Actually I think Ayu is seen more now than she was a couple of years ago. Not as much as her peak period of course. Right now she is actually on the 109 building (I saw it yesterday); its the cover of Jelly magazine. She also has been more visible when passing magazine racks again and in billboards that are put up around the train stations; I think I've seen her more in Tokyo over the past 2 months than I have in the past two years. Unfortunately though it didn't seem to translate that much into higher sales for the new singles.

Yep, I meant older not old. Sorry.

@bluegie
Don't worry, I see you're male so you're not. Women over 25 that aren't married/taken are leftover christmas cakes.

from here


Never heard that about the 31st, but now Ayu even passed that age. :rolleyes

Ikr? :o Ayu is ayu. She's established enough for other girls to be labeled "the next Hamasaki Ayumi". :P

The Christmas cake expression is quite interesting lol. I wouldn't mind if Ayu were my Christmas cake at all, there certainly wouldn't be any leftovers though. :lech

I don't know about the Ayu and cake thingy but it makes me wanna eat cake :)
Any updates perhaps? :D

3rd Day
Position: #8
Sales: Later
Total Sales: Later

You know what, Utada Hikaru has the right strategy I think. She releases every so often, and tours once in a millenium or so... but she doesn't over saturate herself. Avex of course wanted to cash in on Ayu being regarded as the best thing since Yoshinoya in Japan, so in her early years (Especially 2001), they had her EVERYWHERE, I mean you couldn't go anywhere without seeing her face... even in countryside, they had posters of Ayu in some shops.

Because Utada's marketing made it so that they only focused on her music, her face wasn't that important. On the contrary, in the beginning, many people would make fun of her eyebrows or her nose, and of course most people regarded Ayu as MUCH more beautiful than Utada. But Utada's schedule was perfect in that there wasn't a chance for her listeners to get tired of her, and they didn't see her face everywhere...

But Utada's popularity with singles has also taken a major dive. In just one year, her single sales dropped more than 500,000 units. (Flavor of Life vs. Heart Station/Prisoner of Love). But her albums continue to sell more than Ayumi Hamasaki, due to a kind of hit and run tactic with Utada Hikaru... She releases something, and then kind of goes back into hiding.

Anyways, Utada is Utada, and Ayu is Ayu, and what works for Utada will not work for Ayu, and vice versa... but I think we are forgetting that in an era where only Johnny's can get over 200,000 single sales, 90,000 or 100,000 is not at all a bad number to be staring down. Ayu's solid, and yeah her sales are fluctuating a bit, but she is still one of the strongest artists out there, and consistent. The era of female idols is over, and I think the era for male idols will soon come to an end, with the exception of Arashi. People don't just like one artist anymore, or they don't even like the artist, just the song. "I like this song, but this song is bad, so I won't buy it," kind of thing. The era where one female idol's face is seen everyone is probably also over... for a while.

IMO female idol era is about to restart again, look how awesome AKB48 is. haha

Yeap, ayu sales are doing great considering everything.... Magazines and companies still are interested on her, her singles are far from selling bad, so are her albums and her tours are getting bigger instead of getting smaller...

Even if the image thing affect her on a bad way, that TV special about her lives, the lower tickets sales on A-nation'08 cuz she didn't performed on most dates, that TV show where she talked with Gaga and her tours becoming bigger over the years are IMO signals that even if she is not the hottest thing in the world anymore, she still is seen as a strong pop performer to Japanese people... And I always say this: When I watch Koda or Namie concerts, there are mostly teenager girls and young female adults on the audience... While Ayu's audience is getting more and more diverse... There always is younger and older people of both genders (well, on DVDs and photos people post over here)...

Imo Utada created for herself a musician image, while Ayu created for herself a performer image... And both women are making tons of money on their own way :P

2nd Day
Position: #6
Sales: 1,843
Total Sales: 74,640

3rd Day
Position: #8
Sales: 1,569
Total Sales: 76,209

it's just falling & falling... :(

wish to have greater sales than M/B

Well, it's not like it had any chance to rise xD

Hope it ends selling at least 90k...

^

yep =( but looking at the numbers I don't think so...

lol ahhh, depressing! :(

You are always acting like the singles will chart for 3 weeks xD
Relax, it will most likelly sell over 90k... her single chart live tends to be between 8-12 weeks....

I'm just not used to this nowadays ayu's sales...

Well... she is selling something between 90k and 110k right now... what is good actually, considering overall sales^^

Well, duh. Ever heared of a song that just kept rising and rising? XD

I'm kinda surprised that today's ranking is lower than yesterday. Still the sales are not bad :D.

We're not talking about ayu will become "the next blah blah". More likely it's about how ayu will do to herself in the future. We compare Matsutoya Yumi and Seiko Matsuda (two important figures in Japanese music history). The former seems more highly respected from other people. No offense to those who love Seiko, but I feel odd to see her dressing like a teenage girl on cd covers. I hope ayu will concentrate her music, making new directions, etc., instead of trying to capture her youth while she's in her 40s...

What? The age border for women has changed to 25 nowadays? Oh well even I'm male, I guess I belong to the x'mas cake group then :no. Why can't I just be a beautiful x'mas cake? Single isn't a bad idea. Look at ayu! She looks fine being a single lady :yes.

I think FOL is kinda exception. Since Dareka her single sales were never good (BML 80K on the 1st week, Passion <50K, Keep Tryin' <70K, etc.). I gotta admit though her digital sales are far better than her physical sales (many of them are million sellers in digital). But I guess you're right. Her hit and run tactic works really well on her. Not everyone can do the same thing (e.g., Mai-K).