Apple iTunes Store

Since there are no real or good music stores in the area I live and many of the good ones in Seattle are fading faster than CD's themselves, I've moved to buying most of my music through Apple's iTunes store. When I get into it, I always move to the music section, but today they've changed something I really dislike now.

When you use the pulldown menu in the upper right, I always go to World, mostly because Apple's catagories and definitions of music by bands or artists or the main catagories isn't very good or right, but at least World music is a big box of genres.

When I get to the World music section they have always listed J-Pop (Japanese pop) music in the individual list which is the most popular and sold in Asia, so I can click and see the latest releases imported from Japan. But today that listing is gone. It's a WTF moment to grasp what happened.

They list German and French pop music, but not Asian pop music? I know Apple has been in a fight with Sony in Japan over rights to artist and their music, but some Japanese artists have released albums through the iTunes store, but now I can't find the most recent releases.

I have to go to browse and try to find all the names of the bands or artist I like, but what about the new artists or one I don't know but would like to hear? Apparently people who like and want Asian pop music just don't count for Apple.

If they had the listing of recent J-Pop releases, why take it away. Why not add other countries, like K-Pop (Korean) music?

Apparently in the war over music between the big corporations, customers don't count. They decide for you and you get what they offer. Otherwise, go elsewhere, which is what I have done through Amazon Japan. Not cheap but at least I can get CD's in 3 days and not deal with Apple and its iTunes store.

But I'm still left with the feeling Apple doesn't really care about offering customers the full range of products, only those they think sell. But then you can always do the same to Apple by not buying what they sell.