[YouTube] They're blocking J-pop and K-pop videos

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Guys, I just want to have a heads-up: I checked Stage48 (AKB48 forum) last night, and I heard their videos got blocked here stateside, as well as certain other foreign countries.

Turns out I'm hearing that other J-pop - and even K-pop (!) - videos got blocked on YouTube. I checked Rina Katahira...that's a fail. Rina Katahira is part of Pony Canyon; I heard someone on Twitter saying that Pony Canyon videos are blocked on YouTube.

Even hearing word of Up-Front Works (Hello! Project), Victor Entertainment (e.g. Leo Ieiri), Stardust Entertainment, SKE48 and HKT48 (surprisingly, not NMB48, or even Nippon Crown, who does Yanawaraba) getting blocked. Haven't tested out Avex videos (especially Ayumi Hamasaki), but we'll see (anyone please report it here).

What's even worse is that I also heard K-pop got blocked as well. (I mean, Korean music!) Most of the Twitter rant of YouTube blocking is on K-pop, so this isn't exclusive to the J-pop community as well.

Apparently the reason why YouTube is blocking a whole lot of J-pop and K-pop videos...I first speculated on Stage48 about this: YouTube Red.

If you're wondering what YouTube Red is, that's the name of a new subscription service ($10 monthly access) that allows users to view videos without ads (essentially an ad blocker), plus the ability to download videos on mobile for offline viewing, background playing of music on mobile (using apps other than YouTube), exclusive YouTube Red content, and subscription to Google Play Music. YouTube Red is scheduled to start operations on Wednesday, October 28.

However, this has not met without criticism, and I've heard of YouTube creators (not necessarily music) that are backfiring on YouTube, even to a point where ESPN decided to remove almost all videos on YouTube.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/21/youtube-red/
http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/21/an-...s-cant-refuse/
http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/23/youtube-red-creators/

But again, this is the Asian Music forum here on AHS, and the main point here is that YouTube is blocking J-pop and K-pop videos, assumedly because of YouTube Red - and possibly the companies that are reluctant to hop on board the 'Red' train. That's possibly the reason why - J-pop music companies (and K-pop; I mean, possibly management companies, record labels, etc.) are probably not willing to agree on the terms of YouTube Red. This makes me upset - not just me, but the entire international J-pop (and K-pop) community as well - and I'm certain at least one here on AHS is going to be upset as well.

Any thoughts? Hopefully YouTube will unblock ALL (if not, then hopefully most of it) J-pop (and K-pop) videos, but I'm assuming that is unlikely as of now. Since this is the weekend, and it's not a business day, we might have to wait until the start of the next week to see what YouTube is going to do as we lead up to the day when YouTube Red starts.

Update 10/25: Arama! Japan just compiled up a list of YouTube channels that got blocked because of this mass YouTube blocking.

http://aramajapan.com/news/youtubes-...ic-fans/51582/