5th Week First Day

Position: #5

=D

And I was right in my assumption it will be 6-7 for the 4th week XD.
I thought it would sell a bit more but still not bad.

I'm just being realistic... they would do that if they have to... not that I like it but yeah.

370K is quite sure but 350K is much possible.

thank you!! better than expected!! ^^

Good position but the sales are still declining as fast as her other albums.

^ yeah and the position is good due to the lack of strong releases :( Beh I don't want a mini album, another one or two singles are fine, but an album so early is not going to do good to anyone. I think August/September would be a reasonable time for a new single. And I guess Karen's is right lets aim for 350k atm :D

yes another single or 2's OK but not a mini album , that will be a disaster

:yes

370K's too high of an aim right now , it's best to be realistic right now , shoot for a 350K , NEXT LEVEL

Oh yay it moved up a position. Hopefully this will stay the same for the whole week~

And I kind of want a summer single, since there's on missing from 2008 lol. July single ftw~

Holy cow! That's great :D I don't care if it's because there are no strong releases, I'm glad she went up a notch <3 Hopefully she'll continue to go up!

Ooooh coolio! :D Keep it workin'!

The sales aren't consistent, but the chart position is. As has already been mentioned though, that's largely due to the fact that not much has been released.

lol, back in the top five! hooray for longevity.

SUPERB! I am glad that it is back to TOP5!

I already expected It would sell less than half and YES..:no

Lucky for her then. But honestly the chart position might still be consistent, i.e, not drop erratically even if there are new releases.

there's currently not that much big album competitors that will be releasing new material this week so hopefully NEXT LEVEL can linger in the top10 for another week

it might be different when KAT-TUN release their 4th album Break the Records -by you & for you- when next week rolls though

"Break the Records?" Are they trying to break chart records with that album or something? Hahaha.

Actually, I think we're going to see the album Tsuru no Uta by Tsurno Takeshi sell quite a bit. He's still popular after being a member of Shuuchishin.

:roflmao

er in a way I guess so because they will be touring Tokyo Dome next month for 8 straight days :thud

it was initally 7 but the boss Johnny went up a notch & commended them to do 8 instead of 7

that & also they be performing at OSAKA KYOCERA DOME too

you know there's a B-side song in their RESCUE single that's titled 7 DAYS BATTLE (their 1st full English B-side tune somemore) which describes their upcoming 'battle' in the Tokyo Dome so now I think they have to change it to 8 days battle :laugh

*I'm in battle , battle 7 8 days I show you I'll be dead or alive* :laugh

I don't think we're talking about sales records here because their sales selling power just keep decreasing as each year goes by :(

Even last year's most awesome album of the year (imo :lmfao) KAT-TUN III -QUEEN OF PIRATES- only lodged 282,402 which's a big shame as the whole record's 1 of , if not the best Johnny's original album that I have heard in recent times

I hope she'll remain in the Top ten for another week or two. >_<

8 consecutive days? Has that even been done before? I know Ayu only played there once right?

I believe she played it two days, both on the 2001 dome tour.

8 consecutive days is crazy and probably is a record. We'll have to see if they all sell out, but being that its Johnny's, I'm sure they will.

^ sure the tour might sell out, I doubt their album will sell more than 300k though. Even though it will prolly get #1 it will slide down the charts faster than NEXT LEVEL.

The position went up a position but we'll have to see how much it drops once the new releases come in the charts today :shrug

me too

no it hasn't been done before . Even SMAP , NEWS or ARASHI didn't performed at Tokyo Dome for 1 straight week , let alone 8 days so it's a new record that KAT-TUN have already break *points to album's title* :laugh

true but the very day when email updates were sent out to preorder Break the Records -by you �& for you- , the limited edition was sold out within a few hours

I don't know how was it like with regards to their other albums since I only came aboard their music last April/May but I think it depends on how many copies J-One/JStorm has printed on their end to be sold

===

it has been almost a month since NEXT LEVEL was released , I hope this will keep up

Johnny's a tyrant. I don't know how JE works but i feel he works his artistes way too hard. At least there's many more seats available for foreign fans who are disqualified from the (retarded IMO) balloting system.

350k is a depressing amount, it's not even Secret's first week sales! What P&L? They are better off releasing 5 more bests for exile.

lol yeah but it's the way on how the idol business work sometimes in Japan

it's & depending on how nice/mean avex's , I hope they wouldn't force ayumi to put out another mini album just for the sake of doing so

5th Week Second Day

Position: #10

Still top 10 =D

@Karen - QUEEN OF PIRATES sold around 250k, and from what I've gathered their singles sales decreased a bit lately, so that's why I am not expecting them to sell more than 300k. We shouldn't really jump to conclusions cuz of the first press being sold out, cuz as you said we don't know how many first press albums did they print. Btw how much did NEWS's color sell in the end, the numbers on wiki seem a bit outdated?

still good :yes

true & also the fangirls are going poor by the min

when it was announced that KAT-TUN was going to perform at Tokyo Dome for 1 week straight in a row (eventually 8 days now) , the fangirls were dealt a finance blow because it's said that each day , they have different costumes & themes as they wanted to follow this '7 days planet' theme of sorts so you can imagine O_O

that & also when Break the Records was released for preorder 1-2 weeks after RESCUE was out , damnnnnnnn

but you're right , I really don't know how much J-One/JStorm printed at their end , copies wise

I'm not hoping that it can sell well but it will be great if it can overtake QoP's sales but something tells me no as KAT-TUN's selling power has been going on considerably since their debut 3 years ago

I'm not sure what're the total sales for colour but it's definitely lower than pacific & let alone touch

RIAJ certified colour Platinum so I guess sales might been around 250K or less

Dropping to #10 was expected. :) Honestly it MIGHT (most likely?) move up a few positions in the few days... that's sort of like the 'pattern' for her releases ever since A COMPLETE.

Its only 1 place lower than on the "new releases day" last week, thats really good

Top 10 for the first day of the new week! Hope it gets at least top 8 weekly.

Actually it's the 2nd day of the week hehe =D.
Too bad the 1st days don't have such impacts though...

is there a way to listen to music previews / samples on Oricon, or maybe another Japanese website?

I always see a lot of artists and albums I don't know when I check how Ayu's (or hikki's or kuu's or ai's etc) releases are doing, and it'd be nice to be able to preview them :)

a five position drop seems like a lot, but it IS the fifth week and this is better than i ever expected.

the position doesnt matter. the thing it should do is not sell less than half from last week

Come on, NL! It can definitely get back to no8 with the help of the tour.

What has been NLs total sales outside Japan? I'd imagine that sales from Taiwan, HK, greater Asia etc would look very nice

Yes, their work schedules are insane but at the same time I don't think people in Japan view them as being as hard as people outside Japan do simply because all Japanese working people work way too much. :) There are times when I think some of the group members do look too tired. But it all comes down to personality of each person - the Arashi members for example even though they probably have the most full schedule of all Johnny's members seem to be very healthy and happy; like they've found the perfect way to balance it all or something.

That's true. But then what about flipping the question around? Do you think Ayu currently could sell out 8 straight days at the Tokyo Dome?

She probably couldn't, but most normal artists probably couldn't anyway. JE fans seem to be pretty insane and probably would buy tickets to all 8 concerts if they could. As for ARASHI.. maybe they have some sort of special injections that help with with energy? Aha.

I hope this album continues to stay pretty stable! I thought it was going to just kind of stay pretty low in terms of sales, but it looks like she might sell a lot more than expected [at least, after the 2nd week anyway]~

That's why the Japanese are addicted to "Genki" drinks.

Very interesting flip you did there. I think Ayu won't sell out in Tokyo Dome for that many days, not because she has significantly LESS fans, but because of the kind of fans she has. JE fangirls are simply crazier.

I'm just talking about the hardcore fanbase though, since casual listeners will be casual listeners no matter who they listen to. I suppose comparing the crazy out-there hardcore fanbase size, JE probably has a larger one. But overall fans, (Ayu as an individual artist and pick any individual from JE) I don't think Ayu is losing out that badly.

Sorry if I made any terrible generalisations. :D

^I prefer ayu not to sell out there and have not crazy fan girls kind of fans XD.

5th Week 3rd Day

Position: #17

lmao you got the 'JE fangirls are simply crazier comment' downpat *points to own self* :lmfao

but jokes aside you're right in what you said . Compared her against a band , let alone a boyband , it's a no brainer who can bring in more $ for their respective record label/s at this day & age

:roflmao

yeah Johnny's fangirls can be scary . You guys should be glad that you don't listen/support them , I'm engaged in a never ending battle with my associates in the Johnny's threads in the Artistes & Bands sub forum in here 24/7 :laugh :lmfao

& thanks for the update with regards to NEXT LEVEL

It's like 50,000 JE fans buy all the editions of their singles but when it comes to ayu (singles/albums) the number of fans that buy all 2/3/4 editions might be like 5,000-10,000 at best xD or else her single sales would be one of the tops (inside all of those JE singles lol).

^You're welcome!
NEXT LEVEL's drop today is horrible, god knows why it happened...
Hope it climbs!

lol yes Johnny's fans have no problems shelling out $ to buy multiple versions of singles (I'm guilty of that man , all 4 editions of KAT-TUN's DON'T U EVER STOP are sitting in my room now :dead2)

It always has been the norm for Johnny's singles to sell even better than its albums & it probably also have to depend on what target audience/market you're aiming for

I frankly don't think it will work in ayumi's favor should she release multiple versions of her singles all the time . It will work for a Johnny's band but definitely not her at all cos of her fanbase

yeah something must be up when it suddenly left the top 10 today hmm

^ the bucket load of new releases

^ shucks! :(
It falls so bad! :(

i hope the sales reach 350k this week

I doubt it , at most another few weeks before it can hit 350K since its sales tally are at 332,787 at the mo

Oh thanks ayumisrael for the sales update! Hmm it has dropped but ahhh it's close to a month already isn't it?

^Since we are all fans of ayu here (i presume), I guess people just want the best for ayu. It's hard not to be envious at the level of popularity others in the music industry are enjoying while ayu's sales just keeps dropping. But JE bands and ayu are really apples and oranges, i almost never associate them with ayu. The domoto kyoudai episodes with ayu are great though. There's good interaction between ayu and Kinki Kids, i feel.

Totally agree. I thought usually after the first day of the week (as in first day the new releases come out, but officially second day of the week), her ranking climbs but this is outside the ayu norm. But as others have said before, the gap between figures around this rank is so marginal, a difference of 100 copies could mean a difference of several ranks. Hope there's a big boost to #9 or something like that tomorrow.

ahh I just realized NL is #17...........sad:(

Shin Domoto Kyoudai's a very funny show , equally as funny as Utaban (especially when ARASHI comes on board . Ohno vs SMAP's Nakai ALL the time = a win win situation :roflmao) & HEYx3

C'mon.. Can't this beat GUILTY?

It went down to 10th position.....really sad, i'm enjoying teh album everyday more

so sad ! I hope it will grow up >.<

He is in charts since 5 weeks too, it's long !

Beh regardless of the position the sales would still be pretty much the same..

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

horrible.......

i'm a girl......:love

i find it..................:D

i'm prefer to see manly boys......
such as brandon stoughton...etc...........:D

^There is a MULTIQUOTE button for a reason.

But really the only surprising one there is This is the One. I never expected BoAs album to sell well. Also, This is the One has been gaining some momentum - I think it will end up being quite a long seller.

Also compare to Mika Nakashima's latest album. By Mika's standards it sold very well and isn't that far behind Next Level, when typically Ayu's album sales leave Mika's in the dust.

I wouldn't count out dr./wild yet - its still selling and if it can maintain some consistency should definitely surpass Rule. Also from what I can tell it has done very well digitally (we'll know exactly how well probably next month.)

But I think what is missing most overall is just more female artists that the public really likes in general. There hasn't been a new hit singer in a long time. So of course its easy to say "Ayu's doing well" when only 3 other albums have come out - 2 of which were english albums and one of which is currently higher than Next Level.

I don't know why people are so quick to discount Dreams Come True as a relevant example of a female artist selling well. Yes, technically it is two people, but everyone associates the group with her and she is also the main song writer.

Dreams Come true is A band :p. WILD/Dr. might surpass Rule/Sparkle in a couple of months but it's already selling less than 5k/week and it's obvious it's not going to outsell Days/GREEN. And WILD has been doing well digitally but not better than Days, at least for now. VOICE sold really well imo. I thoght BoA would sell better due to the fact she had a best of album and I am pretty sure no one expected it would sell less than THE FACE. TiTO shouldn't sell more than 300k but you never know.

umm are you talking about VOICE ?

it was released last year & frankly I'm surprised that it has sold even more better than YES , at most a 40K sales gap between both

:yes

I'm not a BoA fan but I do know how many editions BEST & USA were released in

it's surprising to know even a 2CDs + 2DVDs edition among in the mix of a CD & a 2CDs compliation can't save BEST & USA from having flagging sales & this's a compilation we're talking about , not a studio album

damnnn

FIGHTIN' TO THE TOP

NEXT LEVEL is now AT #16!!!
(17 > 16 > )

yeah, I was very surprised at Best & USA's sales as well... it's not purely an english album release btw 'cos consumers have the option of buying the version that contains her Japanese hits (plus 2 bonus eng songs).

DCT's album is also not purely a studio album cos one of the versions contains 17 of their past greatest hits so if you buy the 2 CD version, it's pretty much like buying a best-of-album+new studio album. I'm definitely not surprised by their sales, I was expecting higher numbers.

According to RIAJ, Together When... in chaku-uta format got double platinum and in chaku-uta full platinum, also avex reported it sold 920,000 in one of their pdfs.

http://http://www.riaj.or.jp/data/ot...w080120_3.html


Yeah #16 today, went up!

Non of the female artists did amazingly well by far this year, it's not only ayu that her sales are average.
Even if hikki's TITO album would chart for year I doubt it will sell more than another 80,000-90,000
copies and it would still be less from 300,000 or what people expected. The album didn't reach 200,000 yet and it already sell around (maybe will 5,000-6,000 this week?). A lot expected at least half a million for that one. For BoA's best, everyone could totally ignore the english album and get the CD only or CD+DVD of the japanese best.
Also kuu's TRICK even if it sold more than NL and not in huge amount, it still didn't do amazingly well, if ayu's sales blown mika's on the recent years kuu did it by way higher numbers.
So ayu's state is not the worst and she still can get some slack.

dreams come true is a band, so we cant consider it in the female artist/singer category, otherwise ikimonogakari, every little thing, girl next door, etc. would have to be counted in that category. just because they're the only ones singing, it's still a band...

for example: no doubts gwen stefani. she was the only one singing in no doubt and she was the one people focused on, but when she went solo, it was completely different...


but anyway, it's nice to know it moved up a spot :)

at least went up by 1 position

^Yes, but it was number 10 on the second day T_T I hope it charts at least as long as Guilty. That might prove that the drop in sales is an industry factor, and not an ayu factor.

But couldn't you argue then that Ayu is in a band too? Because technically she is. Honestly, I don't see much of a difference between Ayu and Yoshida Miwa. I think it just suits peoples purpose to not count Dreams Come True as a female artist - when she is in fact a female and an artist. :) - same goes for other bands like Every Little Thing and Girl Next Door. I think the line between Ayu and female fronted bands is a very fine one and negligible imo. In fact I would say that Ayu is even more of a band than many of the female fronted bands are. (such as Girl Next Door)

It's like people are saying that DCT is only selling well because its a band, therefore their sales don't count when compared to Ayu. Which is ridiculous imo. DCT also showed that it doesn't matter if you are a female artist, you have the ability to hang up there with the top selling male artists. Most people here seem to act as if its an impossible dream or something to sell as well as male artists and then use that as a reason to excuse whoever their favorite artists low sales are. When in fact those same artists have had sales that matched, exceeded, or at least came close to matching those same male artists in the past. It's not something that's impossible, as DCT proved, but its all in offering a product that people want and enjoy.

I'm not sure what kind of tangent I just went on. lol.

....I did. BoAs sales have been in a talespin for a long time.

Right, that's what I said. It sold platinum. :) Certainly not millions. It would be easier to believe Avex's number if they actually gave some sort of source for it.

It's different. People don't look at ayu as a band but as a solo female artist even though she has her own band members to play for her in performances and tours. Same thing as Otsuka Ai. You can't put them in the same category as dreams come true, every little thing, do as Infinity, girl next door, etc...its just different. That's just saying Namie and Koda are in a group like Exile coz they have their own dancers.

They're selling well not because they're a band...a lot of bands don't sell as well....but for other reasons...popularity, music.

I do think there is a crucial difference between Ayu and DCT in the sense that there is a world of difference in how the public perceives them as musical artists. Much of the impact of Ayu's music is dependent on her being seen as the center or the core of her musical identity, even if her collaboration with various producers, composers, arrangers, stylists, dancers, and directors is of utmost importance to breathing life into this identity. The core and center of DCT, however, is borne by two people instead: Miwa Yoshida and Masato Nakamura. Even if Miwa Yoshida is clearly more prominent among the two, the musical identity of DCT is tied in with both and not just one or the other. In the media, Miwa Yoshida is not identified as DCT but as Miwa Yoshida. Also, you don't read or hear news about Ayu's band members or dancers in the media but you do about Masato Nakamura. He is a constant, permanent factor in DCT, whereas Ayu does not always use the same collaborators. That is the difference between Ayu and DCT as artists and, I daresay, this has much bearing on the sales of their records, even if technically they could be seen as kin. DCT has always been seen as a group.

Edit: Ayumiko is basically saying the same thing as I am :)

But to me, that's just a technical difference - not something that's actually real. A lot of female fronted bands, are nothing but idol acts similar to female solo artists - girl next door is the best example of this. Otsuka Ai IS her own band because she writes everything. Yoshida Miwa, also writes the songs and is the main face of Dreams Come True. Like I said, imo - the difference between Ayu and those kinds of groups of really negligible. I'm sure that if Ayumi were called the "Ayumi Hamasaki Band" or something, people here would still find a way to discount Dreams Come True's higher sales. :)

Uemarasan: I technically agree with you. But like I said, I really don't think that the difference is that large between Ayu and female fronted bands - not enough to totally discount a female fronted bands sales at least. Also, to me, just in general I don't like separating one type of artists sales from another no matter how big the difference might be. Say like comparing Ayu to Johnnys or something - if the public likes something, it will sell regardless of factors like a band, or a solo artist, or a pop group, or male, or female. That's why I never like the argument, "Ayu's doing well(or insert any female artists name) considering there are only men in front of her." Well, so? Just because she is female, that's a good reason to not sell higher? huh? Doesn't make sense to me. What happened to gender equality here? Women artists shouldn't be given a lower sales handicap excuse just because they are women.(If I'm making any sense, lol) It's definitely possible for Ayu and other female artists to sell higher levels (and some still do, though its become rare). That's why I use Dreams Come True as a positive example of that.

And now I've confused myself so much that I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore, haha.

Right, that's kind of the point I was trying to make - it doesn't matter whether they are a band or not, their sales are just simply higher.

I don't think majority of the people think in that point of view. Ayu and Otsuka Ai are viewed and labeled as solo artists. I just asked my brother and he was like WTF? they're not a band!...lol

Well anyways, very sad but I found myself kinda stop listening to next level...only a few tracks. The album was refreshing and great at first but didn't last that long. This never happened to any of her previous albums before. =(...I was one of those people that wanted something different from ayu and was happy with next level but I've been listening to the older songs, even tracks from Guilty and I really miss the older ayu....lol ayu can never satisfy.

Right, Ai is a solo artist but she is also her own band because she writes and produces everything. And I pretty much just explained that of course Ayu isn't a band, but I don't think that means we should count out female bands sales either.(or any bands sales for that matter, as I explained above.)

I don't think sales are a difference of male, female, group, solo etc. But rather a difference of knowing your audience and what they like and making yourself likable to the public. And at this point with the exception of Dreams Come True, it seems that male bands and groups have a better grasp on that than most female artists.

To me a band consists of more than one person and are viewed and labeled as a band. That's a band to me. I think of Otsuka Ai as a musically talented individual who happens to do her own music like Utada.

I only brought up Otsuka Ai because you mentioned her. :) I certainly don't consider her a band in the traditional sense of the word, neither do I consider Utada that. They are the abstract concept "the one man band." I think my post was structured badly so some of the meaning got lost.

But this thing about Otsuka is totally not even the point of any of my posts. :)