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Brand-X Is Closed (???? Or something)

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Brand-X was gated, the website and Twitter are seemingly down, and apparently no one can get in touch with Yada. Updates as they become available I guess?

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I was wondering why I couldn't access the site yesterday...they had a bonus purchase for this CD I wanted and now I can't get it. FUCK.

 

This is so sad cause Brand-X has been one of the few shops that I bought through when I was a teenager(I am fucking old btw) and I stopped using the store when DWP went on hiatus(broke-up).

 

R.I.P Third Stage, Brand-X, UZD Company, and whatever I've missed.

Edited by JRD

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Damn, I was just thinking of buying something there yesterday. Looks like that isn't going happen ;w;

 

Man, this is sad to hear. Aside from Like an Edison and Zeal Link, Brand-X has been one of the main VK stores I've shopped at ever since I became heavily invested into the scene. Well, sadly it looks like I'll never get to use those Brand-X point cards either (whenever I made it to Japan one of these days).

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Not that heartbroken tbh, like it’s dramatic and another hit for the scene yeah, but I frankly felt way more comfortable at Jishuban or pretty much anywhere else.

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So guess I won't have my instore then... 

 

Sad but not too surprising, only visited that shop like twice 

Edited by Devilish_Eye

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I went once ro the store and bought Nothing.

 

still purchased once something via their online store.

 

but it wasn't a store with a wow effect. 

 

vkei is slowly dying in Japan.

And the woman who listen go it often only support one band one guy.

and are crazy.

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Yada always seemed like a strange guy to me.
I never really liked him or Brand X to be honest. He was always really rude and a lot of the staff there over the years were as well, especially during instores.

Yeah the talks were pretty entertaining, but once it got to be time for the satsueikai/signing he would rush everything and push people out of the store.

He's a total douche. Good riddance.

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I wanted to cry by seeing this sad news ;w;

Brand-x was the only shop offering bonus with cd which could send abroad so i am very very disappointed.

I purchased so much there... I feel like suffering from a disbandment of a precious band -_-;

Edited by lstknt3b

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I went to Brand-X last year. It was totally empty, there was nothing recent, nothing I wouldn't be able to find at Tower or Little Hearts, it was sad. I've purchased from Brand-X's online shop quite a few times and they had a lot of things I couldn't find anywhere else (or at least, couldn't find at a shop that shipped overseas). I'm more disappointed about losing the online store.

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5 minutes ago, xLIZ4 said:

Not gonna miss Brand X, not gonna miss that Yada guy at all. I didn't like him.

 

...And there are several better  vk stores  imo.

Even though I definitely agree this statement, I always get sad when I hear that vk stores are closing down because I think it's symptomatic of the current state of the vk scene. Brand-X was also one of the few stores that sold overseas, so I can imagine people being upset over this.

 

Let's hope that other (better) stores will keep on going strong...

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I think it's more linked to the mondial decrease of the physical media market and closing of many physical shop (amazon giving the deathblow) than a mere VK endemic thing (Japan lasted very long, in Italy the "music shop apocalypse" started more than a decade ago and it already got to the point that big chains too closed part of their stores), VK scene being small and losing in popularity makes it so VK specialized stores are among the first ones bearing the brunt of it, but it's not the sole cause.

 

Although it also mean VK (and VK music stores) need to learn to evolve fast if it wants to survive, since it's very connected with the physical media market to make their ¥¥¥ (some changes since early 00's are already noticeable tho, so finger crossed the scene survives even if small)

Edited by Arkady

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I was always rather surprised/impressed that the importance of physical CD sales has survived in Japan for this long given the modern state of music distribution. But there are a lot of possibilities that the Internet opened up that several industries resisted for a long time (and still do to some extent..) instead of adapting and using that avenue to their advantage. I do hope VK can find a way to work with digital media in a lucrative way rather than resisting the changes until the scene goes extinct.

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Isn't the resilience of CD sales there tied to the fetishism of physical objects? Heck, it's why Vinyl is making a comeback elsewhere in the world. People want to value music beyond the simple files that they exist in on a harddrive.

And bands should embrace bandcamp or direct sales. It's easy to host files or using file sharing services to distribute. However all of the stores, labels and whatever other middlemen probably wouldn't like that much.

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Am I mistaken in believing that there was a couple of Mathilda singles that were only available via Brand X or am I imagining that? This closure is a loss for the scene and is a loss that we don’t need :( 

Edited by TheZigzagoon

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1 minute ago, TheZigzagoon said:

Am I mistaken in believing that there was a couple of Mathilda singles that were only available via Brand X or am I imagining that? This closure is a loss for the scene and is a loss that we don’t need :( 

They had a mini-album that was released through Brand-X.

 

 

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6 hours ago, Komorebi said:

I was there last year a few times and while the girl was really nice to me, Yada was annoying/rude as hell. I'm sure he won't be missed.

I second this.  Yada sucked. The only thing he was good for were talks where he knew the band.

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