downloading: jmusic_uploads vs. JapanFiles.com

As many fans of JRock may already know, there’s a bit of a conflict going on between the LJ community jmusic_uploads and JapanFiles.com (see the article on Japanator.com).  The gist of what’s going on:  JapanFiles.com is cracking down on those who are file-sharing bands that JapanFiles.com distributes from their website, and many people are unhappy.

The fact of the matter is, file-sharing copyrighted material is illegal, and JapanFiles.com is only doing what should be done 100% of the time, anyways:  protecting their artists by making sure that people are paying for the music.  This is how the artists make their living, after all, and if everyone’s getting the music free, how are they supposed to continue making it?

Of course a lot of us first discovered JRock through file-sharing…but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be supporting our favorite artists by buying the music!  Personally, I take a lot of pride in my collection of Japanese CDs and love to boast about it (I have over 80!).  I also really like to have the whole package as the artists intended us to have it; they put time and effort into all of it.

The point is:  I think JapanFiles.com is in the right with what they are doing.  If anything, I think we are lucky that it is JapanFiles.com right now, and not Sony or another big label.  JapanFiles.com is making members of jmusic_uploads aware of what they’re doing, what bands are licensed, have given us the chance to discuss the issue, and so forth.  It’s not that much to ask, for people to actually pay for the music.  After all, isn’t that what people did before the age of internet?

I speak for myself and Project: JRock Events (USA) as a whole when I stress that everyone should support the artists by buying music (versus file-sharing) when they can!

Feel free to comment; I’d love to get a discussion going to see what everyone has to say on the matter.

-Melony

Ayabie is coming up!

Hello all!

I just wanted to make a post to say how excited I am that Ayabie is coming up next week!  I’ll be at the Chicago show–I’m going to head to Mitsuwa around 12 or 12:30 for lunch, and then after, I’ll be heading over to the venue to hang out.  Feel free to say hi to me if you see me!

Also, be sure to go to Ayabie concerts in other areas, if you can.  Show them your support!

ACen 2008

This was the second year I’ve attended Anime Central in Rosemont, IL (Chicago, for all purposes), and I must say, I love ACen. It has it’s problems, but then again, all conventions do. And anyways, any event is only as good as you make it yourself. So despite my many complaints about this year’s panel programming (lack of signs the biggest one), I had a ton of fun.

With only one of me to run around for all of my obligations, I didn’t get to go to all of the JRock panels, so unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to many JRock fans while I was at the convention. However, I did see a decent amount of JRock cosplay, and some really spectacular ones, at that! My personal favorite was this complete set of five Malice Mizer cosplayers. Sorry I didn’t get your names! If any of these are you, please leave a comment with your name, and I’ll put you up there.

I also ran into a Kirito, a Toshiya, three Rukis, a Kyo, a Miyavi, a Tatsuro, a set of Peelander-Z cosplayers, another Mana, and another Kami. I’m sad to say that I wasn’t able to get photos of all of them, but I at least got a few! ^^

This year was definitely more fun than last year, I can say that much! I got to see a lot of the cool people that I’ve met at concerts over the past few years, and I even met a few new people, including Simon from The Slants. The Slants haven’t really come by this way before, so this was my first time meeting him, and he was really fun to hang out with. He had a bunch of pictures that he drew on the back of Slants flyers while he was sitting at his table in Artist Alley.  If you still haven’t checked out The Slants, you should!  They aren’t Japanese, but they still make great music, and they’ve been hitting up the convention circuit more and more, so you might see them at a convention near you!

Besides all the JRock and anime, ACen had some other fun things going on.  I was walking in the lobby of the Hyatt on Saturday I think, and I saw something that I think anyone can appreciate:  a real-life re-enactment of Where’s Waldo.

But definitely, one of the highlights at ACen this year was the JRock cosplay.  There was a lot of it, and a lot of what there was was GOOD cosplay.  Kudos to all of you who did cosplay!

I hope all of you in the midwest area will also make it out to Chicago for Ayabie in a couple weeks, too.  I really like talking to fans that are in line for concerts, and I’d be more than happy to hang out with people for a while.  If you are going, then see you then!

(Simon photo macro’d up by Seven)