New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Rhapsody International Inc. and Sony
Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., or "SMEJ," today announced the formal launch of the label's on demand, high resolution streaming music service called "mora qualitas" in Japan. The premier service allows Japanese music fans to have both the convenience of on-demand and the superior quality of high resolution music.
SMEJ launched mora qualitas to bring Japanese subscribers a brand new audio experience. Audiophiles can now stream high resolution music with the depth and richness of what the artist intended.
Music will be sourced from multiple labels and distributors, as well as Sony
Music Entertainment.
Mora qualitas subscribers can stream FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files at a standard of 24-bit/96kHz (Hi-Resolution)/ 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD quality) through a variety of hardware devices including
Digital Analog Converters from Sony's entire line of Hi-Res audio equipment.
"The world of streaming is accelerating and as great companies like Sony
Music Entertainment Japan expand into streaming audio, it's an exciting time for the industry overall," said Brian Ringer, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific Region of Rhapsody. "With the introduction of mora qualitas, music and audio fans in Japan can easily stream their favorite music in high resolution audio."
Japanese music fans can listen to high resolution music from top talent such as Queen, Norah Jones,
Steely Dan and Japanese artists like Hikaru Utada, DREAMS COME TRUE and more. Subscribers will be able to access music from Universal
Music Japan, Warner
Music Japan, Victor Entertainment and more in addition to Sony
Music Entertainment Japan's stable of global artists.
Mora qualitas Service Features:
Enjoy music the way it was made, featuring lossless FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) at a standard of 24-bit/44.1-96kHz (High-Resolution)
Direct access to the most popular music in Japan, and a deep catalog of both Japanese and Western artists.
Discover new music through mora qualitas recommendations, top playlists and friends.
Lose yourself in a curated library of music, and featured spotlights of top new High Resolution album releases.
Listen to your music Windows and Macintosh desktops with an iOS and Android mobile app coming soon.
Fully compatible with a long list of
Digital to Audio Converter (DAC) and other Hi-Res audio listening equipment.
Explore artists and albums, and interact with other music fans through shared playlists and other content.
"Sony is taking high resolution sound quality to new heights. We're building on the success of Mora, our original high res download service in Japan, and after six years we're in tune with what our customers want from their streaming audio provider," said Shigeki Tanaka, Senior Vice President of Sony
Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. "We chose Napster as our trusted partner because they have the global music experience, sophisticated API and passion to help us launch Japan's new premier service."
Rhapsody's platform Powered by Napster provides Sony
Music Entertainment Japan's "mora qualitas" service with a full suite of technologies and solutions that includes media streaming and download infrastructure, applications, personalization, recommendations, rights management, customer billing and royalty calculation capabilities.
Napster's in a prime position to power the coming wave of high resolution music services and contribute to the growth of the Japanese music industry with its Powered by Napster platform. The International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry (IFPI)'s Global
Music Report 2019 spotlighted the growth of music revenue in Japan which saw an increase of 3.4% for 2018. The main driver for this, according to the report, is streaming, which measured 32.6% growth over the year. The most significant development in the streaming market was top-level pop acts such as
Hikaru Utada and
Yumi Matsutoya among others that are making their catalogs available on streaming platforms like mora qualitas.
Music fans in Japan can subscribe to mora qualitas for 1,980 Yen a month / around $18.50 US dollars.
Mora qualitas is available for Windows and Macintosh desktop users, initially, with an Android and iOS mobile app slated to launch soon.
For more information about Powered by Napster please visit https://business.napster.com/.
