Brand-X Is Closed (???? Or something)

[frayed 404]

 

Brand-X was gated, the website and Twitter are seemingly down, and apparently no one can get in touch with Yada. Updates as they become available I guess?

[Piyu Kotodama 41]

 

I guess this answers the question

Brand X is being closed due to bankruptcy 

[Paraph 826]

[JRD 5156]

I was wondering why I couldn't access the site yesterday...they had a bonus purchase for this CD I wanted and now I can't get it. FUCK.

 

This is so sad cause Brand-X has been one of the few shops that I bought through when I was a teenager(I am fucking old btw) and I stopped using the store when DWP went on hiatus(broke-up).

 

R.I.P Third Stage, Brand-X, UZD Company, and whatever I've missed.

Edited May 8, 2019 by JRD

[monkeybanana4 1732]

Damn, I was just thinking of buying something there yesterday. Looks like that isn't going happen ;w;

 

Man, this is sad to hear. Aside from Like an Edison and Zeal Link, Brand-X has been one of the main VK stores I've shopped at ever since I became heavily invested into the scene. Well, sadly it looks like I'll never get to use those Brand-X point cards either (whenever I made it to Japan one of these days).

[frayed 404]

Not that heartbroken tbh, like it’s dramatic and another hit for the scene yeah, but I frankly felt way more comfortable at Jishuban or pretty much anywhere else.

[Devilish_Eye 1168]

So guess I won't have my instore then... 

 

Sad but not too surprising, only visited that shop like twice 

Edited May 8, 2019 by Devilish_Eye

[sakuran 1216]

Sad news I hope the other shops aren't in similar situations.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Sad day...

[BrenGun 2261]

I went once ro the store and bought Nothing.

 

still purchased once something via their online store.

 

but it wasn't a store with a wow effect. 

 

vkei is slowly dying in Japan.

And the woman who listen go it often only support one band one guy.

and are crazy.

[Duwang 676]

Yada always seemed like a strange guy to me.
I never really liked him or Brand X to be honest. He was always really rude and a lot of the staff there over the years were as well, especially during instores.

Yeah the talks were pretty entertaining, but once it got to be time for the satsueikai/signing he would rush everything and push people out of the store.

He's a total douche. Good riddance.

[lstknt3b 168]

I wanted to cry by seeing this sad news ;w;

Brand-x was the only shop offering bonus with cd which could send abroad so i am very very disappointed.

I purchased so much there... I feel like suffering from a disbandment of a precious band -_-;

Edited May 8, 2019 by lstknt3b

[emmny 4139]

Visual is dying BPR are going to hell everything is closing and ONLY KIZU WILL SURVIVE THE VISUPOCALYPSEEEEE

[Seimeisen 4406]

I went to Brand-X last year. It was totally empty, there was nothing recent, nothing I wouldn't be able to find at Tower or Little Hearts, it was sad. I've purchased from Brand-X's online shop quite a few times and they had a lot of things I couldn't find anywhere else (or at least, couldn't find at a shop that shipped overseas). I'm more disappointed about losing the online store.

[xLIZ4 140]

Not gonna miss Brand X, not gonna miss that Yada guy at all. I didn't like him.

 

...And there are several better  vk stores  imo.

[Nighttime Jae 238]

5 minutes ago, xLIZ4 said:

Not gonna miss Brand X, not gonna miss that Yada guy at all. I didn't like him.

 

...And there are several better  vk stores  imo.

Even though I definitely agree this statement, I always get sad when I hear that vk stores are closing down because I think it's symptomatic of the current state of the vk scene. Brand-X was also one of the few stores that sold overseas, so I can imagine people being upset over this.

 

Let's hope that other (better) stores will keep on going strong...

[Arkady 396]

I think it's more linked to the mondial decrease of the physical media market and closing of many physical shop (amazon giving the deathblow) than a mere VK endemic thing (Japan lasted very long, in Italy the "music shop apocalypse" started more than a decade ago and it already got to the point that big chains too closed part of their stores), VK scene being small and losing in popularity makes it so VK specialized stores are among the first ones bearing the brunt of it, but it's not the sole cause.

 

Although it also mean VK (and VK music stores) need to learn to evolve fast if it wants to survive, since it's very connected with the physical media market to make their ¥¥¥ (some changes since early 00's are already noticeable tho, so finger crossed the scene survives even if small)

Edited May 8, 2019 by Arkady

[sakuran 1216]

I was always rather surprised/impressed that the importance of physical CD sales has survived in Japan for this long given the modern state of music distribution. But there are a lot of possibilities that the Internet opened up that several industries resisted for a long time (and still do to some extent..) instead of adapting and using that avenue to their advantage. I do hope VK can find a way to work with digital media in a lucrative way rather than resisting the changes until the scene goes extinct.

[carddass 273]

Isn't the resilience of CD sales there tied to the fetishism of physical objects? Heck, it's why Vinyl is making a comeback elsewhere in the world. People want to value music beyond the simple files that they exist in on a harddrive.

And bands should embrace bandcamp or direct sales. It's easy to host files or using file sharing services to distribute. However all of the stores, labels and whatever other middlemen probably wouldn't like that much.

[TheZigzagoon 670]

Am I mistaken in believing that there was a couple of Mathilda singles that were only available via Brand X or am I imagining that? This closure is a loss for the scene and is a loss that we don’t need  

Edited May 8, 2019 by TheZigzagoon

[monkeybanana4 1732]

1 minute ago, TheZigzagoon said:

Am I mistaken in believing that there was a couple of Mathilda singles that were only available via Brand X or am I imagining that? This closure is a loss for the scene and is a loss that we don’t need  

They had a mini-album that was released through Brand-X.

 

 

[Komorebi 2193]

I was there last year a few times and while the girl was really nice to me, Yada was annoying/rude as hell. I'm sure he won't be missed.

[TheZigzagoon 670]

32 minutes ago, monkeybanana4 said:

They had a mini-album that was released through Brand-X.

 

 

OOF

[Masato 365]

6 hours ago, Komorebi said:

I was there last year a few times and while the girl was really nice to me, Yada was annoying/rude as hell. I'm sure he won't be missed.

I second this.  Yada sucked. The only thing he was good for were talks where he knew the band.

[Devilish_Eye 1168]

Some venues are offering their spaces for the planned instores!