Since the magical year of 2020, I have been listening to the J-Pop band NONA REEVES. While their music might seem generic to some, I still really enjoy it, and it’s a welcome and catchy break from the other types of music I listen to. However, this post won’t be about NONA REEVES themselves, as much as it will be about cases of availability similar to the music of NONA REEVES.
You see, the band doesn’t seem to be particularly popular outside of Japan. Beyond that one Parappa anime remix of one of their songs, their catalog seems to be really obscure and hard to find in the west, especially their post-2001 output. I recently found out that all of their newer music IS in fact available on services like Spotify and YouTube Music, but it is nearly impossible to listen to if you’re not in Japan. As someone who extensively uses Spotify and YouTube for music on the go, this was really disappointing and frustrating to me, to the point where I uploaded some of their albums to the wider YouTube sphere, for my own convenience and for other people to find and listen to.
It isn’t just NONA REEVES however that suffers from being unavailable beyond it’s origin country. Games and some of the more obscure media of the movie and music variety have been somewhat difficult to access for decades before the Internet age, and even a period during said age. And I always hated this practice.
Games were more understandable back when analog TVs were the norm and varying frequencies of equipment would result in an unviewable image. However, this practice continued well into the 7th generation of gaming, when digital TVs that could handle both 50/60hz becoming more widely available, with the Xbox 360 and Wii being the prime examples of this. Hell, the main motivator for the development of the Xbox 360 emulator Xenia was the creator not being able to play imported titles on his consoles. The PS3 was region free in the same generation, so there really was no genuine reason to region lock consoles anymore, other than having total control, which corporations would seemingly never give up a sliver of when it comes to their consoles.
Movies and music however? Less excusable, technologically speaking. Culturally, some culture-specific media would be difficult for other audiences to engage with back in the day, but they didn’t even give those audiences the option to engage with it. Whether that’s out of ignorance, greed, lack of budget, or biases, the initial reason varies, but the end result is the same. Less media for the people. And it sucks.
Thankfully, region locking isn’t nearly as prevalent of an issue as it used to be. The internet has allowed greater access to content from other regions, and companies have done much better jobs with allowing others to engage with media that didn’t release in their region for one reason or another. And that only makes it sting more, when some labels or companies still have their head up their ass in the name of “tradition” and STILL do this kind of bullshit.
One particular country that still seems to be fond of region locking is Japan. I already named the NONA REEVES example, but one other example I’m thinking of at the moment is the internet radio service Radiko, which is flat-out unavailable outside of Japan, unless you use a VPN or a browser extension to bypass the draconian restrictions. Normally some obscure service being unavailable wouldn’t be that bothersome, but Radiko, if I remember correctly, is the main service of Japanese internet radios, with only a small handful of globally available stations. So if you grew a liking to, or are interested in, Japanese internet radio, then you’re basically screwed and can’t access the vast majority of that space, because some asshole thought it would be brilliant if people were shown the door for not being in the correct country. (Not even really that effective when you can bypass it with a FUCKING BROWSER EXTENSION.)
Thinking about region locking has given me another brilliant example of Gaben’s “Piracy is a service problem” quote being eternally correct. If the consumer is given no choice in accessing the media they’re interested in, why should people shed a tear for your product or service being inevitably pirated? If you genuinely care, put in the effort to make your stuff available, and I’ll pay up. Games and movies have both made strides in being more accessible, either with availability or streaming, and therefore, for the time being, reducing the amount of piracy done on them. Of course, pirates will always exist, whether that’s due to lack of money or some other form of inaccessibility, but that’s a more complex topic than corporations would like you to believe. However, I don’t remember the last time I pirated a game unless I had a good reason to. I’m more compelled to give money where it’s due because of how easy it is to access what I want. And the more noticeable lack of region locking in the present has also done it’s part in this downtrend.
However, with streaming services being more compelled to become the internet version of cable TV, and older games being more and more unavailable as time goes on, one has to wonder if this downtrend will go back up in due time. And while region locking isn’t really comparable, it is funny and scary at the same time to wonder if it’s going to go through a similar fracture process. Probably not, but you never know. For now, I’m just happy that I can access more stuff legally whenever I want. NONA REEVES’ music notwithstanding.
Mar 21 2024
NONA REEVES and Why I Hate Region Locking
Since the magical year of 2020, I have been listening to the J-Pop band NONA REEVES. While their music might seem generic to some, I still really enjoy it, and it’s a welcome and catchy break from the other types of music I listen to. However, this post won’t be about NONA REEVES themselves, as much as it will be about cases of availability similar to the music of NONA REEVES.
You see, the band doesn’t seem to be particularly popular outside of Japan. Beyond that one Parappa anime remix of one of their songs, their catalog seems to be really obscure and hard to find in the west, especially their post-2001 output. I recently found out that all of their newer music IS in fact available on services like Spotify and YouTube Music, but it is nearly impossible to listen to if you’re not in Japan. As someone who extensively uses Spotify and YouTube for music on the go, this was really disappointing and frustrating to me, to the point where I uploaded some of their albums to the wider YouTube sphere, for my own convenience and for other people to find and listen to.
It isn’t just NONA REEVES however that suffers from being unavailable beyond it’s origin country. Games and some of the more obscure media of the movie and music variety have been somewhat difficult to access for decades before the Internet age, and even a period during said age. And I always hated this practice.
Games were more understandable back when analog TVs were the norm and varying frequencies of equipment would result in an unviewable image. However, this practice continued well into the 7th generation of gaming, when digital TVs that could handle both 50/60hz becoming more widely available, with the Xbox 360 and Wii being the prime examples of this. Hell, the main motivator for the development of the Xbox 360 emulator Xenia was the creator not being able to play imported titles on his consoles. The PS3 was region free in the same generation, so there really was no genuine reason to region lock consoles anymore, other than having total control, which corporations would seemingly never give up a sliver of when it comes to their consoles.
Movies and music however? Less excusable, technologically speaking. Culturally, some culture-specific media would be difficult for other audiences to engage with back in the day, but they didn’t even give those audiences the option to engage with it. Whether that’s out of ignorance, greed, lack of budget, or biases, the initial reason varies, but the end result is the same. Less media for the people. And it sucks.
Thankfully, region locking isn’t nearly as prevalent of an issue as it used to be. The internet has allowed greater access to content from other regions, and companies have done much better jobs with allowing others to engage with media that didn’t release in their region for one reason or another. And that only makes it sting more, when some labels or companies still have their head up their ass in the name of “tradition” and STILL do this kind of bullshit.
One particular country that still seems to be fond of region locking is Japan. I already named the NONA REEVES example, but one other example I’m thinking of at the moment is the internet radio service Radiko, which is flat-out unavailable outside of Japan, unless you use a VPN or a browser extension to bypass the draconian restrictions. Normally some obscure service being unavailable wouldn’t be that bothersome, but Radiko, if I remember correctly, is the main service of Japanese internet radios, with only a small handful of globally available stations. So if you grew a liking to, or are interested in, Japanese internet radio, then you’re basically screwed and can’t access the vast majority of that space, because some asshole thought it would be brilliant if people were shown the door for not being in the correct country. (Not even really that effective when you can bypass it with a FUCKING BROWSER EXTENSION.)
Thinking about region locking has given me another brilliant example of Gaben’s “Piracy is a service problem” quote being eternally correct. If the consumer is given no choice in accessing the media they’re interested in, why should people shed a tear for your product or service being inevitably pirated? If you genuinely care, put in the effort to make your stuff available, and I’ll pay up. Games and movies have both made strides in being more accessible, either with availability or streaming, and therefore, for the time being, reducing the amount of piracy done on them. Of course, pirates will always exist, whether that’s due to lack of money or some other form of inaccessibility, but that’s a more complex topic than corporations would like you to believe. However, I don’t remember the last time I pirated a game unless I had a good reason to. I’m more compelled to give money where it’s due because of how easy it is to access what I want. And the more noticeable lack of region locking in the present has also done it’s part in this downtrend.
However, with streaming services being more compelled to become the internet version of cable TV, and older games being more and more unavailable as time goes on, one has to wonder if this downtrend will go back up in due time. And while region locking isn’t really comparable, it is funny and scary at the same time to wonder if it’s going to go through a similar fracture process. Probably not, but you never know. For now, I’m just happy that I can access more stuff legally whenever I want. NONA REEVES’ music notwithstanding.
By yoshi • Writings • 0