Chaku-motion: The Latest in Mobile Music Video

As ringtones gradually give way to chaku-uta (mastertone) services (cf Ringtonia), many Japanese content providers are now offering short video clips - known as "chaku-motion" - of well-known artists on their sites.

Demand for these videos is rapidly rising, and has mobile providers scrambling to obtain the rights for all kinds of music video footage, according to Japan Inc. via Moco News.

Full article, hopefully Japaninc.com will forgive me:

"During a quick survey this week, we found a surprising variety of chaku- motion clips on sites run by ringtone and mastertone providers. The most common featured well-known Japanese pop singers or bands waving or strumming a guitar and saying something clever like "You've got a phone call!" Others featured short MTV-like videos and short clips of live performances. One site for guitarists had video "lessons" of professional players shredding the guitar neck with lightning-fast solos, as well as a "movie message" from slide guitarist Eric Sardinas, apparently filmed during his recent Japan tour.

As with chaku-uta, most of the chaku-motion services still suffer from a lack of selection. Again, the bottleneck for content providers lies in obtaining the rights to use video footage of the artists.

With ringtones, licensing and royalties were easy, but production was challenging and required the employment of "desktop" musicians with strong arranging skills. Chaku-uta and chaku-motion, on the other hand, are relatively simple to produce, but much more difficult to obtain rights for. One content provider summed up the situation by saying: "Success in ringtones depended on your knowledge, musicianship, speed and physical endurance; success in chaku-motion depends more on your industry connections."

Some providers without these connections have found ways to at least get their services off the ground, allowing them to gain a head start on competitors while they try to negotiate deals with big-name artists.

One site features famous musical phrases for various instruments played by studio professionals. While the phrase is playing, one or more still-frame photos of the original artist are displayed on the screen. Other services have been able to start by creating their own videos to go with chaku-uta songs for which they have the rights, or by featuring only indie-label artists.

Despite a cost of roughly $1.00 per download (plus up to another $1.00 in packet fees) for a 10- to 20-second clip, these chaku-motion downloads have proven extremely popular so far. NTT DoCoMo is currently promoting chaku-motion as the premiere contents for its latest 900i series of FOMA handsets.