Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.
Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.
So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.
These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.
I’m bummed! I was expecting to spend a quiet Xmas day with my mother, as we had agreed to catch a viewing of Celtic Woman’s A Christmas Celebration, which I happened to own a DVD of. Everything was going smoothly, we were already finishing Green the Whole Year Round when the DVD stopped playing. After checking again on the same player, through the track selection page, and testing a different player. I determined it was a disc issue.
It’s the dreaded disc rot.
I ended up testing my other two Celtic Woman DVDs. When they both had similar issues, the Celtic Woman 2005 release gets stuck at Orinoco Flow and A New Journey gets stuck at Panis Angelicus, I got worried similar DVD releases (that might be even slightly older than these) stored in the same place might have similar issues. However, it doesn’t seem to be a storage issue, as it’s a Manhattan (Now Capitol Music Group) release issue. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to post this on Amazon to try and find someone that might have similar issues, so I decided to post here just in case someone might be searching for this specific issue.
At the moment, both Celtic Woman and A New Journey seem to still be available on Amazon through sellers (wonder if they have similar disc rot issues), and A Christmas Celebration offers copies of upwards $30 from other sellers not the same ‘url product’ where it was originally purchased. A New Journey remains the only release errrr “easier” to back up in case of physical loss.
The fact that other Arista and Sony releases that are slightly older and stored in the same condition as these show no signs of rot tells me that smaller no-label releases are the most in danger of decay and most in danger of becoming lost media.
If you have a good copy of the 2005 Celtic Woman concert or A Christmas Celebration to share, please, let me know through a comment or drop me a line.
Mamamoo has officially become the group with most albums in my music collection— officially 8 albums; but honestly it’s 9 albums (with a double Purple edition), plus a SolGam tape, a SolGam LP, two kihno kits, a DVD and a BR of Moosical. LOL
Once upon a time, there were five albums by P!nk, but there were also six albums by the BackStreet Boys, six Hanson albums, six Westlife albums, four turned to five Marit Larsen albums, five Salyu-related albums, five albums eventually turned to seven by BiBi [it became viral on Weibo xD], seven albums by Shiina Ringo, seven albums by Bjork— altogether, I have 6 Brown Eyed Girls-related albums but that’s three albums, a fancy collectible repackage and two GaIn minis. Phew.
I’m a stan. I have decided to stan forever. LOL Well, at least a few years. A few years in this day and age is an awfully long time, which is practically forever. I’ve seen relationships that have lasted less than my two and a half years as a moomoo. xD
I’ve been a fan of Yu Aoi for a decade now [1][2]. I’m expecting my moomoo status to be just as long.
If they ever do an event here. I’m done for. LOL I’ve been wanting to feed them my whole moomoo life, as the Grandma Radish that I seem to be turning into.
There was a time, a long time ago, when I really took to streaming music. My music buying habits, but specially my music download habits, changed to basically streaming to the point when licensing and catalogs began changing, and I found my music collection shrinking. In the end, I started downloading once again.
I have come to the realization that I buy less and less physical albums, or it takes me longer to buy them. :(
As I found myself deeper and deeper into Kpop fandom once again, so deep into Mamamoo fandom that I begun to get irked by fans who publicly post about their illegal downloads AND complain about numbers of comebacks/group activities. I ended up writing this nonchalant post about music earnings, as well as other Mamamoo activities fans can support besides comebacks [1][2][3]. Yes, I’ve become that type of fan. The old one. LOL
As a grown-up who loves the arts, I always try to remind people that if they love and support their artists that they should buy instead of stream because streaming doesn’t pay. I was literally shook when Hyori mentioned that she had learned that PSY’s Gangnam Style only made $38k [1]; even though I knew some of the horror stories like the one of musician Lee Lang (이랑) who, during her acceptance speech for winning Best Folk Song at the Korean Music Awards, stated that she had only made $370 USD in total earnings on the month of January, so she decided to auction her award starting from the base price of her rent [1].
You can support Lee Lang by buying her album, Playing God (신의 놀이), on Bandcamp :)
And to my surprise, one of my favorite groups this year~~~ the lovely girls from Bolbbalgan4, who are considered digital monsters with their songs almost always charting within the Top10 of Melon, South Korea’s most used music site, had made only $61k USD by August this year [1]. Red Diary Page.1 didn’t drop until a month later, and all 5 songs in the album charted within the Top15. But that’s still besides the point. The point being that your faves don’t make money because you stream music on YouTube or Apple Music or Spotify.
So stop demanding expensive music videos that can cost from $100k-$500k for an average medium size budget, or go up to $1M for the splashy ones that we don’t often see nowadays. At the height of the music video era in the 90s, Michael Jackson and Madonna’s most expensive videos hovered the $5M budget without adjustments for inflation [1]. Stop demanding multiple comebacks a year with infinite number of physical prints (these cost production budgets AND storage budget for large stocks) that you will be waiting for price drops and re-sellers.
So now, let’s do some math~
Let’s say a physical album, a regular jewel case priced at -let’s say- $10 USD. According to prices in 2017— Apple takes a 30% cut [1], Bandcamp takes a 15% cut for digital sales and a 10% for merch [1], whereas CD baby takes a 9% cut off digital sales and $4 USD off physical sales [1]. That means that by selling a $14USD album, the independent artist makes $10USD. In the parallel universe in which your fave is an independent, they keep $7 of those $10 in iTunes, but if there’s a label, the artist (meaning singer) probably gets $1 of those $10. If they’re their own lyricist, musician, producer or sound engineer, fees are different.
Streaming is a whole different beast— according to this post on Digital Music News from 2016, to make a single dollar $1 in Tidal, Google Play, Apple Music and Deezer; you gotta play the song +180 times. 196, to be exact, for Apple Music and Deezer. Make that 279 times on Spotify, 483 times on Vevo, 766 times on Soundcloud, and… at the end of the list, YouTube, where you gotta play songs 776 times to make that one dollar. That means a song/music video that has 100 million views on its YouTube official channel, has made roughly $125k USD, which would be made by selling 12.5k physical albums on CD Baby.
So remember, the next time you complain about X official store prices or limited stocks, it’s because all adds up to the price. If you found a cheap album, it’s because someone along the way lost money.
Yes, I’m low-key talking about Bizent LOL I’ve compared prices with YesAsia, and since I don’t get YesAsia free shipping, that’s paying double shipping because the YA price includes the Bizent $20 shipping fee. I’d rather that money go directly to Mamamoo. xD
I’ve been so emotional this weekend, and got more Emo for the anniversary xD
This helped:
I always give a special shout out to all the people involved in MamamooTrans, who do an incredible job at keeping all non-Korean-speaking iMoomoos up to date. Without them, getting to know Mamamoo would be a thousand times more difficult and not such an amazing ride as it had been so far. VLives, clips, interviews, and most of all, fan meetings. Thank you guys for spoiling us as much as Mamamoo does.
As Mamamoo prepares for their comeback this week [Praise the L0rd! But let them succeed!], I’ve been getting my fix with Moonbyul on IDOT. I’ve been loving the girls in IDOT, but specially Somi and Seulgi and D.ANA. And now their Immortal Song performance, their most recent VLive [Did you guys stay up or woke up earlier for it?]. I am ready for the 22nd.
I already pre-ordered Purple — the double album version, I don’t even know why — so I am ready for it to be released.
It’s no longer Whee-in’s birthday in S.Korea, but it still technically is here— so, Happy Birthday Wheepup! You Spongebob-laughing tripe-and-raw-liver-eating laughing machine you. I still haven’t check out the recent Bday Vapp, but bless you, Mamamoo kids.
April started with blessings of Shiina Ringo releasing her concert DVD/Bluray Hyakkiyagyo 2015 (百鬼夜行2015) [which is the term used for onis, yokais, monsters and spirits whatevers doing a conga line through the night (LOL)]; then Gesu Kiwami are finally releasing their Daruma Ringo (達磨林檎) [which was supposed to released last year], which are set to be released in May. There were also announcements of a new BiBi album and a Mamamoo comeback.
Mamamoo, of course, have been blessing us all year— I’ve sorta lost track of the many song releases, but I’m pretty sure it was like this: LOVE for the Goblin OST, Solar’s collab with Luna and Hani for Honey Bee, Solar’s Emotion Part 4, San E’s collab with Hwasa in I Am Me, Jungkey’s son with Whee-in Anymore, Double Trouble Couple for the Strong Woman Do Bong Soon OST, and now eSNa’s collab with Hwasa Love Comes. Bless and poor, yo!
I’ve also just discovered DADARAY, Residente (otherwise known as the voice of Calle 13) released his new album [1]… and so did La Vida Boheme [1], Mary and the Witch’s Flower (メアリと魔女の花) LOOKS FREAKING AMAZING, I’ve been watching Sister’s Slam Dunk Season 2 and loving every minute of it, and Minzy’s made her official comeback with the release of Minzy Work 01 UNO andNINANO, as a main single.
Last night, of course, started with Minzy’s comeback, but got so much better with the announcement that Shiina Ringo did a CM for a Luxury Mall, but the song they did expanded into a digital single called Menukidori (目抜き通り), which is set to be released on the 20th, which is the day of the mall’s inauguration [1]. And then I found out that Jambinai released a new song called Damdamhi Jeogsigona (담담히 적시고나), which translates to “slightly wet,” which features the voice of folk singer Park Min Hee (박민희) [1].
Then I went to bed, and Mamamoo was in it. I talked (and laughed) a lot with Whee-in [this is the first time I interact, in broken English, with Mamamoo]. It was a party, and Shahrukh Khan was also there hahahahaha, so I got to shake his hand xD and then I went to talk to Hwasa, and she was telling me she was planning to come to Peru to visit Machu Picchu, so I was like- giving her tips. Sting was also there (so random!), and he had hair. HAHAHA.
Bless my Wheesa dream, though. Wheesa’s not my bias OTP, but bless them.
Me: Celebrity endorsements don’t work.
Also me: I’m obsessed with JiNS glasses now. Thank you, Yu-chan [1][2].
You can also buy non-prescription :O That would make it less stressful to get them shipped across continent, and then just get the prescription at your local oculist.
When I went to Japan (OMG, last year. It’s already been a year TnT), I ended up getting a pair of JiNS Air Frame glasses because— 1. Yu-chan. 2. When I tried them on, they didn’t fall. LOL I don’t have a high nose bridge, so my western glasses usually end up at the tip of my nose, and they’re so heavy!! SO HEAVY! I always got a deep mark on the sides of my nose. Air Frame glasses suit me so well.
So~~~ I found out there’s a JiNS store in San Francisco (and three other stores in California— so many Asians xD), so I could totally get a pair when I visit my aunt! It also seems like they have an online store. They only ship within the US, so I suppose I could send my glasses to my aunt’s~ BUT LOOK AT THIS GORGEOUS THINGS!
I’m obsessed with it right now.
Round glasses don’t suit the shape of my face, though. hahahahaha
I also don’t change glasses style because it’s expensive, but~~~ wishlist.
I am obviously not a true Mamamoo fan, because I wasn’t aware of this performance until today. I’ve reached a point in my fandom life where a Mamamoo-related site is one of my top visited websites. I visit it three or four times a day, at least. LOL I’m shameful.
I’m also saving money for a YesAsia purchase of their Moosical DVD and/or their upcoming album/mini, and possibly other stuff- I mean, have you seen The Handmaiden? LOL
