HearJapan

HearJapan is a brand new English language online music store featuring Japanese music brought straight from Japan. Though it's still in beta, they talk of many tantalizing things to come in the next couple months. I had a chance to give it a test drive, and let me tell you, I came away very impressed! Or did I? Find out after the jump.




While the album selection is rather slim at the moment, they promise that there is more on the way, and to offer up new albums on the same day they are released in Japan. In the case of the new Vidoll album Bastard, one week before the official release date. If this alone isn't enough of a treat, they provide DRM-free, high quality VBR MP3 files that you can download up to three times onto any computer and then do with as you wish. If you forget your iPod at home, you can just hop onto your account and download your files all over again. Many of the albums also have high-res (full size at 300dpi) pics of the album cover as well as album descriptions and links to all of the band's relevant news items on the site.

The pricing is a solid 150¥ per song, at least on all of the albums I looked at. This means that the more songs there are on an album, the more the entire album will cost. This was the only drawback I found, since it really makes it tough to buy complete albums when they can swing from 750¥ to 1800¥. It seems a bit unfair to the customer buying a longer album. This is offset a bit by the 5% discount for buying a complete album, as well as a few other goodies packaged with it. On the flip side, you're not punished for buying one song before you decide to buy the entire album, since you are essentially buying it one song at a time anyway.

Each song has a 15 second preview (despite the press release saying 30 seconds). While this will give you a good idea of the general sound, it can also be very frustrating. Since each clip starts at the beginning of the song, oftentimes it will cut out before the singer even gets a chance to sing, or maybe after just a word or two. This certainly isn't a major problem, but I found myself constantly wishing for just a few more seconds. Perhaps the 30 second clips will arrive with the full site.

Aside from these two points, (well OK, separating "artists" and "groups" is also a little confusing but minor) HearJapan is looking to be a wonderful resource for those craving a deeper look into Japanese music. There is already a wide range of music from dancehall to rock to vis-kei and electro. Even after reviewing hundreds of bands I still found many names that were new to me in their catalog, as well as some very big ones like the aforementioned Vidoll and D'espairs Ray.

While I didn't have to buy any credits, I found the checkout system to be very clear and to the point. The files downloaded at 250kb/s, making each song take only a few seconds. The songs are all tagged well, and again, they sound great.

Even though it's still in beta, HearJapan wants you to check it out. To sign up for the site, you'll have to go to the registration page and enter the coupon code ZJXY. You'll be all set to read the news items and start listening to the bands right away. They promise that the site will expand very quickly in the near future, so make sure to get in on the ground floor. If you're a Japanese music fan or just a music fan in general, it should be well worth it!

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[PRESS RELEASE]

HearJapan 株式会社
HearJapan Co
President: Nathan Reaven E-mail: nreaven@hearjapan.com

About HearJapan:
HearJapan is a digital music store for Japanese music targeting English speakers around the world. Our goal is to provide everyone’s favorite artists’ releases conveniently, quickly and affordably. Below you will find a condensed version of exactly what we are all about.

Special Features:
●Lame V1 encoded mp3s – extremely high audio quality
●No DRM – can play your music on any device, no limitations
●Japanese Search – can search for bands/albums using Kanji
●Private Assets – Buy one artist’s song or more to be able to see extra pics
●30 Second Samples – All samples can be streamed for free
●Download on midnight of the release date in Japan


Free Content in English:
●Latest artist news – news section for each artist
●Band Profile
●Members Profile – learn about the members of each band
●Album Information
●Concert information in Japan and the world.


Bonuses from purchasing all songs on an album:
● Bonus Artwork
● English Lyric Translations
● PV
● 5% Discount on all songs


Pricing:
● Price on site is in yen, is automatically converted to dollar or euro at checkout.
● Per song price is anywhere from 100 – 150 yen per song.