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Enjoy the full version online at http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2007/04/10/japanese_itunes.html
April 10, 2007
Japanese iTunes
So now that I have list of Jpop and Jrock songs (thanks, everyone!), I want to collect the media. Right now I've got a lot of low-quality videos from Youtube and Daily Motion that at least let me hear the song. But I want decent-quality MP3s of this stuff. Should be easy, just go to iTunes Japan, right? Oh, if only it were that easy. But for some reason known only to the Apple overlords, only customers with billing addresses in Japan can purchase songs in the iTunes Japan music store. There is a work around, of course - American otaku are not to be daunted by such a small obstacle. But it's irritating, from a philosophical standpoint, that customers outside of Japan can't use the internet to buy a digital download. Doesn't that seem backwards to you? In any case I have ordered my prepaid iTunes card and will be soon using my aunt's address in Ibaraki to start downloading awesome Japanese music. Posted by jane at April 10, 2007 05:33 AMComments
Try living in Australia :P We don't get any of the US store content - no movies, no TV shows, and far too many of the album links don't work either. Posted by: Spyder on April 10, 2007 06:30 AMIt is artifical market segregation by location, and appears to be done purely for commercial purposes - i.e. greed. They do it in Europe too (charging more in the UK than other European countries for the same tracks), although this is apparently in contravention of EU laws on open markets. People are beginning to realise this and starting to complain, so hopefully the courts will solve the problem eventually - in our little corner of the world, at least. Posted by: Zild on April 10, 2007 06:57 AMThere's actually a fairly decent selection of jpop available in the US store. Not everything, and a bit light on the jrock, but more than I ever expected to be able to buy from a US retailer. Posted by: Alice Lee on April 10, 2007 08:33 AMYou all think that's bad - try being in a market that doesn't even HAVE a local version of iTunes. Not only can you not even download local stuff, you can't even get a damned account. Posted by: Tetsuo on April 10, 2007 10:48 AMIt's not some mad conspiracy. It's mainly an issue of distribution rights. Apple can't sell Japanese music in regions they don't have the distribution rights for. I've seen the same thing just between the US and Canada where a Canadien artist is under one label in Canada and under a different one in the US. It gets even worse for movie and TV content as the parties involved in production are much larger, thus negotiations are much more convoluted and complex. Posted by: archie4oz on April 10, 2007 11:33 AMDangit, even the workaround is a bit much for what I wanted. I just need one song from the J-Tunes, because it's not on the American release of the album. :( Posted by: bowler on April 11, 2007 08:41 AMIt's sort of like the region encoding for video games. Hopefully, we'll realize someday that we're all actually on one planet. Check out Super Junky Monkey, if you get a chance. They rock. I'll bring a CD to you next time I see you. Posted by: randomlife on April 11, 2007 09:31 PMHi, in case it helps anyone, I have Japanese iTunes cards (1500 yen)for sale on eBay starting at $14.00; the title of the listing is Hi Jane, Not only is this backward, it is actually illegal, since, due to exchange rates, users who want to 'buy from abroad' are restricted from doing so. I know this because I actually worked on the appeal case on behalf of one of the companies but this information is also in the publlic domain. Anyway, the main thing is, expect this cross-border restriction to disappear any day now. You're welcome. Posted by: xiaoda on May 16, 2007 03:09 PMThe EU have already found this to be illegal. Expect it to change any day now. Posted by: xiaoda on May 16, 2007 03:16 PM
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