How much do you spend for jrock releases?

[JukaForever 758]

I think you answered your own question If you have a stable income it is very likely you are able to afford to buy a lot of CDs.

 

I think that at the moment I'm using probably 50-100€ per month to CDs. Though my only income is my student allowance, I've been using my savings a lot recently...

But once I really get to start my summer job full time I could easily spend almost 1000€ in CDs per month (without saving anything ofc). Not that I'm really going to do that even though I wanted to, in my opinion that's just insane I'll rather save for an apartment of my own and put some money aside for a possible Japan trip in the future or something.

 

But I think the thing with affording or not affording to buy CDs is just the matter of prioritizing - how do you personally want to use your money.

 

lol I use my student allowance as well. I didn't during an internship in which case I was using money I earned. Priority for me is apartment 1st then music 2nd which is why my parents are always mystified as to why I don't have much money for food but I keep getting packages from Japan lol. They actually thought I had a girl bringing me presents from Japan 0.0 ... I wish -.-

[Tetora 625]

I have a mix between what Ibuy myself, which is usually shipments of about 3 cds every week or two at a time, so I am constantly getting my cds, but dont have to pay any customs.

Then I have what I get for free from contacts, which is not much, but adds up.

Then there is what I buy with points, like I have I think over 11,000 yen in points right now to cash in.

I have a lot of cds, but I never let it interfere with my savings and liquid cash flow into important things such as food, clothing, etc... Or my various business ventures. But I understand people who have to.eat ramen all week because they splurge on cds or manga or whatever, that is one way to live, and it can be nice.

I like that idea of some girl sending me stuff from Tokyo... but at the same time poor girl spending her money on me haha.

[JukaForever 758]

I don't think I can recommend ramen everyday. I tried it for 3 weeks since my parents got me basically a bulk of shin ramyun and had that to eat with various veggies and some meats for a month. I got fat quick in that small time, I now go for all organic foods and only get ramen or actual noodles every other month or so.

[Guest mitsu the indie girl]

ARE YOU ALL RICH? (or am I just too poor?)

 

 

Ya, that's what I even thought for a while 8 years ago before I got a steady job and starting buying Japanese music. Having a steady income is the key and being wise with your finances. I only buy music after I've taken care of all the important things (rent, bills, food, etc.) and I rarely dip into my savings. And I'll be honest... I only follow a certain numbers of bands, so I don't spend too much lol Or I'd go broke.

[hiroki 5521]

Priority for me is apartment 1st then music 2nd which is why my parents are always mystified as to why I don't have much money for food but I keep getting packages from Japan lol.

 

LOL that's exactly what happened to me.

 

I receive so many packages from Japan and because I'm not in most of the time, the postman will usually just drop by the school near my house where my mum works (yes he even knows that) and pass the packages to her instead. Which is very bad cuz now she's always wondering what the hell are these stuff I'm getting and who are they from.

 

Anyway I don't want to know exactly how much I spend on music. It's pretty much 50%-80% of my allowance + whatever else I manage to save. Usually I will feel guilty after overspending one month and force myself to stop the following month, then binge spend the next month.. rinse and repeat.

[sai 868]

I hardly buy anything these days. It's not because I don't want to support my favourite artists, it's just that when I order from any of the shops that offer the CDs I want, I always get hit with really big custom fees that are sometimes larger than the price of the CD itself. These fees + the CDJapan shipping costs just don't make it profitable for me to buy a lot of CDs at the same time (in order not to hit the custom fee limit, I can usually only buy a single album). If I would buy in a big bulk of about 5-6 CDs, I'd still be hit with a lot of unnecessary fees. 

 

I'm happy at least that non-VK bands usually are cheaper than VK bands when it comes to full albums, because that makes me able to at least purchase one CD from CDJapan without having to pay 20 euros in customs over a 26 euros CD.

 

I mostly only still buy Korean music because a few websites that I know that sell those mess around with the prices on their packaging/bills, so it always goes through customs unnoticed. That usually only happens about once every 3-4 months though, because I'm very selective when it comes to buying Korean music, and it's been about 8 months since my last order because nothing that has been released in that time has been good enough for me to purchase.

 

So yeah I'd probably buy A LOT if I weren't restricted by customs

[Guest mitsu the indie girl]

^ Sai, if I may ask... Do you live in Europe? It sounds like Europe has a lot of custom fees. Living in the US, I haven't had to experience that. Custom fees sound so expensive and inconvenient! I wouldn't buy music either if I lived in a country that had that!

[sai 868]

Yes I do. The current law is that fees between EU countries are not allowed, but that there are custom and tax fees for if you want to order outside of the EU. It's to "protect the own market" which I understand, but in cases where you can't get the products here it's kind of bullshit lmao.

 

The fees are also ridiculously high. I pay 21% of the product in tax + around 18 euros in administrative fees, so like I said, I almost pay as many taxes as the price of the CD itself. It really puts me off from ordering Japanese music. Like I said, Korean music isn't so hard because there are different shops who play around with the rules, but for Japanese music it's just not possible. It's just like, if a CD costs 23 euros I don't want to pay 20 in taxes on top of the shipping. That quickly turns a 23 euros CD into a 50 euros CD, so that's why I hardly buy anything. I've been wanting to save up for a trip to Japan in a few years so that I can purchase the stuff I want there.

[Guest mitsu the indie girl]

Yes I do. The current law is that fees between EU countries are not allowed, but that there are custom and tax fees for if you want to order outside of the EU. It's to "protect the own market" which I understand, but in cases where you can't get the products here it's kind of bullshit lmao.

 

The fees are also ridiculously high. I pay 21% of the product in tax + around 18 euros in administrative fees, so like I said, I almost pay as many taxes as the price of the CD itself. It really puts me off from ordering Japanese music. Like I said, Korean music isn't so hard because there are different shops who play around with the rules, but for Japanese music it's just not possible. It's just like, if a CD costs 23 euros I don't want to pay 20 in taxes on top of the shipping. That quickly turns a 23 euros CD into a 50 euros CD, so that's why I hardly buy anything. I've been wanting to save up for a trip to Japan in a few years so that I can purchase the stuff I want there.

 

Thanks for the reply! The law makes sense; it's understandable why the European Union does it. That's so expensive for Japanese music! It's a dismay they don't sell Japanese music overseas, like in Europe and the US. It'd make it so much easier and cheaper, I feel like it. But glad you're able to purchase Korean music at least! And a trip to Japan would be awesome! I would do the same...save up to buy a lot of music haha.

[Dark Kinma 960]

Between 2011 & december 2013 I have spend more than 1.000€ (only in Vk music band, shipping inclueded), but since 2014 new year I have make a very BIG resolution, I will buy now, Only cd of my favorite band who is Dir en Grey, all other cd are useless to buy and can be downloadable easily.

I don't want support more band, when they don't have any respect of oversea fan (for the most of them...) Want just support my very first band, that's all ^^

[Guest mitsu the indie girl]

Between 2011 & december 2013 I have spend more than 1.000€ (only in Vk music band, shipping inclueded), but since 2014 new year I have make a very BIG resolution, I will buy now, Only cd of my favorite band who is Dir en Grey, all other cd are useless to buy and can be downloadable easily.

I don't want support more band, when they don't have any respect of oversea fan (for the most of them...) Want just support my very first band, that's all ^^

 

I'm like that too. I only purchase music of my favorite bands... It can get too expensive haha

[Ro plz 1290]

I used to spend 10-15 for consecutive Dir en grey and GazettE releases but I stopped. Since then, I'm behind on quite a few releases to add to my collection and there's new bands that I too hope to buy music from as well. Soon, I'll be spending more...