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iTunes sells Persona 5 OST, only gives you 27 out of 110 songs

truncated_pachyderm

truncated_pachyderm

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,367
I just spent $30 (before tax) on the Persona 5 original soundtrack on iTunes (it's not part of the Apple Music catalog yet, sadly). The store listing page shows the OST and its 110 songs, with no information on restrictions/etc.

As soon as I go to play or download my purchase however, I realize that most of the songs are apparently completely unavailable in the US. It's fucked up that this is only made known to me AFTER I buy the damn thing, on a store whose TOS say all sales are final!

here's a link to the store page for anyone who wants to see for themself, although I can't recommend you pay $30 for less than 30 songs (even though they're good songs!):
Persona 5 (Original Soundtrack) by ATLUS Sound Team
https://music.apple.com/us/album/persona-5-original-soundtrack/1226945984

Update: I forgot to mention it originally, but I know that I will get refunded instantly by using reportaproblem.apple.com. However this isn't a published policy of Apple's, and accounts that have hit certain thresholds would be denied the request. Apple's policy flat out is that refunds are solely at their discretion so I imagine that someone else with different circumstance than I would be denied a refund, despite the content advertised clearly differing from the content provided!

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Crazymoogle

Crazymoogle

Game Developer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
2,879
Asia
808s & Villainy said:
I didn't even know albums could be partially region locked. What kind of bullshit is that?
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It's not just Atlus, and it's generally infuriating because there is no specific details on why for any given track:

(Apple Music Singapore)
Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Arrangement Album (10 songs)
  • 2. Radical Dreamers (NOT AVAILABLE IN THIS REGION)
  • 10. To Far Away Times (NOT AVAILABLE IN THIS REGION)
 
OP
OP
truncated_pachyderm

truncated_pachyderm

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,367
HotHamBoy said:
You can probably get a refund
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And I already have. Apple has pretty much completely automated their refund request process for iTunes purchases, since most refunds are just one-offs from accidental purchases. The site will actually just give you the refund, no questions asked, immediately (aka 5-7 days on your payment method), so long as you haven't asked for one recently or your account isn't flagged in any way.

I guess my bigger gripe is that some people might get denied the refund, and that the store listing is completely misleading.
 
daegan

daegan

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,897
FWIW - I had this happen with some tracks I had bought YEARS ago, long before Apple Music (like half the songs on Relax by Das Racist) but they are fine now. It's worth digging into your purchased to see what you actually bought.
 
OP
OP
truncated_pachyderm

truncated_pachyderm

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,367
daegan said:
FWIW - I had this happen with some tracks I had bought YEARS ago, long before Apple Music (like half the songs on Relax by Das Racist) but they are fine now. It's worth digging into your purchased to see what you actually bought.
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Fair enough. When I did pull up the iTunes Store page for the OST in the iTunes Store app for iOS, it showed the 27 songs available with a PLAY button next to them, and the other 80+ songs with PURCHASED next to them. Clicking PURCHASED did absolutely nothing. I could still listen to the 30 second sample though!
 
Wulfric

Wulfric

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,963
OP, this doesn't make it right, but do the songs that are blocked contain a vocalist?

A lot of the Final Fantasy OSTs on Spotify don't have the vocal themes (Eyes on Me, real Emotion, Kiss Me Good-Bye). It could be an issue with the performer.
 
Kapryov

Kapryov

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,129
Australia
Wulfric said:
OP, this doesn't make it right, but do the songs that are blocked contain a vocalist?

A lot of the Final Fantasy OSTs on Spotify don't have the vocal themes (Eyes on Me, real Emotion, Kiss Me Good-Bye). It could be an issue with the performer.
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The last track on the screenshot - Last Surprise - is a vocal track. The same vocalist is featured on most (all?) of the soundtrack, so it can't be that.

Actually most of the P5 soundtrack is instrumental, and most of it is blocked.
It just seems like they're being dicks.
 
lint2015

lint2015

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,809
Wulfric said:
OP, this doesn't make it right, but do the songs that are blocked contain a vocalist?

A lot of the Final Fantasy OSTs on Spotify don't have the vocal themes (Eyes on Me, real Emotion, Kiss Me Good-Bye). It could be an issue with the performer.
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I'd say that's usually to do with JASRAC licencing, or rather, they being unwilling to pay for licensing outside Japan. It's the same reason vocal tracks are often removed from games in Western releases.

Having 3/4 of a soundtrack missing seems ridiculous though. Usually soundtracks are mostly instrumental so I have no idea what's going on here.
 

Fanuilos

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
4,128
Weird, I bought the album a coupl years ago and all of the tracks seem to be available to me.
 
TechnoSyndrome

TechnoSyndrome

Member
May 15, 2019
2,448
I would definitely reach out to support and then pursue a refund if you can't get the full album, that is wild
 
OP
OP
truncated_pachyderm

truncated_pachyderm

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,367
Apple approved my refund request immediately via the reportaproblem.apple.com site. I just wish there was some way I could have actually accessed the content.

I'd engage with their support to find a fix, however when it comes to entitlements/licensing on store purchases it's a complete shit-show. Nobody on their support team is going to have a quick answer, and they'd be most inclined to get me to accept a refund and call it a day. In the end they might even push that as the only solution. Support just simply isn't going to have access to information about the licensing rights of media available in its multi-headed hydra of a store.

If anyone has any tips for getting this album other than iTunes, I am all ears!
 
abrack

abrack

Unshakable Resolve
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,785
DFW
Has this happened to anyone else with this album specifically? I'm in the US, I bought it on iTunes about a year and a half ago (October 2018-ish) and I have access to every single song.
 
asmith906

asmith906

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,359
It's fucking stupid when it's easier to just go to YouTube and listen to a soundtrack vs giving a company money.
 
Vamphuntr

Vamphuntr

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,301
It's fine here in Canada? You get all 110 songs. Are you sure OP that you didn't switch region store?
 

OutToLunch

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
105
truncated_pachyderm said:
Apple approved my refund request immediately via the reportaproblem.apple.com site. I just wish there was some way I could have actually accessed the content.

I'd engage with their support to find a fix, however when it comes to entitlements/licensing on store purchases it's a complete shit-show. Nobody on their support team is going to have a quick answer, and they'd be most inclined to get me to accept a refund and call it a day. In the end they might even push that as the only solution. Support just simply isn't going to have access to information about the licensing rights of media available in its multi-headed hydra of a store.

If anyone has any tips for getting this album other than iTunes, I am all ears!
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This isn't Apple's problem - this isn't their content they just sell it.
 
Ruck

Ruck

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,280
iTunes shows me all the songs are available for me (USA) but I'm not gonna spend $30 to see if that changes after I buy it. Don't doubt it though, this is Atlus after all
 

Deleted member 23046

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,876
Are you a Music subscriber ? Because sometimes songs are available to purchase but not to play with it, so you need to download it with the Store application and not iTunes directly.
 
Senator Rains

Senator Rains

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,338
I was shocked when I searched up P5 OST on Apple music only to see that region locking was still a thing. It's so backwards.
 
Ada

Ada

Member
Nov 28, 2017
3,731
Pargon said:
Import the 3CD set and rip it.
You get higher quality audio and you own it, rather than a digital license with regional restrictions which may disappear at a later date.
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This is exactly what I did. Though it was encoded in some weird non unicode text format.
 
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