Tokyo Start-Up “Tone By Gridge” Launched NY Branch

The radio music station platform "Tone by Gridge" which has been providing the place to connect independent artists to listeners from all over the world ever since the service started in 2019, launched its very first overseas base in New York. Announcing to accelerate globalization even more.

"Tone by Gridge" is a radio music station platform on YouTube, based in Tokyo, Japan.

They started the service in 2019 as a space provided for independent artists across the globe to promote their own music globally in the digital format on internet media such as YouTube.

One of their uniqueness is the female character, Natula, who appears in their videos. She lives in "Cordineli", a country of plants on a planet of music, "Tone". Since diversity is in their message of the project, Natula's skin is colored as wood, the eyes are pink, and the hair is blue. Nowadays as a sustainable society is being asked, the time is situated as the year 50xx based on their wish for the culture to be sustainable forever in our future especially entertainment like music. By utilizing designed illustrations and story settings which is the symbol of the proud Japanese anime & manga culture, they have many fans across the globe for the world view that is created with the drawings & animations created by Tone by Gridge.

Tone by Gridge is run by Gridge Inc., CEO Kennichi Yabui that is located in Tokyo, Japan.

This startup company receives fundings from the Japanese entertainment industry representatives which are Sony Music Entertainment Japan that produced universal hit anime productions such as "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba", "Fate/Grand Order", as well as "Faith Inc.", the parent company of the oldest record company in Japan, "Nippon Colombia".

The artists who belong to Gridge have won the TikTok trending words award music department 2020 in Japan, and ranked in the 7th of "The Japanese artist's songs listened to overseas" by Spotify. They are attracting attention not only with CDs but also from the digital promotions that made the most out of the value of "city pop" culture, the globally popular symbol of Japan, the country that CD distribution is still going strong.

Currently, Tone by Gridge delivers "chill" sounds to provide a relaxing mood with the music while the number of users, as well as people who work from home, got more time to spend on the side while at work and doing chores have been steadily increasing during COVID crisis.

Tone by Gridge marks 55-minute of the average viewing time while the average viewing time on YouTube, in general, is said as 7-minutes. The channels function as the place for artists and the listeners, matching among the listeners, as well as the community for people.

Now in Japan, they are in collaboration with making full use of real and digital along with the relaxation drink "CHILL OUT" produced by the joint venture of Coca Cola Japan Company Ltd. and I-ne Ltd. Furthermore, they are also in collaboration with "Sentoh" (public bath) which is a unique culture of Japan, making efforts to air music by artists from all over the world at affiliated "Sentoh" throughout the country. They plan on spreading the service to the e-sports and fashion industry by further focusing on promoting offline.

The background of founding New York Branch and future outlook

The newly founded NY Branch was established for the users from the US especially from the west coast has rapidly increased during the period of COVID self-quarantine.

They aim to configure the branch with local staffs, to form a localized community targeted for American artists and listeners, as well as corporations, and further expand the development from media relations and offline promotions. Tone by Gridge NY Branch is currently looking for media and companies to affiliate with.

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