So there was me browsing for legit ways to download Japanese music from outside Japan (without paying big markup fees for iTunes cards), when I stumbled across this site: http://www.muzie.co.jp/

Now, the small amount of English description I found it said that the downloads are free, and I took a couple of songs off it successfully. My Japanese isn't quite good enough though to check out the finer points though - anyone willing to help? Hopefully there aren't any catches!

It seems to be a site for amateur/indie artists to find listeners. So in all probability, you won't find famous music there.

Figures. Cheers Tobberoth still, not a bad way to get Japanese music when it's SO UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN IT OUTSIDE OF JAPAN!! The iTunes region lock really winds me up.

No one would happen to know a similar site for Hip Hop artists, would they?

donjorge22 Wrote:Figures. Cheers Tobberoth still, not a bad way to get Japanese music when it's SO UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN IT OUTSIDE OF JAPAN!! The iTunes region lock really winds me up.

Thats why I don't view obtaining it illegally as immoral.

Labels lock you out because they don't count on any profits made from your market, so they (and artists) don't "lose" any money because of your actions. "Piracy" also shows them where the demand is and this may result in opening to such "closed" markets. All "piracy is bad" propaganda does is buy some time for colossal corps to figure out how to make money in this new market and to somehow justify their own existence. The distance between artist & consumer is smaller than ever and platforms like iTunes are better at shaping demand and promoting artists than labels ever were.

Artists also benefit since they have another fan that can later (once he's allowed to) purchase some of their products.