SNH48 music in the US?

[winterpromise31]

So we are adopting a 12 year old girl and want to send her some digital music for her birthday. We know she likes pop music, so I was thinking we could send her a USB with songs from SNH48. I want to download it legally and have not been able to find a way to buy it as an MP3. Does anyone know where I can purchase digital music? Any other suggestions of artists who are popular right now that a 12 year old would like (hopefully fairly clean music as well, since I'm not fluent and can't check the lyrics). 

Thanks!
Cassandra

[Demonic_Duck]

Can't answer much to the tastes of a 12-year-old, but I'd suggest re-thinking the idea of sending digital music, people in China tend to think of digital music as more of a commodity like running water which you can essentially use for free (and legally, too, or at least it's a grey area...)

 

If she's a big fan of SNH48, what about concert tickets instead? (Timing, location and appropriate person to accompany permitting.)

 

Edit: wait, is she currently in China or the US? I guess the above applies either way, really, assuming she's lived most of her life in China.

[Shelley]

Or maybe a poster, or fan magazines?

[Lu]

Are fan magazines still a thing? I have to agree with Demonic Duck on sending digital music to China, it's a bit like sending milk to the Netherlands/coals to Newcastle/water to the sea/etc. Not sure how practical a concert ticket is, depending on where she lives it might be a bit of an odyssee to get to the concert venue and back. Perhaps a band t-shirt?

[Shelley]

t-shirts and more here http://www.snh48.com/zb_list.html

[winterpromise31]

She's in Taiwan, still in an orphanage, so I'm not sure digital music = running water holds true in her case.  I do like the idea of t-shirts and such and will remember that for future use. We have to mail out her birthday package at the end of the week, which is why I was hoping to find a digital download of some current popular music.

[Demonic_Duck]

Hmm, I don't know what the situation is with digital music in Taiwan. @Lu probably knows, though.

 

The concert tickets (or tickets for other events) idea could still work if you can find something that doesn't require a physical ticket to be sent - many ticket sites work this way these days, though again I have no idea about in Taiwan (I assume that still holds true, though).

[Lu]

Not sure how ubiquitous downloaded music is in Taiwan, I'm afraid, but if anyone has it, it will be teenagers. I know nothing about Taiwanese orphanages, but wouldn't be surprised if the children there have access to computers, and thus access to downloaded music. The best way to find out is to ask the girl how she usually obtains her SNH48 (and other) music, but in this case you probably won't have time to find out before you need to send the package.

 

A concert ticket would be great of course, except if she lives in, say, Yilan, or Nantou, it will be difficult to impossible, and certainly cost money, for her to get to the actual concert. And she won't be able to go alone, so you'd need to find someone trustworthy to take her.

 

I'm sorry I don't have any more constructive ideas. Been a while since I was a 12-year-old girl and I don't know what she would like to get.

[oceancalligraphy]

I think there are two aspects to this:

 

1. Does she like SNH48? In Taiwan, pop music can mean in any language and from anywhere. My feeling is that if she likes any of the 48 groups, it would be the original AKB48. A quick search at 誠品/Eslite (major bookstore in Taiwan) comes up with a bunch of AKB48 items and no SNH48 items.

 

I would make sure of the artists that she listens to first - music fandom can be a very personal thing, even (especially?) for a 12 year old.

 

To get an idea of popular music in Taiwan, HitFM is the biggest modern music radio station and can be streamed online, 

 

2. Taiwan started streaming and mp3 purchase much earlier than the U.S. KKBOX (TW charts) is homegrown and has a paid streaming service and mp3 purchase. It hasn't expanded beyond Asia, so she won't have access to the site in the U.S. The popular international sites are iTunes (TW charts) and Spotify (TW charts). 

 

In terms of pricing, an mp3 album can be a couple hundred NTD (new Taiwan dollars), with each song being around NTD$20. Physical CDs can be around NTD$500. Concert tickets start above NTD$500 (closer to NTD$1000) depending on artist and venue. Tickets can be purchased online through 7-11 iBon site and picked up, but there are some logistics to it. The higher priced items fans usually spend money on are CDs, concert tickets, and fan merchandise.

 

I think this really depends on what she has available to her and what the orphanage provides. If she only listens to the radio, I'm sure a simple mp3 player loaded with some favorite artists would be wonderful. For buying music from Asia in the U.S., iTunes is probably the best.