Did you know that Japan has the second-largest music in the world, only trailing the United States? This is evident because of the number of karaoke bars and machines that most Japanese enjoy. Aside from their Anime OST, you'll surely get LSS (last song syndrome), Japanese music provides several genres. It ranges from traditional music consisting of string, wind, and percussion instrument sounds to trending JPop songs. However, if you're not physically from or in Japan, it is kind of hard to stream their music. The good thing here is that there are websites that offer services to download Japanese music. In that case, we listed the best solutions wherein you can listen and download music from the internet, including Japanese music in high quality.
Top 5 Best Sites to Download Japanese Music
1. JPop Singles
Distinctive Feature: It can save all songs in an entire album in .rar files for faster download.
Price: Free
Output Format: MP3, AAC, and others
If you're looking for the latest Japanese free song download, try JPop Singles. As its name suggests, it focuses on providing the latest in the mainstream JPop industry. Every day, it uploads the latest single releases, covers, or Japanese soundtrack. Registered users can also rate the songs or albums. It is great, so you can have an idea which are the trending and chart-topping hits in Japan right now. Finally, the downloaded .rar files are password-protected, but the site will always provide and update them for security purposes.
2. Jamendo
Distinctive Feature: Jamendo Music focuses on indie artists, so you'll find original Japanese music on this site.
Price: Free to download, but you can purchase a monthly subscription for $49.00 plus taxes to grab Japanese music in high quality.
Output Format: MP3, WAV, and others
Jamendo is one of the most popular music streaming sites these days. The good thing about this free Japanese music downloads MP3 site is that it lets you grab the file within a single click. Furthermore, you can listen to multiple Japanese singles or albums here online. Concerning that, you can personally collect these Japanese songs and save them in a single playlist. Aside from Japanese music, this MP3 downloader allows you to also stream and download other genres, including pop, rock, hip-hop, and more.
3. Jp-Rock
Distinctive Feature: If you're into the Japanese classical era, the site lets you stream and download music that became popular from the '80s and onwards.
Price: Free
Output Format: MP3 only
Jp-Rock is a Spanish-based site that focuses on JPop music downloads. Compared to other sites reviewed here, Jp-Rock has less content since it focuses more on old Japanese rock band songs. But still, the site lets you download music to MP3 format or an entire album within a few clicks. Additionally, the Japanese songs and music are sorted according to their release year. Jp-Rock is also a perfect site for Anime lovers as it has an extensive collection of Anime OSTs and albums. With this site's help, you can easily download Anime music whenever you want.
4. J-pop Music Download
Distinctive Feature: J-pop Music Download also offers KPop and CPop songs, which are also trending worldwide.
Trial Limit: Free to download, but the speed is kind of slow if you will not avail of its premium version for $14.95/month.
Output Format: MP3, FLAC, and others
As the name suggests, J-Pop Music Download focuses on the latest and mainstream songs released in Japan. Here, you can download the Japanese music albums in lossless or hi-res audio quality. In fact, you can even save them in DVD/Blu-ray quality and transfer them to the disc in case you want to produce multiple copies. Additionally, the songs and albums are sorted according to their respective genre. Lastly, it provides a search bar that lets you find particular Japanese music that you want to grab.
5. YouTube
Distinctive Feature: YouTube ensures that you can stream and grab Japanese music in the highest quality available.
Price: The platform is free, but if you want to remove in-between ads, pay $9.99/month.
Output Format: MP4 and MP3 only
Although YouTube hosts millions of videos, you can still use its search bar to search for Japanese music, and you'll be shocked by the number of results. Here, you can find several videos that consist of compilations and playlists of Japanese music. Additionally, the genres are so diverse that you can find a number of Japanese classical music and Japanese rock band performances. Also, famous Japanese performers upload the official music videos of their hit singles on YouTube.
How to Download Japanese Music from YouTube
The problem with YouTube is that not all videos are convertible to MP3. There are many factors with that, such as the uploader's settings, avoiding copyright issues, and others. With that being said, you need a software that can download music from YouTube to computer and convert them to MP3 without a hassle. Aqua Tune allows you to do that 3x faster compared to the downloader sites provided above. Furthermore, it can grab and convert all the music videos included in an entire YouTube playlist within a few clicks. Follow the guide below to learn more about this excellent solution.
Try it for Free
Step 1 Install the Japanese Music Downloader
Hit the "Download" button placed above that suits the operating system of your computer. Open the file installer and proceed to follow the prompt, and install the Aqua Tune. After that, launch Aqua Tune on your Windows or Mac computer.
Step 2 Download Japanese Music
From its interface, go to the "Sites" option and visit YouTube using the built-in browser. Next, please search for the Japanese music that you need to grab and play it. After that, click the "Download" button and select the music quality from the "Audio" tab. Hit the "Download" button again to start downloading music from the Internet.
Step 3 Play Japanese Music
Wait for a few moments until the Aqua Tune finishes the process. Once done, go to the "Downloaded" panel to find the Japanese music there. Right-clicking the file will show some options. Select "Play Music" to stream the Japanese music instantly.
Comparison of Japanese Music Sites
| Contains Ads? | Audio Quality | Need to Register first? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPop Singles | Annoying | 128 kbps | No |
| Jamendo | None | 320 kbps | Yes |
| Jp-Rock | Annoying | 192 kbps | No |
| J-pop Music Download | Tolerable | 320 kbps | No |
| YouTube | Tolerable | 320 kbps | Yes |
Aqua Tune (Former Name: Music Keeper)