Forum - View topicEastern lossless digital music stores
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Gatherum
 Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Title basically says it. I am trying my best to eschew physical media in favour of high-quality digital downloads, both for space conservation and because compact discs are obsolete as a format (and retain market viability largely for the same reasons DVD's do).
I have accounts on 7digital, Bandcamp, Qobuz, and Tidal. The problem? These services are generally geared towards western music, and feature a general dearth of eastern stuff, be it popular music, soundtracks, or what have you. These serve my needs most of the time because most of my stuff comes from Europe, but I'm still one of the weebiest weebs who ever weebed and I want my fix every so often. I found Ototoy while searching for a 夢中夢 record, and this is a start. I am wondering if there are any other options. Please note that I am looking for legal digital downloads. I am well aware that there are thousands of goddamn blogs, forums, fan sites and what have you dedicated to sharing pirated OST material for free. That is not for what I am here. I am also not looking for what are exclusively streaming services. Those are volatile and subscription-based and not my forté. Tidal is listed above because, contrary to popular belief, they have a store. I only go through services which allow me to download local copies of what I buy. Emphasis also on the fact that Amazon Japan, the iTunes Music Store, and the like do not cut it because they only offer lossy content (MP3, M4A, etc). I am looking for lossless (ALAC, FLAC, WAV, etc). |
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horseradish
Posts: 574 Location: Bay Area |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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I appreciate the input!
Hm. Gotta hand it to Melon; their registration is more secure than that of Qobuz in terms of keeping foreigners out. With Qobuz, all I had to do was register through a UK proxy site. Melon wants a local mobile phone number and a verification code. However, there might be a way around this via their Kakao integration. I'll report back with an update after I test it out. |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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So I was able to log in to Melon via Kakao and validate my account through ObtGame, but could not purchase anything because even their check-out options like Samsung Pay require a mobile phone verification. One can configure their Apple ID to enable Apple Pay purchases in conjunction with an older, pre-4.3.1 version of the Melon app on iOS to purchase subscriptions, or go through ObtGame for them, but they don't allow for the acquisition of their FLAC files--only their MP3's. This set-up appears to be a commonality in South Korean digital music stores, to include Bugs, Genie, Soribada, et cetera.
Unfortunate, really. South Koreans don't fudge around with their regional licensing, it seems. Only way around any of this is through a resident middle-person. |
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horseradish
Posts: 574 Location: Bay Area |
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I've never used ObtGame before. I assume validating the account ($9.99 verified MelOn account) and being able to buy MP3s ($16 MelOn Pass) required at least $25.99? That's too bad. Is a virtual phone number an option? Hope the Japanese store options are less problematic.
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Going through ObtGame to verify my account and enable access to songs restricted to people 19 and above cost me USD$12.99. I did not purchase a streaming or download subscription, again, because those don't grant access to the FLAC's. Going through ObtGame for said subscriptions costs a minimum of USD$17.99. They add small amounts, depending upon what you want. For a download pass of thirty songs (in MP3), it's +USD$1.00, and spirals up from there. It's a little more expensive than if one were to pay Melon directly for them, but not by a whole lot. |
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horseradish
Posts: 574 Location: Bay Area |
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Seems odd that MP3 files are available whereas FLAC files aren't?
Last edited by horseradish on Mon May 04, 2020 9:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Because FLAC's are sold at a higher price point than their MP3 counterparts. Melon could get around this by simply selling subscriptions priced to include the FLAC's, but they don't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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horseradish
Posts: 574 Location: Bay Area |
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...why does MelOn require a subscription to buy and download music files at all? Do South Koreans pay subscriptions to simply buy and download music files too? I thought that was meant to be a bundle with streaming....
Because FLAC files are more expensive than MP3 files, I figured a MelOn subscription would offer both formats. Customers who are used to MP3 files and don't know or care about FLAC files would be extra profit...maybe? For example, why give them the choice between $5/mo for MP3 downloads or $8/mo for FLAC downloads when MelOn could force everyone to pay $8/mo for both? I assume lossless formats are more expensive than lossy formats because customers are paying for higher quality content and therefore would acquiesce to higher prices. But are there additional labor or costs for selling FLAC files versus MP3 files similar to Blu-ray versus DVD? How does offering only MP3 subscription make sense? Do I make sense? Brain tired, need sleep... |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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They don't. You can buy them without subscribing, but it takes you to check-out--through which I cannot get because, again, the payment options all want me to verify my South Korean mobile number, or are otherwise not accessible.
Pretty much answered your own question, there. 
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Anybody know where one might find a legal lossless digital download of Dir En Grey's Arche? I've found 7digital listings for Uroboros and Dum Spiro Spero, and I'm assuming that this is because both were put out by The End Records. Arche, on the other hand, was distributed by Firewall Div., a Japanese label whose parent company's web site is a blank page.
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horseradish
Posts: 574 Location: Bay Area |
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Arche is listed for 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC on 7digital UK and 7digital Luxembourg.
This is probably an old website that is now offline: http://www.free-will.co.jp/ The current website seems to be here: http://www.f-w-d.co.jp/label.html |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Ah! Thank you! n.n
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