Beloved Japanese animation giant Studio Ghibli is celebrated just as much for the charming soundtracks that accompany their films as they are the strikingly beautiful worlds and characters found within them. Now fans of the nostalgic, epic, and even haunting tunes find themselves treated to massive and surprising access of that music across streaming services--in Japan, at least.

Starting February 21st, a wide collection of music feature in the works of Studio Ghibli were made available on the following streaming services: Spotify, Google Play Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Rakuten Music, Utapass, AWA, KKBOX, LINE MUSIC, Rec Music, and D-Hits (NTT Docomo).

The sudden drop of music clocks in at 693 tracks and 38 albums in total that covers music produced by Studio Ghibli dating back to 1984.

The core of the release is the following 23 film soundtracks:

● Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Soundtrack-To the Faroff Land

● Castle in the Sky Laputa Soundtrack: Mystery of the Levistone

● My Neighbor Totoro Soundtrack Collection

● Kiki’s Delivery Service Soundtrack Collection

● Only Yesterday Original Soundtrack

● Porco Rosso Soundtrack

● Ocean Waves Soundtrack

● Pom Poko Soundtrack

● Whisper of the Heart Soundtrack

● Princess Mononoke Soundtrack

● My Neighbors the Yamadas Original Full Soundtrack

● Spirited Away Soundtrack

● The Cat Returns Soundtrack

● Ghiblies Episode 2 Soundtrack

● Howl’s Moving Castle Soundtrack

● Tales from Earthsea Soundtrack

● Ponyo Soundtrack

● The Secret World of Arrietty Soundtrack

● From Up on Poppy Hill Soundtrack

● The Wind Rises Soundtrack

● The Tale of the Princess Kaguya Soundtrack

● When Marnie Was There Soundtrack

● The Red Turtle Soundtrack

The generous release also includes 14 image albums, vocal collections of character songs, original intrumental pieces, as well as the revised edition of the "best of" album Studio Ghibli Songs.

● Studio Ghibli Songs: Revised Edition

● Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Soundtrack....Bird People

● Castle in the Sky Laputa-The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

● My Neighbor Totoro Image Song Collection

● Kiki’s Delivery Service Image Album

● Only Yesterday Image Album

● Porco Rosso Image Album

● Pom Poko Image Album

● Whisper of the Heart Image Album

● Princess Mononoke Image Album

● Spirited Away Image Album

● Image Symphonic Suite Howl’s Moving Castle Soundtrack

● Ponyo Image Album

● From Up on Poppy Hill Image Album: Piano Sketch Collection

● The Tale of the Princess Kaguya Soundtrack-Songs for Female Chorus Trio

However, as many fans around the world are sadly finding out, the current 50 plus song Spotify playlist (This is Studio Ghibli) and other streaming services (full playlist links here) are currently only displaying 5 available songs in non-Japan regions.

While some are hoping for perhaps a delayed release or for fan response to to initiate a worldwide release, others are fearing that this may be similar to the upcoming Netflix releases of Studio Ghibli films not being available in the U.S., Canada, and strangely Japan.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.