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Below you will find the ten most downloaded Jpop songs on the Japanese iTunes store for the week ending April 9 2008.
Check out Thelma Aoyama with 2 songs in the top 10!
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EXILE feat. VERBAL (m-flo)
EXILE CATCHY BEST
Gingatetsudou999
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青山テルマ feat. SoulJa
そばにいるね - EP
そばにいるね
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大橋卓弥
ありがとう - EP
ありがとう
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宇多田ヒカル
HEART STATION (Mastered by Tom Coyne)
Prisoner Of Love
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FUNKY MONKEY BABYS
旅立ち - Single
旅立ち
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木山裕策
home - EP
home
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山下達郎
ずっと一緒さ - EP
ずっと一緒さ
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Superfly
愛をこめて花束を - EP
愛をこめて花束を
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青山テルマ & SoulJa
DIARY
そばにいるね
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| 10 |
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絢香
手をつなごう / 愛を歌おう - Single
手をつなごう
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Posted: 12:35 AM, 2008-Apr-12
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I remember thinking for the longest time that Teruma (テルマ) was such a strange name for a Japanese mother to call her daughter, but last week I finally found out that it was the Katakana spelling of her name which is Thelma. (!) Now I feel even worse for the poor girl.
Thelma. As in Thelma and Louise. As in people's grandmother's names!
Oh well, I suppose there is no need to feel too sorry for the girl, with 2 singles in the Oricon top 10 at the moment and an album that is selling like hotcakes. I read on another jpop blog that she was a quarter Japanese with some Trinidadian and Tobagan ethnicity. Wouldn't quarter mean that she has one set of Japanese grandparents? She looks to me like she has more Japanese than that. She is really cute though. The VJs were going through her handbag on MTV the other night and it was pretty funny. More below.....
So I went to the nearest record store yesterday because I had the brainy idea of getting the promotion posters of JPop artists that are plastered all over the shops after they finished displaying them. If they are going to throw them out,they might as well give them to me so I can send them to some lucky members of my site of JPop fans right?
Well the guy behind the counter wasn't having any of it and was being quite unreasonably inflexible. But it's ok, I'll go in there next week again and go above his head to the good old tenchou and see if he'll be more reasonable. But on the way out I did come across a whole stack of Thelma Aoyama promotional stickers for her album which I didn't feel too bad about helping myself to a few. That's them listed above.
So in the spirit of trying new ideas I've decided to send a sticker to anybody who wants one and who buys a Japanese iTunes card of any value from JpopMp3s in April. Just reply to the email you get from me with your iTunes card number in it and tell me where you want me to send it to.
It doesn't matter where in the world you live, if you have a postman, I'll send it. |
Posted: 10:46 PM, 2008-Apr-7
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Do you have a Jpop or JRock related blog? Could you use more traffic? Who couldn't use more traffic right?
JPopMp3s.com is soon going to be releasing a new browser tool bar for members to download and have instant access to a number of features including fresh content delivered via the toolbar instantly, no matter where on the web you are. There is an email notifier that lets you know instantly if you have a new email, compatible with Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and all Pop3 email accounts.
But the most exciting part for owners of blogs is that there is an RSS device right in the tool bar that updates instantly when a new blog post is posted. It's unobtrusive while being instantly available. 
People don't even have to open their RSS feed reader. As you can see from the screen shot here, you can click on the RSS feed button right there in the browser, no matter where you are on the internet. A drop down appears listing all the newest unread blog posts.
This is where the good part for you comes in. If you would like to have more exposure to your blog from the desktop of hundreds of Jpop fans who will download the tool bar to their browser (IE and Firefox), drop me a line and either by commenting on this post or by emailing me over at JPopMp3s.com.
I've got a number of blogs in mind who I will be contacting and asking them if they would like to be included in this exciting new project, but I would also welcome anybody who thinks their jpop related blog would be a valuable addition to the feed.
Here's your chance to get every post you make in front of many more eyeballs. But not just any random eyeballs, people who are genuine fans of Japanese pop and rock music and culture and would be seriously interested in what you have to say. |
Posted: 8:08 PM, 2008-Mar-30
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Last Monday (March 10 2008) Coca Cola Japan and iTunes Japan launched their newest collaborative campaign giving away one song every 15 seconds. Every 500ml bottle of Coca Cola and Coca Cola Zero sold here in Japan comes with a code to redeem 1 free song from the Japanese iTunes music store.
Why is that good news for anyone besides people living in Japan who like music? Well it's great news for members of JPopMp3s.com because I have taken it upon myself to do the heavy lifting, that is, drink a lot of coke and collect as many access codes as possible! I know, it's a hard job, but someone has to take one for the team. The campaign goes until April 30th 2008, and the codes are valid for 6 months. I'm still deciding how I will distribute these free Japanese iTunes codes among my members, so stay tuned here for more details. |
Posted: 12:04 AM, 2008-Mar-21
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Wasting time the other day, I was googling around looking for sites that linked to mine. I was pleasantly surprised to find a happy member who had used our services and decided to blog about it.
Check out what she has to say below. I couldn't have said it better myself :)
Thanks Sonia!
I always prefer to get hold of music legally whenever possible - particularly if the price is right and buying it is just way more convenient than trying to yoink a free copy amidst the virus-infested shit that's out there. I also want to be able to try out an artist by just getting one song, or something like that - but that's difficult as it can be very expensive and time-consuming importing CDs from Japan.
Like, if only I could buy Japanese music on iTunes, just like I normally buy UK music. But it doesn't work unless you're buying from your own country's store.
HOWEVER!!! I just discovered that there are some great services out there which can buy you pre-paid Japanese iTunes cards.
http://www.jpopmp3s.com
OMG!!! I am in heaven. You buy a pre-pay card from these guys (actual cost of a pre-pay card, plus a little more for their service. They take Paypal ^_^). They create a Japanese iTunes account for you within a day (for me, it was within an hour of signing up!). Then just sign in under your new Japanese account and shop on iTunes as normal!!
TOTALLY RECOMMEND! These guys are good and genuine!! |
Posted: 10:36 PM, 2008-Feb-11
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Congratulations to Yo Yamamoto of the U.S on winning the 2000 yen iTunes prepaid card as part of the testimonial promotion held this month at JPopMp3s.com. Yo said that some of his favorite artists to download at the Japanese iTunes music store are Hamasaki Ayumi and Shiina Ringo. There are 150 songs by Ayumi Hamasaki including her newest album "Guilty", and 12 music videos. There are also more than 100 songs by Shiina Ringo available for immediate download.
(The links above link to the respective artists' pages in iTunes Japan. For best results you should have the Japanese iTunes music store selected in your iTunes before you click the links. You don't need to have an account at the Japanese music store to do this, just choose "Japan store" from the drop down menu at the bottom of the iTunes music store.)
If you haven't yet heard, you can now download any song or music video from the Japanese iTunes music store catalogue with a prepaid gift card available at JPopMp3s.com.
Thank you to all of the members who left a testimonial for the site, it is truly appreciated.
The testimonials are now live and you can view them here. |
Posted: 9:31 PM, 2008-Jan-21
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JPopMp3s.com is a fairly new site. I opened the doors in mid November and in just a little over a month more than 450 people have joined the site.
People are still joining everyday, but I still want to get the word out to as many Jpop and Jrock fans as possible.
Downloading from the Japanese iTunes music store has got to be the safest and easiest way to get the absolute latest Japanese Mp3s and music videos from the very day they drop. Not to mention it is 100% legal, which has to be a relief to some people who have spent time trying to get quality, correctly labeled mp3s of their favorite artists on the wrong side of the internet tracks.
Finding a good new site is one thing, but trusting it right away as another thing.
Trust on the internet is a big issue, especially when it comes to spending money. One of the best ways to
alleviate someone's hesitation to deal with a new person or a new site is to hear from people who have gone
before them and have had positive experiences. I mean, you feel more comfortable dealing with someone who a friend "vouches" for right?
Well that's what I want to do at JPopMp3s.com, to not only get the word out to as many jpop fans as possible, but to make it clear to them that it is safe to deal with me, even though the site is new and you may not have heard of it before.
So I am sending out an invitation to all members who have purchased from my site since it opened. If you are happy with the service and products you have received as a member of JpopMp3s.com, then please log into your account and navigate to the "Testimonials" section in the menu bar at the top of the page. If you have a site there will be a link to it if you like, to perhaps provide you with a little more traffic.
WIIFM? (What's in it for me?)
Yes of course there is something in it for you (apart from the satisfaction of saying something nice about someone :) )
I will randomly chose 1 out of every 5 people who submit a testimony before January 14th 2008 and send them a 2000 Yen iTunes gift card. If 10 people submit a testimonial I will send out 2 gift cards, if 20 people submit one, I will send out 4 cards, if 25 people submit a testimonial, I will send out 10,000 YEN worth of free iTunes gift cards. You get the picture.
If you aren't already a member, you are missing out on access to the latest Jpop downloads from the Japanese iTunes music store. Remember, until now, you could only buy songs from the Japanese iTunes store if you had a Japanese address and credit card, but JPopMp3s.com solves that for you.
You have until Monday January 14th 2008 (Japan time) to send in a testimonial and have a 1 in 5 chance of winning a 2000 YEN prepaid iTunes card from the Japanese iTunes store.
Good luck! |
Posted: 10:08 PM, 2008-Jan-5
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I hope you are enjoying the merriment of the season and that
you have made some headway in your Christmas shopping.
I've noticed that quite a large number of the members at
JPopMp3s.com are teenagers and therefore may not have a credit
of their own with which to purchase a prepaid iTunes card.
It's a shame because this is the time of year when a LOT of artists
come out with new albums and there is a lot of great stuff available
right now.
The good news is that this holiday season is a perfect time to
let your loved ones know exactly what they can give you this
gift giving season.
If you don't have a credit card or Paypal account, now is the
perfect opportunity to help out a loved one who is probably
thinking, "what can i possibly get {!firstname} this year".
A 3000 yen iTunes card will get you 2 albums, or 20 individual
songs at the iTunes store, for the same price as 1 album purchased
at an online Asian specialty store. Not only that, you will be
listening to it in 2 minutes after purchasing, not sometime in
the New Year after it arrives in the mail.
Let a parent know about this, show them the site. They will know it
is safe to buy from us when they see that all sales are handled
through Paypal, the trusted global leader in online payments.
They will probably also be relieved that you want to download
jpop tunes from a legal source, and not risk the legal hassles of
downloading from illegal sites.
Give it a try, you never know what Santa might bring you.
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Posted: 3:55 PM, 2007-Dec-23
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| Last.fm Japanese music fans group top 10 artists chart |
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Check out this week's top 10 artists scrobbled by the "Japanese Music Fans" group on Last.fm.
If you don't know about last.fm yet, you really have to check it out. See the bottom of this post for more info on last.fm.
L'Arc~en~Ciel has been scrobbled 594 times on Last.fm this week, and you can find their album "Dune" at the Japanese iTunes store.
Ayumi Hamazaki is a close second with 575 scrobbles. There are 150 songs by Ayumi Hamazaki available for immediate download at the iTunes store.
Utada Hikaru is only 3 songs behind with 572 songs scrobbled on Last.fm this week. She also has 150 songs available on iTunes including what I think was her first single, "Addicted to you", which I just bought 1 minute ago after being reminded how much I loved that song while writing this blog post :) .
Gackt at no.5, BoA at no. 9 and Kumi Koda at no. 10 all have over 100 songs available for download at the Japanese iTunes music store.
What? You need a Japanese address and credit card to buy from the Japanese iTunes store you say? Only of you aren't a member of Jpopmp3s.com
Now for those who want to know a little more about Last.fm.
Last.fm is an awesome web 2.0 free personal radio.
When you play a song on your music player on your computer, it sends the information of the song you are playing and eventually builds up a database of the music you like. When it has a large enough sample of the kind of music you like, it plays similar songs and artists on your own personal "radio station". Very Cool. It also builds your own personal chart of songs or artists based on what you listen to each week. Check it out, it's free. Last.fm
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Posted: 10:33 PM, 2007-Dec-4
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I am pleased to announce that we have increased the number of prepaid Japanese iTunes cards available for sale at JPopMp3s.com this week. Initially we just had the 1500, 3000, 5000 and 10,000 yen cards, however we now offer 9 cards, starting in value from 2000 up to 10,000 yen. Cards of 15,000 and 20,000 yen can also be arranged by request. If there is a demand for these 2 larger cards, we will add them to the members area.
The 1500 yen card is no longer available.
You will also be happy to know that we have reduced prices on the cards, with the cheapest cards, the 2000 yen cards, available for only USD26. The 10,000 yen card can be had for only USD120. This is a great price which averages out the price per song to only USD1.80.
As always, if you purchase a card worth 5000 yen or more, you can opt to have us set up your iTunes store account for you, saving you some time and effort. When you receive your welcome email from Apple, your account will already be stocked with the amount of your purchase.
Get your Jpop fix at the Japanese iTunes store with the help of your free JPopMp3s.com membership.
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Posted: 8:07 PM, 2007-Dec-3
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Here is a story from last month about a woman who was ordered by a court to pay USD220,000 to record companies for sharing just 24 songs online.
Record companies are stepping up their efforts to prosecute not just the people that upload copious amounts of files for sharing, but even ordinary people that may only download a few songs here and there from P2P networks.
When you download songs via P2P programs, the songs are typically stored in a folder that has sharing permissions set, meaning that other users of the network can download songs in that folder from your computer. This makes you not only an illegal downloader, but an illegal uploader as well. We are seeing more and more cases recently of the big record companies going after such small-time casual users.
You can avoid being targeted and perhaps having a tremendous damages award against you by avoiding such P2P networks. Why run the risk when you can satisfy all your Jpop and Jrock needs by downloading from the Japanese iTunes store with JpopMp3s.com
24 illegal song downloads cost US woman $220,000
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 09:39am (Mla time) 10/05/2007
CHICAGO -- In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the Internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered Thursday to pay more than 220,000 dollars for sharing 24 songs online.
Jammie Thomas, 30, was the first among more than 26,000 people sued by the world's most powerful recording companies to refuse a settlement after being slapped with a lawsuit by the Recording Industry of America and six major music labels.
She turned down an offer to pay a few thousands dollars in fines and instead took the case to court.
Unlike some who insist on the right to share files over the Internet, Thomas says she was wrongfully targeted by SafeNet, a contractor employed by the recording industry to patrol the Internet for copyrighted material.
Her lawyer said earlier this week that she had racked up some 60,000 dollars in legal fees because she refused to be bullied.
And while Thomas insisted that she had never downloaded or uploaded music, her lawyer tried to convince jurors there was no way to prove who had uploaded songs on the Kazaa file sharing network.
A jury took just five hours to decide that evidence provided by the music labels showed otherwise and found Thomas guilty of copyright infringement, court records showed.
Thomas, an employee of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, an Indian tribe, was ordered to pay a 9,250-dollar fine for each of 24 shared songs cited in the case, including Godsmack's "Spiral," Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills" and Sara McLachlan's "Building a Mystery."
It could have been a lot worse.
Had the record companies sued her for all 1,702 songs found in the online folder the fine could have run in the millions.
"This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK," Richard Gabriel, the lead attorney for the music companies, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Gabriel said jurors had not explained how they had come up with a fine of 9,250 per song out of sentencing guidelines which range from 750 to 150,000 dollars. |
Posted: 11:19 PM, 2007-Nov-20
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If you are a fan of Jpop -Japanese pop music- who doesn't live in Japan, your choices for getting your hands on the latest tracks have been quite limited.
Sure there are a few online specialty Asian stores that sell CDs, but there a few reasons why buying your music from these stores has not been so attractive. Perhaps the biggest drawback of purchasing this way is the delay in getting your music delivered in the mail. It can takes weeks for a physical CD to arrive in the mail, and who wants to wait that long nowadays?
You also had to wait awhile for newly released CDs to appear in these online specialty stores, and when they did, of course there was a markup.
Too bad if you only wanted to get your hands on a couple of tracks of your favourite artist, because you needed to buy the whole album, which can sometimes seem like a waste of money, not to mention the postage and handling.
Other people perhaps turned to P2P file sharing sites. Good luck finding what you are after! Downloading from such networks is one of the fastest ways to infect your computer with a virus or some type of malicious software.
Even if you didn't get a virus, it is very hit and miss on those networks, with mislabelled file names as well as the junk files that the record companies upload all the time, trying to discourage people from "stealing" their profits songs. Can you imagine that is is actually somebodies job to sit there and upload files that start out sounding like the song you are after, but turn to static after 60 seconds? What a job!
Luckily for fans of JPop and JRock there is a much easier solution.
Download jpop MP3s from the Japanese iTunes music store.
Sounds simple yes, but you probably know that in order to download songs fromt he Japanses iTunes music store you need a Japanese credit card and billing address. And let's face it, unless you are a Japanese person, or living and working in Japan, who has those?
Introducing JPopMp3s.com
JPopMp3s.com is free membership site which enables you to purchase prepaid gift cards from the Japanese iTunes music store without a Japanese credit card or address.
Once you signup for your membership, you can log in and choose the value of the card you want to purchase. Inside the members area you will also find detailed instructions on setting up your iTunes music store account.
Currently if you purchase a 5000 yen or 10,000 yen card, JPopMp3s.com will set up your iTunes music store account, saving you the process of doing it yourself, and when you login into your iTunes music store account after receiving your activation email from Apple, your account will already be stocked with the amount of the card you purchased.
If you are tired of trying to find quality jpop mp3 downloads of the latest songs, JPopMp3s.com is what you have been waiting for. Membership is free and you can get access to the Japanese iTunes music store, allowing you to download all the JPop and Jrock you want, even on the day of release.
Check it out now.
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Posted: 6:54 PM, 2007-Nov-18
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