Napster have partnered with Rakuten to bring millions of independent artists to their streaming service in Japan from around the world.

Napster have set up a partnership with Japanese internet provider Rakuten to deliver over 20 million tracks to their music streaming service from now until the end of the year.  Rakuten Music’s library will be expanded with independent artists and music from the global independent industry.

Napster’s chief technology officer, Brian Ringer said: “We’re seeing the emergence of a new era of on-demand streaming in Japan. Today, we’re excited to partner with Rakuten, a world-class brand, to extend the Napster experience into Asia and bring the Japanese music community access to over 20 million tracks through our partnership with Rakuten Music.”

Japan has the world’s second largest music market, behind only the US. Napster are expanding their brand partnerships to Japan at a perfect time as the physical music market still dominates there. However music streaming services are gaining traction in Japan and will likely soon have the prevalence they have grown in the western world and other parts of Asia.

Napster, formerly the name of a music piracy site, is the new form of recently rebranded Rhapsody. Since rebranding Napster have strategized to partner and co-brand with other streaming companies rather than rely solely on their own service. They recently partnered with iHeartMedia to launch a co-branded music streaming service.