I agree. I mean, as much as I LOOOOOVE HYDE and L'arc and VAMPS, there is no way that I'd pay for a fanclub subscription, unless it was like $10. Here in the USA people are not used to that and it would be very hard to get them to comply. I do know that the club comes with its nice perks but still, as a person who works and has bills to pay (lots of them) like many other people, I have other priorities. Even for entertainment I'd rather buy their cd's, dvd's and go to their concerts. To me the fanclub is more of a luxury that I can't afford (unfortunately).

(07-10-2009, 01:38 AM)Tokio Wrote: I think the fanclub may be opened one day, but you have to remember that it won't be easy for them. They'll have to change around their whole site to allow overseas registrations.

Also, even if the website content is in Japanese they'll still need to provide support to members in English/Spanish/Whatever. What if they bill you twice? What if the goods you bought are damaged? What if you never received registration stuff? Someone will have to offer support for overseas fans.

And of course, there needs to be a huge enough demand. I'm sure they don't want to change around their website and hire English support and only have 100 people join.

Also, it all takes time. Once they agree to open the fanclub they'll need time to rework things and hire support, while still writing/recording albums, planning tours, working with their other bands, doing promotion, managing the fanclubs and websites, so on. I'm sure opening the fanclub would be a lower priority.

I don't think pay-to-join fanclubs are as popular these days here in America. I think pretty much every band website I visit has a free open community. You don't get all the perks of a paid-club but a lot fans these days don't want to pay for anything. So it might be hard to convince many overseas fans to shell out $50+ for a website.

(Especially when some perks - like fanclub only concerts - don't apply to us because we're not in Japan)

Only really hardcore fans will pay, but there might not be enough to warrant spending the time (and money) to open the fanclub. I'm sure if enough people are willing to pay, then they'll consider it.