Kalafina on iTunes: How Global they are?

@Kurjenmiekka

I've heard about it (greece carrier "cosmote" offers it) but I also heard that the sound quality is kinda poor in it and that was the reason why some artists quited it, and an other one that they dont get enough money ? Japanese music industry seems to really hate "free" so they will never embrace it IMO. However if you like japanese songs you can try iTune's radio, which under "international" it has various internet radio stations with random J-pop and anime songs. Google also offers a music listening service and has a 30-day trial but never really tried it either ^^;

btw the google one has Hiroyuki Sawano and others but not Kalafina, Yuki Kajiura, or any SME artist in general >_>
 
Last edited:
@george1234 I haven't noticed the sound quality being poor. Spotify streams at 320kbps if your internet is fast enough. But I googled it and it seems some users have had problems with the sound quality... never had an issue with it personally, though, but I can't speak for everyone. I have, however, also heard that Spotify doesn't pay enough to the artists, which is why some artists choose not to use it. But at this time when piracy thrives, most popular artists choose Spotify, because they still get more money from it than they would othervise. Like I said, I haven't really used Spotify much lately, so there might be some new issues I'm not aware of.

Yes, there indeed are very few Japanese artists available on Spotify, which really sucks. And many artists like Faylan, Kurosaki Maon and Yousei Teikoku don't have their songs available on itunes either (at least not here in Finland). It's bad, because unless I buy physical copies of their albums, I have to resort to piracy. I haven't tried itunes radio, might give it a try, thanks for the tip! ^^ Never tried Google's music, either.

Ohhh Sawano... I should listen to more of his music! <3
 
There's also Amazon. They're pretty much identical with the iTunes selection (at least in the US): Seventh Heaven, Red Moon, Consolation, Magia (single), Kagayaku (single). If you have Amazon Prime you can stream Red Moon for free though, no idea why it's just that one.

Kurjenmiekka said:
It's bad, because unless I buy physical copies of their albums, I have to resort to piracy.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I tend to do a mix of streaming whatever's been uploaded to youtube + everything I've ended up physically importing. (Slowly but surely, my physical imports have started to overshadow youtube.)
 
othellia said:
There's also Amazon. They're pretty much identical with the iTunes selection (at least in the US): Seventh Heaven, Red Moon, Consolation, Magia (single), Kagayaku (single). If you have Amazon Prime you can stream Red Moon for free though, no idea why it's just that one.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, no way of buying mp3s from Amazon in Finland, either. Regional restrictions yayyy
 
Kurjenmiekka said:
I'm not sure what Pandora is like, but on Spotify premium you only pay a small amount every month and get to listen to a huge selection of music. You can search for music wherever you are and listen to it legally free of charge, it's great. You can create playlists and share them with other people and follow others' playlists. You can also download your playlists and listen to them when you're offline. If you don't have Spotify premium, you still get to listen to all that music but you have to listen to commercials, too, and can't listen to your playlists when you're offline (at least this was the policy when I didn't have a premium account). I used to listen pretty much all of my music on Spotify, but nowadays I rarely use it as I'm more into Japanese music and hardly any Japanese stuff is available on Spotify in Finland. The music selection depends on where you live.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. It kind of sounds like Pandora, just Spotify seems a bit more interactive. Then again, I haven't been on Pandora in ages. :XD:
 
I don't care for streaming or buying digital media unless I definitely have to. I think I've spent about £20 tops in my entire life on digital music and never used a streaming service outside of actual radio feeds, and most of that expense was to soundtrack bundles where I was getting 25 or so OSTs for £5 or so, many of which have no physical release at that.

I'll almost always pirate or outright buy physical copies, it's either all or nothing. There's a reason my CD collection is nearing 300 or so discs, in fact I might've passed that since bringing back over 30 CDs from Japan :sohappy:. A good portion of those were ones I already had pirated too, I prefer having actual discs and being able to support the artists but I only have so much money at once.

The main issue I have is things that never get a physical release or are only limited to special edition releases of other things. Bioshock Infinite and Fate/Zero's soundtracks are good examples of this. Id love to support the composers but if you don't give me the option to buy it separately then it's their loss in my opinion. There's no point in me importing F/Z special editions I can't even play just to get the OSTs. Hopefully since they're releasing SAO as a standalone release and they did it with Madoka they'll release F/Z as well, but I won't keep my hopes up. Until they do that, I'll stick with my pirated copy. I bought the Madoka OST when that finally came out and I'll do the same with F/Z.
 
@Seasonreaper Whoah, that's one huge collection!! :omgz: I've never been a fan of CDs as I prefer to have my music on playlists and easily listen on the go from my phone or laptop. I would simply end up importing everything from a CD to itunes and never listen to the actual, physical CD. That's why I buy digital music, stream or am a nasty nasty pirate. Kalafina CDs are the first CDs I've bought since elementary school, and that is only because I love them so much I'm practically obsessed. Although I did just order a physical copy of The Best of Yuki Kajiura Live 2... But I can only imagine the joy you must feel when you admire your collection! Collecting something you love brings a lot of joy ^^
 
^Same with me, in nearly all ways when it comes to CDs... Red Moon was the first CD I had received since a bunch of "The Chipmunks" albums my mom gave to me when I was ~7 years old :XD:
 
Seasonreaper said:
A good portion of those were ones I already had pirated too, I prefer having actual discs and being able to support the artists but I only have so much money at once.
Click to expand...

Same. My Christmas wish list always used to be full of stuff that I'd already seen/gotten copies of throughout the year, but - because I was a penniless student - I couldn't afford. Opening up the physical DVDs and CDs and knowing I was finally supporting them was always a great feeling. (Now I have job + money + netflix, so I don't do that as much anymore. Yay.)

Kurjenmiekka said:
@SeasonreaperI've never been a fan of CDs as I prefer to have my music on playlists and easily listen on the go from my phone or laptop. I would simply end up importing everything from a CD to itunes and never listen to the actual, physical CD. That's why I buy digital music, stream or am a nasty nasty pirate. Kalafina CDs are the first CDs I've bought since elementary school, and that is only because I love them so much I'm practically obsessed. Although I did just order a physical copy of The Best of Yuki Kajiura Live 2...
Click to expand...

See, I do the same thing for the most part in terms of importing everything to iTunes, but I still like having physical copies.

Reason #1) I have an older car that only plays CDs, so I'd end up burning a physical CD anyway.
Reason #2) If my computer ever crashes, I have the physical CD and don't need to worry about account passwords and redownloads.
Reason #3) DRM. I had a digital song my sister gave me that asked me for a password every time I tried to play it. Most. Annoying. Thing. Ever. And then not song related, but I wanted to buy some episodes of Gravity Falls from Amazon. Well, I found out right after I bought it that I couldn't download the episode, had to play it on their software, and could only play it while connected to the internet. I ended up canceling that purchase right away and bought it from iTunes instead (which still has software player limitations but at least I can play it whenever).
Plus I like the lyric booklets. :dote:

(Also I hope you enjoy your Best of Yuki Kajiura Live 2 when it comes. I loved it!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top