Feature2 min read
FEATURE: How To Buy Music From The Japanese iTunes Store
A lot of people ask me about how they can buy many of the tracks from Japanese only realeases off Itunes.JP
So here is a guide on how you can purchase songs off Itunes that are only available to Japan.
How do i buy a track off the Japan Itunes Store?
This is easily the most asked question people send me through my channel! And the answer is pretty simple. Once your purchase a Itunes JP Card the rest is straightforward like any other Itunes registration.
- What you need to do first is buy a Japanese Itunes Card. You can find them on Ebay or Jlist. Of course they charge a higher rate but i find Ebay has some good prices and Jlist is a popular site that is legit. Once you purchase the card they send you the code via email.
- Next you need to change your itunes to be set in Japan, Simple scroll down to the My Store selector and choose the very last option. It’s the only one in Kanji.
- Then click the ‘Redeem’ in the top right section of the Itunes store homepage. And enter your Itunes card code if asked.
- Make sure you are not signed in under any other account before you do this. Once you have selected Japan as your store, sign up a account. Its easy as the pages are in English.
- You should be able to proceed to the next page without entering a credit card if you are using the ‘Redeem’ page. If it does not let you move to the next page then start over again.
- When it asks you for your ‘address’ enter any random Japanese address (Use google to find one) . NOTE: You will have to enter your ‘Name’ twice once for Kanji and once for English.
- Once you have entered your details you now have a credited Itunes Japanese account and you can enjoy the great sounds!
ENJOY
I would like to know, why the japanese ‘s songs on itunes
are available ONLY in Japan…..
What THEY will say if Americans and European would do the same
with their music?
Or like facebook and Mixi.
Facebook accept the registration of ALL people of the world. (Japanese people included.)
Mixi DON’T accept foreign people….
mmm….
really… unfair….
I wished facebook would not never accept their registration too…
U______________U
what a racism…..
Availability of content is a different matter than access to websites and the like. Content, whether music, movies, or books, must be licensed in the country where its destined. License holders, in this instance the music companies, determine when, where, and how content is to be licensed in a certain country. The reasons why a license holder doesn’t release their content in a given country are as varied as the reasons people choose a certain brand of cigarettes or beer. They range from duties and fees required by the home country (the US, in this instance), to the ability of the holder to manage distribution.
Profit margins on digital content are already small. Charging higher per-song or per-album amounts for music to make up for additional fees means the content is placed at a disadvantage when competing with other content natively available in the market. Of late, the US iTunes store has been seeing a large amount of content from the Korean music market. Given the competition between the Korean and Japanese industries, I imagine it won’t be long before more Japanese music shows up.
In the end, everything is about return on investment (ROI). If the ROI is good, content becomes available. If the ROI is small… other avenues have to be pursued for people wanting out of market content. It’s unfortunate but understandable.