Are Taiwan Jet Set Radio / JSRF soundtrack CDs bootlegs? (1 Viewer)

[Michael St. Clair]

I see that tons of anime retailers now stock JSR and JSRF soundtrack CDs for a reasonable price. I looked for these discs many, many months ago and found nothing easily available.

Are these (taiwan) discs bootlegs?

 

[BrianB]

Almost certainly, yes. Especially if it's baded SN.

Paging Jeff K...

Here's a really good guide to bootleg Anime products from a UK Anime group.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Ever Anime and Align are the two lables...definitely boot. Damn.

I can spot bootleg DVD and SVCD a mile away, but I don't do a lot of soundtracks.

 

[BrianB]

I can spot bootleg DVD and SVCD a mile away, but I don't do a lot of soundtracks.

With import game soundtracks, there's usually a good way to tell: is it cheap? :-/

 

[Romier S]

is it cheap?

Correct. With game soundtracks price is the biggie. Most game soundtracks run in the 24.95-29.95 (bootlegs run about 11-15) with the big 4-5 disc sets running 49.95-54.95 (bootlegs run about 25-29).

I'm very big into game soundtracks and for a good long while I bought a high number of "Ever Anime" labelled tracks without knowing they were bootlegs. Kind of irked me as being a collector of said soundtracks I had to run out and rebuy the proper ST's at a significant price.:frowning: (Some of which are now out of print and expensive!).

Speaking out of personal experience I'll say the Ever Anime OST's are not of *bad* sound quality. With difficult and rare OST's to find they do provide a good solution (besides just going out and downloading the MP3's yourself). Not to say I recommend or request anyone to support said bootlegs but I'll be honest and say that I do own some hard to find OST's by Ever Anime and if I want to listen to a games OST beforehand I have no issue with downloading it and taking a listen as I usually buy said soundtracks (as is the case with Silent Hill 3 for instance).

If your looking to buy or get into collecting game soundtracks here are some good pages:

http://www.gamemusic.com/
http://www.gmronline.com/

Heres the real deal for you too Michael:

http://www.gamemusic.com/dept/101/pr...05200307172145

http://www.gamemusic.com/dept/101/pr...05200307172145

 

[Ben Seibert]

CDJapan.co.jp also has the real CDs (as well as a lot of J-Pop). As BrianB said, the price is usually the only way to tell the difference. While the spine card will usually have the Taiwanese company name, the front looks exactly like the Japanese release, and the CDs themselves are usually high quality reporductions too.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, it's easy for them to just rip the CD and go to press.

That guide is pretty good. Note that most Japanese CDs will contain some kind of registration/feedback card, and if it's not going to Japan, that should also be a warning sign. Some pirates don't even bother to label them, so you have to look for things like CDRs and lower quality printing

Bottom line, buy from reputable dealers