RECORDS), are the first Japanese group (in my experience) to feed me information in English (on their website, YouTube channel and all). I’m kinda obsessed with it. And Toy’s Factory has also launched a Toy’sHop, with items (t-shirts and hoodies at the moment) of their artists, that offers web browsing in Japanese, English, Chinese Simplified and French… with a currency option for a number of countries like Chinese RMB, Korean Won, Brazil’s Real, Canada’s dollar, the ever-present American dollar, among others.

They also seem to use EMS for international shipping (which in my case would be around $20 per regular shipment). The only thing they’re missing is actually shipping any of their CDs, photobooks (if any of their artists releases any), and other merchandise to complete all the buying experience through their website.

If fans of their artists deliver, we might see other labels doing similar things.

Dude, it’s about time.