Tatsuro Yamashita is a Japanese musician who has been getting a lot of attention recently from western audiences. I have fallen into the rabbit hole listening to each album up until his most recent “Softly”. Unfortunately, an array of licensing problems in Europe and North America has made it extremely difficult to listening to his music.
I initially started listening to Tatsuro Yamashita just before COVID hit the country. The foreign language made it quite difficult at first to fully engage with the music, but the American influences kept me engaged. This is where Magic Ways comes into play. I had fallen in love with the combination of foreign and familiar elements of the song.
Big Wave Album Cover
It was the first I had felt at home listening to a song I have never heard before. I realized much of work was made within the 80s and 90s taking in influences from the western part of the world. Listening to just one song, would lead me to listen to his numerous albums and compilations from 1977 all the way to 2022.
Sadly, this is where I ran into problems. The distribution was limited only to Japan which made it difficult to get ears on the product. The only way that people can listen to his music is either through sketchy means on the internet or buying a CD and importing it. Even if one wants to buy a CD, it will cost almost $100 not including shipping to buy an album like Spacy.
According to Yamashita, he has no intention to distribute his music through streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. The lack of access to listen to his music frustrates me cause for students like me, I have to listen through pirated networks.
I understand not wanting to distribute your own music through streaming services, but I find it frustrating that I can not easily access music due to the lack of licensing. Hopefully, distribution may come around to North America, but until then, I may or may not be downloading entire albums.
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