VISION
Think Globally, Act Globally
With the advent of the digital era, the entertainment industry has become increasingly globalized than ever before. Content holders who are freed from carrying stocks of finished products and working out burdensome networks of physical distribution channels can now dispatch their content – be it music, manga, webtoons, animation or films – to any part of the world in a flash of a second.
Content holders should no longer be satisfied just with a domestic success but need to be aggressive and be prepared to exploit the potential of their content outside of their home territory as the market has now expanded infinitely. Content holders should, therefore, be thinking and acting globally.
The era presents opportunities for our entertainment industry to grow at an unprecedented pace and unstoppable technological innovations will undoubtedly accelerate the speed. Content holders should firmly be sitting in a driver’s seat.
We are fortunate to find ourselves in the industry where young creators emerge uninterruptedly in various parts of the world. They are the ones who will sustain the growth of our industry in the future, and it is our responsibility to provide them with the environment where they will be able to fully unleash their talents.
Thus, the times are truly exciting for our industry, and I am proud that my entertainment consultancy which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year is here to play a role to boost up the vibes.
Alexander Abramoff
President
AIA International Co., Ltd.
BIOGRAPHY
Mr. Abramoff was born, raised, and educated in Japan. He started his career in the music industry in 1971 as an editor of a Japanese music trade magazine called Music Labo. The trade magazine was a sister publication of an American music trade paper, Billboard. Between the years 1974 and 1977, Mr. Abramoff served as the Tokyo Bureau Chief of the Billboard magazine. In 1977, Mr. Abramoff was invited to work for Nippon Phonogram which at that time was a joint venture of Philips of the Netherlands, Victor Company of Japan (which is called JVC Kenwood today) and Matsushita Electric (which is known as Panasonic today). Between 1977 and 1989, Mr. Abramoff worked as International Manager, Product Manager, A&R Manager, General Manager of A&R and Senior Managing Director of the record company. In addition to several well-known local artists, Mr. Abramoff worked with and established such international artists as Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Elton John, Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Lionel Richie, Swing Out Sister, Dio, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Kinks, Michael Monroe, KISS, U2, Scorpions, Thompson Twins, Olivia Newton-John, Vanessa Williams, and Bob Geldof among others in Japan. In 1990, Mr. Abramoff was appointed as the Representative Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nippon Phonogram which later was renamed as Mercury Music Entertainment. During his CEO years, he became a member of the board of the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). When PolyGram, the parent company, was sold to Seagram which owned Universal Music Group at that time, Mr. Abramoff left the company to launch his new career. AIA International was established in 1999.