Haha, I'm excited, too. :yes Especially since I will be able to pick up the single on the day of its release :D That hasn't happened to me before (to pick up an Ayu release on the first day)...I was here in Japan when My Story had just come out, but I bought the CD a few days after its initial release.

"super cool" hmmmm :think

I was there the 2 weeks that Startin' and 2nd Sessions was released and I literally saw next to nothing for Ayu, while Koda was everywhere - they even had a street team out with mega phones etc, to sell it.

Well its' avex's choice between one of Ayu's singles and Koda's giant BEST album..

if I were avex I'd promote the BEST. Albums are only once a year... whereas singles are 3 - 4 times :]

I don't see a reason to call what that person said as stupid though, let alone the stupidest thing you have heard in a month. :) Even when I disagree with other posters, I don't say that they are stupid.

I think what the person was trying to get across though, is not that the public would remember when H is released, but that certain weeks out of each season tend to have higher sales perhaps? Or that, that particular week has always been a strong week for Ayu to release her stuff in and now she is not.

Yes, but it is still an example of Koda being favored. They could have held Ayu's single back so that they could promote it after Koda's album, but chose to release it at the same time and I think it really did negatively effect Ayu's single sales. A lot of the people that normally would have supported both Koda and Ayu, probably ended up just getting Koda's album instead.

If you have been following Ayu's career for a long time it is extremely odd to not see Tokyo, Shibuya in particular, absolutely saturated with Ayu at the time of a single release. So this was just strange to see the total lack of promotion anywhere.

oh icic...oh well..

" a change of plans"

^ not really Ayu's usual style of doing things, imo. But this new single should be very interesting...

I guess :/

Ayu probably procrastinated on the single and they tried getting it out asap by the time it was done~:p [perhaps the photoshoot wasn't done for a while..?] That could be a sort of explanation for the release of the same day as Koda :]

Or maybe they wanted to see how it'd fare and then base their releases from there, to not have Koda or to have Koda be able to release on the same day as Ayu..

Ok people, we really have to support this single to proof that Ayu's still there and proof that Koda is not the only person that Avex should favour.

yea you're right!!!I hate how Avex promotes and favours koda...and i hate her even more now!Ayumi,c'mon,proof us right!

I'll admit that I was over-the-top there. :)

If the material is good, then it'll sell well no matter what week you place it in. I see no reason why it's a big deal to the speaker that Kumi's new single might be released on the same week as H.

2006 has been an entirely different schedule for Ayu so far. Her tour started later than last year, and she released a single earlier this year. There's no way she can actually follow the exact same schedule for every year.

I agree with truehappiness, naturally, a company would want to promote an album more than a single. Even if it wasn't Koda Kumi, (let's say it was BoA or Ai) the album would still be promoted more

I disagree with holding Ayu's single back because their really weren't many dates where she was a shoe-in for #1. It was released at the perfect time because if it was released in February, let's say, it would have been too close to (m)u. If it was released in late March/Early April, the tie-ins would have been a bit useless. imo, March 8th was the perfect date for the released.
True, some of them might have got Kumi's album only, but I think if the single wasn't really well-received in the 1st place, then I don't blame those who didn't get the single.
Generally, I don't really see how releasing another artist album will affect Ayu's singles as most people will buy two, given that they like the material. IE: Hikki's BEST Album was released on the same day as Moments, yet Moments still did really well. True, it ended up being the least selling single of 2004 for her, but given that it was only a 1-Song single, and given that CAROLS (which sold only about 7000 more) was offered in 4 different versions (Moments only had 2), Moments did really well.

She lacks the CMs now, and she no longer has millions of teen girls that follow her, their still are people, but there aren't as much as 2001.

I don't see why they couldn't have waited even one week. Having two of their artists release on the same day would hurt sales more than waiting a week after the Olympics ended. It should be gospel at Avex that you never have Ayu, Koda, Namie, BoA, or Otsuka release on the same day as each other. I may be wrong, but I think that was the first time any of Avex's top artists have released on the same day.
But the majority of Kumi's fans are teenage girls and the average teenager is not going to have 5000 yen to spend on cds every week. And about the thing with Hikki - she is not in the same company as Ayu. My main concern is why Avex would want to put two of their biggest artists in direct competition with each other - that makes no business sense that I can see.

But I'm talking about the promo now compared to as recent as last year, not in 2001.

Also, I just want to clarify that I am not a Koda hater, as many Ayu fans seem to be. :) I actually like several of her songs and think she is fun to watch. It's just that so far this year, the way that Ayu's singles have been handled have made me scratch my head a bit.

I think they wanted to test the market, to see if Koda really has 'taken' Japan... but little did they know.. it's a BEST against a single! XD

Anyways, she's still all over when a release happens, isn't she? Just look at (m)u and B&D... there were posters everywhere and she had like secret lives for B&D.. and it was all so crazy :3

BLUE BIRD will more than likely sell a lot more than Startin' did.. maybe even double the total sales! x.x No real competition this year ~ :] Besides MoMusu and TOKIO :x

B&D and Startin' are bad singles to judge anyway since B&D was super close to the album and Startin' was released the same day as a big album. And who knows promotional street teams could account for a lot! O_O!

/faintsleep

Simple. NEWS was releasing the week after Ayu. Ayu would no way be getting #1 if it was released a week after. avex I think takes into consideration (a lot) whether she will be getting a #1 when it comes to release dates.

They did the exact same thing to Ayu, to Ai, just that her single was released for BEST ~first things~. Yet Planetarium still sold really well.

Arn't most Ayu fans from the older ages (like 20's)? Then doesn't mean that their fan bases are somewhat different?

Sorry, I thought you were talking about compared to her peak.

You should know Planetarium had a BIG tie-in. The Hana Yori Dango drama~

It was SUPER anticipated O_O!

I thought they were of all ages? :/ /points at her concert audience..

I know. But her 1st week sales weren't that spectacular either. 91k/315k.

Fine, if people didn't have enough money to buy the single, then surely we would've seen a more stable drop in sales for this single, which hasn't happened. It's about to drop from the top 200 in 1-2 weeks. Plus, the 1st week sales made up 62% of the current total so far.

Well I'm guessing since if these fans were teens during her peak, they would probably be in their 20's now.

I'm guessing most of her fans are in their 20's now.

And I think the Koda bashing needs to stop now. And why shouldn't they favor Koda? She's selling well right now and she's popular. If you think about it, it's smart marketing. Ayu has already reached her peak, if you remember, she can carry her own.

Koda does not have to do with everything Ayu.

I'm 17 now... So yeah most of her fans might be nearing 20s.

Yeah I dont think there's anything wrong with favouring Koda IF she can proof that she can really have great sales without using her sexy acts/lyrics... I mean she has released many singles right? Why is it that she's like this popular from last year or so?

Well every artist is special in their own way - it just happens to be that Koda has a very sexy image - which she decided to do herself. And there's only a few lyrics I know of that can be deemed "sexy" - but it's just like Ai Otsuka with her "cute" image - every artist has their own trademark style.

I really have no idea why her popularity suddenly jumped - but it was bound to happen I think since she had been in the industry for five years or so.