Hmmm.... Do western/big-name artists release samples of their albums before they're available? Do music stores have those little booths where you can put the headphones on and listen to the album and shit anymore? Elin brought it up earlier and I haven't seen them in a while.... But pretty much every indie artist in Japan puts up samples of their albums up on Soundcloud/Youtube and other video sites/sample mp3s to download from their site before selling anything o.o It's incredibly handy!!
They have samples on iTunes but I feel like when I just listen to a snippet of a song I hate it, I have to be able to hear the whole thing.