Jpopmp3s blog

I remember thinking for the longest time that Teruma (テルマ) was such a strange name for a Japanese mother to call her daughter, but last week I finally found out that it was the Katakana spelling of her name which is Thelma. (!) Now I feel even worse for the poor girl. Thelma. As in Thelma and Louise. As in people’s grandmother’s names.

Oh well, I suppose there is no need to feel too sorry for the girl, with 2 singles in the Oricon top 10 at the moment and an album that is selling like hotcakes.

I read on another jpop blog that she was a quarter Japanese with some Trinidadian and Tobagan ethnicity. Wouldn’t quarter mean that she has one set of Japanese grandparents? She looks to me like she has more Japanese than that. She is really cute though. The VJs were going through her handbag on MTV the other night and it was pretty funny.

More below…..

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So I went to the nearest record store yesterday because I had the brainy idea of getting the promotion posters of JPop artists that are plastered all over the shops after they finished displaying them. If they are going to throw them out,they might as well give them to me so I can send them to some lucky members of my site of JPop fans right?Well the guy behind the counter wasn’t having any of it and was being quite unreasonably inflexible. But it’s ok, I’ll go in there next week again and go above his head to the good old tenchou and see if he’ll be more reasonable.But on the way out I did come across a whole stack of Thelma Aoyama promotional stickers for her album which I didn’t feel too bad about helping myself to a few. That’s them listed above.

So in the spirit of trying new ideas I’ve decided to send a sticker to anybody who wants one and who buys a Japanese iTunes card of any value from JpopMp3s in April. Just reply to the email you get from me with your iTunes card number in it and tell me where you want me to send it to. It doesn’t matter where in the world you live, if you have a postman, I’ll send it.

Do you have a Jpop or JRock related blog? Could you use more traffic? Who couldn’t use more traffic right?

JPopMp3s.com is soon going to be releasing a new browser tool bar for members to download and have instant access to a number of features including fresh content delivered via the toolbar instantly, no matter where on the web you are. There is an email notifier that lets you know instantly if you have a new email, compatible with Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and all Pop3 email accounts.

But the most exciting part for owners of blogs is that there is an RSS device right in the tool bar that updates instantly when a new blog post is posted. It’s unobtrusive while being instantly available.

People don’t even have to open their RSS feed reader. As you can see from the screen shot here, you can click on the RSS feed button right there in the browser, no matter where you are on the internet. A drop down appears listing all the newest unread blog posts.

This is where the good part for you comes in. If you would like to have more exposure to your blog from the desktop of hundreds of Jpop fans who will download the tool bar to their browser (IE and Firefox), drop me a line and either by commenting on this post or by emailing me over at JPopMp3s.com.

I’ve got a number of blogs in mind who I will be contacting and asking them if they would like to be included in this exciting new project, but I would also welcome anybody who thinks their jpop related blog would be a valuable addition to the feed.

Here’s your chance to get every post you make in front of many more eyeballs. But not just any random eyeballs, people who are genuine fans of Japanese pop and rock music and culture and would be seriously interested in what you have to say.

Last Monday (March 10 2008) Coca Cola Japan and iTunes Japan launched their newest collaborative campaign giving away one song every 15 seconds. Every 500ml bottle of Coca Cola and Coca Cola Zero sold here in Japan comes with a code to redeem 1 free song from the Japanese iTunes music store.

Why is that good news for anyone besides people living in Japan who like music? Well it’s great news for members of JPopMp3s.com because I have taken it upon myself to do the heavy lifting, that is, drink a lot of coke and collect as many access codes as possible! I know, it’s a hard job, but someone has to take one for the team.

The campaign goes until April 30th 2008, and the codes are valid for 6 months. I’m still deciding how I will distribute these free Japanese iTunes codes among my members, so stay tuned here for more details.

Wasting time the other day, I was googling around looking for sites that linked to mine. I was pleasantly surprised to find a happy member who had used our services and decided to blog about it.
Check out what she has to say below. I couldn’t have said it better myself
Thanks Sonia!

I always prefer to get hold of music legally whenever possible – particularly if the price is right and buying it is just way more convenient than trying to yoink a free copy amidst the virus-infested shit that’s out there. I also want to be able to try out an artist by just getting one song, or something like that – but that’s difficult as it can be very expensive and time-consuming importing CDs from Japan.

Like, if only I could buy Japanese music on iTunes, just like I normally buy UK music. But it doesn’t work unless you’re buying from your own country’s store.

HOWEVER!!! I just discovered that there are some great services out there which can buy you pre-paid Japanese iTunes cards.

http://www.jpopmp3s.com

OMG!!! I am in heaven. You buy a pre-pay card from these guys (actual cost of a pre-pay card, plus a little more for their service. They take Paypal ^_^). They create a Japanese iTunes account for you within a day (for me, it was within an hour of signing up!). Then just sign in under your new Japanese account and shop on iTunes as normal!!

TOTALLY RECOMMEND! These guys are good and genuine!!

Cool. Thank you very much Sonia!