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Japanese iTunes thwarted by local recording industry

updated 10:05 am EDT, Wed September 8, 2004

No iTunes in Japan?


A Japanese version of Apple's iTunes has been unable to get started due to , which deems its copy protection measures to be inadequate and has refused to offer its music catalog, according to The Asahi Shimbun: "One of the biggest headaches for music industry executives is how to strike the right balance when pricing downloads. While a single download costs 99 cents (about 110 yen) at Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store site, which is not yet available in Japan, domestic services typically charge at least 200 yen per song. That's more expensive than renting a CD single, priced at about 100 yen. 'If we go lower than that, CD sales will suffer. If we go higher than that we wouldn't beat CD rental shops,' said an official of a major record company." However, Yoshiaki Sakito, Apple's VP in charge of marketing, says the popularity of the company's iPod digital audio player will eventually help "pry the market open."


by MacNN Staff

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  1. hardcat1970

    Grizzled Veteran

    Joined: May 2000

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    09/08, 11:00am | report spam | Reply |

    overpriced cd

    do you know you have to pay almost $27 and up for a full cd album and $11+ for a cd single in Japan? no wonder the Japanese music industry is dying.

  1. SomeToast

    Senior User

    Joined: Jan 1999

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    09/08, 11:53am | report spam | Reply |

    What?

    CD rental shops? And they consider the iTMS copy protection inadequate?

  1. z10n

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    Joined: Oct 2003

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    09/08, 12:50pm | report spam | Reply |

    um...

    who cares if online downloads cut into CD sales? Isn't the point to SELL MUSIC? What difference does it make if it's online or CD?

    Japan better get with the program. With iTMS ever-expanding, I'll wager in 5-10 years nobody will bother with buying CDs any more. Even if you're not on a computer my guess is you'll go into a music store in the mall, plug in your iPod, and download songs from iTMS right onto it, ringing up a sale.

    The iPod pretty much made the CD obsolete. The only thing I can think of that could save the CD-ish format is an industry switch to DVD-audio.

  1. testudo

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    Joined: Aug 2001

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    09/08, 12:54pm | report spam | Reply |

    Hmmm

    I wonder how come no one in Japan has sued these people for Antitrust. Oh, and I read elsewhere that current downloadable purchased music can't be burned to a CD-R at all... Makes me think that file sharing services are all the rage in Japan...

    Hey, you Americans, stop your bellyaching about $18 CDs and overpriced .99 downloads. It could be worse!

  1. rjenkinson

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    09/08, 01:06pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: um...

    You're right that the point is to sell music. But if record companies can already sell an album for ¥2500, there is no incentive for them to sell individual songs for ¥110, roughly half of what they currently go for (or a third if you do the math for a typical CD single with one or two bonus tracks).

  1. hardcat1970

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    09/08, 01:53pm | report spam | Reply |

    overpriced "protected"

    i forget to mention that the highly overpriced cd also has some kind of protection scheme and it can't be able to play in some cd players.

  1. testudo

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    09/08, 04:17pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: overpriced

    i forget to mention that the highly overpriced cd also has some kind of protection scheme and it can't be able to play in some cd players.

    Well, of course it costs $27 then. Copy protection schemes aren't cheap. What? You want them to just throw in the protection for free? Geesh, what is it with people, always wanting a handout.

  1. lukechip

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    09/08, 05:40pm | report spam | Reply |

    i don't think so

    "The iPod pretty much made the CD obsolete. The only thing I can think of that could save the CD-ish format is an industry switch to DVD-audio"

    The iPod / AAC market is people who want cheap music, and don't care too much about audio quality. The DVD-Audio market is for audiophiles. These same folk already shun AAC, prefering CD. Sure they'll switch to DVD-Audio, but it won't change the market share of CD-ish users, nor AAC users.

  1. legacyb4

    Mac Elite

    Joined: May 2001

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    09/08, 05:59pm | report spam | Reply |

    Typical Japanese response

    CDs can be rented for much less than it costs to buy a new CD. Japanese music is released to rental about a month after it goes on sale and foreign music is released up to a year afterwards. That's their form of copy protection; what's laughable is that the rental shops all have nice displays of cassettes, CD-Rs, and other accessories geared towards making the personal copy.

    The copy protection schemes don't seem to prevent iTunes from ripping the CDs which is a blessing in disguise since who wants to pay full price for a bloody CD there?

    Things just take too long to change there; forget about people making claims against antitrust too. It's such a controlled environment there that no one tries to rock the boat. I mean, imagine having to pay up to 6 months of rent on an apartment for deposit of which you will be guaranteed to get less than 50% back (half of your deposit goes towards paying off the rental agent and the apartment owner as "thank you money"... only in the past few years has this system begun to change but it is still quite common even though there is no legal precedent behind it.

  1. requinmalin

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    09/08, 06:50pm | report spam | Reply |

    rental shops everywhere

    I'm in Japan and yes, I can easily go to the nearby dvd-cd rental store and rent it for a fraction of the price of buying it. And blank minidiscs are everywhere in Japan. The only real argument for buying CDs is that you get the cover and booklet and sometimes special cd case. Given that many Japanese still like to spend ridiculous amounts of money on brand name items, I could see why many would have no qualms about buying overpriced cds.
    On a different note, this is especially interesting given that on the book market, you can get nice books (new or used)for quite often a lot less than other places in the world. Obviously, the problem is not operating costs of cds stores and bookstores, or else they would both be overpriced.
    Anyway, reform is taking place in Japan and Itunes will eventually make its way on the market, it's not a question of if, but simply when (and make it SOON please!). Given that Apple is quite popular and present in Japan, I think they have a decent chance of having their views heard. Obviously, big players like Sony might very well simply be trying to slow down Apple so they can get their own online store out in time to compete with Itunes.

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