According to Aniplex's website, there will be some sort of Persona concert on the 22nd of August. Check it:

http://www.aniplex.co.jp/persona-live/

Judging from the pictures, it seems like there will be music from Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, Persona 4, and the anime Persona - Trinity Soul. It seems like Shoji Meguro and Lotus Juice (the rapper from Persona 3) will be present, among others. I don't know Japanese, so any translation of the details would be welcome.

I would certainly attend if I were in Japan. But it sure sucks that they seem to totally disregard the first two (er, three) games in the series, which have far better soundtracks than P3 and P4.

So many concerts in August. It's great that Persona is finally being recognised live. Persona 3 and Persona 4 were real best-sellers soundtrack wise so I have no doubt this concert will be a success. Thanks for telling us Daniel!

Sweet, thanks for the news. 
Always good to see more variety in vgm concerts, and nice to see another series getting some live love.

What are the chances of seeing this released on CD?

Now hold your horses just a minute, pardner. I know Persona 3 was a popular soundtrack, but on what do you base your conclusion that the Persona 4 OST is a "best-seller"? Its only been out what, 5 days? A little early to tell, wouldn't you say?

Atlus reported that the Persona 3 Original Soundtrack sold 100,000 copies, i.e. the same as that of the Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack (see here). That's remarkable for a video game soundtrack. The Persona 4 Original Soundtrack was massively pre-ordered and hyped so will almost certainly have similar success. My first statement was a bit simplified for convenience, but there's no doubt Shoji Meguro is a star regardless of how overrated I think he might be.

Also, I managed to compile all the information on the website into a short article here. Contains all the guest and performance information on the site. I didn't quite understand the ticket ordering procedure so if anyone knows more let me know.

Persona 4 soundtracks definitely sells as well as Persona3, according to various sources.

Thing about Shoji Meguro is, he appeals to hot-blooded young youths; he's the COOL side to VGM, as opposed to the traditonal orchestral side; not that orchestral's bad, but hot-blooded young youths seem to prefer rock, techno, electronica, pop, etc.

...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Persona 4 OST copy-protected? I look at the packaging online, and see a red revolving arrow symbol at its bottom-left hand side of the packaging.

If so, it didn't work. That shouldn't be surprising of course.

Also, "young youths"...? Is there another kind? :-p

Engrish and redundant redundancy FTW.

Well, checking the scans I have, there's no indication of copy protection, not even on the CDs, having the regular Compact Disc Digital Audio logo (if I remember, copy protected CDs do have a different logo).

Ah, okay; it'd definitely be a surprise if they just decided to start copy-protecting their albums now.

Well, Aniplex (Sony) did use copy protection on their earlier releases, but thankfully they're not the shitty kind, atleast the copy protection on Naruto II OST didn't much harm my way of ripping the cd (Same thing with FF X-2 Int. + Last Mission OST, but that was released by Avex).

And it would be weird to see Aniplex to go back using copy protection on their CDs, knowing that they stopped it, and thankfully almost every company now should dropped it.

Would be fun to see how much did they lose with copy protection.

Chris: I agree that Persona 4 OST will most probably turn out to be a success (by VGM standards, at least), but I still think your statement was a bit hasty. Just because an album
is much anticipated, preordered and hyped doesn't necessarily mean that its gonna live up to expectations. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" sold 40+ million copies and everyone expected the follow-up ("Bad") to do even better, but it only sold a "disappointing" 8 million copies. Just one example of many.

Bernhardt: I doubt most "hot-blooded young youths" even know what VGM is, let alone who Shoji Meguro is. In fact, outside a very small percentage of hardcore game music and RPG fans, he's hardly a "star".
Also, I must have missed the "the traditional orchestral side" of VGM. It seems to me that the vast majority of VGM (especially what we would call "traditional") is pretty far from orchestral (thankfully!).

Yeah, it seems like most record companies have finally realized the complete futility of using it. Copy-protection is pathetic.

Yeeeaaahhh, sorry about that; I forget to put in the [joking] tags.

Thing is, if a post of mine sounds either too enthusiastic, or just plain stupid, you can rest assured I'm being sarcastic: y'know, saying the opposite of what I mean, usually for comedic effect?

.

I've only listened to a few tracks so far, and from what little I've heard, I'm inclined to agree. It seems reminiscent of P3 OST, but it sounds a whole lot better. I'm pretty busy now, so it'll be some time before I can listen to the whole album and give it the time it needs, but I have a good feeling about this one. Will post my thoughts when I've gotten to know the music better (but I can say already that "Signs of Love" is outrageously good for being a syrupy pop-song).

Dammit, I just caught wind of this.  I'd really love to go, but that's a Friday, and I have work. >_<

However, my guess is that, like most live events like this in Japan, it will be strewn with series fanatics - not necessarily Meguro fanatics, or even game music enthusiasts for that matter.  Still, it would definitely be cool to attend.

- Justin Pfeiffer

P.S.  Yes, P4 OST kicks ass.  Evidently Meguro was hospitalized for a month before starting the P4 soundtrack, and said it gave his mind time to "reset" for the composition.  Regardless, I agree it sounds like a combination of his DDS and P3 work.  Much more polished OST than P3 overall.  But let's see if an arrange album comes out.

Ha, why am I not surprised? That's what he gets for not letting any other composer come near the MegaTen series anymore. Seriously, even though Meguro still puts out some excellent work, he's definitely overworked, and we need to see the return of some of the series' other composers. If Meguro keeps this up, he'll soon leave Sakuraba and Sakimoto far behind.

I doubt Shoji Meguro has that much choice on whether he is assigned to a project over his fellow employees. I expect it's more of a case of Atlus realizing Persona 3 sold really well and wanting more of it. I'd definitely agree he is working more than he might be comfortable with, though. Back in 2000, he said he worked on one game every two years. Different story now.

If anyone is attending this event and would like to write an event report for SEMO, please let me know. It'd be awesome to cover a few more non-orchestral concerts.

A DVD will be released according to one performer.

Sweet.

The reported setlist.

1. Battle for Everyone's Souls (Burn My Dread -Reincarnation ver.)
2. Pursuing My True Self
3. Sings of Love
4. Heartbeat, Heartbreak
5. Your Affection
6. Unavoidable Battle
7.Burn My Dread (Burn My Dread -Reincarnation ver.)
8.When the Moon's Reaching out the stars
9.Want To Be Close
10.Mellow Dream
11.Birth of Destiny 
12.Mass Destruction
13.Deep Breath Deep Breath (Burn My Dread -Reincarnation ver.)
14.Breakin' through
15.SUICIDES LOVE STORY
16.The Almighty
17.Never More
18.Heartful Cry
19.Soul Drive
20.Burn My Dread-Last Battle- (Burn My Dread -Reincarnation ver.)
21.Heaven
22.Found Me
23.Reach Out To The Truth-First Battle-
24.Your Memory

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1217564_1124.html

"Want To Be Closed", haha.

DVD of the live show is slated for September
http://vgmdb.net/album/14033

Hell yes! I done forgot all about this.

http://www.aniplex.co.jp/persona-live/

The live will be held again this year.