Forum - View topicSound Decision - iTunes Japan hits 1,000,000
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kollivier
Posts: 15 |
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Well, in addition to being able to window shop, you get access to the podcasts and free music downloads (IIUC). (And their first free download is actually a pretty funky song mixing traditional Japanese instruments with a modern beat - I would have paid for it.  And, there are Japanese people living or visiting overseas, too, so they can still use this service.
I agree it sucks, but first things first. Apple's still trying to get Sony and other vendors on board. As cool as this service is, I don't see SMAP, Tube, Southern All Stars, L'Arc en Ciel, Orange Range, Puffy, Aiko, etc. on there. Even on the Japanese store, their 'anime' section is practically empty, unless you go for Sonic-X music. These are some huge gaps. They still need to get many of the skittish Japanese music vendors on board just selling their music online in Japan, much less broach the subject of making it available in the US, and oh yeah, Americans only want to pay $0.99... But 1,000,000 in 4 days is definitely going to make some of those companies think twice about being left out. Once the companies are more 'comfortable' with selling music this way, then I bet Apple will come back and say 'you know, lots of Americans like this music too...' |
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Shiki MSHTS
 Posts: 738 Location: NoVA |
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Same. Avex has a ton of stuff that I'd be more than happy to pay the charged price for (day after tommorow being a major one...). Well, in the meantime, Podcasts are free, and available for international downloading. So while you can't get any paid songs from iTMS Japan, you can still get some free podcasts. Some of them have proved to be quite intresting to me acctually.
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Kiaelf
 Posts: 27 Location: Buried under paperwork, anyone have a backhoe? |
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I checked the iTunes site and if you click on browse and under the Music Genre listing there is a listing for J-Pop and Anime. However I only found 60 songs under Anime and a lot of things under J-Pop said not available in the US. Hopefully this means they're in the process of putting more in these categories for the US consumers.
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jmays
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Am I blind? I can't find anything like that on Apple.com. |
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RyoShin
 Posts: 83 Location: Michigan |
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In the iTunes Music Store (program), if you click on Power Search (left menu, one of the first items), they have Anime and J-pop for two of the genres. Unfortunatly, a search for Anime (with nothing else inputted) gets zip. Doing the same for J-pop garners about a dozen songs, all from "H2O". So it looks like iTMS doesn't really cater to the American anime/J-pop fans... yet. They do have one or two podcasts for Japanese music, however. Also, what does 300 Yen convert to in $? |
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jmays
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Okay, yeah, I knew there were a few stray J-Pop songs on iTunes USA. Rightsscale has negotiated deals with a few artists, but none of the superstars.
What I'm wondering about are the 60 anime songs you can supposedly find on the iTunes website(?). Last edited by jmays on Wed Aug 10, 2005 4:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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.Sy
Posts: 1266 |
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300.00 Yen = 2.71257 USD (xe.com) |
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Colonel Wolfe
 Posts: 370 |
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I don't see Sony budging from their position. While these other companies allying themselves with the iTunes downloads may put pressure on Sony, I just don't see Sony caving in.
But, their whole AAC audio format is a piece of crap since MP3 and WMA have such a stranglehold on the market. To make things worse, AAC doesn't even have nowhere near the compression Sony has been hyping it for. I have tried using it myself and it's way too painful to use and it's not exactly user friendly. |
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jmays
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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What really has to be killing Sony right now is that Apple offered them a chance to be a partner in iTunes way back in 2003. There's no way they will get a deal like that again.
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Nobuyuki
Posts: 536 |
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AAC is Apple's format. ATRAC is Sony's. |
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kollivier
Posts: 15 |
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BTW, Sony's format is ATRAC. It's easy to remember for me because it sounds like "8-track".  AAC is Apple's compression format for iTMS.
In any case, Sony can fight Apple, but what Sony can't fight is it's own customer base. Sony has long had this conflict between it's content and technology divisions, but if they keep this up for a long time they risk alienating customers who want their music, and they could even start losing some of thier hot bands as the bands realize they can get more sales and more profits by being on iTMS. Something's gotta give within Sony, and if they have to finally choose between their proprietary compression technologies and their music business, I think I know which one's going to get the boot. Sony's lost format wars before, they'll get over it. It just may take them a while...
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crazydumbek
 Posts: 182 |
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Another kick in the gut is that artists under the Sony label are trying to get into iTunes regardless of what Sony says.
Not quite. Apple uses the AAC format defined by the MPEG-2 standards. Apple has the rights to the DRM. Sony can sell an AAC file and have some DRM attached to prevent it from playing on an iPod, but they are hell-bent on creating their own formats. |
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Seanb
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 73 Location: RI, but Colorado is still home |
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Not that it's any surprise for Sony. They've always been hell-bent on being the company that owns the format that everyone else uses. They can make a good product when they give up and just use the existing standards, but the rest of the time we get to see them pump out format after format: beta, memory stick, mini disc, atrac, blu-ray... I don't doubt that somewhere in Sony's labs they imagine the day that Playstation games become a "format", and they can sell licenses to make Playstation hardware. Not that I think it's a good idea or anything. |
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surfing baby
Posts: 7 |
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Bonnie Pink isn't a big of enough name for you? And superstars usually have to start off at some point as unknowns. Any ways, this site has a nice guide to the variety of Japanese musicians on the U.S. Itunes if anyone is curious: http://gomorning.com/scene/itunes |
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Aresef
Posts: 909 Location: MD |
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That list is incomplete.
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