Creating a Place Where Classical Musicians Can Earn a Living: Tacticart's Yuichiro Inagaki on Orchestras, Agency Work, and IP Strategy

Inagaki began by outlining the size of the market. According to him, Japan's domestic live entertainment market, driven mainly by tickets for concerts and events, is worth about ¥700 billion. It fell to ¥100 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, but live events are now being held actively and the market has recovered, he said. Of that total, classical concerts account for only around ¥50 billion to ¥70 billion.

Inagaki noted that although everyone encounters classical music in elementary and junior high school, as adults it tends to become something vague, along the lines of "what was that again?", and is often seen as difficult. Tacticart is taking on the challenge of creating new markets by crossing over serious classical music with other fields.

Behind the founding of the company lies Inagaki's own upbringing. He grew up in a musical family, with a mother who is a professional pianist and a father who is an amateur performer, and he took up an instrument at age five with the aim of going professional. However, within that small community, his anxiety grew over whether he could really make a living this way. In high school, he decided not to pursue music and instead majored in law, which had separately interested him.

Even afterward, watching his mother and other professional musicians, he felt the career options were far too few. As Inagaki sees it, a musician's path is essentially limited to three options: join a professional orchestra, become a teacher, or give up music. Whether one joins an orchestra or works as a soloist, the basic source of income is ticket sales, and that alone makes for a tough business. Changing this "lack of revenue points" was his motivation for starting the company. Inagaki said he wants to keep creating revenue streams beyond tickets and build a world where musicians can make money.

Tacticart's operations are divided into three businesses. The first is its own orchestra, the second is an agency business that supports artists, and the third is a solutions business aimed at artists, companies, and society respectively.

Inagaki explained that the three businesses are not separate but interact with one another to support a single pillar. Because the company does not handle only an orchestra or only agency work, it differs from both traditional music management agencies and orchestra-operating organizations. The company's mission, he said, is to support artists' activities while providing solutions to companies and society.

As a business that is easy for businesspeople to understand, Inagaki cited the use of classical music in corporate branding. Classical music carries images of nobility and luxury, which can be leveraged for corporate branding. There has long been a format in which large companies act as sponsors under a "XX Presents" banner and hold concerts by orchestras or artists.

According to Inagaki, however, why companies do this has rarely been put into words. In some cases, a chairman who loved classical music simply said, "All right, let's do it," and the practice continued. But now, spending without a clear purpose is being reconsidered, and people ask, "What's the point of spending money on that?" The company therefore articulates what benefits there are for companies and society, and works with them in the form of sponsorships and co-productions.

When Iijima asked whether this goes beyond simply putting a company's name on an event and serves as a place to connect directly with customers or let them try products, Inagaki agreed. Creating new communities through classical music and connecting them to business in a visible way is the core of what the company is working on now, he said.

As a concrete example, Inagaki cited a project with Hoshino Resorts. A sauna enthusiast, Inagaki frequented facilities where music can be played through speakers in the sauna, and noticed that the only music available for saunas was more or less healing music. So he produced new music suited to saunas and released an album called Sauna Classic.

Hoshino Resorts saw this and expressed interest, leading to an event at a hot spring facility in Karuizawa where the bath was drained to create a footbath, and guests listened to live music while soaking their feet. Classical music carries a strong image of being performed in halls and concert venues, and there are problems such as humidity for the instruments. Inagaki presented the project as one example of overcoming such barriers to team up with a different field.

Iijima asked whether such projects are actually being monetized and whether money is reaching the musicians. The Hoshino Resorts project was carried out with fees received from the company, but Inagaki frankly admitted that this side of things is still weak. If people truly understood that classical music has real value, budgets should come from sources such as advertising spending, but that value has not yet sufficiently sunk in, he said.

Inagaki went on to point out that, not only in classical music, the entertainment world, to put it bluntly, runs on a business model that exploits artists. It is a structure in which agencies insert themselves into artists' work and take a commission. His company also receives a commission on each job, but it aims to earn that commission by bringing in work that artists could not get on their own.

Inagaki also shared his own experience. In the early days after founding the company, there was a period when he played violin at a yakiniku restaurant and earned money from tips. If he had had an agent and that agent had skimmed a cut of those tips, he would not have felt good about it. He can handle a yakiniku restaurant on his own, but he also understands that support is necessary for large jobs, and he would be willing to pay a commission for that. However, having money taken when the agent has done nothing is out of step with the times. For that reason, the company's agency business has a policy of not taking commissions on jobs artists receive directly.

As another example, Inagaki cited an initiative with Idemitsu. The company has collaborated with Idemitsu for two consecutive years. To express gratitude to residents living near its refineries across Japan, Idemitsu holds a free nationwide orchestra tour at three or four locations, he said.

Some things can only be understood by becoming a performer rather than just a listener. That said, asking people to start learning the violin now is not realistic. So the company offers a "conducting experience" in which participants conduct the company's own orchestra. For the Spring Festival in Tokyo, run by IIJ, the company produced an outdoor conducting experience open to both adults and children, he said.

When Iijima asked whether classical music has become a kind of medium for companies to connect with their stakeholders, Inagaki replied that, on the other hand, classical music can also be too lofty and hard to get into. Long pieces can last nearly an hour and demand the kind of concentration required for zazen meditation. Even he, with performing experience, finds it hard to listen all the way through, and it feels like "waterfall training," Inagaki said. The company shortens performance times and condenses famous pieces everyone knows so that audiences don't get bored.

Iijima cited the example of video game music being played at an Olympic opening ceremony to great excitement, and asked whether song selection could broaden the audience. Inagaki agreed that pieces used in corporate commercials, pieces learned in elementary school, and pieces heard as background music are highly effective. Recently, there has also been an increase in idol songs that sample classical music. When people realize "Oh, it's that piece," it becomes fun and their interest grows. The company's greatest strength, he said, is being able to analyze such elements and build programs around them.

On audience reactions to song selection, Inagaki gave the example of a piece often played during footraces at school sports days. The piece has an official title: Orpheus in the Underworld. When such pieces are posted on YouTube, the view counts are on a completely different level, reaching 500,000 or 1 million views, he said.

Inagaki said there is also a revenue advantage here. Because famous classical pieces are in the public domain, revenue flows properly to the performers' rights (neighboring rights) portion. Compared with pop music, where rights are complicated, the rights are clear, and "Mr. Mozart doesn't assert his rights." For that reason, Inagaki views it as an interesting field from a business standpoint as well.

Asked about ways to return revenue to musicians, Inagaki said he sees potential in copyright and intellectual property, the field he researched in graduate school. Classical music pairs extremely well with anime and games, and much newly composed music is also written in a classical style. The first step is to provide places where musicians can work, for example by having orchestras perform such music. One means of doing that, he said, is collaboration with various IP fields.

As a collaboration partner, he named King Records. Recently, the company has been involved in performances by singers such as Hiroko Moriguchi, known for her Gundam theme songs, as well as idols and anime-related shows. Recently, the company's orchestra was chosen for a concert of the anime Fafner in the Azure, whose music was originally recorded with an orchestra. The aim is to let anime fans experience an orchestra live and, from there, become interested in classical music and the artists. Inagaki said the game now is how many such opportunities the company can create.

According to Inagaki, singers and idols alike now frequently hold orchestral concerts, and orchestras themselves have become a trend. The grand world created together with 60 or 100 performers cannot be reproduced any other way, so it is sure to stay in audiences' memories, he said.

Inagaki said that experiences that come in through the eyes are easy to grasp in the moment, but later tend to become "When did I go to that again?" In contrast, his view is that experiences accompanied by sound are never forgotten. For companies, this becomes a "memory playback device" that leads people to recall, "That's the company that was involved in that concert." He said he wants to pitch this advantage to companies more actively.

What does it mean for the company to "have an orchestra"? According to Inagaki, traditional orchestras are run by the national government, local governments, large corporations, and the like, and often take the form of nonprofit legal entities such as public interest incorporated foundations or general incorporated associations. There are also requirements for being a professional orchestra, such as the number of subscription concerts and membership in the orchestra federation.

On the other hand, there are about four or five orchestras in Japan run as stock companies, like Tacticart's, he said. Each has its own character: some perform only serious classical music, while others specialize in anime. What they have in common is a more business-oriented approach than the traditional model, but even including small ones, they can be counted on two hands. Inagaki said these groups are less competitors than fellow members working to energize the industry together, sharing interesting projects and collaboration opportunities.

As a pillar of its agency business, the company runs a platform that lets fans continuously support artists (the subtitles render its name inconsistently, as "Graport" and "Graport"). According to Inagaki, artists' work tends to be one-off, project-based engagements, but creators, not just musicians, need continuous training. What is needed, he said, is a system where people get to know artists through projects and fans then support them on an ongoing basis.

The platform aims to receive high-value support of ¥10,000 to ¥50,000 per month from individuals. Traditional fan clubs need to gather tens of thousands of members to cover their operating costs, but this system was designed so that just 10 or 20 supporters can secure a certain basic income, he said. Inagaki explained that classical music has its roots in patronage culture, and by enabling support in the form of something like a digital transformation of the patronage system, the company is trying to build a foundation where not only the company but also the artists can make money.

Asked whether there are examples of musicians whose income clearly increased after working with the company, Inagaki prefaced his answer by saying, "I don't know if we can say it's thanks to us." He then said he believes there are artists languishing for lack of places to perform, and that he is honestly quite confident that by creating new opportunities centered on the orchestra, the company can help artists earn more, particularly those who work hard at putting themselves out there on social media and elsewhere. He added, however, that self-promotion isn't everything, and said a distinguishing feature of the company's agency is flexibly supporting artists who are making efforts in a variety of ways.

Asked which companies around the world he looks to as references, Inagaki said that, honestly, he doesn't see many companies that stand out in the field of artist support. The benchmark he named was Sanrio, noting how it creates enormous value with character IP. He said he sees great potential in having high-caliber artists who have seriously studied classical music create new IP and market it from Japan to the world.

As the next stage, the company has begun taking on a classical music–related IP with Kodansha: Your Lie in April, a manga whose original work centers on classical music. The company is at the stage of moving forward with plans to bring it overseas, with expansion envisioned in Asian markets where Japanese content is very popular, such as China, Taiwan, and Thailand. It is considering a business rollout that includes not only music but also merchandise, he said.

When Iijima brought up the musical expression in the film BLUE GIANT as an example, Inagaki said it was close to what he has in mind. In concerts for the work being trialed in Japan, the manga's artwork is projected while violin and piano are performed to match each scene. This format is highly popular and has been staged across the country since last year. Inagaki said he wants to market the entire world of the work, including not just the music but also the visuals, as a single IP.

According to Inagaki, collaborations with anime and manga require coordination with the rights holders of the original works and are not easy. On the other hand, family-oriented performances made up solely of classical music also get a good response when the target audience is narrowly defined, he said. Even within "family-oriented," children between ages 0 and 6 prefer completely different content. With packages like these, the company can handle all of the IP, including the program, so they can be rolled out without limit. Inagaki believes concert packages featuring Japanese performers could sell overseas as well.

When Iijima confirmed whether he meant that "the way things are packaged together" itself becomes IP, Inagaki said yes. Popular pieces are combined to suit audiences' ages and tastes, and the way they are performed is changed as well. Inagaki compared this to English-learning services that teach children and adults differently and roll out through apps and other channels. Because the customers are motivated to learn, it is similar to the education business, so collaborating and sharing customers would also be interesting, he said. However, Inagaki said this is a field that many people would like to get into but don't know where to start with, and it is also hard to put into words, so he is still at the stage of learning by talking with people in the industry.

On capital strategy, Inagaki answered that it is "really difficult." This applies to entertainment companies in general: entertainment is an intangible asset and copyrights are hard to value, so even when you say "these are our assets," people ask, "Are those really assets?" As a result, the hurdles to receiving investment in Japan are high. Content takes years to grow, so it is fundamentally a poor fit for investments that seek short-term returns, he said.

Inagaki said that unless investors evaluate social returns together with financial returns, the company's true value cannot be realized. If money is the only goal, there is no need to invest in his company specifically. He feels that only partners who invest with a long-term view are a good fit. The company currently has investment from several angel investors and around 10 companies, but it is still strictly in the angel phase, and he frankly said that how to handle an exit is so difficult that he is still thinking about it.

As for future goals, Inagaki said that if his vision is correct, a community that is not confined to the field of classical music should emerge. The company should be able to partner with every kind of field, such as real estate, travel, and healthcare, and it aims to become a hub through which people can access such communities via classical music. Rather than making big profits as a hub, he said, the aim is a world where diverse fields are organically connected. Inagaki believes that precisely because human relationships are becoming more tenuous with the arrival of AI, such hubs will become necessary.

As for the company's growth path, he said it is not something one company can achieve alone, and the company partners with individuals and companies who share its vision through project-based investment and production committees. He added that he would also like to build relationships in which partners who fully understand the company and want to work together take a small equity stake, and that he envisions operating companies, regardless of industry, as such partners.

Asked whom he wants to work with, Inagaki named companies and people who want to energize Japan once more through Japanese culture and content. He said he wants to do business with people who share an understanding of the significance of reaching out to the world, rather than targeting only the domestic market. Interviewer Iijima closed the interview by saying that he had thought of music in terms of two parties, "listeners and performers," but felt that the business potential lies in involving many stakeholders.