You were right, immel. They haven't canceled my order yet, but I got an email as well:
Oh, well. Re-ordering is not a big deal. It was a fun secret and I have high expectations for the new album. :)

I am glad that to listen this news!!!
SO nice

wouldn't the Born To Be... making of just might include the nearly naked man?? lol.

Well, at least I know what you will be looking for in it :D.

it just came into mind!! I just FINISHED watching BTB and I just posted that comment :P

This HAS to be the secret, I don't care what anybody says :yes

I can't wait for the full album and all the new PVs and such!!

I'm sure it'll be awesome

will you guys watch the pVs before you got the DVD? This time I want to wait...I couldn´t stand (m) u^^

Well, we know the secret now. I'm kind excited, but now I am worried about my pre-order.

I will do what the discussions on AHS require of me :D.

Yes. Why would I wait? =P

Wow, full length! XD
And the title makes it sound so mysterious :yes

oh, yeah, fine
I don't like this messing-up thingy
it makes not confused,
it just points out, that Avex itself doesn't know what it wants
damn, poor Ayumi :shakehead

Didn't Ayu make the decision to make it a full album? o__o;

It's hard for us to know if it was a planned publicity stunt from avex+Ayus side, or if Ayu first told avex that she didn't have material enough for a full album, but later figured out she actually has.

What's being posted everywhere by her and avex can very well just be a publicity stunt, in order to raise the sales as the album will get the double attention when it's sort of announced twice.

What we decide to trust or not doesn't matter in the end, avex/Ayu pulled their trick, we fell for it and now we are happy they changed it. I think everyone knows they are happier about this album now than they would have been if it was just another full length album from the start.

As for your question, if it was Ayu herself who made the desicion... no one on this side of the world will never, ever, know.

The secret behind Secret...

yeah, it doesn't matter whether it's a publicity stunt or not. As long as she's donig something for us, we are happy :P.

Avex is so stupid:no . I guess AYU already has songs that just needs finishing touches on it or this album probably wont be released this soon.

From what I've seen them accomplish I think pretty much the opposite of that about them.

I think she might very well have a few songs left to record. Recording the vocals of a song takes a day, at most. You can easily do several songs in a day if the vocalist is having a good day. I don't see why people think she'll have to rush when it's over a month left. You can work on several things simultaneously.

The graphical art of the album can be compiled in a few days by a graphical artist, I'm pretty sure they already have the photography material to work with.

She still got a few weeks to put the finishing touches to her song lyrics before recording them, although she's probably pretty stressed if she still got lyrics to write, as they have to start making the CDs soon, the stores likes having them a week or so on beforehand to get everything ready.

Still plenty of time, I think. But it's very possible the people in avex might feel stressed that the time is about to run out, even if they don't have to hurry they just migh concentrate a bit harder.

My hands work by themselves today, I don't know what makes me keep on writing all this : ).

wowness...I'm in a little disbelief but THERE YOU HAVE IT; Ayu can keep a secret. Ooh, If what Ayumiko thinks is true Ayu will have a lucky number of 777 for this album. 7 new songs, 7 PVs & 7 making ofs. Sorry, I love that number and it's been lucky for me so maybe it'll be super lucky for her too. Maybe she'll even make more PVs...O.O.

As a publicity stunt it IS pretty silly though. NO other than her fans would know of the album by now. Not everyone in Japan will follow hamasaki closely. If they had already put up posters etc, then changed it, it would've been a real stunt. THis time I don't think it's planned. Or there's some miscommunication.

I don't think it is silly. Well, most of the non-fans wouldn't buy the album either way (with or without public stunts). Plus many of them most likely don't even know she was even going to release a mini. So who cares about them? avex had to target her FANs, not the non-fans (would you spend hours talking about god to someone who clearly doesn't believe? The only way they can target the non-fans is when the songs start playing on the radio and TV, if the new songs match their tastes then.). Some of her fans though were quite undecided whether to buy the mini-album. I've seem many people changing their decisions to actually buy it now. And the ones who would buy it anyway seems to be much more eager to get it now. It worked. The idea of releasing a full album has sparked interest in people since I could notice most of the fans were kinda not very enthusiastic about awaiting to listen to only 2 more new songs (1LOVE andd probably, Secret)

i agree with your thoughts.. i bet this really sets the bomb to wake up ~90% ayu fans at this stage. and I guess if the hardcore fans spread the teamayu message around Japan, other not-so-hardcore fans may have interest on this album as well.. :P

There's also the fact that it'll (most likely) make it to the morning news. I don't know what kind of programs you have in the US, but in Sweden we have something pretty similar to what exists in Japan. The morning news handle or discuss all possible kinds of things that have happened that might interest people, instead of just the important ones, say, for example, that Ayu is releasing a new album. Announcing that Secret is a full album instead of a mini album will make it to those news as a second apperance for Ayu, after the first announcement of the album.

Just curious though, how many per centage of her sales do you think come from fans that keep as updated as that? I know that the japanese fans are better at keeping up with their artist, but surely some must come from outside fan sources.

I believe that in the end, this is going to be an album of material that was meant to be dispersed throughout this entire year [sort of like how the BLUE BIRD third-a-side went missing, but was in need of refinement]~ It's not like Ayu hasn't been doing anything since BLUE BIRD released back in June. It's been 4 months+ since then, and I think that's enough time for her to have come up with quality lyrics for some quality songs <3

People who say this album is going to be rushed... it really shouldn't matter if it was or not. What if people were to tell you [not true, actually I don't know] that MY STORY's album tracks were all recorded in the span of a month? Would you then suddenly change your opinion of the entire album just because they were recorded in a small timeframe? This isn't America, where you can record in and out of the studio for a period of a year/s only to release an album every year if you're lucky. I think that this whole mini-album -> full album situation has morphed the issue of having not enough songs to satisfy fans to an issue where people don't want songs if they're going to be made in such a short time.

Suck it up people, seriously. You're not gonna be very happy with the album if you keep on thinking "This was recorded in 20 days! Nasty." I think the announcement of any album at all should've just been kept until now, with no unveiling of Secret till they were actually sure >> But then again, the mini-album looks like it was seriously meant to be what it was.. I don't think this has really happened in the history of avex until now [a mini -> full album even after official announcements..]..

I think the percentage might actually be noticeable, considering that TeamAyu is supposed to be pretty big... yeah, you get it. However, in general, no, we forum dwellers are a one of a kind breed, bathing in a luxurious mess of information... yeah, you get me again, lol.

Indeed, she's had plenty of time for all of it.

Cookies.

Blunt words there at the start, but neat all the same :).

Well, it would appear that Yesasia is a savior! <3

Instead of having people reorder, the preorder price from before didn't change! So those who ordered early are privileged.. I guess.

[QUOTE]

^ Yay for those who preordered earlier!

Rushed or not, what matters is that the songs are good. :yes

What matters is whether or not she makes a kickass interlude.

I WANT A KICKASS INTERLUDE.

Can you say RANDOM?

Haha, yes, the interlude is the key :).

A good introduction to the album will put you in the right mood to like the rest of it.

Probably, I could have erased that piece completely or skipped quoting Anthony, but I decided to just include it anyway, I said what I wanted to say to *petit* already :).

ayu's introductions never disappoint me. from LOVEppears --> MY STORY, all her intro are excellent :D.

YAY! w00t!

I am so excited that it is going to be a full length album.

>_< My post was a bit unclear. Eh, YOU as in anyone. =P But thanks for replying immel. ;)

Also by out side of fan base I ment people who may have attended a concert, bought one record because they liked it, but not hardcore fans. I can't believe that every japanese is a hardcore music fan of some artist and never buys "outside" fandom. I would guess at least most of the first week sales are hardcore fans, but the rest I'm not sure of. If that's the case then fan sales would be about 50 - 60 % and the rest "people" or interested people sales. The fans will buy almost anyways, so to me the most important people to reach are the others, some of which may become fans of course. Like people are asying, the cover might be very important to attract these people.

You're not saying that you get news about Ayu on your Swedish morning news program, right? ;)
Wouldn't that be cool? There's a cable program here in the US (not sure what chanel) that broadcasts new from Japan in English, but unfortunately they rarely talk about pop-culture. :no I gotta get all my Ayu news from here.

I think that Ayu's 'fans' make up about 30% of her total sales.. the rest are probably individuals who found Ayu's music alluring in some way for that album..

On a side note: From this one online poll, it appears that the Japanese public really dislikes A Song for XX and RAINBOW.. as well as I am..

And they really like MY STORY..
http://vote3.ziyu.net/html/ayuippo2.html

that's awesome, thanks for sharing

Yeah, I understood that, but I ended up deciding that I was an as good anyone as anyone else, so I took the opportunity to reply :).

Cute, haha :D.

Indeed, although, I don't think you have to be a hardcore fan in order to buy an album of your favourite artist. Piracy isn't that wide-spread, there's still people who buy CDs because they want good music, and because they know Ayu provides that. Then, there's ofcourse the question about what the definition of a hardcore fan is... reminds me of the "are you a true Ayu fan"-thread, lol.

No, lol :D... but the same kind, the essence, nice to see you around reading random stuff :). NEAT signature!

That's definitely very interesting. Huh. Of course, it's a very small percentage of her overall buyers, obviously, but...

wow..that's interesting..I thought I am.. sold the most? o.O

Awesome that MY STORY, my favourite album, is on the top.

Rock is the way to rock :D.

Weirds me out a lot that LOVEppears is so high in that votation.

It's a poll for favorite album, I believe.


Her highest album sales =/= that list.
The sales from highest to lowest are:
Duty
LOVEppears
I am..
RAINBOW
A Song for XX
MY STORY
Memorial address
(miss)understood :p

Nope, Duty did.

^ Duty was her 'prime' album :3 :yes



i hope Secret gets above MY STORY or something because of the minimal singles x3

My thoughts exactly. I liked how Secret was going to be a mini-album, but I'm not upset that it's going to be a full length one.

Those who ordered from YesAsia are pretty lucky. I was sent that email saying I'd have to re-order, and I can only pay by cash via registered mail. And get this- I sent out my order the day BEFORE they change anything.

I'll let you know right now, I've already sent an email asking how CDJapan is going to work this out, because I'm sure as hell not going to pay an EXTRA $35 on top of $25 already.

this is really confusing...cd has 14 tracks, but the dvd is still "contains ALL 7 tracks and 7 makings of"....

but i am glad if the cd really has 14 tracks.

avex is listening to us!!!! yeah!!

Confusing?

I thought (m)u had similar circumstances. They advertised the fact that it was 16 tracks of an album and 16 tracks of a DVD.. :B

well.. if you're sending cash, then all you need to do is just send the difference (about 600 yen) isn't it? Or is it the price for a registered mail is quite expensive in your country?

if you're sending money order that's another story... i know the fee for a money order is quite expensive, like 1/10 of the actual product.. I used that once for hikki's DEEP RIVER, and they charged me $6 CDN for a $50 cd...

what if she'd release a single after all? I think that might happen.

"JEWEL/1LOVE" as single on 11/29 cos of timelack, as teaser. And then the album in December I bet.......... >____>;

i think the fans will probly get fed up if avex's doing that... @@
delay the album is another thing, but changing the contents again will really make the image of ayu / upcoming album...

The single would need to be at least 'announced' somewhat before then.

It's not going to just pop up in a day. They'd have to plan and etc. avex isn't dumb.

To think of a single at that time.. really is one of the most illogical things to think of.. x.x

TH is right.. there aren't any slots available for ayu to release a single. There're just too many competitions between the end of nov to the end of dec. According to avex's move rite now they won't break ayu no.1's streak, so a single is out of question now.

I think most of us had gotten used to the idea of it being mini, although I must say I am only happy about the desicion.

hmmm.. well the changes from 'mini-album' to full 'legth album' is very risky..
All her releases in 2006 arent strong enough, blue bird, startin, jewel, is not as good as we want to.. so IMO [secret] will failed in the market, still need more hype.. more... something.. i guess..

I think it's sort of dumb how some people were all desiring a full-length album and while some accepted the mini, people still kept on hoping for a full album.. and now that we have one, there's this whole 'issue' of "OMG QUALITY?!?! NO QUALLITY?!?@!@!SQAS"

I think it's stupid how there's always something people are going to be nitpicky about. >[

I think it would've been even more risky to do it as a mini-album.

It doesn't really need hype since it had the whole minialbum conversion into a fullalbum.. thing.

I don't think this has ever happened before, unless someone can enlighten me on some similar situation..

I thought that Ayu would already have the lyrics written... well maybe she hasn't... I thought she did the Startin'/Born To Be... single when she recorded mu

She probably has them done.

But in the case of Startin' / Born to Be.. the songs were both recorded early because they were needed for promotion of the tie-ins that they were associated with.

We got that 2:30something long Startin' preview and that was what, December? And we also had that news clip with Born to Be.. playing in the background from January or something..

I think that Ayu doesn't stick to a 'specific schedule' exactly when it comes to writing songs for an album and she might just choose some compositions for the album while doing her singles occasionally..

^ perhaps so. if i am not wrong, ayu likes to do things in her own way. she can jus pop out with a new song suddenly. lol. she does what she wants.

and perhaps this album will totally blow us off? since only 5 songs out of the 12 songs (assuming 2 interludes) are already known to us, that means ayu has to put in a lot of effort for her fans to like the remaining 7 songs!! have faith in ayu!!

lol.. if she continues with a mini album, i dont think the album will sell either. most of the songs are already available and we are jus simply buying for 1 - 2 new songs and a few new PVs. as well as the making offs. somewhat similar to (m) u, which didnt sell very well..

SHe will have to work like crazy from nights t nights to write and record all 7 or 8 songs in just these time.
I very adore you Ayu

If I'm not mistaken, BLUE BIRD was meant to be a 3A single, so do u think ayu had finished the other song (the 3rd song) at that time already? Prove me if i'm wrong

Hmm Ayu might have finished recording around the time BLUE BIRD hit shelves.. I'm thinking it might have actually been either JEWEL or 1LOVE..

Interesting... I got the following e-mail:

I haven't got any e-mails :shrug? ^You've ordered Jacket B but for example th and I ordered Jacket A :e? Could this have an effect on this?

Ooo, could be! I ordered the CD-only version.

My guess is that the song would have been Jewel, if anything.

Very hard to say anything for sure, though.

I had ordered Jacket A+DVD after YesAsia tacked the poster onto it...the price for me hasn't gone up. :D Thank goodness! That would have been a hassle.

I don't want to get too excited but is this going to be a full album???
I HOPE so . . please explain.

^Yes, this is going to be a full album :P

The price for the CD+DVD will also rise up...
This is what i got:

That means when they will receive some kind of an official announcement they will also change the price for the CD+DVD edition...

The price has been changed on the site, but nothing's changed in my order. Weird.

Wow cant believe ASFXX sold more than those 3 albums!

mi|kshake~

I ordered mine a few weeks ago though..

Oh well. I wonder why that lady lied to me >[

[ASFXX was 1.4 million whereas MY STORY and under were 1.1 / 1.08 / almost .9 million]

not to get the CD only buyers mad..but...i got this email after asking about if my order will have a price change, i ordered cd+dvd+poster:

so basically, only people that didnt preorder the "old" version will have to pay full price now, but people who did preorder the minialbum, dont have to pay more...

WOOOO! <3

So they DIDN'T lie to me then. :)

I sent an email to CDJapan, this is what they sent back.
:luv2 :love :luv2
I LOVE CDJAPAN. I don't care what anyone else says. They freaking rule.

Wow, that sounds awesome Carolyn. I'm always going to pay by Cash from now on, and hope that they'll change the plans for the better :D.

I'm happy for you, miss lucky.

How exciting! I'll have to wait for the overseas version though.

LOL I love you immel. You are so freaking hilarious. Thanks.

so will I!

Great news!! Thank you YA :D

what a full album?
what a great news!
Now I am so excited!

Wait, so I am the only one who pre-ordered from YesAsia who has to pay more? It is because I ordered the CD-only?

If you ordered before they changed to CD+Poster your price will be raised, I believe YA reasoned like this:

(I'm making up the prices)

CD only $30 - this was what you could pre-order first. A free poster was included.

The CD only was later changed to:
CD+poster $40 - you had to pay $40 to get the album, and the poster. The option for album only was removed.

Now, when they announced that the album is going to be full lenght, the price of the CD only is $44. Do you see where this is leading? They will loose $14 on those who pre-ordered early, but only $4 from those who pre-ordered later.

me too probably. and it makes me sad. i hate waiting. :(

Wait, I have a question.

If we preordered (I preordered the CD only) before Ayu changed it to an album, do we get a poster? Or is that for only the ones who ordered CD+DVD?

I saw no option of adding a poster to my order, yet I have the "first press release" sticker on my order...

I'm so confused...

Ordered from YesAsia, right?

If you check your order when you sign on to your account it should say if you have a poster there or not. I believe they are added automatically to your order, they were for BLUE BIRD if I'm not mistaken.

Not YesAsia, CDJapan. If I get no poster, oh well. I was just wondering. ^^

Well I'm just glad that it's a full length album, nothing more.
I also can't wait to find out if it was a last minute decision or carefully planned out.

If you pre-ordered before Ayu changed it to full lenght your order should have been cancelled. Or, right, you paid with cash and got that special luck? Aw.

Well, as long as it says *first press by the item ordered you will have your first press bonus, it will be included in your order automatically but you will never see it added to the actual order.

omg~ that's great!

O_o; I have no idea. I just looked at my order and it still says "First Press Available", so I clicked on it and it said that if the button is still there when I order it, I get the bonus stuff that comes with it... I think...

I'll see if I can find the link...

thanks for the info!

Nothing more? What more could it be?

I think it was carefully planned out. It just doesn't seem right to change your mind at the last minute like that. She'd have to make more tracks and rush them.

Oh, and KyahRyorin, you SO copied my 'Location'.

glad to hear it :)
mini album si nice and cute
but to be honest... quite boring since most songs are already available in singles

i'll purchase mine through local music store
hope they'll also give the free poster
after 'A BALLADS', there's no more free poster :(

Wow. that CDjapan costumer-service person made my day. Even if it wasn't even directed at me!

bounces up and dow!!! well I han't pre-ordered. But I'm just so happy its going to be full album!!!!