It seems their fan campaign to get them #1 failed and this single seems to be selling the regular way their previous singles did :) And it's nowhere to be seen on Recochoku ^_^

^ awww... to bad for them :(

Im happy she get the #1 spot once again! :)
About on sales, im quite satisfied and not that disappointed since they show now the real figures.

It's gone to #2 already??? :(

Wow, the drop is good!!! (Yeah no drop is good but it's so small!).

talkin' 2 myself

1st Day:15,010 (x1.75) = 26,268
2nd Day: 9,987 (x1.75) = 17,477
3rd Day: 5,113 (x1.75) = 8,948
4th Day: 2,811 (x1.75) = 4,919
=
57,612

S/S 4 days outsells t2m 4 days in 6,150 by far!

no hope for this single anymore


TT

Why not? XD
The #1 streak will continue and it might outsell talkin' 2 myself. ^^
The songs (mainly Sunrise) also do good on the recochoku charts.

totally agree ! sales' re too terrible !

Why won't people get used to the new "good/decent" standarts?

haha ayumisrael we want it to do well but I guess the numbers just arent coming out the same!

gonna be her lowest selling summer single maybe??

thanks for the update btw :)

I would like ayu to do extremely well too but at this point, that we know that the single isn't a smashing hit single and avex have no special strategies for her, her popularity won't go up and so are the sales.
Looking generally on sales, specially of solo female artists, some of them there were super popular as well that sell the same or lower as her, it still shows that ayu still has a selling power, and the numbers are good.
Nothing amazing or above average, nothing bad, but good. =D
And she does that with just the normal 2 editions and with no first presses!

If you expect way higher sales I can understand how you feel (though I still don't understand why to expect way higher sales while there is no reason( It's ayu! is not a reason XD.)
Between her summer singles since 2004 the sales just went down between each other and from the reasons I said (no smashing hit single as we know and no special helps/strategies from avex) there shouldn't be any go up sales or even consistent sales expectation.

No expectations, no dissapointments. And again it's not like those numbers are bad or anything. =D
There are a lot of artists who used to be really popular and wish to have those sales now.

I bet that it will be :)

^oh well at least we all know that this single was weak... if it was a good single low sales would really upset me but is not the case this time

^ agree with you both. If Days sold like that I would be really sad.. But for this one, meh I dun really care. It doesn't have the potential to break 100K on the first week anywayz..



Yeah I know lol :P. I dun even know why I wrote a paragraph about NINKI when I know that you must know about it lol. Yeah I'm just weird today.

I dun, at least myself, hate the single. I guess I'm indifferent to it, and I dun extremely concern how well/poor it performs on the chart AS LONG AS ayu's getting another no. 1. I hope I would at least like it, but it's just hard to when everything is not up to standard.

Lately whenever I drive my old car, I put the old ayu cds and listen to all the tracks. I just finished LOVEppears and right now listening Duty. When I heard Far away, I was thinking how good it will be if ayu's releasing something like that.. And to tell you the truth when I didn't really like this song back in 2000. It's a normal song, but it has concept. The pv is plain, but it has a theme behind it... Anywayz, the thing I wanna say is.. I'm not wishing ayu to make old stuff.. I do wish her to invent something new with concepts (from the song, to the cover, and to the pv). Right now she's just doing something over and over, which is quite sad. We all know that she can make something great, it's just she choose to soften her music (ahh... yeah... her past work at emo and dark). It's either keep following her and praying for a good song as the next single, or just walk away. I kinda walked away in 2002, and came back to her music around mid 2003. I guess right now I'm not walking away, but just walking slowly... hoping that something she produced will make me running towards her asap :).

I agree with everything you said.
Sparkle though was something new to ayu (at least in the electro style) and it's one of her best up-beat songs imo though that's really the only something new she did putting an a full album that is electro influenced and it had a theme but I think that it's potential went down the toilet since it wasn't hit-ted with album hits and 3 hit single songs aren't enough (Sparkle, Days, Rule). NEXT LEVEL got lost in translation, mainly arrangements, PVs and maybe lyrics wise too even though deep lyrics aren't a neccesaty for me unless if they are pure crap and all rubbish. It's easy for me to relate to all kinds of lyrics.
Even though NEXT LEVEL had some random deeps and concepts behind it but yeah.
Execution.

Without getting in too much details I hope ayu will make some grandiose stuff again. I like what she does, but it wouldn't hurt to get smashing hits from her from time to time =D.
She does that once a year with one song but it's not enough and it's not getting special recongnisions always for some different and other reasons.
(I still think that Sparkle is one of the most under-rated single songs she has at least general public-wise).

some people are not realistic period . They expect that singles & albums are able to sell just as well as what happened 10 years ago :rolleyes

for me & to me , as long as she continues her #1 streak , who cares about sales ? she has enough $ to feed herself for the rest of her life

& with that , I rest my case

hopefully in the next 2 days to come , sales will go up slightly since it's usually known that after an artiste performed on MUSIC STATION , sales tend to improve to a certain extent

yEAH.. Thats not what i'm disapointing....
I mean the sales 1st week horrible. If Rule/Sparkle could hit 95K in 1st week, S/S must be higher or at least same because we all know R/S release excatly only 1 month before NL release...

Yes but still, it's been half a year since the single was released and as time passes (and nothing special is being created or doesn't happen) the sales go down... It's the normal drop between summer singles since 2004..
It's sad that sales can't be like few years ago at the moment but oh well. =\
We will have to be satisfied with the decent sales it gets.

garhh whoa...first time seeing her under the #1 since HEAVEN...but im really glad the fall isnt big...hopefully tmr it'll be better...

you mean Mirrorcle World.

Because this at the very least should sell more than Rule.

For what reason?

If it's because it's a summer single then I explained my point that since it's not a smashing hit and doesn't have any special strategy to maintain ayu's popularity, or the single's so it has the usual drops between the summer singles since 2004 just that this time instead of dropping in 100,000+ it will drop in around 50,000-65,000.

Also it might do better than Rule digitally. We will see if it will get certificated.

^ Sorry, for the same reasons someone else posted.(I didn't read the whole thread) Next to no promotion for Rule + album release already announced + Sunrise is a song Japanese are more likely to get into + its a summer song = it shouldn't be such a big struggle for it to even match the sales of Rule.

But Sunrise/Sunset don't have 3 versions or first presses, Unlike Rule/Sparkle that had them.

I remember that when R/S sold like it sold even being released a month before the album and that it had no promotion, it sold good with the help of the multiple editions/first presses. You changed your mind?

And being a summer single is still not enough, from the reason I mentioned above.
glitter/fated and BLUE BIRD didn't come close to their previous summer single sales.
S/S is doing it as well for the same reason.

No, that definitely helped. But Sunrise still should have been able to sell more first week.

Actually I see the opposite happening...a lot of the people who always argued that multiple editions didn't make much of a difference in her sales are now saying she should have released multiple editions for this single. :)

Rule/Sparkle was a better single than this in my opinion. And it was tied in with everyone's beloved Dragon Ball (even if the movie sucked). Even though I like Sunrise/Sunset, I'd still rather listen to Rule/Sparkle than this single.

Sunrise was #2 on the m-sta chart because that chart runs from like Friday to Thursday right? The previous week's releases always chart higher on the m-sta chart because of that, so unless the new singles out are selling significantly higher than last week's, they'll usually rank lower. B'z had a pretty steady week last week and Sunrise sales aren't all that hot so it's not really surprising that it ended at #2. Bold & Delicious/Pride was #4 on the m-sta rank on its debut week.

Not really, I didn't change my mind about it anyway :)
5,000-10,000 is not a big difference, imo.


And again, you are ignoring from the fact that the sales between her summer single each year decrease. fairyland (was it 327,000?), BLUE BIRD 256,000,
glitter/fated 166,000, Sunrise/Sunset around 100,000?
Yeah what's not normal in here and what ayu or avex did that it should be prevented?

(^I do agree that Rule/Sparkle is a better single myself).

^ I am comparing based on her most recent single sales. And based on those sales from the past 2 years, yes I would expect Sunrise to do better than its doing.

Usually Ayu is still #1 regardless on the Mstay ranking - very rarely has that not been so. That's why it was weird to see cause I didn't think B'z had been doing THAT well in their second week.

But the 2 10th anniversary singles had a large 10th anniversary marketing.
The whole 10th anniversary parade and promotion did help the singles a lot.
Rule/Sparkle was right after the 10th anniversary so it didn't do near D/G and MW did and it wasn't for example as mainstream as Days though it did do decently as leftovers from what was left from the 10th anniversary and the whole DBZ thingy even if the movie was awful.

Sunrise is pretty mainstream, but it's not her 10th anniversary anymore and it's already 8 months since it was over.

MW and D/G even got their shibuya 109 posters, no release after those got it.
After the release of D/G ayu wasn't shoved to the public like last year and the whole 10th anniversary marketing factor faded away.

Now that things got back to normal, S/S is doing probably like it should do.

For clearing something up, when I said I think that multiple versions don't enormously help I mean that I don't think that most people get multiple versions but it does help in the sense that people have a good selection. (I always mentioned it as well) but still with or without not a big difference as the figures showed.

Yes we all thought it would outsell Rule/Sparkle, but it seems it won't. We didn't expect B&D/Pride to sell around 1/3 of HEAVEN, but it happened and we got used to her sales not reaching 300k Maybe this is the next step or maybe it's another talkin' 2 myself. It's too early to say.

People should stop turning her sales into a drama, especially since it was already proven that her popularity hasn't been on an increase since who knows when. I am not really sure what SunshineSlayer is trying to point out atm. From what has been posted it seems that the Japanese fans didn't receive the single that well, considering they are mostly the ones who are buying Ayu's physical releases I don't see whats the issue here. On another hand it seems that the casual listeners don't mind downloading it, which is a good thing. And it's quite obvious B'z is doing really well even now.

Oh it's at #2 now, oh well. :)

The thing is...most of the counts that that ranking accounts for is their first week. Only the first 2 days of Sunrise were counted for that ranking vs 4 days of ichibu's first week + 2-3 days of its second week. Usually ayu gathers enough sales in the first 2 days to beat out the remainder of the previous week's #1, just not this time. Since the oricon chart runs tues to mon, that and the m-sta chart usually don't match up.

People just don't like the song... What's so wrong with this? Not every single she is going to release is going to be a big hit, and not every "it looks like a good seller" is going to be a good seller (on the other hand, sometimes songs that aren't very hit-like turn out being hits).

So, if people just don't like the new single, life goes on... She is going to release something better received sometime...^^

BTW: Even if Blue Bird sold less than fairyland, considering the Oricon hits ranking from the 10th anniversary, Blue Bird was better received... (it is one of her top10 hits acording to that)

^
this.

I love Ayu but I still think that's an awful single :no
I'll wait the next XD

Sales arent too impressive. Funny, I thought Japan would eat Sunrise up (maybe they are... digitally). The performances have been pretty good, with lots of energy and audience participation but maybe if she stops that peace-sign pose at the end.
So long as she bags another #1...

but will it even be possible to bag #1 by the end of the week? i'm going to be really disappointed if this breaks the streak. >.<

Here's the current sales rite now:

1 浜崎あゆみ -- 63762
2 モーニング娘。 -- 42011
3 B'z -- 40652

Practically it means B'z has to outsell ayu by ~23000 copies during the next 2 days, which I really doubt.
And even ayu sells 0 for the next two days, I doubt B'z can pull off 20000 on Sat and Sun..

Wow B'z are selling that much on their second week?! Japan is in love with those guys xD;

Meh, to be honest, I'm already looking forward to Ayu's next song. :)

Me too.. I'm looking for an autumn ballad. She didn't release any autumn song for the last two years. I miss songs like Dearest, Voyage, JEWEL (it should be an autumn song, somehow her eye disease delayed the schedule and it came with a winter pv in the end...).

^ I'm glad it wasn't a single! If JEWEL came out as a single it would have given people further reason to complain about Secret! Which I feel was a great album. I'd like to see Ayu experiment with music again! NEXT LEVEL spoiled me... Yeah everyone was buttsore about it at first, but you gotta admit, it at least was different, out there and something she hasn't done before (to that extent).

For me I would like a ballad for the autum for the A-side but also something more weird on the B-side. Maybe something like alterna or Ladies Night or maybe some more rock-ish single. Would be fun to see her experiment some more.

(But yes of course, I would LOVE to hear CREA again, ballad, pop, rock doesnt matter. ^^ )

You seem to forget that people buy singles on the quality of what's on them as well, not just on promotion. If promotion was the only thing that mattered in the music industry, life would be a lot easier for a lot of artists. My point is, Rule/Sparkle is one of the best singles she's ever released, in my opinion. Both those songs are top notch and Sunrise/Sunset are just nowhere near as good or innovative.

And there was promotion for Rule/Sparkle, she had billboards, a video on music TV AND it was included in a hollywood movie. And what about the promotion you can't see? Newspapers etc.? For an artist like Ayu, it's not hard to find out what she's releasing something new. That's enough promotion to drive sales.

it's always interesting hearing non-japanese people's opinions on ayu's "best" music, because it usually goes towards her rockier songs and/or more "western" sounding songs, usually not including her ballads. While people in Japan think of ayu as a "ballad" queen more than anything. (though, my general image of ayu is "remix" hahahah, but not so much anymore :P)

If you ask Japanese people what songs they like by ayu, it's usually voyage, seasons, heaven, etc. The chances of people saying ourselves, because of you, rule, etc. are so low.

also, many people in japan think of ayu in terms of fall/winter music rather than summer.

These factors could play into the whole low sales thing.

but i just feel like it's not that great a single. therefore, people aren't buying it. just because it's a "summer" song doesn't mean it's good, you know?

^Thanks. That's interesting to know!

Thank you for this smart post!

I guess I just don't really care if other people like the single. I still like it, so I still bought it! I guess that's all I can do!

Most of my Japanese friends LOVE M... Her ballads thrive there :O

Amen! I was starting to think I was the only person in the world who not only liked that album but thought it was one of Ayus best. Now if only we could get an experimental ballad like forgiveness...

thank god .. ^_^

weekends! sale might increase? :)
japanese people like songs like Days.
maybe ayu should make another song like days xD

Seeing that #2, I'm feeling a bit nervous.

thanks for those informations at least its number one no mather the number of sale

B'z's single released last week, so we shouldn't worry as long as Ayu is on top among the same-release-date artists...

I don't think there is a chance of B'z getting a #1 this week and MoMoSu are out of the question as they actually dropped under Gackt who was selling 3k yesterday. There is no reason to be worried for her streak, she'll most likely sell at least 12-13 this weekend (total) which means the single will outsell talkin' 2 myself sooner or later, especially now that Ayu's releases seem to have an extended chart life, mostly due to the whole market's standards dropping. Hopefully another 100k+ single and let me remind you that Namie Amuro's WILD/Dr. didn't outsell Rule/Sparkle and considering that Namie is very popular in Japan it should've outsold it. Clearly there is a factor we're missing out on here ;)

I think this is the first time ever in ages that Ayu has lost her number one daily position to something released a week before on oricon. Comparing songs..Dive beats Sunrise/Sunset though imo.

I think I'm one of the few people that agree with SunshineSlayer...this single should've blown Rule/Sparkle out of the water. There's quite a few reasons it should sell better too...Prepare for a long post!

Rule/Sparkle did get first press versions with a CD drawing (that some didn't like), but one extra version with different remixes shouldn't affect sales that much. Sunrise/Sunset's one remix is way better than all of Rule/Sparkle's remixes.

Rule/Sparkle had way better covers than Sunrise/Sunset.

Rule/Sparkle had 4 magazines, while Sunrise/Sunset has 3.

Rule/Sparkle was released a month before NL and didn't have the Sparkle PV on it. Ayu's upcoming album is probably next year and this single has two music videos. Why bother buying Rule/Sparkle when you can wait a month for Sparkle's music video.

Upbeat songs and ballad songs are better received in Japan than rock and experimental songs like Sparkle. Sparkle also had a massive difference in Ayu's typical lyrics (subjective as to good/bad for the single).

There was one performance of Rule (a month after) which was really promotion for the album and not the single. Sunrise/Sunset is going to have 6 TV performances. It also is being performed at a-nation along with Rule, but Rule/Sparkle is no longer charting. There's even Sunrise/Sunset smoothies!

Sunrise/Sunset has 4 tie-ins. Rule had the DB movie (Rule probably promoted the movie better than the other way around) and Sparkle had the Honda Spark commercial/Ayu cardboad stands/clearfiles. Technically Lumix hasn't been released yet, but there'll be commercials and Ayu stands in stores. Sunrise is on Dandy Daddy. There's the two online download sites for Sunrise/Sunset promotion. It's hard to tell which tie-ins do a better job though.

Sunrise/Sunset buyers get a free poster at mu-mo, and TA members get flip-flops. Rule/Sparkle got a memo pad, and maybe something else I'm forgetting. I'd prefer the sunrise/sunset prizes myself. There's also that mobile ayupan available for download that's modeled after Sunrise/Sunset.

Billboard promotion is probably similar between the two singles. No Shibuya 101 for you two!

There's reasons why Rule/Sparkle sold the way it did, but there's really no reason why Sunrise/Sunset is selling the way it is other than its ugly cover and lack of meaningful lyrics (which I don't think Rule/Sparkle had either). We get that Ayu's popularity is declining (I think SunshineSlayer understands that better than half the people on these forums), but a drop in sales, especially compared to Rule/Sparkle is disappointing. It's just that this single had higher expectations since there was way more hype in this single.

"Sunrise"/"Sunset" is her worst single and they are the first Ayu-songs I don't listen to. The only reason to me buying the single is the Mash-Up-Mix.

To me the sales are ok for this single, as everything about it is just so bad. The songs, the PVs etc. As many others already said before. It should just get number 1 for the streak and then disappear forever.

this

#2 again

*1　6,115　B'z
*2　5,606　浜崎あゆみ
*3　3,861　モーニング娘。

　　　　　　　　 浜崎　　モー娘　　 B'z　　 GACKT　 EXILE
――――――――――――――――────────
10（月）　　　---,---　---,---　**8,228　**2,498　**2,541
11（火）　　　*36,552　*23,301　***,***　*13,534　***,** *
12（水）　　　*12,873　*10,946　**8,980　***,***　***,** *
13（木）　　　**8,104　**4,784　**6,957　***,***　***,** *
14（金）　　　**6,233　***,***　**6,547　**3,506　***,** *
15（土）　　　**5,606　**3,861　**6,115　**3,506　***,** *
16（日）　　　
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
推定売上　 *69,368　*42,892　*36,827　*19,538　**2,541

what kinda complaint would people give to Secret?? I can't recall if there's a strong hatre when that album was released. To me Secret is a good album. Yeah it wasn't experimental, somehow it flows pretty well.

NEXT LEVEL.. well it really isn't something new off ayu's discography. For me it's sort of like LOVEppears, with some new twists. However, I'm quite glad that she jumps away from the rock/metal/whatever heavy music she has been doing for the past couple of years. The problem for NL is that ayu doesn't give a full force. She's like a bit of holding back while making this album. So it doesn't give me a super blast. In the end I still prefer this album over GUILTY.

#2 again is ok since the drop was so little. She'll be getting weekly #1...so that's great. :D

Where did the weekend boosts go? :thud Even if it sells 2k tomorrow it's beating talkin' 2 myself's first week sales ^_^

Hmmn... I wonder about that as well.. but looking back I think the weekend boost has been fading for a year.. (please don't count MW's weekend abnormal sales cuz avex did something to boost up the sales). If you compare all artists' sales on Fri and Sat this week, most of them dun get a boost (except momosu, from 2900 to 3861).

Let's have a guess... back then when there was no digital downloads, I think weekends were the time when casual listeners buy singles. Nowadays some of those casual listeners prefer downloads, so the boost is getting away...?

so stressful not to see weekend boost...but this single deserve it...hahahha

Yeah, it's been happening for months now, so you might be right + Sunrise had a jump back to #1 on Chaku-uta Full.

Sunrise/Sunset isn't at #1 now? wow. :D Does she has other singles that has done the same thing? I haven't really followed her singles' chart life that much I could say I know anything so I won't.

This is true but I personally don't care. But I gotta say that now that Ayu isn't the ultimate sales' queen I like her more. To me she's like a normal artist now. I have noticed this since she has some struggling at times on charts imo. But it's ok. It makes this more exciting imo.

If you really like an artist you don't need to have standarts for liking him specially if he/she sells high or low. Liking an artist =/= sales.
Mirrorcle World was the last to be #2 daily for some days on its first week.

Also, isn't namie your 2nd favorite artist? She just sold a million and a half with an album and that's way over what a normal artist sells, why not liking her less then?

im sure sunrise will have some staying power in the charts as the drama airs the song in its opening sequencev doesnt it? those who hasnt warmed up to it still has time to do so then :yes

[QUOTE=ayumisrael;2056983]Source: Oricon

ayumi hamasaki Total Sales By Far of 2009


Euh it's here xD All her products of 2009 = 868;209 in August So near a million, she can reach it I think =)

With what S/S sold until now ayu already sold 937,577 copies in 2009 oricon year. :D

she probably won't be able to sell a million only with S/S, but the next single will definitely do it. *crosses fingers*

@ayumisrael: I think you have misunderstood Powwo... I guess she just means it's more interesting to see Ayu as "normal" in the charts and all rather than being "untouchable" as she had always been. haha

Hmm... #2 again. This is B'z's 2nd week right? Are there some weird promotions or something going on for them now???

^ well, B'z is after all very popular in Japan :P

I wanted to say something, but forgot what >.<

WIll S/S be able to get no1 for weekly?

the 1st A-side of B'z song ie. Ichibutozenbu is currently used as the theme song for the drama Buzzer Beat which stars NEWS's leader Yamashita Tomohisa aka Yamapi as the lead role

the drama airs every Mon on 9pm from last month which started on the 13th all the way to next month

so that's why in a way sales are still pretty consistent for B'z

but anyway despite the fact that S/S is #2 still , I think it shouldn't be a problem to get #1 overall in the weekly chart which's all that matters to me

:roflmao

it will come back to you dude :laugh

its constant..thank goodness hahah

^ Yup. That is at least why their sales are higher than of their few previous singles. Sadly I think it's gone for good XD

Oh well, what's important is that it will be #1 weekly. =D

I remember B'z latest single release a week after MW release as well but their sales just less no more than 1K compared MW. and this time they release a week after ayu again but leaving ayu toooo far..
lolz

GREAT NEWS
Sunrise is offcialy the number one song on iTunes Japan!!!!! It beat out Noriko Sakai's song (one of the only few left on iTunes after her drug incident). Thats really huge since Sakai fans have been showing their immense support. the Pv retains the tops spot as well!

Hopefully there's not much of a problem for Ayu, only because that B'z single was released one week ago, so there isn't any way they're going to reach number 1 again, effectively making Ayu having 21 singles in a row #1, and already over 30 singles #1, but there's still five singles left to break the #1 singles-in-a-row record...

*sigh* i forgot that there was still 5 to go... with the way sales keep declining, i wonder if that's possible. but you'd think avex would want to capitalize on an achievement like that, so something's gotta happen.

Just that I was expecting higher sales than this that would at least pass Rule/Sparkle. Just like you agreed with.

And thank you, krazeyo. :)

You would hope the same would happen for Ayumi then. :)

But to answer the original question, no there has been no special promotion for B'z. Really this single hasn't been promoted at all outside of it being a drama theme song. The quality of the song is better than B'z last few singles though imo.

Oh oke :) We can only hope for some longevity now.

Yeah longevity... I hope for it too.

SunshineSlayer, I have a super off-topic question to ask, but do you know/heard of Hata Motohiro? His single is flopping hard surprisingly... Halation debuted at #7, and now it's at #15... is the single really bad or something? I'm downloading it now, but I've heard the song, and it's nice... so maybe you've heard something about him? lol

lol, yeah that is from out of left field. :) But no, I've actually never heard of him.

^ Oh man, I wish someone who knows much about J-Pop music scene would tell me more about him lol.

Well, anyway, isn't it really scary to know she performs so much for Sunrise... but they aren't exactly helping? Sometimes it feels like a good TV tie-in (B'z) helps more than anything lol.

^ Well, Ayu's was supposed to be a good tv tie in too, but in her case it doesn't really seem to be helping. I think the tv lives not helping much may just highlight that not a lot of new people are running out to buy her singles, but rather her same fans that usually buy her stuff. Or who know, maybe the tv lives ARE helping and the sales would actually have been lower without them.

I'll try to look into Hata Motohiro. :)

Legal downloading is so very popular in japan !

Yeah it could always be worse without any TV promo - I guess we'll never know for sure. However looking back at the sales of Gackt's singles from Jesus onwards, he did appear on many Music and variety shows and the only single that has sold a lot was Journey through the Decade which was tied-in with Kamen Riders. So I am slowly starting to think that TV promo isn't really doing much for the sales if you're not really popular. I've noticed it's pretty much the same with BoA, Koda Kumi, Hitomi Shimatani, Ai Otsuka and many others too.

Also, not all the drama tie-ins are equivalently efficient, of course it depends on how much people like the song as well, but considering Sunrise is doing really well on Digital charts as many have pointed out (on both iTunes and Recochoku) I'd say the song isn't an issue here. So no, I wouldn't say we should expect the same from B'z and Ayu and their respective tie-ins. Hana Yori Dango, Otsuka, Hikki and arashi are a good example too. Still I think that the main reason for the low physical sales could be as some said the fact the fans didn't love the single that much, which isn't the first nor prolly the last time they don't.

Well, it doesnt matter how much you promote a product if people don't like it, they won't buy it... Considering that's on Ayu's case it's music, promoting is important to make people know the song, but they will only buy it if they like it...

Pretty much like forgiveness... It was promoted to death but still is one of Ayu's major flops

still need at least 2 years for ayu to break the record. hopefully she can break the record before her popularity decline

watashi mo sou omoimasu. i think so too.

Well, who cares about sales if she's guaranteed no. 1 weekly, which is, after all the most important no. 1. :P
Surely, not the most impressive, but the most important. Low sales Ayu doesn't bother me. :D

Excuse me but Seiko Matsuda only got 24 consecutive #1 singles. Her streak ended by Tetsuya Komuro's "GRAVITY OF LOVE". Seiko's "Precious Heart" actually managed to sell more than TK's in the end due to longevity on the charts, but the single never reached first position at the time of release. However, it was always extremely close between the two.

Not necessarily. If let's say that Ayu releases one more single this year and three next year then she will, assuming they all reach #1, already break the record in 2010. It would be welcome if Ayu slowed down slightly so that Seiko could maintain the record for awhile longer, I mean to lose it during a milestone like the 30th Anniversary (1980-2010) would be a bit unfortunate perhaps. :no

^That's probably why they might have aimed on 2011 but we will see. XD
Maybe it will be like 1 more single this year, 2 the next and at least 2 more after that.

Well, in Gackt's case I think it can safely be said that his popularity has fallen a lot and that musically his sound has been kind of stagnated for a while now. It seems he is kind of in the same boat - only his hardcore fans seem to be buying his stuff and not new people. Digital download wise though he seems to be doing better than he usually does (at least with the kamen rider songs) since I don't really remember ever seeing him much in the digital rankings.
B'z song too though seems to have done very well digitally, especially for them in that area. I must say, drama producers must wonder whether having an Ayu song is the kiss of death or something for your ratings. It seems the only drama that got good ratings while using one of her songs was the one that used Love Destiny I think. Not that Ayu's song is at fault of course, but it may start getting looked at as bad luck or something.

^to be honest, I dun think Gackt is that popular in terms of music. I think he's popular because of his personality and his fashion..



I was quite surprised when forgiveness sold only 100K on the first week, and my brother (at that time) thought she could retired anytime soon. Looking back, 2003 was the year that ayu's sales had "obvious" decrease. From a almost 2 million RAINBOW to a not selling A BALLADS (well yeah consider that era), and & sold only around 330 - 360K on the first week compared to H (over 500K), then a horrible selling forgiveness. Even tho it seems like No way to say's sale was pretty decent, in fact it was half of Voyage's sales.

Back to the topic. So far the sales are:

1 浜崎あゆみ 69368
2? モーニング娘。 45872
3? B'z 46767

Right now we don't really know the exact sales right now (the multiple is around 1.00 - 1.03), but I'm pretty sure ayu will maintain no. 1 for the week, while B'z will beat momosu in the end.

Right, I mean that even in terms of his own fanbase. Because so many of his songs have sounded the same lately that only the most hardcore fans are likely to buy them.

Funny thing is that I would say the promo is working. Like I said, Sunrise slowly creeped to number one on iTunes. Know before you blow your whistles I know iTunes isn't the only digital download place available but it still its a fairly big deal. And the promo is meant to appeal to non fans and casual fans, not the hardcore fans who know about her already and will buy anything. The non fans and casual fans usually buy digitally not physical, thus the slow rising of Sunrise. So that makes me think the promo is working. of course that'll probably get beaten to the ground by someone but its just my opinion.

I wouldn't say his songs all sound the same...in terms of recently the only song I can hear sounds similar to another is Oblivious which sounds a little like Last Song... XD

But yeah, B'z are gonna over take MM, but at least Ayu is gonna get weekly number 1.

Yeah... and that's how I link to the "no weekend boost". Causal listeners don't buy physicals anymore. Unless that particular single is a must buy, most people will just purchase digitally.

On the other side, it shows this single doesn't appeal to some casual ayu fans (the ones who usually only buy albums, and physical single occasionally). Probly they just download the song instead of buying physical copies this time..