Why are japanese pressings so damn expensive?

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jesus christ.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

japan is an expensive country, son

― richard wood johnson, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

I lived in Japan for 5 years and the cheapest a normal CD got was around 1800 yen which is very roughly $18. The range was between that and about 2,500Y.

― buyabiznatch (buyabiznatch), Thursday, 20 October 2005 00:13 (twenty years ago)

why are japanese women so expensive?
now, that is the real question.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Thursday, 20 October 2005 00:17 (twenty years ago)

obi strip and bonus tracks and western gullibilty.

― retroboy, Thursday, 20 October 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

there is a law that CDs and books have to cost X-amount of yen, dating back to when this was supposed to keep prices down for the starving masses.

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Thursday, 20 October 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

The yen is kept artificially inflated against the dollar. Protectionist economy.

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 20 October 2005 03:43 (twenty years ago)

Actually artificially deflated. Helps exports.

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Thursday, 20 October 2005 04:07 (twenty years ago)

The answer involves riceballs and koalas.

― M. V. (M.V.), Thursday, 20 October 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

My question is why so often (well, not SO often, but often enough to make me ponder) the Japanese press of an album is the only available one. Is it really just as mundane as the Japanese imports selling few copies and thus taking longer to go out of print? I know that a lot of bands achieve perplexing levels of popularity in Japan (Cheap Trick and kleenexgirlwonder are two of my favorite examples), so that might have to do with it.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

no, it's just that the Japanese are frequently the only people who care enough & buy enough copies of these old records to actually keep them in print

― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 20 October 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

koalas???????????

― mcd (mcd), Thursday, 20 October 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

japanese imports used to be better mastered (maybe they still are, i dunno), and they print everything in finite runs, as opposed to operating under the western "continuously-in-print" concept. because of this, they can put out a lot of weird/awesome niche stuff, but it's usually more expensive, past even import costs.

i always heard the bonus tracks thing was a gesture by the US labels to stimulate/maintain the japanese production, since US-made cds are cheaper even over there than the japanese versions.

― petesmith (plsmith), Thursday, 20 October 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

Fuck yeah, CDepot import pricers!

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Thursday, 20 October 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

That's the same explanation I've always heard, that the cost of music distribution is so high in Japan (lots of various levels of distributers I think?) that at least at once time it was driving up the end cost of the CD. That explains the presence of bonus tracks on most albums...even for domestically produced music its cheaper to import a US album than to sell the same Japanese album, so bonus tracks are added to encourage Japanese buyers to go for the domestic copy.

Not sure if that's true though...

― Rhodia (Rhodia), Thursday, 20 October 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

real answer : to keep james lavelle/mo'wax collectors strapped to ebay.com

― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 20 October 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

does it seem reasonable that JPN mastering techniques might STILL be more advanced than western techniques, what with yknow, globalization, teh internet, etc. closing the gaps? i feel like where they used to be 3-5 years ahead, theyre probably just like a year ahead now, right?

'cise it.

― petesmith (plsmith), Thursday, 20 October 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

They make the vinyl using whale oil.

― Nöödle Vägue (noodle vague), Thursday, 20 October 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

rhodia otm

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Friday, 21 October 2005 00:43 (twenty years ago)

does it seem reasonable that JPN mastering techniques might STILL be more advanced than western techniques,

I seriously doubt they ever were. If anything it's just a different style and approach.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 21 October 2005 01:00 (twenty years ago)

By now I think they probably revel in having domestic-only collectable releases over there. This might even facilitate releases by some non-japanese labels.

I remember something about a recent Transmat comp, which came out in Japan months/years ahead of the rest of the world (I didn't bother to check back and see where it came out since then). Apparently Transmat knew they'd pretty much sell all of the initial pressing in Japan anyway and were in no hurry to deliver it elsewhere. How snobbish, if true.

― blunt (blunt), Friday, 21 October 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

It's true - they add bonus tracks to Japanese versions of CD's; otherwise, people in Japan only buy the inexpensive import of the title.

― SoHoLa (SoHoLa), Friday, 21 October 2005 12:57 (twenty years ago)

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