Aug 05, 2005 09:26
The iTunes Music Store Japan, without further adieu, is up.
The music selection is kind of scanty (Most of the avex artists have pretty limited selections...Utada Hikaru might be the only artist with her full album selection online, and Nakashima Mika is not even on there), but with all the problems that Apple was having getting music companies to agree to iTunes distribution, I can understand why there were some things left out here.
I don't believe the service is available to people outside Japan (I don't think you can purchase songs if you don't have a Japanese address, that is), but I haven't tried to purchase songs from the store yet.
Even though the music store is out in Japan, because the selection is half-assed at best, and mostly filled with songs I already own, I'm not sure if I'll purchase them or not. One thing is for sure: Avex is pulling some subtle sales here. I noticed that even for artists that don't have full discographies online, most of them have at least the copy-protected tracks. So now those people who shelled out x yen for a single two years ago are expected to pay another 150-200 yen (yes, the price varies) just for the right of being able to put it on their iPod. Hmm. I still like owning the physical CD, too. There's just too much bonus goodie stuff with Japanese CDs (though, not recently) that I feel like I miss out on if I just buy the music. On the other hand, though, at 150-200 yen a track, it does mean that an album with 12 songs ends up costing at most 2400 yen.
We shall see how this works out.