Following on the heels of the two full OSTs for the Mario Galaxy games, Mahito Yokota's Super Mario 3D World is getting a Club Nintendo two-disc release.  The former are easily two of my favorite soundtracks of the past decade, and what I've heard in videos from the new game sounds amaaaaazing, so I'll definitely be finding a way to get this one.  As irritated as I am that Nintendo soundtracks seem to only come out this way, at least they come out AT ALL on CD.  Watching the release lists at vgmdb.net makes it feel like the death of the format is coming hard and fast. 

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wiiu/ardj/soundtrack/

Edit: There are some samples of the music in the Iwata Asks for the game in a video showing the performers... performing.  http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interview … -world/0/6 and then click the "big band" link!

Awesome news! I have to wonder a bit about the death of the CD. I really don't think it's going to just up and vanish, but slowly it will get less and less popular. On the the other hand, I heard that vinyl is coming back, so maybe the CD will make a come back too. At any rate, as long as we can still get it let's be happy!

CDs aren't going anywhere, not sure what watching the release lists at vgmdb.net has anything to do with it.  The releases per month has been roughly the same for a very long time now.  I can say with certainty that I've ordered more cds from now until Christmas than I've ordered in the last year combined, so there's no shortage of releases that's for sure.

CD's aren't dead until iTunes starts regularly selling lossless files. As is, they are just a means to an end to get the lossless extraction, then they're a shelf decoration.

For you, personally, perhaps.  There will always be a market for physical, collectible media.  Having lossless more readily available doesn't change that.

I refuse to speak for the masses, but for my purposes, CD's are so easy to extract the data from, they serve that purpose once acquired. I'm certainly not going to pop them into a player and actually listen to them. On the flipside, I will never pay good money for lossy files either. Buying and ripping CD's seems like a logical solution at this time. Until, like I said, CD-quality downloads becomes the norm.

Someone mentioned vinyl. Vinyl would be so awesome if it didn't scratch so damn easily.

Is there currently any way to buy Japanese game music on the Internet? Preferably in lossless format.

For me, cds are becoming less important. I have noticed that I listen to the music solely from computer or my mp3 player, so the cds are just sitting on the shelf. They are kind of nice to look at every once in a while, but if there was a way to buy vgm in lossless format, I probably would stop buying physical cds.

As for the SM3DW OST, great that it's getting a release. I really liked the music from the Galaxy games.

iTunes carries a fantastic selection of older VGM releases on their store (Square, Zuntata, Falcom). The only fly in the ointment is its all lossy. Still a step in the right direction and if you're hard pressed to find something, not a bad place to go.

I hope FLAC or even ALAC becomes more of a standard for paid downloads, even if it ends up costing a bit more. A lot of independent releases (the Humble Bundles come to mind) do offer FLAC downloads.

I am so pumped for this soundtrack, and the game as well. I still can't believe Nintendo is releasing a brand new Zelda game and a brand new Mario game of the same day. It's like back in 2002 when it released two brand new Metroid games on the same day (Prime & Fusion). An embarrassment of riches!