Did anyone of you asked on their main/personal twitters accouts why their songs are no more on most digital stores and streaming services ? 
I would have done it but I don't know Japanese at all and a google translate text won't be the best choice.
Also did you checked if something similar happens to other artists who have a deal with Sony ? Maybe Sony is negotiatong new deals with streaming services and Google .

now what the hell is this?
https://www.youtube.com/user/SCANDAL4VEVO

SCANDAL4VEVO shows up on the YouTube page and leads you away from SCANDAL?
Saints preserve us...

park23 wrote:Did anyone of you asked on their main/personal twitters accouts why their songs are no more on most digital stores and streaming services ? 
I would have done it but I don't know Japanese at all and a google translate text won't be the best choice.
Also did you checked if something similar happens to other artists who have a deal with Sony ? Maybe Sony is negotiatong new deals with streaming services and Google .

I asked them from my Twitter since I can’t send them personal messages but I have not gotten any replies yet... .shy.

Yeah this sucks I mainly used Apple Music to listen to their stuff but that isn't available anymore either. Going to have to go through other methods to stream I guess.

Is this unusual?

the notification has arrived to me that on their YT channel the video of the song "Doll" has been uploaded, a pity that from Italy where I live I can not see it. They put a regional block for sin videos. . . .

Saw that too yesterday. Wonder if they're going to re-upload everything eventually. Bigger wonder is why not just remove the region lock (even if gradually) instead of re-upping and starting from 0 views all over again.

Looks like the videos are back up on their YouTube channel. Good news is the view counts are not dialed back to zero. Bad news is they're all still blocked for "your country" (assume that means USA not New England)..

We hope that they will gradually recharge them and that they will finally remove the block, sorry that they can not see their videos anymore.

Are the videos blocked in few countries (ex. USA), or are they only accessible in Japan?

I think they are visible only from Japan, I can not see them from Italy

The youtube count for recent upload of Doll 240p the counter is reset as its a new video.

Japan has 27 videos and (Doll is a 480p copy.)
UK I see 9 videos, no Doll.
Hong Kong I see 10 videos the latest is the uploaded 240p copy of Doll.
US I see 5 videos, no Doll.

Above from YouTube Official Scandal Channel

Doll is available for viewing in PH. Also in 240p  

Are those uploaded to the "SCANDAL YouTube Official Channel" or to "SCANDAL4VEVO" channel?

YouTube Official Channel. At least for the DOLL reupload. If ever they do bring back their other videos, they'll probably upload them in 240p quality like they did with this one.

peachclub wrote:Are those uploaded to the "SCANDAL YouTube Official Channel" or to "SCANDAL4VEVO" channel?

SCANDAL YouTube Official Channel.

For all intents and purposes, I'm pretty sure we'll only be referring to "SCANDAL YouTube Official Channel" (AKA scandalSMEJ) from here on out when talking about SCANDAL's YouTube channel. It's probably safe to assume the VEVO is completely dead until further notice.

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etwee wrote:Looks like the videos are back up on their YouTube channel. Good news is the view counts are not dialed back to zero. Bad news is they're all still blocked for "your country" (assume that means USA not New England)..

You can't be talking about their SCANDAL YouTube Official Channel/SMEJ channel because videos had never disappeared from that channel; they had disappeared from their VEVO channel (and are still gone).


What DID definitely change, though, is that they recently opened up worldwide viewing for only the "AwaTsumo" and "Departure" PVs on their SMEJ channel. I previously was not able to view those beforehand in the US but now can view them without needing a VPN because, according to this and this, these videos are not restricted in any country anymore and can be viewed worldwide.

Lots of Scandal content has suddenly shown up on YT. Both videos and some official docs. Anyone know what changed, or who made the call?

About an hour ago, "SCANDAL YouTube Official Channel" (scandalSMEJ) uploaded 16 of SCANDAL's past music videos. However, these new videos are only watchable for people in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. They also added the "(JP)" after SCANDAL. This is kind of like what's now happening on Spotify.



This screenshot came from my YouTube subscription feed. As I'm in the US, this is how I was able to verify these new uploads. But if I try clicking on any of the videos, it gives me a "The uploader has not made this video available in your country" message.

Additionally, here is proof that only those in those selected Asian countries can view the newly uploaded videos.

Also, let me make this clear that these are completely NEW uploads. These are not replacements for their past Japan-only restricted videos on this channel because those videos are still there too. You can confirm this for yourself by using a Japan VPN and seeing that the original uploads are still there.

What does this mean? Who knows. Why did Sony reupload these videos instead of making it so much easier on themselves and simply just removing the country restrictions on the first videos so that all countries worldwide could view them like they did with the "AwaTsumo" and "Departure" PVs? lol beats me. Will these new uploads eventually be unrestricted for other countries? Again, who knows. Only time will tell.


Edit: Apparently, these new videos are linked on their VEVO. Not reupped on their VEVO, but linked over from the "SCANDAL YouTube Official Channel." (Link) But again, only those in those selected Asian countries can view them.

Pretty weird that it shows up unrestricted in China since Youtube doesn't even work in China. Anyways, good to see that, now I finally can watch them again.

The good news is that things are moving ... only in some Asian countries for now but we can be hopeful that Sony will soon lift restrictions for the rest of the world 

In France (and in the other European countries), the band's albums are still unavailable on iTunes and others digital platforms like Amazon Music

On iTunes (FR) when I search for Scandal songs... I can only find the Airi Suzuki's song written by Scandal

This is wonderful!   .love.

I can now watch some of those gems. Hope they will be unblocked in other countries soon too.

That "JP" thing bothers me tho. The vids are not even available to Japan (although of course that doesn't matter at all). Most of the areas unblocked are included in the HONEY tour, obviously. We can only theorized for now. Hmmm... this is getting interesting! 

LK14 wrote:This is wonderful!   .love.

I can now watch some of those gems. Hope they will be unblocked in other countries soon too.

That "JP" thing bothers me tho. The vids are not even available to Japan (although of course that doesn't matter at all). Most of the areas unblocked are included in the HONEY tour, obviously. We can only theorized for now. Hmmm... this is getting interesting! 

My theory is that they have to put "JP" to distinguish them from the American 80s band of the same name. They also have to re-upload internationally as to prevent copyright issues and comply with the updated youtube policy of merging band content on youtube music. I think Sony music is sorting this out to prevent copyright and licensing issues and we all know that corporate paperwork moves slowly that must be why it's taking a long time to be re-uploaded on YT and other music platforms like Spotify and also to be available on other countries.

thoseguiltyeyes wrote:
Also, let me make this clear that these are completely NEW uploads. These are not replacements for their past Japan-only restricted videos on this channel because those videos are still there too. You can confirm this for yourself by using a Japan VPN and seeing that the original uploads are still there.

What does this mean? Who knows. Why did Sony reupload these videos instead of making it so much easier on themselves and simply just removing the country restrictions on the first videos so that all countries worldwide could view them like they did with the "AwaTsumo" and "Departure" PVs? lol beats me. Will these new uploads eventually be unrestricted for other countries? Again, who knows. Only time will tell.

I'll make an educated, professional guess that the videos were re-uploaded because they now contain fingerprint watermarking to identify if the videos are ever ripped and placed elsewhere on the net.  This way Sony can locate them and have them pulled down and/or charge the offending party for re-purposing the content.

Don Dio wrote:I'll make an educated, professional guess that the videos were re-uploaded because they now contain fingerprint watermarking to identify if the videos are ever ripped and placed elsewhere on the net.  This way Sony can locate them and have them pulled down and/or charge the offending party for re-purposing the content.

That would make the most sense, but, as I had said, the thing that still confuses me is that they also unrestricted the previous "AwaTsumo" upload to now be viewable worldwide, but that's also one of videos that they just reupped (and of course the new upload can currently only be viewed in those selected Asian countries). Why did they go through the trouble to unrestrict the first video in the first place when they were just going to reupload it? How does this possibly make any sense? lol. Very strange.

Ugh! They blocked the MVs on our country yet again!