The Cost-Effective Plan Part 2 (Follow-Up)

Friday, 30 September 2016 arrow_back_ios arrow_forward_ios

Hey! It's been a while. It's been a while since I do some economic assessment whilst I discuss about the viability of me purchasing most - if not all - of the music I like, and here I am again. You guys would have remembered from that previous blog post way back in 2014 where I discussed such a thing, and I used buying CDs versus digital downloads, in this case iTunes, as comparison. Now that music streaming has become a thing in recent years, I felt the need to talk about it again, to share with you guys what music streaming can change the way I listen to songs now.

Recently too, I noticed the sources online I intended to rely on have failed subsequently, which is not good news if Klassic Note were to carry on. That is why Apple Music, which iTunes is widely used in Japan compared to many other online distributors (I mean, most of them I can't even read), has become the new topic of attention.

I would recommend you guys to read up a blog post of a method of using Apple Music in the USA and the differences there are before reading on because... well it's more detailed than what I maybe mentioning here.

(All content mentioned here is with respect to Japanese songs. If it's for the occasional Chinese and English songs... it's not a relevant point of discussion here at least.)

CD ONLY
Let's keep this brief because it's quite straightforward. It's what I've been doing till date. Listening to the new songs online (and taking them), and only if it meets certain requirements will the related releases be bought online and sent to my house through whatever means possible. (Yes, I mean whatever means, even if shipping costs more than the disc) That will ensure anything I bought will be the ones I definitely like and cut cost into spending the amount of money every year. Look, I'm not in the workforce yet, okay? I have a budget.

ITUNES
This one is also easy to explain. Digital downloads have been a thing now, and even though through copyright laws I do not legally own the copy to distribute it but if it is for personal use, then why not. Prices are not that steep if you count each song, I'm guaranteed of most of the songs in the list in Klassic Note (I need stats about that but I don't have an Apple ID yet *sob*) and they will come more promptly compared to relying online resources. The downside is I may have to buy all related releases in order to determine which ones will end up on my list, and that is not cost effective because I don't listen to all of them. Really, the 2.99 Stars Project is only a fraction of what I didn't give. Also, no physical copies. You should've seen my reactions the first batch of CDs come to my home. That's the excitement I'm talking about.

ITUNES + APPLE MUSIC
And this is where this new alternative comes in. It's like a hybrid car in theory. Buying all songs cost too much, so I get a music listening subscription to listen to what I want, decide on them and buy them through iTunes so they can be kept in my music library. This method has a lot more advantages compared to the above ways, in that I don't ~~waste~~ have to spend extra money to buy all the stuff I don't want to listen. And yes there may be a subscription fee I have to give, but that is in order for me to listen to the latest songs, and that itself will pay off eventually if I keep reviewing new albums in Apple Music first then just taking all of it down and throwing most of them down the trash. It may not be economically measurable to the companies involved, but to the customer this is an easy way to get involved to listening to more music. And that is what is important to making Klassic Note to what it is today. I'm always searching for a new melody.

LIMITATIONS
Now this part. The part we're most concerned about. The part where even a Q&A session won't suffice. Yes, it's why I haven't even taken action yet. Simple. I have questions too. Let's try out the following questions, shall we?

(1) Will I get all of the latest songs from Apple Music/iTunes when they come out?
Ans: I have proven I'll miss SWANKY DANK more than a month after its release of the latest mini-album. More than a year, I think.


iTunes Japan (Screenshot)	Official Website (Reduced form)

(2) How many artists does this cover in my area? I listen to a lot of artists.
Ans: Let's do a survey then. Unfortunately the results in comparison are from iTunes Singapore, so...
~ AQUA TIMEZ
An Ultimate Collection artist who has songs from way back in 2005.


iTunes Japan	iTunes Singapore

Note that in iTunes Japan site there's the new single in the middle which I have not reviewed yet even though it released this week. Then there's the localised disappointment.

~KOMATSU MIKAKO
She is a solo artist. Specifically with a voice actor background who sings Anime theme songs once in a while. Debuted in 2012.


iTunes Japan	iTunes Singapore

Pathetic, local iTunes. Just pathetic. On the other hand, Mikakoshi's new single is in iTunes/Apple Music. I know that because I've heard it already *wink* This also says a lot for a lot of solo Anime artists I know of, not and including the sphere and TrySail girls.

~ AIMER
Someone famous internationally at this point, and is also an artist born from Anime theme songs. Started singing in 2011.


iTunes Japan	iTunes Singapore

As you can see, it's quite a difference, even for someone of her calibre. Her latest single and album aren't even here despite it released a month ago, and where's the artist image? Then again, if you want be to test like, SCANDAL, you're asking for it.
(Okay, it's about the same without the music videos segment for local iTunes.)

~YUCAT
Solo artist since 2013, and what's different of her is she is not under a major label. Released four official mini-albums till date including this year.


iTunes Japan	iTunes Singapore

Hypothetically speaking, if I'm enjoying the Apple Music free trial from my local account from when her latest album released back in April, I'll still not be able to hear it today. *sob*

(I tested a few more but I'm lazy to post images here. Miyawaki Shion does well in both areas because she is under avex which has international distributions sorted out, I can't find any results for local iTunes for "Scenarioart" even if it's typed in Japanese, I managed to find only one album of Kuso Iinkai which is before any major debut waaaay back in 2009, and yanaginagi doesn't even have a single album listed outside of Japan iTunes. Not even Anime songs too?? Wow.)

So clearly, there's a difference between the two. But then why I mention this? Because if you do not know of Apple, their services are region restricted, as you can see above. I can't own a local account and get Japanese music. At least, not most of them. Which brings me to the next question.

(3) Why are you like that, Japan? Why no international release?
In case you don't know of it, music licensing around the world is a thing. And if you didn't read the link I posted all the way above, Japan is being very conservative about their copyright laws outside of the country, even if it means just licensing music to an American company like Apple. This is also easily seen by the resistance for companies there to send their artists into international fame. I may not be expert in this behind-the-scenes stuff, but there's more to it than it what we believe in, I would say.

(4) Does Apple Music have everything in iTunes?
Ans: The short answer is yes, but then I have not found concrete proof on this one yet, which is not good. But then again I follow by that link I told you guys to look at. And that was from America. Chances are from where I live now it'll work the same way.

(5) I have more questions.
Shut up. I'm the one doing the blog post. Let's move on. I've proven my point.

SUMMARY
Here's a table of text in case you're bored of text and images with text.

	CD ONLY	ITUNES	ITUNES + APPLE MUSIC
Representation of Klassic Note list	Only a fraction	Most, including those not selected	Mostly representative
Waiting Time (to review)	One week after release or more	Immediately after release, if there is digital	Immediately after release, if there is digital
"What if I heard previews of it only?"	"Good luck guessing what's the rest of the CD."	"I can just download and then listen."	"I can listen to it before downloading."
Backup	Always there, can be digitally preserved	May not always be there, but will be in the cloud	Always online, cannot preserve unless bought
Indie Artists	So long as I buy, exceptions apply	If no digital release I'm screwed	If I listen indie all month money will be wasted

Cost (2014)	~54332yen	>50000yen	61760yen
Cost (2015)	38361yen	>36000yen	47760yen
Cost (2016 Jan-Sep)	36950yen	~129000yen	45760yen
Average Price per tune (2016-)	493yen (75 tracks)	759yen	269yen

*Each track in iTunes cost 250yen, membership in Apple Music is 980yen/month.
*Calculations do not account for indie releases, non-Japanese songs and full releases assuming I know what songs I want even without Apple Music.
*CD aggregate costs may include other shipping charges. Average price includes tracks from albums not given, and are not representative of selected tracks.

WHEN I'LL START
Bad news is, things may not look that good. Good news is, I plan to take action soon. Because the biggest problem here is I don't know what Apple Music is like anyway. Will I get to listen to all of them? Or I be buying Apple Music for music selections and special playlists? I want to at least try out for myself Apple Music in Singapore and Japan for the free trials to see if it is even worth it at all, then we shall see. Likely plan is I start at December so I can pick up releases I have not reviewed throughout the year, and take two months to listen to newly released songs for the following year, where online sources are known to be an all-time low throughout the year. This will be good estimate and I'll be at the best time of year to find out whether it'll be worth it considering it's also the time of the year where there are lesser releases.

In conclusion, it depends on you, and on me. It's cheaper if I like what I am buying. Provided I get to hear all of them. It's better to support artists by buying physical copies as they have traditionally believed which includes me too by the way. But then again there's the incompleteness I'm experiencing now. Like, literally, I can't listen to new songs unless I buy a music subscription plan to listen to them. And unless I spend a lot of money, it'll be worth my time. Certainly, for Klassic Note, I have to think about it all.

P.S. What the heck is this "Allow Explicit Content" thing? Haiz local media laws man...