Sony Music Japan

Credits

Descriptions by
TeamLogo, RSX-798, 2K-tan and SBF2004

Captures by
RSX-798

Background

Sony Music Entertainment Japan (formerly CBS/Sony Group) is a Japanese music company that was founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony Records, a joint venture between Sony Corporation and The CBS Records Group. It was renamed to its current moniker in 1988 after Sony purchased CBS Records and alongside it, its remaining shares in CBS/Sony. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, operating independently from the international SME although SMEJ has rights to market and distribute SME's library in Japan.

1st Logo (1984-1992)

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Visuals: The visuals consist of the text in blue:

A
CBS/SONY GROUP
RELEASE

Variants:

• From 1991 onwards, the text reads:

A
Sony Music Entertainment
RELEASE

• Sometimes, the text says "CBS/SONY HOME VIDEO".
• Sometimes, the text was in white.
• A variant with the text in Didot, CBS' (the company's co-owner) corporate font, exists.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability: You can see it on releases from the company including anime such as Penguin's Memory: Shiawase Monogatari and Tama and Friends: Third Street Story.

2nd Logo (1992-1998)

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Visuals: On a gray gradient background, there is a flash that reveals a light blue parallelogram which divides itself into slanted lines. The lines disappear to reveal the text "Sony Music Entertainment" in white. Then, a red line draws the white italic word "(Japan) Inc." below the text.

Variants:

• Sometimes, the text reads "Sony Records", "Ki/oon Sony Records" or "Epic/Sony Records" and then the line forms the normal text below in italics.
• On SNES games, the text is already formed, except for the line drawing the text.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: There are two musical versions of the logo.

• One version has a choir, followed by a xylophone theme, which is actually the Roland D-50 Fantasia preset.
• The other was a singing choir followed by wobbling synth noises.
• On the SNES version, the logo is silent.

Availability: Seen on anime and music releases from the company in Japan, as well as on SNES games in the Japanese market, such as the Japanese version of Solstice.

3rd Logo (1994-2004)

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Visuals: On a black background, there is a white vertical rectangle in the middle with the Columbia Records "walking eye" symbol inside of it. Below that, there is the text "Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.".

Variants:

• On Lagnacure, the logo fades to white at the end, transitioning to the Art System logo.
• On Bakuden Unbalance Zone, the Amuse logo is shown below the logo.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability: It was seen on Japanese PS1 and PS2 games that distributed their music on the Japanese Sony Music label. ^[Examples?]

4th Logo (1998-)

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Visuals: On a black background, 3 white lights appear and wipe in the 3D white text "Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc." in stacked form, which starts off on the sides of the letters before they rotate one by one to face the camera. A CD is also formed among the letters, which starts to spin rapidly before flashing and turning into the letter "a".

Variants:

• S ometimes, the text would read either "Sony Music Labels Inc.", "Sony Music Direct (Japan) Inc.", "Sony Music Records" or "SME Records". Here, only one light is shown because there's only 1 line of text.
• The SME version also has a light forming the italic text "Sony Music Records Inc." below the logo, this time flipping up from below.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Same as the first musical version of the second logo. On some occasions, the logo is silent.

Availability: Seen on Japanese music VHS and DVD releases from the company, as well as PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS3 video games from the era. ^[Examples?]