Billboard Japan and Luminate held their business conference NOW PLAYING JAPAN Vol. 6 on Oct. 2 at Billboard Live Tokyo.

Luminate CEO Rob Jonas made his first appearance at the event, presenting an analysis of the Japanese music market from an overseas perspective. The company also presented concrete ways to use its consumption analytics service CONNECT. An upcoming update will integrate metadata into the platform, allowing users to track consumption trends and metadata at the same time, and the presentation showed how this can improve data accuracy while supporting trend analysis. Guest speaker Naohiro Kaji, director of the Culture and Creative Industries Division at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, also took the stage. Drawing on the Entertainment and Creative Industries Strategy 2026 released in August, he joined moderator Seiji Isozaki of Billboard Japan to discuss support measures and challenges in maximizing overseas revenue for Japanese content. Here’s a recap of the event.

Presentation 1: Rob Jonas (Luminate)

The first speaker was Rob Jonas, CEO of Luminate. He began by naming data accuracy and independence as the company’s core strengths and introduced three initiatives currently in trial: linking musical works to recordings, an AI analyst that users can query in Japanese, and AI music detection. On AI music, he said, “Our role is not to judge AI music. Our role is to measure it accurately, so that labels, publishers, platforms and charts can make their own decisions based on facts.”

Turning to the Japanese market, Jonas explained that total on-demand streams in Japan exceeded 106 billion in the first half of 2026, up 9.5% year over year and outpacing both the global market (+8.4%) and the U.K. (+4.1%). He noted that 75% of streaming in Japan comes from premium subscribers, and that Japan accounts for nearly one-third of all premium streaming in Asia Pacific. He also revealed that, among music listeners not yet paying for streaming, live music attendees are 90% more likely to subscribe within the next six months, followed by gamers (67%) and K-pop fans (38%).

Looking beyond Japan, the share of domestic streaming going to Japanese artists has risen to 75.2%, up from 72.8% in the first half of 2024. Jonas described this as a sign of strong fan loyalty, while pointing out that the biggest opportunity for growth lies outside Japan. Japan moved up to 12th in the world in the Export Power ranking, and outside Asia, J-pop streams are growing in the U.S. (+105.5 million), Mexico (+53.3 million) and Brazil (+14.9 million). While streaming services are the top discovery source for international J-pop fans, more than half of J-pop fans in Mexico said they discover music through anime.

In the transmedia section that followed, Jonas showed that six of the top 10 anime titles released in the U.S. (excluding Crunchyroll) in 2026 are on Netflix. As a case study, he presented The Ramparts of Ice, explaining that streams of its opening theme “Transparent (Toumei)” by Novelbright stayed high for 19 weeks as U.S. viewing of the series grew, and that Season 2, arriving this month, is effectively “a second launch” for the band. On gaming, he noted that YOASOBI ranks eighth in the world for interactive streams on platforms such as Fortnite Festival, with more than 40% of those streams coming from the U.S.

To close, Jonas recommended using the strength of the domestic market to fund overseas expansion, treating anime and games as launchpads for reaching global audiences, and, rather than relying on a handful of artists, building a system like K-pop’s, which grew in the U.S. with physical product in mass-market retail as one of its key pillars. He concluded, “Japan has the scale at home and the fans abroad. What connects the two is accurate, objective data.”

Presentation 2: Naohiro Kaji (METI) x Seiji Isozaki (Billboard Japan)

The talk covered how the Entertainment and Creative Industries Strategy 2026 came to set a specific overseas sales target for the music sector. The strategy aims to grow overseas sales from just under 6 trillion yen in 2024 to 20 trillion yen by 2033, with music targeted to rise from 0.1 trillion yen to 0.7 trillion yen and manga from 0.3 trillion yen to 1 trillion yen. Until recently, the music industry lacked adequate statistics on overseas expansion that could be shared across the industry as a whole. According to Kaji, the Report on Overseas Expansion Data in the Music Industry (April 2026), which researched and organized that data, is what “made it possible to set concrete targets and strategies.” He also explained the framework’s built-in midterm review of results in fiscal 2029, which will determine whether to accelerate, maintain or scale back measures. Since taxpayer money is involved, he said, the design reflects a self-imposed discipline that assumes course corrections from the outset.

Under IP360, each sector is assigned a role — anime driving awareness, games driving revenue and music generating enthusiasm — with the goal of 360-degree IP development. Citing Luminate data, Isozaki noted that unlike South Korea, Japan has consistently maintained a high share of catalog songs, creating a structure in which both new releases and older tracks support sustained growth. Kaji responded that the data would also be useful for individual companies in building their strategies. On the regulatory front, he touched on the record performance and transmission right, established in June 2026 through an amendment to the Copyright Act and set to take effect by June 2029 at the latest, and explained the need to develop the data required for distributing royalties. As an example of cross-ministry efforts, he also mentioned the Bookstore Revitalization Plan, issued jointly by seven ministries and agencies.

Toward the end, Isozaki outlined three possible outcomes on the ground if the 0.7 trillion yen target is achieved: companies focused on overseas markets will gain a bigger presence; internationally minded artists and fans will connect directly with overseas audiences without going through industry staff; and professionals with an overseas track record will become more valuable. Kaji closed by saying this would not be limited to major labels or indies, and that eventually, dedicated overseas departments may disappear altogether as everyone working in the entertainment industry comes to hold a global perspective. 

This article by Haruki Saito and Aoi Harigaya first appeared on Billboard Japan.

Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley have filed for divorce after three years of marriage, Billboard can confirm.

The 14-time Grammy-winning producer and Substance star jointly filed for an uncontested, pre-packaged divorce settlement on Friday (Oct. 30), court records show. The development comes about three months after their separation went public in July, which followed breakup rumors sparked by Antonoff attending Taylor Swift’s wedding to Travis Kelce with sister Rachel Antonoff instead of Qualley.

Billboard has reached out to Antonoff and Qualley’s reps for comment.

In recent weeks, the Bleachers frontman has alluded to the split both on and offstage. When one fan requested he play 2017 song “Let’s Get Married” at a September concert in Los Angeles, Antonoff quipped, “Read the news, brother.” Earlier in October, he told The Guardian that he’d initially felt “worried” about continuing to perform songs he’d written about Qualley on tour now that their relationship has ended, but has since found that “it’s actually been really beautiful” to do so.

Antonoff was first spotted kissing Qualley in 2021, four years after his breakup with Girls creator Lena Dunham in 2017. The musician and The Maid actress later made their official debut at the AFI Awards Luncheon in 2022 before getting married in Antonoff’s native New Jersey in August 2023, a star-studded ceremony attended by Swift as well as Lana Del Rey, Channing Tatum, Zoë Kravitz, Cara Delevingne and the bride’s mother, actress Andie MacDowell.

In August 2025, Antonoff released the soundtrack to director Ethan Coen’s dark comedy Honey Don’t!, which co-starred Qualley and Aubrey Plaza, marking the first time the producer-writer had worked on music for a film his wife appeared in; she appeared on the album under her musical alter ego, Lace Manhattan. Qualley was also the subject of “Margaret,” a love song from Lana Del Rey’s 2023 Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. album, which Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced.

In an interview with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show earlier this year, Antonoff compared the couple’s love affair to a romantic film, saying he knew he would marry Qualley the first second they met at a party in 2021. “I saw her and it was like a f—ing Hallmark movie that doesn’t seem believable,” he told Stern. “When I met her, I started imagining things that I’d never even imagined, like marriage.”

At the time, Antonoff said he proposed to Qualley while they were living in Paris and called her sister Rainey Qualley —  an actress and singer who records as Rainsford — for her blessing.

Earlier this year, Qualley made a lingerie-clad cameo in the video for the Bleachers song “You and Forever” from the band’s Everyone for Ten Minutes album. In the clip, Qualley dances lasciviously in a white negligee in a window as Antonoff huffs down the street mumbling to himself. The actress, who trained as a ballet dancer in her teens, is also seen spinning and twirling athletically around a room in a form-hugging black dress amid clips of an agitated, disheveled Antonoff, crawling down a city street in a rainstorm.

Qualley previously appeared in the 2024 video for the Bleachers song “Tiny Moves,” which was choreographed and co-directed by the actress and filmed just weeks before their nuptials. Leading up to news of their split this summer, fans noticed that the photos Qualley had posted on her Instagram from their wedding appeared to have been scrubbed from her feed.

Mariah Carey is keeping her Lambs on their toes when it comes to her legendary unreleased grunge album, teasing in a recent “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit that the long-shelved project might just be on its way — someday.

In the online chat with fans on Friday (Oct. 30) in honor of her Glitter album’s 25th anniversary, Carey answered questions about her pets — “I currently have 4 Jack Russells and I love them all so much!” she wrote — and whether she’d ever team up with Lenny Kravitz on a song. (“I love Lenny too… Lenny if you’re seeing this, call me!” she wrote.)

But one of the questions that got the most engagement was whether the Songbird Supreme would ever release her grunge LP from the archives. Luckily, Carey was happy to weigh in. “I get asked this about once a week,” she shared. “my answer is…#notyet (this is a hint!)”

Carey opened up in her 2020 memoir about recording a secret rock album called Someone’s Ugly Daughter 25 years prior, which she and her band had used as a way of blowing off steam while in the studio for Daydream, her fifth studio LP. Though Daydream would go on to spend six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1995, Carey released its little-known grunge counterpart under the pseudonym Chick with friend Clarissa Dane taking over lead vocals.

Ever since they’ve known about the existence of Carey’s original version of Someone’s Ugly Daughter, fans have been pressing for her to release it. “I’m so mad I haven’t done that yet,” she said in 2024 of the delay on Las Culturistas. “It’s a good album. OK, you will hear it. I was getting life from that, seriously. It was jokes, as well. They’re everlasting.”

For now, however, Carey is focused on celebrating Glitter, which debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and doubled as the soundtrack to the superstar’s film of the same name. To commemorate its 25th anniversary, she also dropped a deluxe version featuring multiple bonus tracks on Friday.

“Thank you for celebrating glitter!!!” the five-time Grammy winner told one Redditor who’d asked which track on the album she’d had the most fun creating. “‘Lead The Way’ was one of my favorites to write and record and produce, but I love them all.”

Another fan asked on the forum, “Remember when you met Prince while working on Glitter and he encouraged you to finish that song you had started instead of sampling ‘Nasty Girl’ by Vanity 6 ? Will we ever get to hear that demo ?”

“It’s a song that I never finished, I have no idea where it is but I loved Prince and still do,” she replied.

It’s always possible that Carey might give the grunge album to Lambs as a Christmas present this year, though it seems unlikely as she’s spent every holiday season for the past several years focusing on her festive catalog. Her evergreen smash “All I Want for Christmas Is You” holds the record for second-longest run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 22 nonconsecutive weeks, which only Ella Langley has surpassed with “Choosin’ Texas” clearing 25 weeks this year.

As for brand new material? “I’m always working on music and coming up with lyrics and ideas, but I don’t know numbers so I can’t tell you when exactly the next album will happen,” Carey told fans on Reddit.

New Jersey-born house producer Cevin Fisher has died following a short battle with cancer. His death occurred Thursday (Oct. 29), just three days after his 63rd birthday.

A statement released on Friday (Oct. 30) notes that Fisher leaves behind “a loving wife, children, family and friends as well as four decades of music, a global following and an enduring legacy in house music.”

Born Kevin Fisher in East Orange, New Jersey, Fisher created a pair of Dance Club Songs No. 1s: 1998’s “The Freaks Come Out” and 1999’s “(You Got Me) Burnin’ Up.” In total, these songs spent 25 weeks on the chart. Additionally, between 1996 and 2001 he clocked another four Dance Club Songs Entries, with 2001’s “Keep It Coming” hitting No. 3.

Fisher began working in dance music at age 17, when he scored his first residency at New Jersey’s Club Zanzibar. He was behind remixes for Chaka Khan’s “Love You All My Lifetime” and Quincy Jones’ “I’ll Be Good to You.” Upon the advice of Danny Tenaglia, he began making his own music. He went on to have a four-decade career in the global house scene. In 2019, David Guetta (working under his Jack Back alias) released his take on “The Freaks Come Out” with Fisher, with the track generating nearly five million streams on Spotify alone.

A press release notes that in addition to music, Fisher was fitness enthusiast who also worked as a personal trainer and was deeply into basketball. An avid skier, he loved the Jura Mountains near his home in France. He is survived by his wife, Theresa; his children Stephanie, Cindi, Nikko and Tiffany; his stepsons, Jose and Tomas; his siblings, Roslyn, Rene, Rodney and Ronold; and his niece, Nicole.