I was wondering if anybody knew of any good services like Spotify for listening to old Japanese music.
To be more precise, I used to think I didn’t really like much Japanese music till I stumbled down the rabbit hole of シティポップ and now I’ve become super attached to a few Japanese artists that I can’t seem to find anywhere on the main music services like Apple or Spotify etc. I’m really in love with Tatsuro Yamashita, Junko Yagami, Mariya Takeuchi and others. It would be nice if I could listen to them on my phone without needing YouTube which is a big data drain…
Figured I would reach out the WK community since you guys are always super helpful.
I listen to Japanese stuff on Spotify a lot.
Also, on Android: Radio Japan ← Bunch of channels. FMくめじま plays old, old stuff I think. Just went to check and won’t load now, of course. I’m sure there’s others. J1 Radio ← just a few, in the J1 family. Today’s hits, some anime thing, ‘gold’, and ‘xtra’ looks like they did away with the anime?
Yeah, there seems to be lots of modern Japanese stuff on Spotify but most of the older stuff I’m looking for isn’t there. In particular Tatsuro Yamashita has an album called 僕の中の少年 that I really love that got pulled off of YouTube so right now I’m completely without it.
I do have an app for listening to radio on my phone and I have a few stations that I liked when I was in Japan saved so maybe I’ll try that more and I’ll check out Radio Japan too. Thanks!
I’m not sure which Spotify library you have access to, but if you can get access to the Japanese one (paid with a Japanese credit card, gift card, or added onto a Japanese cell phone bill), it has significantly more (and older) Japanese music than the American one at least.
I did a quick search of the artists you mentioned, and only Yagami Junko has a large collection. I think it may be the case that Takeuchi Mariya and her husband haven’t authorized their libraries for any streaming service.
Some other artists I listen to a lot, Misora Hibari, Mori Shinichi, Sakamoto Fuyumi, Maekawa Kiyoshi, etc. have their full discographies available for streaming! Might be worth giving a try for related artists if you can!
Thank you so much! I hadn’t considered that Spotify might have region specific libraries but that makes sense. I guess that means I would need two subscriptions though… something to consider I suppose!
Unfortunately I’m not sure if there’s a way to check beforehand, but depending on who else you listen to, they might all be available from the Japanese library! I cancelled my American one before resubscribing with my Japanese card, and my saved library was almost entirely available.
