Tak Matsumoto LIVE 2014 -New Horizon- Tour Merchandise
Posted on May 7, 2014
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Tagged as: New Horizon, Tak Live
5 responses to “Tak Matsumoto LIVE 2014 -New Horizon- Tour Merchandise”
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I think I reached a breaking point. It’s been building up since the first day I’ve become a B’z fan but it’s only exploding now.
I’ve been following the band for over 6 years now (I know I’m new compared to most overseas people in the fanbase). It always sort of bugged me that they are absolutely, completely neglecting any sort of communication with their fans outside of Japan (and some other lucky Asian countries like Korea who got their own Korea-only EP), but you know, I just swallowed it, I could find almost everything they’ve made on the internet with some effort. Despite this I’ve bought every single one of their releases, including singles and solo works since Magic (yes my collection is fairly small), most of the time paying more for the shipping itself than for the actual product.
Now to connect the things I’ve been talking about, the complete negligence of overseas advertising/communication had led to an almost nonexistant overseas fanbase, which also led to the fact that their material is fairly hard to acquire. I’ve never been a fan of paying for things I have no idea about the quality of, but this aside, it’s understandable that people don’t always have 2,800 + 1500 yen (the shipping cost to my location) for an album. That’s when online downloading would come in handy. But oops. Artists almost unkown to the western world are pretty hard to find on any sort of download sites, even on very prestigious private trackers. I’ve been looking for New Horizons for over a week now and it’s nowhere to be found. I simply cannot afford it now. I just want to listen to that damn album because I love Tak. Why does this have to be so darn hard?
I’m just pissed. Sorry about the sudden spill of emotions here but, you know, there’s quite literally no other place on the internet for me to talk about this.
Well, I assume that B’z doesn’t have an incentive to go global since their main fanbase is in Japan. Remember that they sold over 80 million records in Japan. I’m not sure if their way of thinking will ever change, but we’ve seen a small step in that direction with their international iTunes album and songs in English. Although they still do not advertise themselves for what they really are. For example, X JAPAN markets itself as if they’re the kings from Japan. The biggest band of all time. But compared to B’z, X JAPAN is just peanuts. And yet they do world tours.
I’m sorry that you don’t have the money to afford the B’z CDs from overseas, but if you’re looking for New Horizon, it will be released in the US on July 8th (and possibly in other regions as well).
That’s exactly what bothers me. They don’t care about any sort of connection with the overseas fanbase because they’re filthy rich with what they get from Japanese fans alone. They just don’t feel the need to do it. And it’s really annoying that much smaller bands, especially visual-kei bands nowadays can go on world tours while B’z just doesn’t frickin bother to.
It’s just unfair that the rest of us has to struggle so much just to listen to their music. Of course there are thousands of artists out there hidden in obscurity whose material is almost unattainable, but come on, if you’re a band that’s frickin number one in Japan, a country populated by 126 million people then at least you could be considerate of “outsiders” and make it easier for them to discover your music. If you made it so far in life then why not just make a tiny extra step? It comes off as a bit arrogant, really. “Who cares, Japan is a large enough market for us, we don’t need anyone else.”
Or maybe there are not enough fans abroad for them to release their stuff abroad or maybe because their main market is Japan like many other stuff that comes from Japan?
Seriously, what is with this fan thinking that the musicians owe them something? Do you even know how the market in Japan works? Have you ever tried doing research or something? No?
Ok, then let me tell you that many stuff that comes from Japan, movies, series, mangas, animes, musics, are a lot of the time mainly marketed for inside their country not abroad. Why? Because market for untranslated Japanese language media is not big in the world. While it’s true that the number of people fluent in japanese outside Japan, there’s not enough so that producers will actually risk itself to release outside unless there really are big market for it.
Ever heard of the Tales game series? Recently the game have been translated and released for international audience. But that’s only after there proofs that their popularity increased and the producers finally want to take risk releasing an international edition.
Trust me, B’z are a cult band at best outside Japan. Even in my country, Indonesia, they pale in comparison to L’arc en ciel and Glay. Just because a lot of people are talking about it in the internet doesn’t mean it will sell well in the real word, there already many products that prove that. Even in the previous american tour, there were empty seats in the venues where they played, proving that they are that not as popular outside Japan.
Please remember that the music business is a BUSINESS not charity. They have to think risk, costs, benefits etc. before they do something. They use logic and statistics when they do something, not emotion. Honestly, if business people think like you do, they’ll go out of business quickly
I agree. But on the other hand, if B’z were to put some actual money into advertising, they could be really big in the US. And more people would come to their shows. In 2012, they mainly advertised in Japanese communities in the US and on English sites about Japanese music/Japan. B’z could easily get on US television and talk about their career. But they don’t. Why? I think it’s because they are really humble and they are not like “Look at us! We are so awesome!”.