Iwata Asks - Jam with the Band

Iwata Asks: Jam with the Band - Volume 1

Iwata Asks: Jam with the Band - Volume 2

1. All Hands on Deck

Note: This interview took place in September 2008, shortly after the launch of Jam with the Band in Japan.

Iwata:

Thank you for joining me for this unusual session of ‘Iwata Asks’. I really wanted to introduce our readers to some post-release reaction to Jam with the Band, so, for the first time, we’re holding a second ‘Iwata Asks’ for a title after it has been released. So, without further ado, please begin, Nishita-san.

Nishita:

Of course. I’m Nishita from Software Development & Design Department at Software Planning & Development Division. For this project, I didn’t work here, where the game was created. In Jam with the Band, users can download up to 100^* of their favourite songs, and not only songs prepared by us at Nintendo. One of the characteristics of the game is that music which is written by users and submitted to us can also be selected when it has passed our inspections. My responsibilities involved cooperating with JASRAC¹ and Nippon Broadcasting System to ensure smooth management of this system for submitting written music and downloading songs.

¹JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) is a body that is entrusted with lyricists’, songwriters’ and musical publishers’ copyrights. It oversees the licensing of music to users, collecting royalties and distributing them to artists. They also play a part in promoting musical culture.

*Note: In the European version of Jam with the Band, the user has 50 pre-installed songs (the Japanese version had 31 pre-installed songs at launch) and can download another 50 songs via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. There is also space for an additional 100 songs created by users and saved or traded via Nintendo DS Wireless Communications.

Iwata:

Nishita-san, for the first Band Brothers² game, you did work here on the software’s development as the director. This time, as a producer, your main duties involved coordinating with JASRAC and Nippon Broadcasting System, didn’t they?

²’the first Band Brothers’ refers to Daigasso! Band Brothers, a Nintendo DS launch title that was released in December 2004. It was never released outside Japan.

Nishita:

That’s right. For this title, I let Kitamura-san take care of the development of the game itself.

Iwata:

Could you tell us a little bit about what happened immediately after Jam with the Band was released?

Nishita:

The submission of music started as soon as Jam with the Band was released. On the Thursday it was released and the following Friday, we received just as many submissions as we’d been expecting. It was a really good start, and even I was looking forward to a nice quiet weekend. But then…

Iwata:

Over the weekend, something rather unexpected occurred, didn’t it?

Nishita:

We received an incredible amount of submissions on the Saturday. It was like we were hit by a tsunami of submissions, and what’s more they just kept coming. As such, on Sunday morning, I got a message from you, Iwata-san: “All hands on deck!”…

Iwata:

I was at home, keeping an eye on things. If we’d have kept inspecting songs in the same way we had at the beginning, it looked like we were going to fall into a situation where it would take a month or two for a submitted song to be released. Users were submitting songs so enthusiastically, I thought we couldn’t possibly keep them waiting for so long.

Nishita:

But writing music takes a lot of effort, and it’s not something anyone can do that easily. We’d assumed that the number of songs we’d have to inspect each day would be no more than 100, and we’d created our systems to deal with that number.

Kitamura:

However, we received over 1,000 submissions just that weekend.

Nishita:

And it didn’t stop there, as they kept coming on the Monday as well. We realised we couldn’t go on like that.

Iwata:

We decided to immediately adopt an emergency system until the inspection system was back on track, mobilising large numbers of our Nintendo sound staff to deal with the submissions.

Nishita:

It really helped us out…

Iwata:

Even though it definitely had an impact on the music that we created for other games! (laughs)

Nishita:

We’re really sorry about that…

Iwata:

Since we’re on the subject, could you give us a simple explanation of the current inspection process, Nishita-san?

Nishita:

The process has three steps. The first step is automatically taken care of by computer.

Kitamura:

Submitted songs that are not registered with JASRAC^* or that have the wrong product code^* are automatically rejected.

*Note: In the European version of Jam with the Band, Nintendo has a copyright agreement with EMI rather than JASRAC and the popular song scores available for download are therefore versions of EMI-copyrighted songs. There are also copyright-free versions of classical scores as well as Nintendo theme tunes available.

* The European equivalent of a JASRAC registration number is a “Song Code”. The Song Code for each submission can be found at the official European Nintendo website for Jam with the Band in the “Nintendo Music Database”. Submissions will be automatically rejected if they either have the incorrect Song Code or are based on songs not listed in the Nintendo Music Database.

Nishita:

For the next step, we ask for the cooperation of Nippon Broadcasting System in checking the song. There are a lot of songs in the world, so nobody knows every single song that is submitted. That’s why we use Nippon Broadcasting System’s various genre experts to check that the original song is being accurately reproduced. They check the songs by actually listening to them themselves^*.

*Note: In the European song checking process, the evaluation is completely carried out within Nintendo of Europe in co-operation with external specialists.

Kitamura:

Nippon Broadcasting System has a really big library of CDs.

Nishita:

The experts would look up a song in the CD library, and listen to it alongside the song that was submitted, before deciding: “This one passed” or: “This one failed”. We’d then proceed to the third stage, the internal Nintendo final check.

Kitamura:

After checking the lyrics for typos and so on, we’d upload the song to our server, and then it would be ready for its first download.

Iwata:

Steps two and three require a lot of manpower, so they end up taking a long time, don’t they?

Nishita:

That’s right. Furthermore, because an arrangement is required to create songs in Jam with the Band, there was always a lot of back-and-forth with Nippon Broadcasting System, checking whether the song had the right ambience. This confirmation work inevitably took a lot of time.

Kitamura:

What’s more, some songs were submitted that were not in the CD library. At times like that we bought new CDs, but there were more than a few cases where the CD itself was out of print.

Nishita:

Incidentally, Kitamura-san and her team were responsible for the third stage, the final check.

Kitamura:

We were basically just ‘minions’³ of the people who were submitting the songs.

³’Minions’ was the word that Barbara the Bat (a character in the software) used to refer to her staff in the comic strip that appeared on the website for the first Daigasso! Band Brothers game.

All:

(laughter)

Iwata:

It was a really tense time for the Jam with the Band team, wasn’t it? Everything was so frantic, I think it looked to other people like you were having some kind of wild festival, and I did hear some people say “It‘s a shame I can’t take part in that festival”. (laughs)

Kitamura:

Any screams that were heard were screams of joy, I’m sure of it. We kept getting more and more submissions, and although examining each one was hard work, all the submissions we received were of such high quality. What’s more, there were so many songs that had been created with such love for the music. I really wanted to satisfy those who’d submitted the songs, so I was actually glad when the instruction to adopt an emergency system was given.

Iwata:

What was the highest number of songs awaiting inspection you had at any one point?

Nishita:

It was about 2,500. However, thanks to an increase in the staff at Nippon Broadcasting System and everyone’s hard work, things calmed down in the end.

Iwata:

By the way, when you look at the list of songs available for download, you sometimes see that different versions of the same song have been collected and uploaded together.

Nishita:

That’s where we prioritised efficiency. Even at the best of times, there were a lot of songs awaiting inspection, so we’d collect the versions of the same song that had been uploaded during the same period and inspect them together.

Kitamura:

We also received calls from users to collect versions of the same song and release them together. I believe it’s because they wanted to listen to the versions and compare them themselves before deciding on one to download.

Iwata:

I see. Incidentally, how are you dealing with new songs? Even after Jam with the Band went on sale, more and more new songs were released, after all.

Nishita:

Well, in the case of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, for example, we’d received submissions before the film was even released.

*Note: “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” is a very successful Japanese animation film that was released in Japan in 2008 by Studio Ghibli.

Kitamura:

And as a result, we were able to have the songs ready for download to coincide with the day of the film’s release.

Iwata:

You ‘minions’ have been working hard, haven’t you! (laughs)

Kitamura:

Actually, even when Ponyo was submitted, there were a lot of songs awaiting inspection…

Nishita:

So we really got our skates on and speeded up the inspections.

Iwata:

But that doesn’t mean that you put other songs to one side in order to prioritise Ponyo, did it?

Kitamura:

We always stick firmly to the submission order. (flatly) It’s a key policy for us minions.

Iwata:

So Barbara’s strict about the submission order as well is she, Kitamura-san?

Kitamura:

Yes. (laughs)

2. Advice for Contributors

Iwata:

Let me ask: Do the staff members actually submit songs as well?

Kitamura:

Yes. I used my O-bon (summer) holiday to spend two weeks creating a song, and I submitted it on the last day of my holiday. I checked it about 100 times in total, to make sure, but it was perfect. It had no flaws at all, but I had to keep checking. I loved that song.

Iwata:

What happened then?

Kitamura:

I waited about three weeks, but my song did not come round for final inspection. So one day during lunch, I opened up my Nintendo DS with my heart pounding. My song was ‘NG’⁴ (no good). I lost it that day, I can tell you.

⁴’NG’ means a song submission has been unsuccessful for whatever reason, such as a mistake in the song.

All:

(laughter)

Nishita:

So now you know how all the customers who submit songs that come back ‘NG’ feel.

Kitamura:

It was mortifying. But I had no idea why my song was NG, and so, fuelled by resentment, I stormed into the booth of (Koichi) Kyuma-san, the sound director…

Iwata:

That must have been a shock for him!

Kitamura:

I forced him to listen to it again…and he pointed out ten mistakes within the first ten seconds.

All:

(laughter)

Kitamura:

It was really embarrassing…

Iwata:

But you’re not disheartened, are you? You’ll continue to submit songs, right?

Kitamura:

Yes. Until I’m successful.

Iwata:

When you succeed, shall we do another ‘Iwata Asks’? We could call that volume: “Noriko Kitamura: My Submission Success”. (laughs)

Nishita:

We’re talking about the very distant future here…

Kitamura:

By the end of this year, I’m going to do it… I think (laughs)

Iwata:

I proposed adding an ‘Editor Mode’ to the first Band Brothers, but Kitamura-san was one of the people who vehemently opposed it. “I can’t read music, so I don’t want this kind of feature” she said. You were so opposed, and now you’re creating your own songs… It makes me very happy, I must say.

Kitamura:

Even if they are NG. (laughs)

Iwata:

Do you have any advice for people who are putting their heart and soul into making songs, but they just aren’t getting accepted?

Kitamura:

I’m the last person they should turn to for advice…

All:

(laughter)

Kitamura:

But the most important thing, without a shadow of a doubt, is to play your song to someone else before submitting it.

Iwata:

I think you’ve persuaded me of that! (laughs)

Kitamura:

When you’re making a song, you’re closed off in your own little world. You really lose perspective.

Nishita:

Just like when you’re making games! (laughs)

Kitamura:

Yes. You start to like your own song too much… Of course, you can try listening to your song objectively, and you can check out some of the other songs that have been submitted, but you’ll still end up thinking: “My song is the best!” That’s why it’s absolutely vital to get a cool-headed second opinion.

Iwata:

I see. How about you, Nishita-san?

Nishita:

I haven’t submitted a song yet, so I don’t have any advice to offer… Perhaps I’d say that a lot of failed submissions tend to be over-arranged. I think it’s important to listen to the original song to feel that you’ve really got a grasp on the arrangement before starting to make your own song. The inspectors will also then get a stronger impression that your song is close to the original, and your chances of success will increase.

Kitamura:

I did try to do that…

All (laugh)

Iwata:

In any case, thanks to this submission system, I feel that, with every new song that’s added, we are creating something new. Did you ever think that we would exceed 2,000 registered songs in such a short space of time?

Nishita:

Not in my wildest dreams.

Iwata:

Remind me how many songs can the Jam with the Band server hold?

Nishita:

It will be fine with up to 5,000, though there was a point during the ‘emergency system’ period when we were really worried it wasn’t going to be enough. Luckily the person in charge of the server told us that the capacity could be expanded, and that it could be done in one day, which was a real relief.

Kitamura:

There’s one user that submits about 10 songs at once, and the quality is outstanding. One day, all the songs on the ‘New Song Ranking’ page were created by this user!

Iwata:

A kind of ‘Super Submitter’, I suppose. (laughs) Are there any days of the week that see more submissions than others?

Kitamura:

Saturday and Sunday, are well in the lead, of course. I think people use the weekend to polish up their creations, and when they get that “it’s done” buzz, that’s when they submit.

Nishita:

So every Monday morning I look at the server and see how many more submissions there are, and think: “It’s going to be another hard week!”

Iwata:

So there’s lots of activity among the uploaders. How about the downloaders, on the other hand?

Nishita:

Each user has downloaded 20 songs on average.

Iwata:

Each user can download up to 100^* songs, so it would be nice if they could easily download more. I’m quite reckless myself so I’ve been downloading songs willy-nilly, but it would seem that there are careful types who are able to download 85 more songs, but seem hesitant to download even one more.

*Note: In the European version of Jam with the Band, the user can download another 50 songs via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Kitamura:

I’m one of those careful types, in fact. I use the ‘trial listen’ feature over and over again before downloading. Even though I’m the one who inspects and releases the songs, I guess I’m incapable of downloading them.

Iwata:

The ‘trial listen’ system has proved to be a lot more popular than we expected, actually. The proportion of trial listens against downloads is really high, isn’t it?

Nishita:

I’ve got some data here as of 1st September 2008.The number of downloads was 3,940,000, while the number of trial listens was 18,120,000.

Iwata:

Then it seems that, on average, it takes four or five trial listens to get one download. Everyone must be carefully choosing which song to download.

Nishita:

I really hope that everybody will fill up their 100 songs with songs that they love. (laughs)

Iwata:

Alright, I’d like to wrap up this session by asking you two about your future ambitions.

Nishita:

My ambition is to make ‘Band Brothers International’. I’d love it if our users could enjoy western music as well. Receiving song submissions from all over the world is my dream. Having said that, the prospects aren’t good regarding dealing with copyrights on western songs and I don’t know whether or not we’ll actually be able to do this, so I suppose ‘big dream’ is a more suitable word than ‘ambition’.

Kitamura:

Just imagine the work that would cause for the ‘minions’! (laughs)

Iwata:

We’d have to have detailed discussions regarding the internationalisation of the ‘minions’.

All:

(laughter)

Kitamura:

How about your ambition, Kitamura-san?

Kitamura:

We’re keeping people waiting with our current inspection system, so naturally I’d like to think of a new system that would make everyone a bit happier. That would be great.

Iwata:

That’s very important, certainly, but is that really the limit of your ambitions Kitamura-san?

Kitamura:

I want one of my submitted songs to be accepted! That’s my number one ambition at the moment! (laughs)

Iwata:

I thought so. (laughs) I’ll share my ambition to close. I want as few people as possible to be in the situation where they don’t know the possibilities of what they can do on the Internet. The connection rate for Nintendo DS software in Japan that supports Wi-Fi Connection remains under 30%. For Jam with the Band, however, it increases to over 60%, but there are still users who don’t know that they can download songs. I feel that this is a terrible waste. It’s so easy to download 100 songs that you love. Even if you don’t have Wi-Fi access at home you can use Nintendo DS Stations^* in shops. I really hope that everyone creates their own version of Jam with the Band, filled with their favourite songs.

Thank you very much for today.

*Note: The DS Station service is not available in Europe.

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Discover more about Jam with the Band at the official website.

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