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bmsgTranslated and summarized from SKY-HI's interview series with Nikkei, "Be myself, for ourselves"
Original interview, 123rd installment from March 6, 2025
Boss feels like one period of the company has ended and they are moving on to the next one. While at Spotify’s “Spotify Music Sessions” with Isozaki-san from Billboard Japan, they got talking about how they are still in the fifth year that he realised BMSG is not that young anymore. He’s been meeting more CEOs who are younger than him and he thinks that’s what five years look like. Objectively, they are also not a “new company”.
BMSG now has 80 employees and recently hired new executives so he feels like BMSG is a completely different creature now.
BMSG established a marketing department and hired a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)
Boss has two reasons for wanting to put some efforts into marketing:
1) to eliminate waste in order to create a hit more than before. It surprises him as someone in the entertainment industry for so long that even now, large companies still have sloppy finances, lol.
2) Strengthening support for solo artists. For solo artists there’s a high possibility that something they create freely will go viral and become a hit once it’s released. In the end, major labels and agencies “are not necessary” for that to happen any longer – you don’t need to go on a TV broadcast, radio, or interview in a magazine, appear in festivals like was the case in the past. When thinking about signing solo artists or for outsourced artists to sign with BMSG, boss definitely wanted to be able to say, “you have increase chances of a hit”
- edhiii boi’s “Otomodachi” going viral (over 800 million views on TikTok) was an accidental hit but was what made him think about this. Boss wants BMSG to be a company that can continue to release “accidental” hits or release them intentionally.
- He wants to increase the number of hits his solo artists make. When solo artists release under BMSG or Bullmoose Records – it’s high quality, the artwork is elaborate, it’s satisfying. He wants to create a situation where solo artists get satisfactory results. If the company is dependent on the ability of their artists, then it will end up being a case of not needing an agency or label at all, it’s something he thinks needs to be thought about seriously. This is true for all artists, what they do to create a hit is to keep making music the way they always have. For boss, it becomes really important to engage with his artists to help raise the quality and precision of their songwriting.
- For a solo artist especially, they often have to search alone for what kind of song to write next. In this case, it’s important to have an organization that can be their soundboard to bounce ideas off with. It’s not simply just listening or making suggestions, but continuing the conversation and not giving up on it. Boss thinks this is the only way to achieve it.
Boss thinks it’s important that artists don’t aim for a hit, because he thinks right now is an era where people are sensitive to it and can sniff it out. It’s an era where a B-side or album song could be potential hits (ie. Bling-Bang-Bang-Born by Creepy Nuts is a B-side, Shin ga ii wa by Fujii Kaze is an album song), so he thinks it’s important that artists think about the songs they can create without consciously trying to aim for it to be a hit, and possibilities and methods around the artist that can effectively influence it to become a hit without the artist consciously aiming for it. He thinks once the fire is lit, you have to fan it like crazy to make the fire bigger. Data is just numbers, humans are the ones who interpret them and decide what action to take
BMSG is growing into a proper business organization and they are able to complete things in-house
The entertainment+music industry often collaborates with outside companies, such as record companies, production companies, TV stations, he’s grateful for all these collabs and have learned a lot, however, if who they’re working with aren’t able to handle their project, the project may come to a halt. He hopes to eliminate such issues if [BMSG] can increase the chances of a hit and decrease chances of mistakes
- The premise is that the more teamwork there is, the more brains there are, but one person’s overwhelming passion may sometimes surpass teamwork, it’s what BMSG has done up to now, that’s also how THE FIRST worked. As long as this premise and philosophy is instilled he thinks it’s possible to maximize that one person’s overwhelming passion to a team, and he thinks that’s what they need to do
With so many projects BMSG is working on, boss feels like his roles as artist, producer and CEO has changed a lot since he started. When BMSG started, both CEO and producer was all him. Around the time of Management no Hanashi, it was slowly changing from solo to teamwork, and now they are a complete organization. Back in January, he was looking at the company’s organizational chart with his executives and laughing at how they are a company now. The organizational chart from two years ago looked like a club network and he was amazed at how far they’ve come with them.
Boss has recently finalized the decision on a second BMSG building. As the company grew he was worried that everyone would find their current building cramped but they got lucky and came across a property with pretty good conditions. If you work hard the right way, you will find what you need when you need it!
Big projects of 2025:
1) TLP – after NNG this will be his fourth time involved in auditions, he’s gained a lot of confidence. As for the BMSG Trainees, RuiTaiNon get along really well. Being part of a group and being a part of a community with a shared destiny is very different. He thinks the start of a group like this is very important, so he’s fired up.
2) BE:FIRST’s world tour – there are some things they have to ask the local promoters for and matters that will have to be left up to them, like how many people they expect and which venues to pick. They’re making preparations and signing contracts with promoters and event planners from each country.
Although this is new for all of them, he thinks it would be great if artists and staff could imagine themselves standing on a stage of a large venue through the experience of this tour. He thinks they will be able to.
BE:FIRST is a large presence in BMSG, so inevitably there will be less domestic activities and direct profits during this period of time, but he believes that this is an investment and challenge for a bigger future. There are few cases in Japan of artists “intentionally” moving and succeeding overseas. The most difficult being there is no time for trial and error, that’s why boss thinks they need to raise their precision of success. The challenge from the fifth year onwards is to increase the accuracy of success and and it will become a challenge that shapes the future they are aiming for.
3) BMSG FES – him and the BMSG staff are very enthusiastic about making BMSG FES a festival. The setlist in 2024 allowed people to experience various stories, compared to the first BMSG FES (‘22) when the story was simple and straightforward, there are a lot more artists now so there are a wider range of stories and relationships that have unfolded. More than ever “good music” will be the most important thing, and something that’s simply “fun to watch”. For fans who are already familiar [with BMSG], he hopes [BMSG FES ‘25] this year offers a deeper level of enjoyment. There are even people who saw “THE FIRST” for the very first time because of No No Girls, that’s exactly why it’s important to keep the context alive and let it keep evolving. Boss thinks it would be great if the cycle of new people coming in continues without end.
Boss thinks they have to keep repeating the same process over and over again: Getting people who’ve never seen BMSG to watch, getting them to like BMSG as a result, and then making them want to come see a live show because they’ve grown to like BMSG. It’s something they have to keep doing endlessly. In that sense, boss thinks it’s really important to have pathways from a single piece of content that can lead people back to the past.
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be super perfect.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
If you like my translations, you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
Original interview, 123rd installment from March 6, 2025
Boss feels like one period of the company has ended and they are moving on to the next one. While at Spotify’s “Spotify Music Sessions” with Isozaki-san from Billboard Japan, they got talking about how they are still in the fifth year that he realised BMSG is not that young anymore. He’s been meeting more CEOs who are younger than him and he thinks that’s what five years look like. Objectively, they are also not a “new company”.
BMSG now has 80 employees and recently hired new executives so he feels like BMSG is a completely different creature now.
BMSG established a marketing department and hired a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)
Boss has two reasons for wanting to put some efforts into marketing:
1) to eliminate waste in order to create a hit more than before. It surprises him as someone in the entertainment industry for so long that even now, large companies still have sloppy finances, lol.
2) Strengthening support for solo artists. For solo artists there’s a high possibility that something they create freely will go viral and become a hit once it’s released. In the end, major labels and agencies “are not necessary” for that to happen any longer – you don’t need to go on a TV broadcast, radio, or interview in a magazine, appear in festivals like was the case in the past. When thinking about signing solo artists or for outsourced artists to sign with BMSG, boss definitely wanted to be able to say, “you have increase chances of a hit”
- edhiii boi’s “Otomodachi” going viral (over 800 million views on TikTok) was an accidental hit but was what made him think about this. Boss wants BMSG to be a company that can continue to release “accidental” hits or release them intentionally.
- He wants to increase the number of hits his solo artists make. When solo artists release under BMSG or Bullmoose Records – it’s high quality, the artwork is elaborate, it’s satisfying. He wants to create a situation where solo artists get satisfactory results. If the company is dependent on the ability of their artists, then it will end up being a case of not needing an agency or label at all, it’s something he thinks needs to be thought about seriously. This is true for all artists, what they do to create a hit is to keep making music the way they always have. For boss, it becomes really important to engage with his artists to help raise the quality and precision of their songwriting.
- For a solo artist especially, they often have to search alone for what kind of song to write next. In this case, it’s important to have an organization that can be their soundboard to bounce ideas off with. It’s not simply just listening or making suggestions, but continuing the conversation and not giving up on it. Boss thinks this is the only way to achieve it.
Boss thinks it’s important that artists don’t aim for a hit, because he thinks right now is an era where people are sensitive to it and can sniff it out. It’s an era where a B-side or album song could be potential hits (ie. Bling-Bang-Bang-Born by Creepy Nuts is a B-side, Shin ga ii wa by Fujii Kaze is an album song), so he thinks it’s important that artists think about the songs they can create without consciously trying to aim for it to be a hit, and possibilities and methods around the artist that can effectively influence it to become a hit without the artist consciously aiming for it. He thinks once the fire is lit, you have to fan it like crazy to make the fire bigger. Data is just numbers, humans are the ones who interpret them and decide what action to take
BMSG is growing into a proper business organization and they are able to complete things in-house
The entertainment+music industry often collaborates with outside companies, such as record companies, production companies, TV stations, he’s grateful for all these collabs and have learned a lot, however, if who they’re working with aren’t able to handle their project, the project may come to a halt. He hopes to eliminate such issues if [BMSG] can increase the chances of a hit and decrease chances of mistakes
- The premise is that the more teamwork there is, the more brains there are, but one person’s overwhelming passion may sometimes surpass teamwork, it’s what BMSG has done up to now, that’s also how THE FIRST worked. As long as this premise and philosophy is instilled he thinks it’s possible to maximize that one person’s overwhelming passion to a team, and he thinks that’s what they need to do
With so many projects BMSG is working on, boss feels like his roles as artist, producer and CEO has changed a lot since he started. When BMSG started, both CEO and producer was all him. Around the time of Management no Hanashi, it was slowly changing from solo to teamwork, and now they are a complete organization. Back in January, he was looking at the company’s organizational chart with his executives and laughing at how they are a company now. The organizational chart from two years ago looked like a club network and he was amazed at how far they’ve come with them.
Boss has recently finalized the decision on a second BMSG building. As the company grew he was worried that everyone would find their current building cramped but they got lucky and came across a property with pretty good conditions. If you work hard the right way, you will find what you need when you need it!
Big projects of 2025:
1) TLP – after NNG this will be his fourth time involved in auditions, he’s gained a lot of confidence. As for the BMSG Trainees, RuiTaiNon get along really well. Being part of a group and being a part of a community with a shared destiny is very different. He thinks the start of a group like this is very important, so he’s fired up.
2) BE:FIRST’s world tour – there are some things they have to ask the local promoters for and matters that will have to be left up to them, like how many people they expect and which venues to pick. They’re making preparations and signing contracts with promoters and event planners from each country.
Although this is new for all of them, he thinks it would be great if artists and staff could imagine themselves standing on a stage of a large venue through the experience of this tour. He thinks they will be able to.
BE:FIRST is a large presence in BMSG, so inevitably there will be less domestic activities and direct profits during this period of time, but he believes that this is an investment and challenge for a bigger future. There are few cases in Japan of artists “intentionally” moving and succeeding overseas. The most difficult being there is no time for trial and error, that’s why boss thinks they need to raise their precision of success. The challenge from the fifth year onwards is to increase the accuracy of success and and it will become a challenge that shapes the future they are aiming for.
3) BMSG FES – him and the BMSG staff are very enthusiastic about making BMSG FES a festival. The setlist in 2024 allowed people to experience various stories, compared to the first BMSG FES (‘22) when the story was simple and straightforward, there are a lot more artists now so there are a wider range of stories and relationships that have unfolded. More than ever “good music” will be the most important thing, and something that’s simply “fun to watch”. For fans who are already familiar [with BMSG], he hopes [BMSG FES ‘25] this year offers a deeper level of enjoyment. There are even people who saw “THE FIRST” for the very first time because of No No Girls, that’s exactly why it’s important to keep the context alive and let it keep evolving. Boss thinks it would be great if the cycle of new people coming in continues without end.
Boss thinks they have to keep repeating the same process over and over again: Getting people who’ve never seen BMSG to watch, getting them to like BMSG as a result, and then making them want to come see a live show because they’ve grown to like BMSG. It’s something they have to keep doing endlessly. In that sense, boss thinks it’s really important to have pathways from a single piece of content that can lead people back to the past.
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be super perfect.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
If you like my translations, you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
