The majority of Touhou fan music is doujinshi, which typically has a small print run and is gone once it's sold out. It didn't help that until 2018, ZUN's guidelines for fan works largely enforced Denial of Digital Distribution. While 2018 brought in a label that handled digital distribution of Touhou music, many circles ended up never joining it, or only had incomplete discographies put up. Additionally, it took a while before the albums could be streamed. As of 2022, the label shutting down their store on BOOTH.pm ended up allowing circles to put up their work for download there independently, though it's not a very common choice to do so. Also, if you want something from a circle that doesn't use digital distribution, you're out of luck.
Examples
Dead circles without digital releases
If a circle that hasn't used digital distribution becomes inactive, its releases are almost guaranteed to go out of print, which has happened to most or all of the albums by the listed circles. If you're very lucky, the circle's members may decide to release their stuff digitally even though they're no longer active, but it's a long shot, especially considering that most of the circles listed here have been inactive for many years.
- Alice Music: Last album released in 2012.
- Applice: Dead site, no activity since May 2018.
- Automata Girl: A one-album circle.
- danmaq: Still produces fan works, but the Mythical Mirror soundtrack album is out of print.
- De:beL4: Dead site, no releases since May 2017.
- False&Trues: Last album released in 2010. Website's dead.
- Foreground Eclipse: Inactive since 2013, but music is scattered online.
- Forestpireo: Their site is still online, but hasn't been updated since 2014. The group themselves hasn't released anything since 2015. Music can be found scattered online
- GET IN THE RING: Its first album, which is completely different from the rest of its output, is particularly hard to find.
- Girl's short hair: Their site is still online, but hasn't been updated since 2012.
- Halozy: Suspended all activities in October 2017 and is on supposed hiatus. No current plans to return to the doujin business.
- Icarus'cry: Last active in 2012 (possibly on hiatus). Their music can be found online, circulated by fans. Their main circle, Unlucky Morpheus released their most recent album in 2023.
- Kraster and KRASTERII: Almost everything they've released is out of print. Additionally, some of their albums featured codes you could use to download bonus content, which is now lost as the websites have gone defunct.
- Like a rabbit: Defunct since 2013
- MisteryCircle: They stopped producing music since 2016
- monochrome-coat: Possibly in hiatus
- PopKorn: From what's known, they haven't been making music since '05.
- Planet+: Possibly on a hiatus but they haven't produced anything since 2012.
- Sally: Possibly disbanded since 2018
- T.Piacere: They disbanded in 2014.
- tsugumi: Their planned 2014 album never materialised, and we haven't heard anything from them since.
- UnderseaGirl: A one-album circle.
- White Elephant: Disbanded in 2014
- Yellow Zebra: Their successor circle R-note is still active, but their Yellow Zebra-era music appears to be abandoned.
Active circles without no digital releases
Active circles often decide not to reprint their old albums once they go out of print. Additionally, some albums were intended to be exclusive in the first place.
- Arte Refact: The group still exists, but only ever made three Touhou albums. These albums are abandoned and not even mentioned on their official site.
- Liz Triangle: Some of their music can be found scattered online.
- L-ZONE: The circle's albums have limited releases.
Dead circles with incomplete digital releases
The albums that weren't released digitally are almost guaranteed to go out of print sooner or later, if they haven't already.
- AdamKadmon: Only their last album (which was a Wani-only Greatest Hits Album) has been released digitally.
- Seventh Heaven MAXION: Some of the circle's albums are available on DLSide, but eleven (e.g. Hitori Yakumo Matsuri) are still missing (and out of print). Additionally, the offered downloads are lossy.
Active circles with incomplete digital releases
Where the circle's music can be found online but it's not a whole catalogue
- ALiCe BoX: The digital releases are lossy only.
- Chocofan: The circle typically stops reprinting albums after a certain point, after which it's re-released digitally. However, some albums failed to get re-releases and ended up lost:
- 七転八起, an album that mostly consists of Puzzle & Dragons arrangements and is almost impossible to find, or even find information on. The same applies for the album single Nightmare Next. These tracks are so obscure that they don't even appear on the circle's 24/7 stream.
- Their first Touhou album, STARSHIP SOUNDS, is out of print and not available for digital purchase. The same is the case for their debut single Strawberry Moon. Some of these tracks were rescued with their first best-of CD, while others remain missing.
- Their Omake series consisted of ten bonus CDs that were hard to find and had a limited print run. In late 2021, the circle did give them a re-release in a compilation containing all ten, but it was expensive, had a limited run and was a time-limited offer (the stock ran out before the time limit expired). While the Omake Selection CD rescued ten of the tracks from the series, the rest of them remain unavailable, and your only way to listen to them legitimately is catching them on the circle's 24/7 stream, which isn't always available. They've since started on a second series of exclusive Omake CDs.
- R-note: Their two early, obscure albums (EVOLUTION RUSH -opus tuned- and Tautology) are hard to find. All of their event-exclusive bonus CDs can only be bought used, but are at least easier to find. Their main albums are available digitally.
- ShinRa-Bansho:
- Several of their albums are missing from digital marketplaces.
- The circle started releasing event-exclusive bonus CD in December 2016, which can be tricky to find if you didn't attend the relevant event. In December 2019, the tracks on old bonus CDs finally got a re-release thanks to the compilation album Another Sensation ~ Extra Vocal BEST.
- Silver Forest: When they joined the label, only an assortment of their old albums were released, and the selection was never updated. The newest album offered is from 2017.
- SYNC.ART'S:
- Its early event-exclusive albums are long gone.
- The circle is on the Touhou music label, but most of its Touhou albums released before 2017 are missing.
- Most of the circle's old original albums are gone. Only Kitty is available digitally. Thankfully, their more recent Lunark collaboration albums are available.
- Unlucky Morpheus:
- The original versions of Hypothetical Box, REBIRTH and Jealousy are not available. Neither are the instrumental versions of REBIRTH and Jealousy.
- The albums Faith and Warfare, HEAVY METAL BE-BOP and Miseria Kills Slaughterously are not available for digital purchase.
- For some reason, the collaboration album Parallelism・γ is not available digitally even though both of the participating circles use digital distribution.
Unsorted
Circles that existed but it ain't clear what the status of their releases are.
- Higuma: They made choral remixes but, so far, there's only a small amount of it distributed online. Apparently, they used to have a website but that's gone too. There doesn't seem to be anything of them since 2011, at the least.
Rescued
- Swing Of the Dead's only album, TOHO JAZZY VOCAL Ⅰ, was originally released in 2013. It went of print and seemed to be lost, but was rescued with a digital release in 2019.
