Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why is it so tough to buy Japanese digital media downloads?
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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Some of those agencies use bullying tactics to get what they want, corporate tyranny at it's rawest and it benefits no one other than the tyrants themselves and often the tactics are illegal, then again some of the agencies also violate the Japanese constitution when it comes to the rights of their talent.
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Shaterri
Posts: 173 |
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It does - I suspect video might work differently, but at least for digital music I've had success purchasing the music as long as I had an account balance from gift cards. I still need to buy the Owarimonogatari singles, so when I get home tonight I'll try this, confirm that it works and do a bunch of screenshotting along the way just so you can see what it looks like. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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In the past I've just bought CDs from cdjapan.co.jp or similar sellers and ripped them. I've never bought individual songs. In general they are way too expensive when compared to complete CDs. I know that's what the young'uns do, but heck, I still have a library of vinyl records.
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_Quasar_
Posts: 51 |
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It really breaks my brain that they would prefer wholesale piracy to actually making money from putting music on international itunes stores.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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I actively perfer to listen to the hundreds of independant artists what have used vocaloids as their featured singer and many of them have sold their EP's and albums via Itunes and Amazon even .co.uk.
http://karent.jp/ |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Yeah, kind of sucks that many artists that use DLsite aren't also on the English one. I wonder if they have that option themselves. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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BTW, they also accept my Mexican credit card, guhehe. |
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Mr.Shonen
Posts: 269 Location: Brooklyn, NY |
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There are some anime OP/ED/OSTs on Itunes, but you got to look real hard since the songs usually listed with the artist individually and not by anime it comes from. Though it can considered a handful compared to the amount of stuff that will probably never even touch Itunes.
I think there could be a market if music companies just went with singles releases of OP/ED to start off. Japan has softened on putting out anime/manga out there faster to compete against pirates/illegal downloading. Music is probably the last digital frontier for them. |
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vapwaazu
 Posts: 115 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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I was able to get stuff off mora.jp about a year ago through using a webmoney giftcard. It was so expensive to get it that I don't think it was worth it in the end.
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Tempest_Wing
Posts: 305 |
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It's not just digital media. I tried buying some magazines on Amazon Japan and kept getting notices that buying them was restricted to within Japan. I was only able to buy one.
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Mune
Posts: 376 Location: Minnesota |
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Agencies also use these methods to try to combat piracy and reverse importation.
Also, there are plenty of other things that are difficult to get from Japan aside from digital goods. Forwarding addresses is a successful business market because of the restrictions some companies are imposing on their goods from being sent outside Japan. It's almost like they saw the problems with reverse importation and piracy in advance... |
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85cmpersecond
 Posts: 10 Location: USA |
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Kind of have a weird workaround to this; I have a JP 3DS, and (assuming nothing's changed recently?) you can use US credit cards on the Japanese Nintendo e-store. There's a 3DS app called "Recochoku" that works like iTunes (except I think it might be a bit more expensive per song...), and so I can buy stuff through my 3DS and later download it off of my Recochoku account onto my computer and iTunes/iPod/etc.
For physical goods like doujin or Animate exclusives, I go through a proxy that pays/has the goods shipped to their JP address while I pay the cost of goods + service fee + overseas shipping. Gets kind of expensive, so I save it only for exclusives and for sites that don't take US credit cards... |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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This. They're not just doing all these to be arrogant, out of touch luddites. A good practice in business is to protect your interests and seeing as how Japanese Music companies still get most of their revenue from CD sales, that's just how it is. That said, even if they suddenly "open up" and let their music be available all over, what makes you think they'd suddenly get popular overseas? Sad to say, but J-POP doesn't really jive with international mainstream tastes. μ's? AKB48? Momoiro Clover Z? Forget about it. Even Arashi or Exile will struggle because they have to compete with K-POP groups that have already established base abroad. Maybe along the lines of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, but it's still a tough sell. |
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the_animan
Posts: 2 |
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Personally, I get physical CDs for my collection, so while I choose to import using Amazon.co.jp I usually open up the Japanese iTunes to sample before purchase.
I know it wasn't the focus of the article, but if anyone is interested in purchasing digital manga/magazines/books in Japanese I can't recommend Booklive.jp enough. There are daily coupons and other specials, and they cycle through temporary freebies as well. I've had absolutely no problems using a non-Japanese credit card, but keep in mind that you may be charged fees for foreign transactions depending on your cardholder (usually ~3%). With the current favorable exchange rates and relatively common coupons for 20%-25% off, most manga volumes are available for less than $3 each. Since I'd rather have digital versions, this is definitely MUCH better compared to importing them with expensive shipping rates or even paying the understandably-increased prices at Book-Off/Kinokuniya when I visit NYC (~$7). |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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@Mune+Paiprince
What you say would make sense if the music industry in the west had crumbled due to digital piracy, but, surprise, surprise, they just called in and said "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". Reverse importation fears makes little sense when the cost of s&h across the pacific is big and CDs are not as expensive as DVD/Blu-rays. Of course j-pop groups would have to make an effort to take a foothold in the west, that is par for the course, no singer is born a hit inside or outside their homeland. But on the plus side, they could bring in dollars into the japanese music industry and anime gives many a foothold that no other musician has. |
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