doombox

It might be different in some parts of the world, but the general trend of the visual kei and j-rock search stats looks about right for where I live. It definitely matches what's been happening at my local convention. I started going around 2006, and there used to be a bunch of J-rock/VK panels, but within the last few years it dropped to two (usually Dir en Grey and the Gazette), and then none at all. There were at least 10 K-pop panels this year. Interest from the anime crowd definitely doesn't seem to be anywhere near what it used to, and I'm sure that's where many of the more casual fans in the mid-00's came from.

I've seen
Dir en grey 3x
Miyavi 2x
Mucc 2x
Girugamesh 2x
Balzac 2x
D'espairs Ray
Merry
12012
Kagerou
UnsraW
Maximum the Hormone
And unfortunarely I've been to An Cafe 2x (jk, they're kinda cute, not exactly the music I listen to but you can have a lot of fun at their gigs)

Well, Youtube only exists since 2005, so obviously there won't be any channels from early to mid 00's bands.
 
But in principle, you are right. 5 years ago hardly any indie vk band would bother with Youtube. Now it is very common for them to have channels or just some videos with samples. Rarely full PVs, because obviously selling PV-DVDs as an extra is still part of the vk business model.
 
 
And yes, copyright has gotten much more strict and complicated on YT. I used to upload vk videos on YT once in a while. I had like a million views on Versailles' Ascendead Master (which wasn't even a DVD rip, but ripped from TV). I even had a few hundred subscribers, lol. But after like 2 years the Ascended Master video was taken down due to copyright, as were some of my other videos. I made all my remaining videos private, except for some Versailles comment video. It just wasn't worth the trouble.
 
 
And as for the other question: why are foreigners in general less interested in vk than a few years ago? I will tell you why. It was only a fad to begin with. Nothing more, nothing less. When I got into vk about 14 years ago, there were very few foreigners interested in vk. Then from 2005/2006 onwards, it became a huge fad. A lot of bands, including smaller ones, started to tour overseas. Shops that were previously focused on Anime suddenly began stocking jrock. A lot of people jumped on the bandwaggon during that time. After a few years, I would say 2010/2011 onwards, the fad began to die down. People left the bandwaggon again. Apparently Kpop became the new fad, and I'm sure that one will die one day too.
 
I'd say we are still above the 2005-level of overseas vk fandom, but not as much as during the height of the fad.

It seems like a lot of work depending on how high quality of a broadcast/podcast will be done. It could be tricky if people don't have very good recording or editing equipment. But I'm interested in helping out if I can. Anything to spread the word on good music.  Something where possibly segments sharing different sides of Japanese music/Japanese rock. Something where people that specialize in certain genres can not only talk about them but compile the playlists for a segment. Or maybe have user spotlights where they contribute their favorite artists for a spell. I dunno. 

I've been feeling like the vk scene in general has been slowly dying out for a while, and people have been losing interest since new bands barely last a month anymore. It's hard to keep subscribers if you don't have many bands to post that continually draw people in. And if YT channels aren't getting views/likes/subs from the content then they don't bother posting those type of things. And when there's not readily available content then a lot of people stop caring. Half the time even joining a community such as MH is too much work for a casual fan. So they move onto Kpop, or Jpop or whatever else is easy to find and fills their time. It becomes a vicious cycle. 
 
The scene has changed so much from what it was a few years back. I remember some bands were together 2-3-4 years before any foreign fans ever heard of them, and the artists themselves (unless on a major label) never bothered posting on global sites like Youtube. Everything was fan posted content. Once the indies started posting their own, and labels started reporting the fan channels everything got harder and we started to only get CMs for videos or "short ver" of the videos. I think people find those things annoying. And it cut down the fan to fan contact, replacing it with one-sided artist to fan advertising. So the community as a whole became more distant and had less reasons to talk to each other. And now with bands lasting such a short while, it leaves people a bit lost and unmotivated to keep repeating the cycle for little to no satisfaction. 
 
I run a jrock video blog for the last two years and while I can tell you the vk fans are loyal (I tend to see the same people liking the videos) but the visual kei videos don't get half of the attention as some of the others because A.) some companies now block viewers from outside of Japan, and B.) they rarely post official full versions of the videos (then proceed to report anyone else who uploads the full version). It's like they are purposefully trying to kill their own international fanbase. It's sad.

Here's a question for you: why film a promotional video if you aren't using it to promote music?
The answer is, there is none! To expect people to buy the promotional video to see it defeats the purpose of it's design, which is to promote your music. You aren't supposed to be able to directly make money off of the PV. The money you put into the video either comes out of your budget for the album or is something you recoup when you make sales. It's called the cost of doing business. Sometimes it's necessary to spend money to make more money. If you do make money off of the PV, that's just a bonus.
That's why visual kei bands seem to run into so many monetary issues. They spend a lot of money up front to get their costumes, photo shoots, albums recorded, etc. and then expect fans to pay up front for everything. Here, pay up front for this ticket to get this live distributed song which didn't cost us a fraction of the cost we're charging you to get it! Here, pay for this promotional video so you can see the song that we're going to make you buy twice so you can get all of the music. Also, buy both editions and get some meaningless poster bonus too! But you have to buy them from Like An Edison only to get the deal! Like shit, I get that you need to recoup your losses but there are better ways to do it. I'll name a few below.
Why don't Japanese visual kei bands run an official YouTube channel where they can place all of their PV's (or hell, all of their music if they wanted), and some live performances and just make you sit through an ad first? That's extra money that doesn't cost them too much work to get. Why don't really indies independent Japanese visual kei bands put their releases on Bandcamp or iTunes and set a minimum price? There are lots of ways they can cut out the middleman and save themselves some serious cash, but they don't.
But yet it's expected that we should just shell out $40 for the music? It's 2014 music doesn't work that way anymore bb.

I've been feeling like the vk scene in general has been slowly dying out for a while, and people have been losing interest since new bands barely last a month anymore. It's hard to keep subscribers if you don't have many bands to post that continually draw people in. And if YT channels aren't getting views/likes/subs from the content then they don't bother posting those type of things. And when there's not readily available content then a lot of people stop caring. Half the time even joining a community such as MH is too much work for a casual fan. So they move onto Kpop, or Jpop or whatever else is easy to find and fills their time. It becomes a vicious cycle. 
 
The scene has changed so much from what it was a few years back. I remember some bands were together 2-3-4 years before any foreign fans ever heard of them, and the artists themselves (unless on a major label) never bothered posting on global sites like Youtube. Everything was fan posted content. Once the indies started posting their own, and labels started reporting the fan channels everything got harder and we started to only get CMs for videos or "short ver" of the videos. I think people find those things annoying. And it cut down the fan to fan contact, replacing it with one-sided artist to fan advertising. So the community as a whole became more distant and had less reasons to talk to each other. And now with bands lasting such a short while, it leaves people a bit lost and unmotivated to keep repeating the cycle for little to no satisfaction. 
 
I run a jrock video blog for the last two years and while I can tell you the vk fans are loyal (I tend to see the same people liking the videos) but the visual kei videos don't get half of the attention as some of the others because A.) some companies now block viewers from outside of Japan, and B.) they rarely post official full versions of the videos (then proceed to report anyone else who uploads the full version). It's like they are purposefully trying to kill their own international fanbase. It's sad.

10/10 because Tatsurou w/ guns ftw~

I have only been to one Japanese rock concert and that was to see Boris in Atlanta about three weeks ago. It was really amazing!  

This song. Hahaha. The Engrish spawned probably my favorite lyric parody of all time.
 

takuろっく(taku-rock) will change to new formal band "∞entertainment-Ash-" after their presents live "Re:start Birthday～AtoZ～" at Shinjuku RUIDO K4 at 2014/08/20, and they will hold their first demo live at Takadanobaba AREA at 2014/09/10 and their first formal one-man live "Mistake of Destiny" at Ikebukuro RUIDO K3 at 2014/11/10 and their one-man live "Theme of Guilty" at Higashikouenji 20000V at 2014/12/23
 
"∞entertainment-Ash-" members:
Vo.TAKU (ex-Glory CROWN) (Planner)
Gt.AKI (ex-Dagger Remain-->NoGoD-->PIECElang-->-dist-) (Live performer)
Gt.SATONA (ex-KANARYS-->VizeL-->ワン★スター(One Star)(support)) (Main composer)
Ba.ZERO (ex-the addiction(琥珀/kohaku)) (Producer)
Dr.YUKITO (ex-ポッキーげぃむ(pocky game)(Vo.)-->SxDxR) (CEO)
 
 
their new digital single "Guilty" will be released at 2014/11/01
 
[track list]
01.Guilty
02.drug abuse
 
http://ifetash.net/

This band needs more love. They are fucking awesome.

thank you all
 
I could easily spend my whole life at university :]  To me, gaining knowledge and especially questioning it (and everything else...), is important.
 
And, @DistRhyme, thanks, I'll make sure to check it out!

Honestly, you'd be an ideal person to work with, so if you're up for it... if it pans out.... I'd like to ask you *___*
You're really open minded, enthusiastic, and you have a very good knowledge of many bands that I don't. 
I will send you a message!

No problem. I'm available for grunt work. It wouldn't take much for me to get my hands on equipment or software if it came down to it, either. Depending on how big a project this might be. And I'm on the opposite coast from you so might could help with some timezone constraints. 

I have an actual recording mic that i can use, I'm pretty much just checking out again to see what options there are for a hosting site. 
Thank you for being willing to help :'D

This is literally an idea I came up with a few hours ago and I was talking to CAT5 about it and decided to just make a post to see what other people thought.

So I was thinking, I know we all like our jams and such, but with the recent activity of people sharing music genre's not everyone is familiar with and with everyone discovering new artists they like... 

I was wondering what people would think about like an online radio broadcast?

Maybe it could include live reports for overseas countries that come directly from the users here. Or maybe you saw a show in Japan you'd like us to talk about on the radio show. 

We can also make reminder announcements for things going on with the site as well as up coming events related to the Japanese music scene. 
 
I personally have a collection of cds i don't mind using for give aways and things like that.
 
And of course we can't forget the music part!

Thoughts?

Or is there anyone interested in helping with a radio broadcast?

What do the mods think?

It seems like a lot of work depending on how high quality of a broadcast/podcast will be done. It could be tricky if people don't have very good recording or editing equipment. But I'm interested in helping out if I can. Anything to spread the word on good music.  Something where possibly segments sharing different sides of Japanese music/Japanese rock. Something where people that specialize in certain genres can not only talk about them but compile the playlists for a segment. Or maybe have user spotlights where they contribute their favorite artists for a spell. I dunno. 

http://youtu.be/j4GAs9TJVjM

So fucking intense, looks like it's gonna be a really good season

X.Y.Z.→A
 
(This is a band name, even though it looks like I'm trying to skip letters. I'm not! lol)

There's no japanese post-britpop because the japanese collectively realize the genre is shit lel
 
(also why does every genre need a post-form nowadays? Subgenres are getting fucking ridiculous, soon we'll have post-witch house or some crap like that)

X.Y.Z.→A
 
(This is a band name, even though it looks like I'm trying to skip letters. I'm not! lol)

Walls of Jericho

Many of them have jobs, you don't even know the reality, yet you assume you're entitled to call them music prostitutes. I agree with what Tetora said. Everything costs a lot of money, there are many people working for these bands. Get a band and try to record you all playing on a cell phone or even a computer. It would sound like shit. You just can't record music in good quality for free.
 
I don't know any VK bands selling stuff for one dollar on a website like that? But there are different labels, different situations, maybe some bands just have a better financial situation for some reason? I don't know... maybe they don't mind losing some money first, to promote themselves in a cheap way? In the end, most musicians would like to make enough money on their band, to live just off it.
 
We don't live in different worlds, you're just being close-minded, like most people in this country, lol. You can't imagine someone may have a different opinion about this (and I can't afford buying CDs either... but if I could, I would buy from the bands I like, because I know why do they need money. VK ISN'T A MAINSTREAM MUSIC INDUSTRY FULL OF MONEY.)