KDDI Offering Apple Music free for 6 months
KDDI held "au X music 2019" at act square in Shibuya, Tokyo, on January 29th to announce its partnership with Apple Music.
At the outset, Hiroji Matsuda, General Manager of the Consumer Business Planning Division, began his presentation: "Our company is one that continuously proposes excitement, such as the fusion of communications and life design. We now want to provide users with experiences that foreshadow the 5G era. Today, we announce our collaboration with Apple Music regarding music streaming services."
The company will launch Japan's first campaign on January 30th, offering six months of free Apple Music with unlimited access to 50 million songs to all purchasers of 4G LTE smartphones. (This also applies to those who purchased after December 1, 2018).
He also mentioned campaigns offering discounts on select headphones and earphones, and a lottery inviting au subscribers to a special live performance by the rock band "Yabai T-Shirts-ya" (commonly known as Yaba T).
Hattori Hiroshi, head of Apple Music, introduced various content including the radio program "Beats1," which offers the latest music news and exclusive interviews with popular artists. He stated, "Through this collaboration with au, we hope to bring music enjoyment to an even broader range of generations."
Starting the day of the announcement, the company began airing the "Drums" episode from its TV commercial series "Takasugi-kun: Too Conscious!". Attending the venue were Hoika Matsumoto (playing "Ms. Matsumoto"), Taishi Nakagawa (playing "Hosugi-kun"), and three members of Yaba T, whose song "Kawa E" was featured in the commercial.
The episode features Takasugi-kun (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki), who does mental drumming training on Apple Music to emulate the popular Hosugi-kun (played by Honoka Matsumoto) after seeing his dazzling drum performance in the music room. Matsumoto delivers comedic retorts, promoting the collaboration campaign with Apple Music.
Nakagawa, who won the Best New Actor award at the 42nd Japan Academy Film Prize, stated, "Of all my roles so far, Hosugi-kun has been the most well-received, and I consider it my representative work. This time, the series CM finally features a cool scene with Hosugi-kun." Matsumoto responded, "Today, I'm worried because Takasugi-kun, who's always beside me, isn't here. But the Hosugi-kun in the CM has a wonderful gap in a good way."
Nakagawa boasted, "The times have finally caught up with Hosugi-kun!" but immediately followed it with "...Sorry..." to laughter.
The members of Yaba T expressed their excitement about this campaign, saying things like, "The duration and number of songs are amazing," and "As au users, we're really looking forward to it."
On stage, Nakagawa performed a drum solo just like in the commercial. "That scene is about half CG," he explained while delivering a brilliant performance. Yaba T's drummer "Morimori Moto" praised him, saying "No need for a lecture," and added, "For a drummer, the final 'kime face' is crucial." Nakagawa then tried the performance again, finishing with a perfect kime face.
Campaign site:
https://www.au.com/entertainment/apple-music/?bid=we-com-autoppb-0042
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