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The story
On February 13, 2026, all 3,219 Hello! Project-related songs became available on streaming. After Up-Front Works’ Shin Hashimoto and NexTone published a joint interview on the subject, the 5ch Hello! Project board erupted with speculation over why the agency had held off on streaming for so long. Opinions split over who deserved the credit: some claimed Chairman Yamazaki had resisted the move, others traced a timeline back to Airi Suzuki’s push during her stint at Sony Music, and still others credited Yahoo’s Kentaro Kawabe with talking the chairman around. The decision to display Morning Musume and Smileage/Angerme play counts separately also sparked debate.
On February 13, 2026, Hello! Project-related music was finally and fully opened up to streaming.
Branded as the “Hello! Project Streaming Mega-Unlock,” the rollout made waves not only among fans,
but also thanks to playlists released by celebrities who are openly Hello! Project fans, drawing a big response.
Source: billboard-japan.com / Original article here
What people said
what are you even laughing at (said in Kansai dialect)
https://www.billboard-japan.com/common/special/interview/260910_upfront/img/0040.jpg
kinda looks like Sakura Oda (a Hello! Project idol known for a similar look)
Huh? I heard Kentaro Kawabe talked Chairman Yamazaki into it after he kept dragging his feet on streaming
what happened to that story
— How did you approach handling Smileage, Angerme's predecessor group?
Nagaoka: We went back and forth a lot — whether to count them as the same group and show them together, or draw a clean line between them. I wouldn't say they're totally separate acts, but given the direction Angerme's activities are headed in now, we figured it was better to keep them split, so that was a deliberate call on our part.
well if Maro says so, guess it can't be helped (apparent nickname for Nagaoka)
Up-Front Works Co., Ltd. — Kanon Nagaoka
cute
Hashimoto: First off, it came down to timing.
(omitted)
We settled on a Friday, so the release date landed on February 13th.
other agencies have been doing this as a matter of course for ages
so it just comes off as a big 'so what?'
it was late precisely because some exec inside the company fought against the times and opposed it
not just a crappy talent agency, a crappy company period
surprised it hasn't gone under
total opposite of a certain other Kanon out there
Sounds like the story now is that they unlocked Hello! Project's oldest material first and worked forward
there's no way they could say that out loud publicly, obviously
as far as it's visible from the outside:
it started with Airi Suzuki making the request
which followed the 2020 anisong collab between Masayuki Suzuki and Airi Suzuki becoming a hit
↓
as a reward, Airi got to sing an anisong solo too, and temporarily moved to a Sony Music label
↓
naturally her singles and albums there went up on streaming and it worked well, but her Up-Front Works CDs stayed off streaming
↓
so Airi asked, and OG (the original Morning Musume lineup) was the very first thing unlocked on streaming
↓
then she asked again, and just the Berryz Koubou/Buono! era Hello! Project songs got released
↓
that's the timeline
isn't that basically all Kawabe's doing though
in the first place, the push to unlock things didn't come from insiders like Hashimoto, it came from Kawabe's own fan activities, right
in that case they'd better split 'Hello! Project' from 'Hashi Project' too (pun on Hashimoto's name)
this agency really is out of touch with reality, lol
the order was: current OG unlocked → Berryz Koubou/Buono! era unlocked → Kawabe → full Hello! Project unlocked
so it was moving forward with or without Kawabe
are you Hashimoto's lackey or something
if the agency actually intended to unlock everything, why did it take several years to go from the Buono! release to the full Hello! Project release
and your music doesn't have a shred of the charisma of guys like Tatsuro Yamashita or Hiroto and Marcy anyway
groups like =LOVE and Kawaii Lab are exactly like that, lol
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Hello! Project has long centered its business on CD sales, and its shift to streaming lagged behind other talent agencies. While this article takes the form of a joint interview between the parties involved, Up-Front Works and NexTone, it’s worth noting that the claim circulating in the thread — that the chairman opposed the unlock — never actually appears in the interview itself, and instead rests on secondhand lore passed around among fans. Likewise, the fact that some songs were unlocked early when Airi Suzuki temporarily moved to a Sony Music label reflects circumstances tied to her own activities, not a broader policy shift by the agency as a whole. As for the separate play-count handling of Smileage and Angerme, it’s worth reading that as an operational decision made by staff rather than something the artists themselves requested.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Up-Front Works’ Shin Hashimoto × NexTone Interview: How Hello! Project’s 3,219-Song “Streaming Mega-Unlock” Came to Be.”
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