'cause she didn't sell a million with missunderstood even though it was an original album...:)

No, Duty is her best selling original album.

Imo, sales would be the same even if it was released before X'mas.

Yes, your right. I actually meant Duty and the horrible leopard cover.

Reading reviews in Amazon.co.jp and reading blogs and opinions and this board. Oh, and looking at the sales, obviously.

Being logical, of course. I mean, how can I know the majority of people don't like the music Ayu is doing now? Well, it's impossible to know for sure. But you can be logical, that's the way it in case you don't know.

I guess those negative reviews/blogs represent the majority... :)

Yes, they do. It's not like I search for blogs and reviews that say negative things, that's not it. I just find mostly bad reviews. People comment all the time that her music quality have dropped, that they barely listened to My Story and decided not to buy (miss)understood among other things (and no, I'm not talking about western blogs before people come with the "japanese people have a very different taste" excuse). And if opinions on the internet aren't a good proof, then just look at album and single sales and please don't come with the "waah.. but the ilegal downloads and iTunes are the reason" because they're not. Ayu don't have any Top 10 yearly single anymore or Top 5 yearly album, so it's obvious there's not as many people interested in her music (and that wasn't my initial point, my initial point was that people didn't like the music she was doing since My Story, but because people always think this info come out of the blue and they don't want to believe that, I have to be more especific).

Do you have any proof that it has not always been the disappointed people who have always been the most loud-mouthed, for every release? hehe.

Ah well, I know, she ain't selling as much, but she is definately not making bad music, even if the majority of the reviews say so. My words might not matter to you, but they do to me, she is not making bad music. You can go listen to your blogs if you want :P.

Haha, no, I'm not freaking out, just being a bit... tired xD

Do ANY females even GET CLOSE to Top 5 Album of the Year or Top 10 single? No, because the market seems to be focusing on the male artists nowadays. IMHO, Ayu's still going strong as one of the few females to consistently rank up there with the 'big boys' :]

very true. when is the boy-band phase gonna die?!

Tomorrow!

*secretly plant bombs under every boyband HQ*

When we're all old, Ayu's super-enigma-girl-child is gonna rule the charts. :3

And then the boybands will be phased out by the awesomeness.

yeah i think so too...

I don't think she's performing badly (regarding albums) as a big picture overall, but there are many people that didn't like (m)u in general, and that's why it didn't get to a million.

I wonder if Ayu's 'average' sales would plateau at around 1 million if everyone liked it (unlike (m)u)..

I hate boybands too, and I wish they'd just die out. Ugh. They're eating up everyone's money, leaving them poor and unable to purchase Ayu CDs.

Of course, people are more driven by hate than love. So it's only natural that you see negative blogs on (miss)understood.

True. :yes

Personally, I liked (M)U. Yes, other people might think it's bad music. Yes, it's not selling as much as her past albums. Yes, the cover is crappy. But really, who cares what other people thinks?

Anyways, females haven't really been in the top 20s that much anyways. As much as I love some of the boyband, the female-dominating era needs to be back.:o

Not to accuse anyone or point fingers, but people that generally didn't like the albums are normally the loudest.

As the sales of (m)u are around 300,000 copies lower than the ones of MS I belive at least a few of those 300k that didn't buy it is disappointed enough to make a few blog posts thrashing the album. "Only" selling 875k copies and creating a lot of negative blog posts doesn't make it bad music.

"Only" selling 875,000 copies. How "sad". I hope Ayu announces and confirms her next single soon or Kumi's going to completely eclipse her. I went to the bookstore yesterday and it was Kumi all over magazines like ViVi and some chinese ones.

And just for laughs (uncomfortable ones), here's the sales for Utada's First Love.

Utada Hikaru
First Love

1999/03/22 # 1 ( 2,026,870 )
1999/03/29 # 1 ( 717,610 )
1999/04/05 # 2 ( 761,340 )
1999/04/12 # 2 ( 614,440 )
1999/04/19 # 1 ( 428,520 )
1999/04/26 # 1 ( 222,230 )
1999/05/03 # 2 ( 229,550 )
1999/05/10 # 2 ( 238,270 )
1999/05/17 # 1 ( 298,360 )
1999/05/24 # 1 ( 258,780 )
1999/05/31 # 2 ( 205,270 )
1999/06/07 # 3 ( 188,810 )
1999/06/14 # 4 ( 121,810 )
1999/06/21 # 5 ( 91,380 )
1999/06/28 # 2 ( 127,430 )
1999/07/05 # 4 ( 132,830 )
1999/07/12 # 5 ( 121,700 )
1999/07/19 # 7 ( 71,750 )
1999/07/26 # 8 ( 55,780 )
1999/08/02 # 12 ( 41,330 )
1999/08/09 # 14 ( 37,050 )
1999/08/16 # 15 ( 28,980 )
1999/08/23 # 9 ( 47,320 )
1999/08/30 # 8 ( 42,500 )
1999/09/06 # 6 ( 41,270 )
1999/09/13 # 7 ( 35,680 )
1999/09/20 # 13 ( 23,400 )
1999/09/27 # 14 ( 21,150 )
1999/10/04 # 14 ( 26,250 )
1999/10/11 # 13 ( 20,820 )
1999/10/18 # 9 ( 20,430 )
1999/10/25 # 11 ( 19,930 )
1999/11/01 # 21 ( 10,170 )
1999/11/08 # 25 ( 10,210 )
1999/11/15 # 32 ( 9,750 )
1999/11/22 # 30 ( 9,880 )
1999/11/29 # 38 ( 6,980 )
1999/12/06 # 42 ( 7,100 )
1999/12/13 # 41 ( 8,300 )
1999/12/20 # 39 ( 9,670 )
1999/12/27 # 30 ( 12,070 )
2000/01/03 # 21 ( 17,560 )
2000/01/17 # 14 ( 53,380 )
2000/01/24 # 14 ( 12,240 )
2000/01/31 # 25 ( 9,010 )
2000/02/07 # 31 ( 8,490 )
2000/02/14 # 36 ( 6,350 )
2000/02/21 # 34 ( 7,710 )
2000/02/28 # 50 ( 4,500 )
2000/03/06 # 64 ( 5,430 )
2000/03/13 # 61 ( 4,020 )
2000/03/20 # 64 ( 3,960 )
2000/03/27 # 76 ( 3,190 )
2000/04/03 # 81 ( 4,400 )
2000/04/10 # 84 ( 3,990 )
2000/04/17 # 67 ( 4,150 )
2000/04/24 # 59 ( 4,140 )
2000/05/01 # 62 ( 4,530 )
2000/05/08 # 65 ( 3,900 )
2000/05/15 # 52 ( 5,310 )
2000/05/22 # 70 ( 3,550 )
2000/05/29 # 68 ( 3,450 )
2000/06/05 # 72 ( 3,650 )
2000/06/12 # 87 ( 2,890 )
2000/06/19 # 94 ( 2,460 )
2000/06/26 # 78 ( 3,070 )
2000/07/03 # 97 ( 3,150 )
2000/07/10 # 66 ( 4,230 )
2000/07/17 # 69 ( 4,020 )
2000/07/24 # 63 ( 3,860 )
2000/07/31 # 97 ( 2,860 )
fell from TOP 100
2000/08/14 # 93 ( 2,600 )
2000/08/21 # 92 ( 2,710 )
2000/08/28 # 86 ( 2,890 )
fell from TOP 100
2000/09/11 # 98 ( 2,610 )

[25 weeks off]

2001/03/12 # 92 ( 3,070 )

[3 weeks off]

2001/04/09 # 43 ( 8,160 )
2001/04/16 # 52 ( 4,660 )
2001/04/23 # 51 ( 4,740 )
2001/04/30 # 63 ( 3,840 )
fell from TOP 100
2001/05/14 # 96 ( 3,120 )

[58 weeks off]

2002/07/01 # 81 ( 3,400 )
2003/02/17 # 290 ( no data )
2003/02/24 # 291 ( no data )

Total sales: 7,650,215

Any artist who can get sales like the bolded text for a single album should be shot.

Now THAT's pretty wicked sales... o_o