are these e-bay final fantasy soundtracks legit or boots?

[ADG566]

I want to eventually get the soundtracks for all the Final Fantasies. Is this ebay collection the actual legit soundtracks, or just bootlegs?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300191648509&ssPageName=MERC_VI_RSCC_Pr4_PcY_BIN_Stores_IT&refitem=360014195850&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=active_view_item&usedrule1=StoreCatToStoreCat&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget

Has there ever been official soundtrack releases for these games or is it only possible to get them like this?

[Dreamc@sting]

The VII and X soundtracks are legit, I own them both and thats what they look like, the others look legit to. Every FF game for the most part has an official soundtrack, and ones that don't end up in official compilations

[Jorpho]

Of course there have been official releases! Check out Sound Track Central (http://www.altpop.com/stc/reviews/index.htm) or any number of other places for reviews. It's even quite trivial to get full MP3 downloads of many of them.

Judging from the number of collections that this seller is purveying, however, I rather doubt they're legit. It's impossible to tell from the stock pictures provided, of course. Bootlegs are not at all uncommon, though, especially those by SonMay ("SM"), a notorious HK pirate publisher [well, sort of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SonMay)]. The quality might be okay, but considering that they're not original goods, you might as well go for the MP3s.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Obviously fake. He's selling several complete sets. It's nothing but SonMay / EverAnime crap. Not worth even a buck a CD.

[Aussie2B]

I can almost guarantee that they're bootlegs, but this guy conveniently doesn't give enough information to tell one way or another. He doesn't give any photos of the back of the cases nor does he state who published the soundtracks or the product codes. If you really want, shoot him a message asking who published the albums before you buy, but I think you'd likely be wasting your time as, if they WERE legit, the set would be priced way too low. Even if they were all used, they would likely pull in more than that, and for albums that are still new and sealed, it would definitely be too low.

Go here to learn of common bootleg publishers to watch out for:

http://www.chudahs-corner.com/reference/index.php?reference=bootleggers

And then check out the soundtrack database to look up the legit publisher. If you see a soundtrack for sale and the publisher and catalog number don't match up, it ain't legit.

By the way, to save yourself some trouble, most of those Final Fantasy albums should be published by DigiCube or Square Enix (if they're the reprinted versions).

[InsaneDavid]

Paying that much for boots is nuts. However I don't mind paying the $8.00-$10.00 range for SonMay and Everanime reprints. The witch hunt some people go into concerning game and anime soundtracks is crazy. There's nothing wrong with the SonMay and Everainme releases, they're still of good quality and are a nice alternative.

Amazes me that people won't pay $12.00 for a CD down at the local record store yet will pay $60.00+ for a third or fourth hand official video game or anime soundtrack CD. THE OFFICIAL COMPANIES DON'T GET THE CASH UNLESS YOU BUY DIRECT. If you simply must have the originals as part of a collection, then by all means. If you're just looking for the music go with the SM and EA releases for cheap.

/rant over

[ADG566]

Shit, I bought this disc today, is this a bootleg????

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-CHRONO-TRIGGER-GAME-SOUNDTRACK-CD-BOXSET-NEW-PS_W0QQitemZ360014638847QQihZ023QQcategoryZ62053QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Found a sealed copy of the SNES Chrono Trigger earlier, so I wanted the soundtrack along with it, was lucky it was in an old, obscure craigslist post, great price too.

[Aussie2B]

No, if you just want the music, then download the mp3s and burn your own CD as: 1) it's essentially the same thing (possibly even BETTER quality, as quite often bootlegs ARE of poor quality ranging from the packaging itself, which is always cheaper than the originals, down to the audio quality of the music itself), 2) you don't pay anything rather than wasting your money on a product that is essentially worthless, and 3) most important of all, you're not filling the pockets of organized crime. Believe it or not, a lot of these piracy groups have really nasty individuals involved that do WAY worse things than produce bootleg anime and video game soundtracks. If you're okay having your money go to the Chinese mafia, that's your prerogative, but I don't even want to imagine myself having a link to drug trafficking and murder and such. It may sound like hyperbole, but some of these groups have honest to God been linked to this stuff.

Also, buying original soundtracks isn't as bad as you make it out to be. The type of people that import Japanese soundtracks almost always keep their albums in impeccable condition, so it doesn't matter how many hands they've passed through. I've bought many used soundtracks, and they're as mint as if I took off the plastic myself. Also, the vast majority of soundtracks never hit 60 dollars. You can buy most brand new for under 30 dollars, and used soundtracks are usually are about that much or less. Only the really high demand and rare stuff gets very pricey, and expensive albums do occasionally get reprints, which bring the price down. And finally, it's better to support no one than to support pirates, but if you want to support the legit publishers and musicians, that's not hard. A lot of the most commonly used web stores for buying soundtracks are located directly in Japan, so buying from them is no different than if a Japanese person was to walk into a retail store or order online themselves. In particular, the store VGM World took the extra length to seek the exclusive rights and authorization to distribute their video game soundtracks internationally, so it works directly with the publishers of said albums. The founder, Kahori Ezaki, even knows many of the composers on a personal basis and has created official English web sites for them.

[Aussie2B]

Shit, I bought this disc today, is this a bootleg????

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-CHRONO-TRIGGER-GAME-SOUNDTRACK-CD-BOXSET-NEW-PS_W0QQitemZ360014638847QQihZ023QQcategoryZ62053QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Found a sealed copy of the SNES Chrono Trigger earlier, so I wanted the soundtrack along with it, was lucky it was in an old, obscure craigslist post, great price too.

Going by the photo, yes, that's legit, but it doesn't exactly look like a picture of the actual copy being sold. He probably pulled it from the 'net somewhere. Also, there are two print runs of the Chrono Trigger OSV, and that just happens to be the original, which went out of print in 1997. The odds that someone would have a sealed copy is slim, let alone having many of them, and they'd sure as heck be able to pull in more money than that. You can get more than that for a used copy of the reprint version.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Paying that much for boots is nuts. However I don't mind paying the $8.00-$10.00 range for SonMay and Everanime reprints. The witch hunt some people go into concerning game and anime soundtracks is crazy. There's nothing wrong with the SonMay and Everainme releases, they're still of good quality and are a nice alternative.

Well, if you can handle piss-poor cover quality, CDs that degrade very quickly, and lots of popping, then yes, SM/EA is for you.

[Dreamc@sting]

It's hard to pinpoint bootlegs on the net since usually they don't give sufficient information. Alot of places put up promotional pictures of the real thing. The covers look legit but who knows...when buying soundtracks from places like china or taiwan especially..chances are they are bootlegs

[InsaneDavid]

Well, if you can handle piss-poor cover quality, CDs that degrade very quickly, and lots of popping, then yes, SM/EA is for you.

I've never had problems with the SM/EA releases I own (pretty much all the Sailormoon SM releases from years ago and the Macross compilation). I've compared the Everanime Ridge Racer Type 4 soundtrack to the official and have only noticed an ever so slight difference in sound quality. The insert and booklet quality of all the SM/EA releases I have is excellent and the discs have held up fine since the late 1990's. Their quality may have tanked since then but I've been quite happy with my SM/EA CD's and the price I paid for them - nearly all from small physical location comic shops.

[ADG566]

I was about to spend $500 on soundtracks at CDuniverse.com until I realized they could be bootlegs...

This one in particular, I want:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7372071

It says the label is MSI music / Super D so I don't think it's official

[Dreamc@sting]

I was about to spend $500 on soundtracks at CDuniverse.com until I realized they could be bootlegs...

This one in particular, I want:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7372071

It says the label is MSI music / Super D so I don't think it's official

Im almost positive if cduniverse sold you a bootleg..you can get them in a hefty load of trouble....

[Jorpho]

Y'know, If you just want to listen to the soundtrack, there's apparently a PSF2 archive of the FFXI music available at http://www.zophar.net/psf/ . You could easily use it with Winamp, or even use Winamp to convert it to MP3.

The Chrono Trigger SPC soundtrack is also easy to find. (Apparently there is even an effort in progress to create a SNSF specification that will allow some of the more complex audio effects in Chrono Trigger to be played back, since SPC is not entirely adequate.)