Rimi Natsukawa but I don't know who is she ? Otherwise Ayu is 9th in the global chart ^^ but if I've say she sell not really well it's because before she was always number one! in 2006 (miss)understood was 1st in global chart in taiwan O-O

AAA and koda kumi? LOL..........HOW DO THEY GET MORE PROMO THAN AYU? I'd really like to know.

you should have put tohoshinki. anyway toho, exile, namie and kis my ft sell way more than ayu and have been for a long time...so why would avex even bother to give ayu the same promo as them? it should also be noted that avex doesn't even handle namie, exile and ks my ft's promo but anyway.


it seems a lot of ayu fans have the mentality that tv performances are basically the best and only way of promotion same with those random trucks driving around major cities. idol groups that sell 20k have those trucks driving all around japan they aren't a big deal.

how come when lack of promo comes up no one mentions her magazine covers? every time ayu releases something new she is GUARANTEED two or three very high profile covers. also is everyone forgetting about her kindle fire tie-in? she's EVERYWHERE with ads for it including the front page of amazon.jp. and then of course TOX 2 which is only one of the most anticipated games of the year for japan, again not a big deal :yes

ever since NEXT LEVEL the whining for "lack" of promotion has seriously got out of hand and really annoying. obviously she doesn't get as much compared to the old days but hello it isn't 2003 anymore. i especially love it when people call avex greedy and money hungry...then one post later say how they give her no promo basically insinuating that avex wants her to flop lol.........

Well lets see...
The Koda has had 4 magazines and 2 lives for her single, and I believe 2 CM's. - promo out the butt.
AAA - pretty much has CM's/LIVEs/tie-ins with EVERY single release that they do - more butt promo.

And I hate to break it to you, but a live broadcast is probably the BEST type of promo.

And lets see, since you brought up magazine covers... Ayumi's doesnt even have that for her release of LOVE, she is in a magazine, but not the cover. She also only has 1 CM... no trucks, and only 1 billboard. (this may change... she is bound to do a cover for 1 of these releases...)

I will give you the kindle fire... but thats only if you shop on amazon. I don't know how popular amazon japan is and its really only for a selected group of people anyways...

And if you noticed everyone here things that the tales of tie in is a BIG deal, but it only effects tales fans. She would need to perform the song LIVE in order for her to reach a bigger audience, which is what the whole point of the performance is.

as for Namie, Kis-My-Ft2, and EXILE, they are part of avex tracks... who else would handle their promo?

wasn't it mentioned before that for Namie , Kisumai & EXILE , their material is only distributed via avex trax while for management & promo stuff , it's their agencies that handles them ?

for Kisumai , V6 and Tackey & Tsubasa , these 3 Johnny's groups , their music is distributed by avex but at the same time , anything promo related is handled by Johnny's & Associates , the talent agency that market & promote them

also sometimes over promotion of an artiste will eventually backfire . GIRL NEXT DOOR / girl next door is a perfect prime eg. . They were over promoted by avex in the early days of their debut in 2008 but look at what happened to them now ?

^ if thats true then i can probably find 3 other artist that avex has and promotes. But there has to be more to that deal then that because I dont know why avex would just shall out all that money when they have no control of the product that they are investing in?

could it be they just market them and avex pays for the promotion/handles?

#4 T_________T japanese people buy the thing

Ayu is obviously past her prime, fans need to quit being obsessed with chart numbers.

I honestly can't believe people still care about her sales, are we in 2008 or what?
When will you guys get over it? :dead2

personally I think her hard core fans will always care about her sales. And its not the chart number or the actual sales but the fact that she is still there and still doing amazing things for people to see so long into her career.

I looked her up... she hasn't released anything this year so i wonder what that is... (at least her wiki has not been updated)
It looks like she was a folk singing?

Avex don't take part on marketing or taking care of the image of those artists (as they do with Ayu or Koda), what also means they don't have any control over them. Avex part on Namie's career for example is most likely letting her use their physical structure for recording, recording her albums and distributing them to the stores, and they are paid for it either with a porcentage of her sales, a fixed amount defined by contract or both. They don't invest money on her, they are just paid to do stuff for her and get their money she selling a lot or a little.

Vision Factory is responsable for marketing Namie and taking care of her public image, persona and creative direction.

so what your saying is that talent agencies work differently in japan.
interesting...

For example, a lot of Johnny's acts aren't part of J-One Records, the agency label (V6 is part of Avex, SMAP is part of Victor, etc.) but regardless, they are always known as Johnny's artists, and JE is the responsable by their image, public personas, publicity stunts and creative direction.

Okay, thats true for all talent agencies, but that is different from a product promotion for an album.
the agencies control the public image, not the music that is being released by avex.

Now, I'm not saying that the agencies dont go in there and tell the groups this is how its going to be, but usually its two different types of promotion.
The actual act and then the music.

I've heard about Johnny's and they seem very controlling, but I just never heard of the agencies doing the promotional work for the music since that falls on the ones who release the music. Its avex's product. But I dont know the details of the contracts and such so it could be worked into that.

According to baidu this picture has been taken in Mong Kok, it's a SKY MUSIC store.
This picture comes from avex HK Facebook page.

i would love to put that poster up on my wall, lol.

In the Japanese industry, the idol is the only product that matters, the music is just an way of making the idol profitable. That's why a lot of idols are forced into projects that has nothing to do with their talents (and they end up producing low quality music, acting and modeling). Promoting any of the idols projects is up to the Agency, as they are the ones making the most money from it.

The Label doesn't manage any part of the creative aspect of those idols, as they already have a whole image constructed by the Agency that their music MUST follow (breaking the mold = end of idol career), their part on the idol's career is as a company hired to do a job. The music is recorded with them, the music is distributed with them, but all the production and hiring of producers, musicians, composers, songwriters, etc is up to the agency, and the same works for the creative direction.

Namie's music is a product of Namie and Vision Factory, so, Avex isn't investing anything on her, they have no creative control over her and have no good reason to promote her themselves. To the point of Namie almost never singing at A-Nation (what she did only once, BTW). In a nutshell, she is not an Avex artist, she's an Vision Factory artist that hired Avex to release her work.

It strange what you say because in 2008 Namie was invited for the first time since 2000 at the meeting of Avex Shareholders and has said something like "thought of me next time" because she was forgot by avex since she was not popular at all ?


Look at before she was everywhere =) http://www.sfile.org/ayu/billboard/index.html

as an Artist who's been in the scene for more than 10 years she's doing pretty damn well, being in top ten isn't that bad..... she already ahd made hustory.

RT

嵐　　| JUlife　 | JUlove |
月　16,115 | **,***　 | **,***　 |
火　14,188 | 22,522 | 22,098　|
水　10,619 | 20,919 | 19,728　|
木　*9,753 | 12,332 | 11,346　|
───────────────────
計　50,675　 55,773　53,176

Ayu is so endearing now that's she's a flop.

That last time I checked being in the top 10 was hardly a flop.

I agreed. Its a great accomplishment, regardless of her fantastic past.

Lol.

This is so sad, I thought she would have no problem staying #3 :thud
I blame Party Queen



's ass-cover

flop or not, as long as she still exists and brings new music for her fans =))
and she'll still remain as a legend of jpop music industry..

Today's ranking

1 14,164 ＢＥＳＴ　ＳＴＯＲＹ　～Ｌｉｆｅ　ｓｔｏｒｉｅｓ～ ASR 12/11/7
ＪＵＪＵ
2 12,814 ＢＥＳＴ　ＳＴＯＲＹ　～Ｌｏｖｅ　ｓｔｏｒｉｅｓ～ ASR 12/11/7
ＪＵＪＵ
3 7,773 Ｐｏｐｃｏｒｎ JST 12/10/31
岚
4 - ＣＯＶＥＲＳ　２ UM 12/11/7
ＢＥＮＩ
5 - ＬＯＶＥ AVT 12/11/8
滨崎あゆみ

thank god in Recochoku this is much better!

http://recochoku.jp/recochoku_ranking/

Yet it has nothing to do with anything...

I dunno why people expect her career to suddenly start going uphill when it's been going downhill for years.

I'm guessing the sales between 3 and 5 are close, still betting on a #3 weekly.

Ayu is hopefully somewhere around 52k now and I hope she'll at least beat BENI. With two more days, I doubt the sales will cross 70k.

Charting in top 10 is great♥

#4 probably
Behind 2 juju best and 嵐 2nd week

i wish ayu could have some kinda "comeback", just like koda had with "Go to the Top"...

Koda also came back while performing on tv, which may or may not have helped sales. But any promotion helps, rather than just one lone billboard picture.

What about the numbers?

people act as if ayu wasn't debuting within the top 10 or earing millions anymore... XP
there are many artists who can only dream of this kind of success!

Same here.

I don't expect any increase in sales, but Party Queen DID flop hard, FIVE's first day was 56k while PQ plunged to a miserable 27k, and FIVE is a mini. For comparision Love songs sold 70k the first day. So why can't I blame PQ for this?

Party Queen had no singles nor tie-ups to promote it. Besides poorly promoted digital single, while FIVE had progress and live performances.

^How beautiful you are had a succesful drama tie-in and Party queen had that bra cm...

Still, neither lack of promotion or song quality, japanese people are just tired of her...

^ I think her sale keeps declining steadily but PQ dropped too suddenly

Yes it's a fact ! but in Japan it's not current to release an album without at least one physical single in it before !
Tired maybe ! but if you look at Aiko which is super popular her last album sold less than Party Queen ... I think her musical style don't match with the current taste of people (except fan)

Well, the mini album FIVE had the HUGELY popular tie in of the Tales game.
That helped to boost sales tons.
Party Queen also had the CM and a small tie in with HBYR.

But if anything it shows just how ties in can help... ASB really didnt have one and look at the difference in sales. And now LOVE, which I has the game tie in... but the hype just isnt there like it was with the first game... nor did she do a live...
Nor do i find this song as exciting as progress...
there are just so many factors into why this is not selling very well. It's selling good, but not as good as it should.

^ I think ASB is the biggest mistake in her career

I agree ...

I'm not expecting any of her 15th anniversary releases to chart exceptionally well. Without a huge break between releases, and no promotion she's not really building up any hype. I think her breaks between releases have helped her in the past, but this has been one of Ayu's most active years. Treat for the fans, not the charts. Remember that people.

A successful drama tie-in? Really? I consider Hana yori dango, LAST FRIENDS and Taiyou no Uta to be successful dramas. Not really sure if the drama hbya was featured in was nearly as successful as those.

But yeah it's most likely that they are simply tired of her and not interested.

If I remember it right, the drama received good grades, it wasn't a huge hit, but was very well received...

As it was aimed to older people (30's and older) than usual for western jpop fandom (12s ~ 30s) it obviously reached a different demographic than the one u r used for her.

Ayu needs to pull a Mariah Carey.
If MC can flop just as hard, if not harder, than Crystal Kay (i dont know of any comparable people. moral of the story is that MC's career took a NOSE DIVE) and come back to the top, so can Ayu.
But I'm just talking about 2005's The Emancipation of Mimi. Not about her 2012 flop Triumphlop (Flop Em).

People should stop to act as if releasing a hit was a concious decision, like "tomorrow I will release a song that will sell 4 million copies!1", unless u r already on the top (Ayu isn't), it's not that simple (and even if u r already on the top, a single can always flop).

And please, don't let Ayu take the Mariah road! She got it right with TEOM and after that started releasing the same song over and over again, just like she did on the 90s ¬¬

?

it wasnt as successful... if I remember it averaged 12-13 million.
which is pretty good... it was way better then her last one, lol.

But what if Ayu were to relive her late 90s-early 2000s era?

Those songs worked during 99~2002 for a reason: They fit that time. Trying to do the same thing again would just make her look pathetic, desperate, runned out of ideas and the release songs that would already born old.

Crystal Kay??

If ayumi wants to be popular she has to dress the part, act the part, and do a song along the line of an idol (which is what is in right now), which has no meaning, depth, substance, soul... everything that ayumi is not.

Many tale fans won't buy this LOVE because pierce DLC
They are expected to get nice costume like Utahime from Five but...it's just pierce that not nice at all even almost of them love "Song 4 u"

^ i will save that hurt it...
theres no reason to get that DLC... they should of had a set of ayumi costumes or something...
Can you imagine fighting in a boss battle with one of ayumi's HUGE wedding Dresses... lol

i think...promotion (in terms of marketing, tie-in, performances) is the key to good/better sales. It's all related. Sometimes, appealing to the general public widens ur audience, rather than just targeting on a specific group of people. Yes, there's just no hype build on this...but then again, I think Ayu doesn't even bother. She's just giving music to her FANS.

i think this too, she is at the point of her career where she just wants to make music and be damned if it sales or not.
Not saying she wouldn't kill for another million seller, but its just not a top priority now.

totally agreed.. she's just doing what she love doing and it's for her fans

Taking out the one tie-in she had it's almost like she's gone "indie" lol. Releasing music and that's all, almost (one tie-in and 1 magazine and 1 billboard).

same old, same old.

honestly, she hasn't changed her style dramatically over the years, they know exactly what they'll get and are probably just over it. I like LOVE, but it's not like I couldn't name songs from her that sound pretty similar and are 'better' in the sense that they were quite original once upon a time. not so much anymore.

whatever, I just hope she's well and remotely enjoying what she's doing. with this girl you just don't know.

The thing is, unlike us fans the casual listeners who don't follow Ayu hardly think about her career that much and the styles that she has done, so I don't think that's really the cause of the decline and all. But yeah...it doesn't really matter.

Am I the only one that gets that Ayu doesn't want to sell buttloads and do things to appeal to the general public? She's been there, done that, and obviously doesn't want to work herself into the ground doing all that stuff anymore. She seems very content with the way her career is right now, some of you guys need to chill about it, too.

And besides, being in the top five is hardly a flop, especially for a female artist that's been around for nigh on 15 years. I for one am proud of her :)

I started to get it with FIVE~Party Queen.

LOL at those calling her a flop. You guys do realize that after releasing all her Mini albums, her combined sales plus a possible BEST album will make her the best selling female singer in 2013? (I'm talking about COMBINED SALES). That's hardly a flop.

Not to mention she's still outselling ALL of my other favorite singers and bands in Japan. I follow a lot of singers and they are lucky to even debut on the top 20.

Also, I think at this point in Ayu's career, she doesn't have to fight for the top anymore. She's the best selling solo artist in Japan in history. Over 50 million CDs sold. No one will ever catch up to her. The countdown to 51 million copies have started. She's so far up there that no other female singers in Japan will ever be a rival for her or even dream of catching up to her, at least not in today's music industry. The only female that was ever a threat to Ayu's 'sales legacy' was Utada Hikaru and she's already retired.

Oh, good point..

All you say is so true =)

It's pretty clear from her activities to date that she doesn't care about sales. If she did she'd be promoting a hell of a lot more and definitely not releasing these 5 consecutive releases on days during the oricon week. Her nor avex do not care. I think all avex care about now is preserving her single sales record.

from the way I see it , she has reached a stage where she feels she doesn't need to prove herself anymore

if not FIVE would have been marketed/promoted differently & likewise it goes for Party Queen as by right , physical singles usually has a tendency to get released before an album put out but it's not the case for ayumi

Also , it takes a lot of strength if not willpower to still keep on going , putting out music for the past 14 years . Even the time when she & Utada Hikaru were big sellers in the early 2000s , the way both of them release/do their own thing couldn't be anymore different

Besides , if charting in the top 5 in Oricon without any strong promo tie in is considered as a flop , then someone should do a reality check . Just think of how many more artistes out there who wants to chart in the top 5 but couldn't

I just have a feeling that 2012 has been the WORST year for ayu in terms of charts... :(

Well, she hasnt had a number 1 yet... so
yes this is true.

:3 love this post

yeah but how about other artistes that never ever had a #1 in their entire career ? :o

we are not talking about them.
We are talking about ayumi.

You can't deny the fact that this is her worse year in sales and position.

I remember when people discussed that Ayu's only getting her number #1s because Avex was switching release dates. Most of the time the point in this discussions was that Avex and Ayu should stop doing this because those weren't "real" #1s, Ayu should just do what she wants and chart positions doesn't matter anyway. Now Ayu is doing exactly this, just releasing for her fans and not for chart positions and people want her desperately to get a #1.

Worst year in positions, yes. Worst year in sales? Not so much. Her releases this year will make 2012 at least more successful sales-wise than 2011. And when taking the general trends of the business into account she is doing marvelously well. This whole "Ayumi is flopping" thing is a very, very limited way of looking at the subject. She is doing far better than anyone could have expected at her peak. Most people that have a high, much publicized, peak completely fail to enter the top20 5-10 years after their peak. Ayumi herself thought her career would end sometime between 2000 and 2002. But she has yet to miss the top5 weekly with an album or single even when she hasn't really followed musical, stylistic or lyrical trends and is getting mediocre promotion only. Just looking at Ayumi doesn't work because the evolution of her sales is very dependent on the entirety of the business and the way an album is promoted. If you look at what FIVE(or any other, older release) sold and compare the exact numbers to LOVE you might think it's a flop, but only because circumstances are ignored.

At the same time, would this really be selling as poorly if it was just a new triple A-side single and not a fake mini-album with three new songs and 9 remixes?

^ no because its a mini album.

first. I never said she was a flop.
I was just agreeing that this is by far her worse year in chart positions.

I think she is doing amazingly well for her career point and the lack of promotion. And for the fact that she just doesnt care about sales or chart positions also effects it

And as of right now, last year is still beating this year by about 8000 copies.
Of course she is going to beat this number with LOVE's finally numbers and next months release.

I'm excited for 5-10 years from now when she starts selling like 1000 copies for every new release. Then she can be a WORLD!WIDE!FLOP! like hitomi.

oh god
Imagine just how much current artists will be selling in 5-10 years
Angela Aki and Crystal Kay would be flopping just as hard as ayu. XD

Hopefully you'll remain a fan as long as you are enjoying her music. I feel bad for those who are so affected by her declining sales. It's time to get a grip.

Maybe some people are saying Ayu's a flop nowadays because they were spoiled by Ayu herself to boast "fcck all *****es in Japan mah ***** is slaying #1" every time Ayu releases new music. :shrug

oh well, Ayu's a flop today compared to the Ayu 12 years ago. but compared to everyone, Ayu is still a slaying machine.

I agree so much. With a recent study saying that 68% of japanese people not even spending money on Music, to have 50,000 sales... that's a lot. That's still enough people to fill Yoyogi Stadium 4 times over. Because honestly now, the only artists who sell over 500,000 are AKB48. And maybe Arashi. Even Exile is having problems lately...

Today's ranking

1 15,249 ＢＥＳＴ　ＳＴＯＲＹ　～Ｌｉｆｅ　ｓｔｏｒｉｅｓ～ ASR 12/11/7
ＪＵＪＵ
2 13,536 ＢＥＳＴ　ＳＴＯＲＹ　～Ｌｏｖｅ　ｓｔｏｒｉｅｓ～ ASR 12/11/7
ＪＵＪＵ
3 9,669 Ｐｏｐｃｏｒｎ JST 12/10/31
岚
4 - ＣＯＶＥＲＳ　２ UM 12/11/7
ＢＥＮＩ
5 - ＬＯＶＥ AVT 12/11/8
滨崎あゆみ

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2012-11-10/

Sales figures for the top 3 all increased slightly :O

Actually
It is just a maxi single
If can selling 60k+ in first week, it is really good

Oricon sales aren't great but...nobody cares about recochoku ? LOVE is doing very well !! In japan recochoku is more and more important, a lot of artists doesn't sale a lot in physical but have great sales in recochoku ! (Kaela Kimura for example)

well, "Missing" is still n°1 in chaku uta since its release, and "song 4 u" and "Missing" are in all of the top 5, LOVE does much better than party queen or her others singles...

Last year was one of artists most downloaded in japan, don't forget that, don't be obsessed by oricon.

http://recochoku.jp/recochoku_ranking/

How many days have been Missing charting? I hope it'll manage to stay at #1 for at least the whole week.

There are 2 more days for recochoku's weekly and I believe that it is the first charting week of ayu's songs there. Even if it's for just 1 week ayu didn't get #1 weekly for quite some time (since MOON or something) so it will be awesome!

Since the single is...not cheap at all it would make sense for people to just download the song(s) they like. Even when buying all 3 it's still 750yen compared to 1500. Plus Missing and Melody have digital hit written all over them and Song 4 u has a tie-in that draws attention to only that song, but not the single as a whole.

Yeah I know. I thought MOON was #2, could be wrong though, it's been so long. I hope Missing manages to snatch that #1 even with such high competition.

Well, Missing is more successful digitally than Song 4 u XD

I kinda wish Missing could be #1 in the full too, but it might only be in chaku uta.

Missing is available on recochocku since 9/11 ! So I think it can be n°1 for the week ! =)

Why don't we have Recochoku thread this time? xD

I'm kinda sad to open it, update it everyday and then see that it doesn't recieve any certification... I feel like I do it for nothing, but I thought on doing a section in the oricon thread for recochoku weekly~monthly rankings :)
I will post the weeklies of recochoku here on Wednesday.

At least I know you care Miki haha ^^

calm down.. we all know this day will happen..

don't worry, same ***** also experienced by madonna (MDNA)

Exactly. I think both of these artists sales will continue to decline, but they will always be viable touring acts with super lucrative concerts.

its a fact of life that sales decline.
People will still hate to see it happen.
What people need to get over is the fact that some fans will be up set.

I'm glad missing is number one on the download charts. its the best song on this mini!

Should we also consider about Seiko Matsuda?

Anyways, in a digital world, and the fact that Ayu's songs are performing well DIGITALLY, we shouldn't overlook the digital charts - as you know, results may vary! (Even do consider about what SMEJ is doing - they're trying to go digital more (like the iTunes deal) just to recoup losses of CD sales all because of increasingly digital population!)