Tokyo, June 1, 2017 - Rakuten, Inc. announced that from today the company will launch an expansion of the catalog for its music streaming service, Rakuten Music, aiming to offer subscribers a total of approximately 26 million songs by fall 2017.
Launched in August 2016, Rakuten Music currently offers a catalog of around 6 million songs, including the latest J-Pop hits and Western classics*1. With the expansion of the catalog, subscribers will be able to enjoy music in a wide variety of genres from popular international artists. The additional songs will be provided by Rhapsody International Inc., operator of Napster, a music streaming service available in 34 countries. This is the first time for Rhapsody to establish a partnership to provide music to the Japanese market. The two companies are also exploring the potential for collaboration to enhance the features of the Rakuten Music mobile app.
To celebrate the new partnership with Rhapsody, Rakuten will run a campaign from June 8 to June 30 in which Rakuten Music subscribers who listen to Rakuten Music playlists including songs provided by Rhapsody will receive Rakuten Super Points. Five playlists of 100 songs each have been created for genres including pop and dance music. For each song listened to on the playlist, subscribers can receive one Rakuten Super Point*2.
“We’re excited about collaborating with Napster to enhance our on-demand music streaming service in Japan,” said Naho Kono, managing executive officer of Rakuten, Inc. and head of the company’s e-commerce business. “By expanding our offering with music from Napster’s diverse catalog, we aim to give Rakuten Music subscribers the opportunity to find and enjoy new music from around the world.”
*1 Systems such as the personalized recommendation function of Rakuten Music are provided by Sockets Inc.
*2 Subscribers can receive a maximum of 300 Rakuten Super Points during the period of the campaign. To receive the points, the user is required to listen to a song for over 31 seconds. A maximum of up to one point can be earned from each song. Points will be awarded in late August 2017. Details of the campaign can be found on the Rakuten Music app. The campaign will start from June 8. Subscribers paying through Apple ID are not eligible for the campaign.