I think both JE and Ayu's fan bases are being a bit overgeneralized. :) Now KATTUN is probably not the best example to use because I DO think that they are mainly supported by their hardcore female fanbase and less so the general public. However, there are plenty of other Johnny's groups that have the best of both worlds - massive support from their hardcore fan base AND massive support from the general public.

Ayu, in fact similar to KATTUN, I think has come to rely more and more on her core fan base as well and less on the general public. (though she still probably has more of a general audience than KATTUN does at least). Unfortunately though, I don't think her hard core fan base is enough to support 8 days at the Tokyo Dome. Maybe back in 2001, but even then I'm not sure.

Also, I think that if the number of 70,000+ Team Ayu members is accurate, then I would assume that the number of people who buy multiple copies of her singles and/or albums is probably larger than 5,000-10,000. Even on this forum alone, I've seen more people say that they have bought more than 1 version of Next Level than I was expecting to see.

becuz in here there'r also crazy fan of JE who never want their boyband beaten by ayu..LoL..

n bout dome tour i guess ayu still able to maintain it a week in a row..
tough may be it'll never happen becuz of her health condition..

But maybe and not even all of them bought 2 versions and not all the four.
Even here I'm sure not a lot bought all 4 copies.
Buying all the 4 is really expensive and let's not forget that the 4th version (the USB) was limited so not more than 15,000-20,000 could even buy 4 but 3to the tops.
If mentioning JE's fanbase vs. ayu's I'm sure that JE's fangirs are buying all of the copies (maybe multiple times?) and that's indicating it while their singles sell more than the albums.
In ayu's case the albums sell more than her singles and that's showing that less people (and perhaps some or even most) of her fanbase doesn't buy more than 2 versions.
Elseway we would see Days/GREEN sell at least 230,000-250,000, Rule/Sparkle like 180,000-200,000 and NEXT LEVEL would have a higher first week. It's exactly the opposite off what happen to JE's boybands, their singles sell more than the albums and in ayu's case the album sell more than the singles (and they did well).
ayu might caught more casual listeners according to the singles that sold well and even Days and Rule did well digitally, glitter,fated, talkin' 2 myself and decision achieved nothing like them. Better than 2007's singles.
I think it's the hardcore base (or fanbase) that is less supportive this time because maybe a lot didn't die over this album, at least not to buy more than 1-2 copies/versions.
I'm not sure that the 70,000 of Teamayu is that solid and every or even most of them are that hardcore. ayu-mi-x 6 is also a good indicator of that, if 70,000 or even 40,000 were hardcore the albums would sell at least that number.
avex might have relied too much on the 3 versions (and limited USB) too make it sell, but it seems that it's backfiring and most didn't buy more than 1-2 versions/copies.
Or else the sales would prove higher.
They do get a lot of money on the 2CD+DVD and USB versions. If someone buys the USB it's like he buys 3-4 CD onlys. It's also ayu's least promoted album, which prevents its potential to be heard by casual listeners and make them try it (or know) about it.

you of all people have no right to call others crazy... you are so obsessed with hating arashi i think you secretly love them actually :yes

You do realise Ayu barely cares about how well her album sells. She cares more about how successfully her tours do because that's where she gets most of her revenue from anyway.

That is 100% true!!
She said recently in a news thing on Yahoo that she is obsessed with lives this year, which is why she is doing her longest tour and participating fully with A'Nation.

I dont think she really cares how much she is selling.
And you know, we all dont realize that Oricon charts does not really show popularity anymore, since they dont measure digital sales, etc.
Oh well~~

never..
LoL..
girly boys arnt my ideal type..
LoL..

At least you can share fashion and hair tips with them. :yes

:laugh

everyone's a critic & for the record I don't find Johnny's bands girly .

ok maybe for A.B.C.Z's Senga , he's :laugh

that's right

I don't think she cares about album sales now . I could be wrong but probably her main priority at this day & age has been shifted to other avenues

I'm not referring to people buying all 4, only the most crazy would do that (just like only the craziest JE fans buy all versions of a single or album). But I'm talking about people that would buy at least 2.

But you are assuming that people haven't already bought multiple copies to begin with. How do we know that the current sales figures are not including multiple purchased copies? Maybe because if a lot of people did buy more than one copy, the number of individual people buying would be too scarily low to want to consider? We simply do not know how many people bought multiple versions of a single or album. All I'm saying is that I'm pretty sure it is more than 5-10,000 since fanclub members are always far more likely to purchase multiple versions.

I would say that they did average. Obviously Days did better, which is good because that's one of my favorites from her in a while. :) I think Days did recapture at least a bit of a casual audience again, but then they album seemed to lose it. Days did better for Ayu digitally than usual, but still numbers wise her rankings digitally have been average compared to other artists.

btw, a side note - Glitter actually did go Gold. So it at least equaled Rule. Together When actually didn't do nearly as well as those fake statistics said (ie millions sold), according to RIAJ, it got platinum.

Terrible drop. Please return to the top 10!

My sentiments exactly. I really thought Guilty was the lowest point and she had a good chance given that sales of G/D and MW were above Glitter/Fated. Maybe the Japanese aren't into that whole electronico genre or else they rather listen to another artiste do that genre. I believe it's a mismatch of what they expect ayu to do and what she is currently doing. I just hope the next album will do better.

Nobody is selling that great ><
Don't get why people are so disapointed with these sales like she was floping... All the solo female acts are selling like crap this year @_@

It's not only a matter of people disliking the album (even if her popularity is far from it's peak, before SunshineSlayer says something xD), but also a matter of poor sales in Japan's music market... Considering how other artists are doing, Next Level is not doing bad (it's not amazing either, but it's on the top of the solo female albums... losing only for Trick if I'm not wrong)

that's right . So far female solo wise , TRICK , NEXT LEVEL , BoA's BEST & USA and Utada's This Is The One were released & their sales have been less than fantastic

people should be glad that NEXT LEVEL's selling considerably well despite all this circumstances

I really cannot imagine when Yuna Ito released her 3rd album DREAM next month man . I wouldn't be surprised if the sales for DREAM will be worst than WISH & let alone HEART

Well BoA and Hikki did release their albums, and many females released their singles including ayaka, Ku, Namie Amuro etc. all sold less than both Rule/Sparkle and Days/GREEN.

oh yes I forgot about BoA's BEST & USA and Utada's This Is The One :dead2

I should correct my previous post now , thanks

You have to admit that NEXT LEVEL is a very different album compared to GUILTY / My Story. Maybe that scared off some people? If the American music industry has taught me anything, it's that you shouldn't experiment with other genres if you do so well with the one everyone loves you for.

GUILTY was an extremely dark album, so in a way, it isn't exactly "mainstream" either.

Of course, I won't disregard NEXT LEVEL to be extremely mainstream either.. so yeah.

Well, it's quite obvious that in recent years, solo female acts' sales have been on the down.

I mean, it's just like Ayu is losing much popularity as we know... so at least for me, I wouldn't be expecting stellar sales.

Though it was really disappointing cos I expected NEXT LEVEL to like beat GUILTY due to the success of Days/GREEN and to a certain extent, Rule/Sparkle. :dead2

yeah definitely

the mood & vibes that were given out in NEXT LEVEL & GUILTY are so different

I thought so as well Jun Xiang

guess I was wrong :(

I would not respect Ayu as much as I do if she never tried anything diferent... To me, it looks like she does the music she wants to, not the music she thinks people wanna listen to... If they like it, they buy it =)

And about the sales... Considering how everyone is selling, I think that in the actual context, NEXT LEVEL IS doing better than Guilty
If no female solo act sells better than Koda's TRICK this year, around 400k~350k will be the top sales for this kind of jpop act this year, and anything between 250k~350k will be the good sales standart