iPod iTMS Japan Music sort of on iTMS US - Is this normal?

[Makosuke]

I was just poking through the Browse Music section of the iTMS Japan and the US store, doing comparisons, and I noticed that the US store is now showing both Anime and J-Pop as genres, which I'm pretty sure weren't there before the Japanese store opened.

What's stranger still is that although there are a couple dozen artists listed in both, only one has any albums associated with it--the others, including several Japanese artists that show up in Japanese text, are "empty".

I'm wondering if this is normal relative to other foreign iTMS catalogs (I'm not specifically aware of any artists that are available only outside the US to check), or if this is a new thing (hopefully portending some of these artists actually getting added to the US store).

It's also funny to note that they have "H2O" listed under J-Pop, but it's a mistake probably caused by their band naming system; there is a Japanese band also called H2O, but the band in the J-Pop section of the US store is a US hardcore group.

(Also to note, the Japanese iTMS shows a lot of non-Japanese artists in the Browse section who have no songs available, and other genres in the US store also have "empty" J-Pop artists, for example BoA under dance.)

 

[eva01]

Wait so does this mean there is anime and jPop on iTMS US? <_< *goes running to music store*

I don't have those two genres in my store *sobs*

I want screen shot of the genres in iTMS US

EDIT: Oh i see it is in a different place!!!!!

 

[Makosuke]

Wait so does this mean there is anime and jPop on iTMS US?

Well, like I said, only one of the artists actually has any songs available, so not really. There are a bunch of Shonen Knife songs on the US store even though they're not listed under J-Pop, so that's 3/4 of the way there.

I don't have those two genres in my store *sobs*

Really... I checked on two different iTunes 4.9 installations to be sure it wasn't something weird that came of browsing the Japanese store, and they're definitely showing up on both. I also see German and French Pop sections, but those actually have songs in them.

 

[eva01]

I thought you were using the drop down for genre not in the browse music sorry i misunderstood/misread


nice pickup

 

[Makosuke]

EDIT: Oh i see it is in a different place!!!!!

Right--they don't show up under the Genres Popup on the front page (in the US--they're there in Japan), but if you actually go to the browse section, you will see, as the attached image shows, some weirdness (including the empty list for the artist I have highlighted). You can tell that's the US store, by the way, because the J-store doesn't have charts in that section.

A little farther down, you'll see a completely empty Enka section as well... that's one that won't sell too well outside Japan (heck, even in Japan probably, as most fans'd be too old to be shopping online).

 

[eva01]

Right--they don't show up under the Genres Popup on the front page (in the US--they're there in Japan), but if you actually go to the browse section, you will see, as the attached image shows, some weirdness (including the empty list for the artist I have highlighted). You can tell that's the US store, by the way, because the J-store doesn't have charts in that section.

A little farther down, you'll see a completely empty Enka section as well... that's one that won't sell too well outside Japan (heck, even in Japan probably, as most fans'd be too old to be shopping online).

credited you as the source on this news for my website here

 

[Whyren]

This isn't particularly new news (link) but still interesting. They added German and French pop back a while ago too (when they added subgenres maybe?). It'll be interesting to see where they go with this. Some iTMS stuff has been strangely disappearing from the US store, for instance, the Enya collection (which was the top-selling New Age album) became "unavailable in the US" some time in mid-July.

 

[telecomm]

I don't get the Japanese stuff browsing on the Canadian site, but for as long as I can remember there have been artists listed in the other sections who have no albums or songs available on the Canadian site, but do have music available at the US store. Several of which I wish were available to me...

 

[Makosuke]

I don't get the Japanese stuff browsing on the Canadian site, but for as long as I can remember there have been artists listed in the other sections who have no albums or songs available on the Canadian site

Hmm... so that indicates that maybe it's just a fluke of the way the store is set up, and not necessarily an indication that these groups will eventually be sold in the US store. Although based on the French/German Pop sections, one assumes at least some JPop will happen eventually.

Oh, and sorry about the re-post, I did a search but didn't turn that particular link up for some reason.

 

[baleensavage]

I'm not sure why Apple hasn't done more international music on iTunes, especially with JPop and Anime, which have a rapidly growing market in America (and are also outrageously expensive here). To launch the Japanese iTunes, they had to get rights to a bunch of Japanese songs, so where are they in our iTunes ? They had big hype about the Final Fantasy scores when they came out. My guess is that it all has to do with record companies and licensing restrictions.

 

[Makosuke]

Yeah, one assumes that eventually the'll be a more substantive JPop section, though getting the licensing disaster worked out will be interesting for them. Y'know, I can't for the life of me see why a record company wouldn't jump at the chance to increase their market with zero incrimental cost--if you're not selling the CD outside Japan anyway (other than as expensive imports), why not just "flip the bit" and put the songs already on the JiTMS on the rest of the stores and make a few extra sales?

Incidentally, there's actually been a tiny JPop section for a while, under the "World" area in the Browse interface. Puffy and Utada Hikaru are on there, but not much else.

 

[Whyren]

Yeah, one assumes that eventually the'll be a more substantive JPop section, though getting the licensing disaster worked out will be interesting for them. Y'know, I can't for the life of me see why a record company wouldn't jump at the chance to increase their market with zero incrimental cost--if you're not selling the CD outside Japan anyway (other than as expensive imports), why not just "flip the bit" and put the songs already on the JiTMS on the rest of the stores and make a few extra sales?

Incidentally, there's actually been a tiny JPop section for a while, under the "World" area in the Browse interface. Puffy and Utada Hikaru are on there, but not much else.

Not to mention iTMS availability (and prices) may deter people from buying bootleg copies (which are much cheaper than the real things).

 

[Kushiro]

A little farther down, you'll see a completely empty Enka section as well... that's one that won't sell too well outside Japan (heck, even in Japan probably, as most fans'd be too old to be shopping online).

That's not true...if you look hard enough there is some pretty wicked Enka out there.

Kush

 

[Makosuke]

wicked Enka

Heh... now there's two words I never expected to see next to each other in a sentence.

To each his own, though. (Perhaps my low opinion of Enka is colored by a 10-hour flight on which the *best* channel on the plane audio system was lame Enka... oh, had the iPod existed back then.)