Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - [News] New Album TROUBLE on August 15th ~III~

Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/index.php)

- Ayu Music News (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=2)

- - [News] New Album TROUBLE on August 15th ~III~ (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124212)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dez0424 (Post 3282485)

How could they feel contented with 38 shows at pitiful Halls across the country with the cost of transportation,
instead of doing just 5 shows at a few arenas which would draw the same amount of income?

maybe Ayu wants to reach more fans all over the country? if you go to arenas you can only go to the big citys, with hall tour you can come to more places and reach more fans. not every fan can travel far to go to a concert.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi (Post 3282453)

I see Love Songs - Party Queen - LOVE again as a trilogy, as the 3 of them deal with Ayu's feeling towards her own views on romantic love and love life, something she had not explored as much before, and in that sense, IMO La is the conclusion she got out of what she started reflecting about during LS.

But I also think La is interesting as a package. Isolated, most of the songs are far from her most interesting.

In a way, La is also the album were Ayu's aesthetic gets less dream-like and more realistic. Girl became a cynic :P

That's a very interesting take on it. Perhaps that makes sense looking at the lyrics, I don't know, but Love Songs, Party Queen and Love again are very different musically within the context of her discography. Love Songs also is a very particular album musically because it has a cohesive concept much more so than most of the albums she released since MY STORY. Almost all the songs are written by the same person and the arrangement of almost all the tracks is based on a similar take "what if we mixed tetsyua's electronic music and added classical instruments and acoustic elements". It's also a departure from the formula with a summer song and winter ballad etc.

The promotion and commerical performance of Love Songs is more similar to the albums before it than PQ and later albums. LS had singles leading up to it and performed relatively well. Ayu always had a drop in sales from one album to the next, but the drop from RnRC to LS is much lower than from LS to PQ and lower than many of her other drops in terms of %. Also Five was a relatively big success for her. Something really changed with PQ.

I would probably agree that her "golden time" could be set from 2000 to 2006, although I think you could also say it's from 2000 - 2004 (ending with MY STORY) or from 2000 until the release of FIVE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~angel*ayumi~ (Post 3282487)

Well that's a nice of putting it, which they have said so for TA Live 2016.

No matter the intentions, it's a business. Small stars start from Halls and make their way to Dome. That's how they satisfy the demand and earn more. If you're big enough, there'll be enough fans coming to you even if they have to travel. You don't go backwards out of courtesy so often.

Ayu can't fill a Dome now even if she is just do a day. There just aren't enough fans anymore. Her music also to be blamed apart from avex's management. Being long in the game isn't an excuse. Look at Arashi and Namie. It's just obvious how bad she is doing overall with comparable talent and avex's market share.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dez0424 (Post 3282485)

Speaking of which.
The promotion strategy this time is so disastrous that I suspect that avex took all her staff away.

1. 6 Days till release, there's still no sight of a tracklisting on the official site and salespoints like HMV/Amazon. Is this the first time it ever happened?
2. They knew this "album" won't sell as much as last time, and yet they put in so much production cost in manufacturing a BOX and printing photo cards, which are exclusive to the DVD/Bluray version only purchasable from Mu-mo/TA. How are they going to expect the general population to buy the profitable version if they aren't placing them in stores and online? I can't understand this sales strategy.
3. The whole album is available on streaming before the physical release. It is understandable to push steaming subscriptions (which according to IFPI's 2017 report, subscription sales now takes up the biggest slice of the pie, and digital purchase also out run physical sales), so why care to manufacture 4 versions in the first place? If people were to be satisfied by streaming the songs, why not make the profitable physical version more accessible?
4. They're keeping up with the pace of SNS promotion, but their methods are so old-fashioned. What is so special and flattering of watching ayu doing her pretentious stunt of "listening to a mysterious new song on her phone and walking back and forth" when the song was already "leaked" on streaming days before that video?
5. Other basic strategies are also pitiful. They should've removed unnecessary costs from the limited edition and place it in in-store promotions. Take a look at Perfume who are also releasing an album on the same day. They're only streaming 1 new song from the album, collaborating with Tower Records in giving out freebies for those who pre-purchase and purchase in-store, doing fierce promotion with instagram story in person, and to be doing a live streaming after the release date (yes ayu did a LINE Live but she always seems to be unprepared). Every step is planned to boost album sales physically and digitally.

Btw, how much longer could ayu make a living for her band and dancers?
According to the concert ranking from 2017. She had 205k attendees with 43 shows.
V6 as a comparison, they took 260k attendees with 21 shows.
That's half the manpower for the same outcome.
The team really needs to consider new gimmicks apart from "hey we did a lot of shows".
How could they feel contented with 38 shows at pitiful Halls across the country with the cost of transportation,
instead of doing just 5 shows at a few arenas which would draw the same amount of income?

Note: I'm a fan since A BEST and I've been to her shows and will try to get to the TROUBLE tour. But her team's effort behind the scenes really frustrates me, because they could have done so much better and so much more. they're avex!!

I guess you've seen other numbers than I have, cause physical sales still outrun digital from what I have seen. The streaming market isn't big in Japan, just about 10% as of last year.
Would you like to link a source?
For mine it's also the IFPI data, it's also nicely summarized by someone on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global...ket_share_data
And the RIAJ also supported that with their numbers, here's a small English summary:
https://rainnews.com/japanese-music-...inues-to-grow/

The yearly concert ranking only counts the full capacity of each listed show for every artist, not the actual tickets sold (or the actual capacity used of a venue).
It would be far more revealing to have a list with sold tickets for everyone.
Tho sure Ayu can't live up with the pouplar artists nowadays, especially not with idols. Female solos have it hard except for some few exceptions.
It is hardly predictable , what or who is going to be popular.
Ayu could tour arenas instead of halls, but she already scaled down her shows at Osaka Jo Hall from this past 20th Anniversary Tour to half its size.
There are some big halls at least in the big cities like Tokyo and some small arenas having about the same capacity as big halls.
It is all about planning tho and I agree with you, that neither Ayu nor her team seem to plan long ahead.

I am sure Ayu earns enough. When I see the big lines of ppl at the Goodies both and the amount of stuff they purchase I think this alone will cover all costs xD

^she earns the most with her goods.

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Petit* (Post 3282488)

I think it was the scandals that killed both PQ and LA's sales.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corvina (Post 3282492)

https://www.oricon.co.jp/confidence/special/51093/
Here Oricon quotes the 2018 report from IFPI.
Sorry digital sales still under Physical.
and yes, the market share within Japan is still Physical driven. Thanks for clarifying that.

That being said, the reason of their strategy of releasing on streamings ahead of physical, and limiting salespoints of more profitable DVD/BD versions is left unsolved.

Did she just posted about coming back from the studio?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dumbellz (Post 3282525)

Did she just posted about coming back from the studio?

Think she means the dance studio

Quote:

Originally Posted by dez0424 (Post 3282485)

2. They knew this "album" won't sell as much as last time, and yet they put in so much production cost in manufacturing a BOX and printing photo cards, which are exclusive to the DVD/Bluray version only purchasable from Mu-mo/TA. How are they going to expect the general population to buy the profitable version if they aren't placing them in stores and online? I can't understand this sales strategy.

3. The whole album is available on streaming before the physical release. It is understandable to push steaming subscriptions (which according to IFPI's 2017 report, subscription sales now takes up the biggest slice of the pie, and digital purchase also out run physical sales), so why care to manufacture 4 versions in the first place? If people were to be satisfied by streaming the songs, why not make the profitable physical version more accessible?

Because only her core fanbase are really interested in those stuff and distribute to all physical stores are expensive, so it's actually pretty wise to to that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dez0424 (Post 3282485)

4. They're keeping up with the pace of SNS promotion, but their methods are so old-fashioned. What is so special and flattering of watching ayu doing her pretentious stunt of "listening to a mysterious new song on her phone and walking back and forth" when the song was already "leaked" on streaming days before that video

Actually, when she uploaded that video, we didn't hear the version with vocals yet, only instrumental. So IMO it was really cool she teased people through SNS with a low quality preview, preparing us for the demo with vocals and attracting listeners to streaming services.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dez0424 (Post 3282485)

Btw, how much longer could ayu make a living for her band and dancers?
According to the concert ranking from 2017. She had 205k attendees with 43 shows.
V6 as a comparison, they took 260k attendees with 21 shows.
That's half the manpower for the same outcome.
The team really needs to consider new gimmicks apart from "hey we did a lot of shows".
How could they feel contented with 38 shows at pitiful Halls across the country with the cost of transportation,
instead of doing just 5 shows at a few arenas which would draw the same amount of income?

Well, even with young artists, touring is the main source of money. The second one, if they are composers, are royalties. She's around there for 20 years, I think it's very hard to rely her profit on physical sales, specially when they're decreasing like that.

I'm not saying her marketing team is superb, but for me it's the first time they are using contemporary strategies to promote her and I don't it's so messy how people are picturing here.

P.S.: yes, physical market is still strong in Japan, but most of these sales are a) best-of compilations (Japanese people love it) b) idol groups. So, I guess the future for soloists is investing efforts in digital platforms, 'cause they're growing in Japan.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~angel*ayumi~ (Post 3282526)

Think she means the dance studio

Oh... right...

Quote:

Originally Posted by summerain (Post 3282533)

Because only her core fanbase are really interested in those stuff and distribute to all physical stores are expensive, so it's actually pretty wise to to that.

In addition to this point, I would also add that Mu-Mo is owned by AVEX - so this super expensive box (that only hardcore fans are going to want to buy), is actually going to be more profitable by keeping all of the revenue "in the family" in all likelihood.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dez0424 (Post 3282485)

According to the concert ranking from 2017. She had 205k attendees with 43 shows.
V6 as a comparison, they took 260k attendees with 21 shows.
That's half the manpower for the same outcome.

This isn't a fair comparison because V6's 2017 tour was all arenas (and 2 sports plazas) while for Ayu, aside from the 9 arena shows in chapter 1, was a hall tour which fits far less people. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is moot since Corvina mentioned that they count the venue capacity instead of the actual tickets sold. Didn't know that.

But I do agree that avex needs to have more effort in the marketing. It's been needed for a long time but sadly I don't think that will change any time soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by voltron (Post 3282548)

And by the way, those copies are not gonna be part of the oricon ranking system, because FC and mu-mo only copies are not part of sales chart. So basically this album only has a CD only version available.

^Well, they are making money the same without Oricon counting...

Oricon doesn't give Ayu much more than braging rights nowadays.

Official site updated tracklist https://avex.jp/ayu/discography/ Both CD is the same
My last hope is in two different hidden tracks

The tracks are in different order on the two versions. That's so weird, I wonder if it's a mistake.

So the print of the tracklist of the B Type box set is shown wrong, but not in the way we hoped for <.<

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicfirefly (Post 3282608)

The tracks are in different order on the two versions. That's so weird, I wonder if it's a mistake.

Don't get's what's the point... But I don't think that's mistake, because it's not the first time. You were/Ballad, Ballad/You were and L singles have different tracks order on each version

They are in opposite order

Jacket A CD:
01 We are the QUEENS
02 æternal
03 WORDS
04 W
05 The way I am

Jacket B CD:
01 The way I am
02 W
03 WORDS
04 æternal
05 We are the QUEENS