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Answerman - Some People Can't Carry iTunes


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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:35 am Reply with quote
For what it's worth, virtually all of Yoko Kanno's discography is up on iTunes. It's gradually starting to expand; the more obscure stuff will probably remain off iTunes for a long time, though.
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darkchibi07



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 5466
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:41 am Reply with quote
Of course now the challenge is figuring out a way for anime fans to distinguish which website is an actual legit streaming site and a pirate streaming site. I get the feeling most of them can't tell and just do a quick Google search of the anime episode they want to watch and click the first link they see. Most of the time, those legit sites aren't even number 1 of the search results.

On the fansub side, ugh.....I'm trying to convince a friend of mine who has a STEADY PAYING JOB in the U.S. to stop the downloading fansubs on series that have legit streaming like Crunchyroll, but he keeps making excuses like font choices, karaoke subs, translations notes, and so forth. Old habits are hard to break, huh.
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Utsuro no Hako



Joined: 18 May 2012
Posts: 1034
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:59 am Reply with quote
I never purchase from iTunes, but I know Amazon carries most of the big name J-Pop acts that do anime themes -- Supercell/Egoist, School Food Punishment, Stereopony, lisa, Kalafina.
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Penguin_Factory



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 732
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:59 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Where those who consider fansubs as a good thing for the industry because it allows exposure, right?


I realize I'm risking a flame war here, but: could someone who holds this position explain it to me? I'm not trying to get into an enlargement here, I've just never really understood what people mean when they talk about fansubs as bringing positive "exposure" to a series.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2862
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 12:20 pm Reply with quote
it's simple, anime would be nowhere enar as popular if piracy never got involved; as it was said in the article, piracy is rather unecesary these past 3 years or so, but if we rewind back to the vhs times withotu piracy nobody would know about anime and therefore legal options would not exist, the current anime market woudl be just a few shounen shows (stuff like dragon ball z) and maybe the disney movies.
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2441
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 12:42 pm Reply with quote
The first question (thanks for using it, Answerman!) comes from my searching iTunes for a few hours to find songs/albums/artists with which to seed an anime-and-vocaloid iTunes Radio channel. If you'd like to try it on iTunes 11 or iOS 7, here's Invalid Anime.

Plays a little more vocaloid than I'd like, but last I looked, there were over 1,500 Hatsune Miku songs on iTunes, so maybe that's to be expected. And it throws me a L'Arc/P'unk/Hyde song every now and then to make up for it.
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2441
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 12:45 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
For what it's worth, virtually all of Yoko Kanno's discography is up on iTunes. It's gradually starting to expand; the more obscure stuff will probably remain off iTunes for a long time, though.

And those titles popped up just a few months ago… maybe timed to coincide with her appearance at Otakon? Still, it's like four each of Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, and Ghost in the Shell, a rare example of actual anime soundtracks available digitally in the US.
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roxybudgy



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 129
Location: Western Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 12:46 pm Reply with quote
While I couldn't care less about fancy fonts and all the extra trimmings, I dislike streaming video. Despite recently upgrading my Internet speed, I find that streaming videos still frustratingly need to pause and buffer, and often do not give you the option of letting it load fully so you can play it without interruption.

I also tried to check out Crunchyroll, but despite a free 30 day trial, I never managed to watch a single episode. It seemed to be eternally buffering.

So as someone with a steady paying job, I don't bother with free online streams of anime, let alone paid streams. In addition to downloading fansubs, I spend a lot of money on anime DVDs which allows me to watch uninterrupted, no buffering.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:01 pm Reply with quote
I had problems in the past with Crunchyroll streams not working well for me but am trying them again now and things seem to have improved a lot. It will sometimes freeze mid-episode to buffer but that only happens ever few episodes and not for very long. So, while I don't know how long it's been since you last used Crunchyroll, it might be worth checking them again to see if things have gotten better where you are as well.
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Konstantin



Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 13
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:02 pm Reply with quote
I think the second and third questions are intrinsically linked, in that fansubs currently supply the demand for downloadable episodes which is severely underserved by legitimate channels. As Gabe Newell famously put it, piracy is not a pricing issue, it’s a service issue.

Like roxybudgy above, I too can't stand the buffering pauses on streaming video, and would be happy to pay for a convenient way to acquire high quality digital episodes on a download-to-own basis. Lacking such an option, though, I grab the fansubs, and then buy the Blurays/DVDs when those come out.
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2441
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Konstantin wrote:
Like roxybudgy above, I too can't stand the buffering pauses on streaming video, and would be happy to pay for a convenient way to acquire high quality digital episodes on a download-to-own basis. Lacking such an option, though, I grab the fansubs, and then buy the Blurays/DVDs when those come out.

Sorry to be an Apple fanboy, but have you looked at iTunes? Most of Funimation and Sentai's releases (and some Aniplex) are available there, in HD, per episode or in season sets, for less than DVD or Blu. Caveats: almost always dub-only, and of course the DRM ties you to Apple devices.

EDIT: aw man, Justin said as much in the second question of the article. Duh.

Looks like most of the same shows are also available to buy on Amazon Instant Video.

FWIW, Crunchy used to sell download-to-own episodes, but I don't think they had too many takers. I did buy 9 episodes of Galaxy Express 999 on 9/9/09, but nowadays prefer to just subscribe and stream.


Last edited by invalidname on Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:19 pm Reply with quote
I've been a subscriber to Crunchyroll for perhaps three years now. Even if there isn't much I want to watch in a given season, I just let my subscription continue in the expectation that I'll find something to watch later. I do wish that CR would work with the OP and ED publishers to subtitles those songs. Last summer Sam Pinarsky ("Quarkboy") wrote that they had gotten approval for subtitles for the songs in Sakamichi no Apollon. It took almost until the series ended before the approval was granted. That's pretty much the only series I've watched on CR that included subs for the OP and ED.

That said, I still download the occasional fansub for those series that will simply never be released in North America. Hyouge Mono is the most recent example. It's a remarkable series, but it contains none of the characteristics that drive anime sales here. It's populated with adults, set in the Sengoku period, has no cute girls, and tells a subtle and complex story. Crunchy does pick up the occasional odd series like last season's Uchouten Kazoku which still has no R1 licensor.
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Altacia



Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Posts: 286
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:08 pm Reply with quote
I'll just say...

It's bad when the Legal Streaming sites don't work as well as the illegal ones.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6253
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:45 pm Reply with quote
when it comes to J-music and J-pop, they're hard to find on Itunes in the US and elsewhere. Japan is failing to expand their music beyond Japan and Asia (Only quite a few artists like Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, and J-rock/visual kei take international market seriously). I apologize if I have to bring up K-pop and other non-Japanese Asian pop music. but it's relvent to the Answerman topic and I'll keep it relevent to this topic. Japan isn't good at globalization (only video game, some electronic, and cars they're good at, but not music). Japan doesn't embrace digital era unlike their Korean (and Taiwanese) counterpart. That's why J-pop/J-music didn't get the same breakout like K-pop. It's hard to find J-pop MVs on Youtube (Only Avex seem to put it on) and the worse part is if it's uploaded by a fansubber, it get taken down. Even if J-music labels upload the MV, it's usually 1-2 minute longs and the video quality is subpar as in no 1080P HD option for it when they upload it on Youtube. It doesn't help that CDs in Japan are ridiculously expensive. J-pop concerts outside of Japan are so rare, you don't see a J-pop concerts as big as SMTown Live World Tour, United Cube, or Music Bank World Tour outside of Asia. I remember Tempest told me this:

Tempest wrote:
That said, Japan's industry was doing around US$5B in sales at it's peak, sales have already dropped 50% in the last 15 years, and with the population now declining they're only going to drop faster unless Japan can start exporting it's music.


Tempest is correct. I think an article has said last week has said that Japan's music sales has stagnate after that draconian download law has passed. I can find more K-pop and Chinese pop on Itunes then J-pop and J-music avaliable for me to purchase. Hell, I can find a lot of K-drama OST on Itunes avaliable for me to purchase more then anime OST. It sadden me as a anime fans Crying or Very sad that Japan is not expanding globally (even a few years ago Japan could've had opportunity), and guess what happen? Korea did it and K-pop became the first Asian pop to get mainstream popularity outside of Asia. Japan's population decline is getting worse and Japan's music sales (both digital and physical) is continuing to decline. So at some point Japan will have to start exporting and expanding their music outside of Japan and outside of Asia, because their local market is not going to make enough profit as it used to. The international market will be the key for Japan's music industry survival. I hope Japan can learn something from the K-pop explosion, I want to see J-pop/J-music to replicate the same success and mainstream global popularity like K-pop did. I heard Europe could be a huge moneymaker for our J-artists. When can I see a J-pop artists sing in another language other then Japanese, I mean we see Korean and Chinese artists singing in Japanese why not Japanese artists singing in Korean and Chinese. I've seen Girls Generation singing in English and Japanese, but AKB48 has never sang in Korean and Chinese, they did sang once in English.

About the fansubs, well it can be a double edge sword. Fansubs can hurt and it can also help get exposure outside of Japan (although I watch anime legally. I know if it wasn't for fansubs anime wouldn't have a big audiences, but yeah I can understand fansub anime can hurt the sales of anime, but then again anime fans understand this and would buy the DVDs to help support them. I know Japan stigmatize fansubs while other countries like Korea and Taiwan seem to embrace fansubs and make use of legal streaming sites like Crunchyroll, Viki, and Dramafever (alongside Hulu) to stream their dramas. I wish Japan could embrace fansubs more and not treat them like criminals. I have read that Dramafever has hire fansubbers (like a fansub group called With S2) to do subtitling for their dramas.

Quote:
they [Dramafever] are also said to be in talks with popular kdrama fansubbing group With S2 to provide subtitles for less established dramas.


That's all I have to say. I'm not being all "Korea is great", I'm trying to say Japan should look into international market instead of relying on their local market because they're not going to make enough money from their local market if their population continue to decline and if sales both physical and digital continue to fall, then it's not safe for J-music to stay in Japan.


Last edited by mdo7 on Fri Oct 11, 2013 5:15 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Drac



Joined: 08 Apr 2005
Posts: 165
PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:51 pm Reply with quote
Sure the collection of anime soundtracks on iTunes might not be much but I'm still surprised by several obscure stuff I did find. A few soundtracks to various 70's anime from TMS along with tons of CDs filled with live recordings of older anime themes from singers like Ichiro Mizuki and Akira Kushida.
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