Groove App Goes Free and Gets Big in Japan

By Dana Sedgwick

With about 1 million downloads from the App Store, Groove is no newcomer. However, it recently came out of the woodwork so to speak with the release of it’s free app and a sudden leap to the top of the charts in over 30 countries including Japan, where it’s been hovering at the #1 slot for quite a while on both iPhones and iPads.

A playlist generator that uses your own music library to create personalized listening experiences, Groove is notably different from other discovery apps that feed you music you may not know. Instead, Groove is hoping to help you rediscover music you already love, using your listening preferences and your music to predict what you’ll want to listen to.

With the release of a new UI later this week (sneak peak below!), Groove hopes to continue the traction it’s received in Japan and use those insights to catapult them to number one in many more countries. Listening habits are quite different in Japan–there’s only 3 FM radio stations servicing 13 million Tokyo residents (perhaps because most commuters take the subway, instead of driving), CD sales are booming while digital sales are slumping, and streaming services are practically non-existent. And despite being the 2nd biggest music market in the world, there is a dearth of mobile listening options for Japanese consumers.

We chatted with Joe MacNeil from the Groove team on why he thinks there has been such a sudden surge of Groove downloads versus other popular playlist apps in the Japanese market.

Joe MacNeil (Media Relations Manager, Groove)

1) This market craves quality apps. Unlike other music discovery services which offer a hodgepodge of “expertly curated” music you’ve never heard of, Groove uses your listening preferences and your music to predict what you’ll want to listen to. We’re like a personal tailor for your music… someone who learns how your taste is evolving, your likes and dislikes… someone whose great eye (or ear!) for detail can arrange material in a way that fits together perfectly. Japanese users flock to Groove because it creates customized playlists no matter how idiosyncratic your tastes. If you want a wholesale music experience, check out Songza, or better yet, spend a day at the Gap.

2) Japan music listening habits are both very single-oriented and very cosmopolitan. Over 50% of music that gets played are individual songs or partial albums. Only 2% are listening to full albums. Groove obviously appeals to these users, because it takes all of the lonely singles lying around their library, analyzes their inter-song chemistry, and pumps out a super-playlist fitted to their context. The diversity of Japanese taste is also impressive. While Japanese users are jamming to domestic pop 40% of the time, most of their rock, classical, and jazz music comes from overseas. Knowing how and what music gets listened to in Japan explains why our new feature, “Groove with Friends,” is so popular there. No matter how much diversity in your library, “Groove with Friends” will figure out what artists you and your friends around the world will both enjoy, and makes a playlist filled with their music.

3) Japanese listeners much prefer to listen to music on their devices than music on the cloud. Streaming services aren’t popular at all, and get only 1% of all plays. Even worse, in Japan, only 2% of all digital sales are coming from subscription services. Surprisingly, unlike the US and elsewhere, in Japan, a music fan is more than 11 times more likely to buy a CD than an album online. So a lot of our users are buying music at the store and then using our app to get the most out of it. We’ve also gotten comments that using our app is like visiting the a record store filled with their favourite music, because we put an emphasis on album and artist art.

We’re taking advantage of these comments as we launch our new UI later this week. Groove is unique as a music rediscovery service, giving you lots of insights about your own listening habits while displaying it in an aesthetically-pleasing fashion. Japan tends to be an early adopter environment for music tech, so gaining a foothold there is one of the keys to getting large around the globe.