Kuu's popularity is most definately not slumping. The true test will be with the release of her next album. It'll be interesting to see how the follow-up to Black Cherry will do sales wise. Unless, like it's already been said, i believe it'll be between Kuu and Ayu as to who is the top female solo artist for sales this year...that'll definately be interesting to see since we can assume that they will be close in rankings.

We can almost assume that Ayu will be releasing a new album in the next 6 months if not sooner so in which case it would at greatly to her sales for the year if she releases in November and if she can pull in an excellent first week. Let's hope her sales are higher for this next album compared to Secret.

Watch Hikki release another album and with Flavor of Life and the assumed success of Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry there would be nothing that could stop her from being the top selling female. I believe she deserves it though.

Judging by the two singles that have been released, it's likely that Kumizon's newest effort will be just in the Ai am BEST-A BEST 2 -WHITE- area. Unless she has a megahit like Koi no Tsubomi (or even 4 hot wave, to an extent), I don't think the first week sales are going to reach 400k.
LOVE PiECE, eh. I hope it can reach the yearly top 10, although I'm not totally sure about it as no single from that album has sold 200k.

Yeah, I know.. but in terms of female acts Hikki is really the only major threat (that hasn't released an album this year) to bump ayu down the top 10 yearly. ;]

Anything about the 23rd week?

*4 *,708,707 **1,046 A BEST 2-WHITE- / 浜崎あゆみ 07/02/28
*5 *,690,806 ***,948 A BEST 2-BLACK- / 浜崎あゆみ 07/02/28

1,399,513 in total.

Cool thanks! Next week the total of both arrive 1,400,000 at last.

okay next week ayu reach 1,4 million copies..
congratulation to ayu...

So with secret, Ayu has sold about 1.6 million albums this year so far :D

I think it's closer to around 1.8~1.9 million...didn't Secret sell about 670~700k?



Also...as far as Hikki being a threat, I don't know. We'll see what happens when she releases Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry. If she capitalizes on the popularity of Flavor Of Life quick, and releases an album before the year is out, then maybe? COLORS sold more than Flavor Of Life, but I think ULTRA BLUE didn't do as hot as it could have since she waited 4 years to finish the album.

^Well I doubt that Hikki will release an album this year. Secret did sell ~670k but only 170k of that counted towards 2007.

^Hehe! Right! I've decided to blame all my mathematical blunders on the fact that I didn't have math this year! LOL

Are there the 24th week stats?

I think that if Ayu plans her next album to be promoted on the basis of her 10th anniversary, it will outsell "Secret". Promotion for that next album has a LOT of potential to be stellar. TBH I didn't like A BEST 2 promotion; I know the trend in the industry right now is that BEST albums are selling less (with the exception of Kobukuro, geezus) but I think A BEST 2 could've been promoted better. Ayu's 10th album (counting Memorial Address) has a lot of potential for dynamic sales...I'm hoping it'll be around A BALLADS status, or at least (miss)understood sales.

And Hikki is usually slow with her album releases, so I don't think Ayu will have to contend with her when the 10th album is released. At least I hope not XD

How was A BEST 2 not promoted well enough? On the release day alone, she appeared on 8 TV shows. Plus, there were posters, promo trucks, booths around Tokyo.

yeah but
-A BEST 2 were two albums to promote.
-Two albums that cost the heavens (some people might didn't buy it because they want only both and not just one of them but they can't afford).
and
-Two albums to count their own sales.
imo for two albums they didn't get the highest promotion.
The promotion they got was good for one album, or album+single or dvd etc.

If A BEST 2 would be one I'm sure it could pass the million on its own (and sell around 1,200,000 or 1,100,000 at least.
ayu released them divided because she wanted to share most of her songs, she chose them herself and avex put them in a way they would sell more copies than just one would sell I suppose.

ayu's 10th anniversary album will be just one, so let's hope for A BEST 2+more promotion and it can do very well.

Lots of promotion does not automatically equal stellar promotion. Just because they had it plastered everywhere doesn't mean it was effective. I'm talking about the overall strategy; I personally don't think the covers were all that great, and they could've lowered prices by a bit for the first press editions. Those are examples of how they could've promoted it, besides just making sure its presence was ubiquitous. Promotion was decent, but it could have been better.

ayumisarael has a lot of good points too.

About the ayu vs Hikaru, Ayumi never really sold more than utada if you count the one by one releases, she outsold her totally because of her sheer number of releases that consistantly sold well, but not super amazing like hikki's. Like you mentioned usually utada waits much longer than ayumi to release singles and albums.

yay..next week A BEST will sell 1,4million

10 more weeks anf Blacj will reach 700k I hope so :D