Originally Posted by Uemarasan (Post 1897202)

In my opinion, My Story is an album to return to after you've aged a bit.



Come to Asia and you'll see that there are a LOT of people on the streets lugging around LV bags, Gucci, Prada, you name it. It's something called "fake designer goods" :P

It's not about buying expensive clothes. It's about looking expensive in inexpensive clothing. Ayu's high-end style isn't only accessible to the elite rich, unless you insist on buying the exact same articles of clothing. If one has the eye for fashion and the patience for shopping and digging through vintage shop bins, rummage sales, flea markets, etc., especially in Japan, one could easily look like Ayu.

Originally Posted by noidea (Post 1897638)

Thats really bad, I doubt it will be able to sell 450k in this way...I am even starting to doubt 400k

Originally Posted by SolarAngel (Post 1898854)

I was feeling a little sorry for Koda Kumi when Trick did not sell very much because i thought the public was still overreacting to her comment or whatever. And then NL came out and :thud

It's just not a good time for solo female artistes. I thought NL could reach double platinum easily but looks like it can't even do that now.

Originally Posted by krazeyo (Post 1898306)

I'm asian btw =p

What I meant about her high-end style is that I prefer her I am.. fashion where her clothes looked like any teenager would want to imitate/buy easily. She used to appeal more to the average teenager that just wanted something fashionable and easily accessible, but her style now is harder to imitate. She's still fashionable..but its just a different more mature style. I wish she would wear start wearing jeans again, but her music style lately doesn't really let her wear something simple.

Originally Posted by noidea (Post 1898082)

^ Isnt that even a usual thing in japan? Again, i got this from a book, but it seemed quite realistic(and not realistic at the same time) to me, it said the LV, Prada and so on bags are often gifts from the men the women sleep with instead of money they directly buy the bag the girl/women wants

Originally Posted by ayumisrael (Post 1895346)

For the concert - We should not own worries though since the tour is still her most demanded one to date and the number of tickets re-sale is still lower than minor compared to the number of the audience in those venues (even if we are subtracting their number from a total of 1 venue).



It's more articles than NEXT LEVEL got and ayu's album is only aimed for japanese audience.



I actually find (miss)understood being less experimental (the only new styled song there after all is Bold & Delicious and maybe Pride too).
NEXT LEVEL had really major electronica influenced songs using pop and rock and synthed beats and that's why the album is getting mixed feelings and also from the japanese audience, unlike (m)u that a lot of people liked and it was less experimental.

For hikki's promotion, it was the same with EXODUS that wasn't aimed for the japanese audience and sold a million. No one expected it to be popular in japan like that, but I saw many and a lot expecting way more out of it, at least half a million specially considering a lot of people liked it more than EXODUS. Let's stop the TITO discussion though.

This thread is dark and gloomy enough with people's dissapointment with NL's sales (which generally the number isn't bad but for ayu's standards it's a bit dissapointing).

Btw oricon might actually count the USBs at the end of the oricon week.
Remember that the first week sales were +13,000ed more than the estimated number?
We will know though only at the end of the week (if there won't a be big drop) probably.
If there will though then yeah we can say the encore press officially didn't help much.

Originally Posted by ayumixfan (Post 1899208)

^ ahh I guess its my opinion only. I found (miss)understood a refreshing pop album. Sure it was a pop album like usual but the way the music sounded was innovative and different. Next Level may use electronica but it doesn't sound new at all. It sounds like music i've heard before with an addition of eletronic effects. thats just my opinion though.

I don't want to sound rude, but if you want to end a discussion, please don't add your opinion and then say "lets end the discussion". That is a horrible way to end it because its like you're cutting the other person off. Just state thats its off-topic or something.

Originally Posted by waterballoon (Post 1899512)

^ I'm still holding onto the hope that there'll be a sudden increase of 10 000 copies for weekly sales due to the USB. We'll know soon eh, lol.

Originally Posted by Libriya (Post 1899522)

Maybe NL's sales are not very high, BUT it seems pretty steady in chart, hope it will have a longer chart life.

Originally Posted by ayuayu798 (Post 1899550)

I dont understand something though if NEXT LEVEL has double plantinum now,for shipping 500k, why is her sales still below 400k? Am I missing something here?

Originally Posted by Tony G (Post 1897001)

I agree, her voice is made for hard rock type songs. t2m was great. But once I heard NEXT LEVEL.. her voice works so well in electro pop/rock songs as well. I've wanted Ayu for ages to dab into electronic music again.. she really hadn't done it since Connected. And I have to say it turned out pretty well, especially Sparkle. That song is just epic. Even Mirrorcle World sounded totally different to anything she's done before, it would be great if she made more songs like it.

It's exciting to wonder what sound she's gonna explore next. Triphop would be cool. XD