AfterDawn: News

Japanese artists siding with iTunes

Several artists and agencies in Japan are being forced to deal directly with Apple in order to add their works to Apple's Japanese iTunes Music Store because of Sony Music Entertainment's failure to come to an agreement with Apple. Sony Music Entertainment is separate from SonyBMG; the Japanese label being the only part of Sony Music to be left out of the merger. This is simply because Japan is Sony's home turf and the existence of iTunes there is more of a threat than a treat.

For example, Japanese rocker Motoharu Sano is signed with Sony but revealed on his website he plans to offer some of his songs for download on the Japanese iTunes site. "I want to deliver my music wherever my listeners are," he told Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper. Also a management agency for a number of popular Japanese bands, Amuse, has decided to maybe go against an earlier decision of not partnering with Apple and is pondering a deal.



iTunes Japan sold over 1,000,000 music downloads in just four days after it was launched. This made the Japanese launch the most successful of all countries that currently offer the service. Apple hopes that the availability of iTunes will lead to more iPod sales, a hope that does not settle well with Sony. The electronics giant sees this as a threat to Sony MP3 player devices which have already done well in the country, as well as the sale of PSPs.

Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 10 Aug 2005 19:29

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• 5 comments

• benjers

  dont you think its pretty sad that at a time when the music industry is trying to overthrow illegal p2p traffic that sony cant just swallow their pride and get on with trying to promote legal dloads. not that i am complaining or anything lol

  11.8.2005 00:50 #1

• Ghostdog

  Sony´s business is in electronics, and if iTunes grows huge in Japan you can bet Sony will be losing a lot of money when people start buying iPods instead of Walkmen.
  
  So it´s not just about pride.

  11.8.2005 04:53 #2

• oracle13

  I'll start by saying that I am a fan of Sony and I can't stand Apple, or anything from them. Sony's big mistake was making their epipment use the Atrac format which sucks. I also don't like any format or service that makes me check files in and out and only alows me to play them from certain computers. If I paid for it, it's mine and I'll play it wherever I damn well please. Since no one else uses the Atrac format and thier jukebox software converted EVERYTHING into it, it is a royal pain in the ass. Not to mention that it sounds like crap. I'm sorry but 128 bit mp3s sound like crap too. Frm what I can find on Apple's site, that's all the ipod can handle. For now I'll stick with my mp3 cd's that encoded at the very least in VBR (variable bitrate) or the full 320. Yes I know I can't fit quite as many songs on the disc, but they sound a whole lot better. If Sony would do away with the Atrac and the checking in and out I'd be very happy, but that probably won't happen anytime soon...

  14.8.2005 20:21 #3

• Ghostdog

  Well I kind of disagree that Atrac is a bad format, especially in low bitrates Atrac sounds superior to MP3 (according to some peole at least, I´m not sure I´m qualified to do a listening test).
  
  But yeah, you´re right... Sony needs to further develop their software.
  The newest version of Sonic Stage brings a few improvements but everyone still wants to see better support for other formats by Sony. It would probably benefit their sales even. But then Atrac would probably die out, and that´s something they don´t want to happen.

  15.8.2005 00:39 #4

• jpopsuki

  I used to live in Japan and acquired a taste for Jpop (favorites, Amuro Namie, Koda Kumi, SPEED- a little old I know- and recently M-Flo.
  
  Since moving back home I have been having trouble keeping up to date with he music. My girlfriend is getting a little tired of sending me stuff i guess :(
  
  I wanted to get stuff from the iTunes store in Japan but you need a Japanese credit card and address. I could just use my old address I suppose but I don't have a Japanese credit card.
  I did find a site this week that sells the Japanese itunes cards and you can use a credit card from any country or Paypal. http://www.jpopmp3s.com
  They are pretty good. I got the card within a couple of hours and it worked fine. They have instructions on setting up with help for what to put for an address in Japan (which I didn't need).
  You have to join- I don't really know why, but it is free to join so no worries I guess.

  7.1.2008 08:02 #5