Thanks for the economic info Truehappiness, really interesting!!!

So they probably got more profit from A COMPLETE since it's not an original album, right? That makes sense. Even if it was for profit by Avex, I still think it's a decent purchase. If you can dish out quality for less, why not?

Thanks! I understand how it works better :)

Agreed that she's not bringing in the BIG percentages any more, but she's honestly still earning a large amount for Avex. Sure there are expenses as there are with all products, but looking at the amount of revenue she pulls in, the expenses must be only a fraction of that. If she wasn't pulling in the money, they wouldn't spend so much on her.

If she was only pulling in a small amount over the expenses, it wouldn't be worth the effort on Avex's part when that money could be put into other artists etc... so clearly she earns enough to deserve what ever expenses are necessary.

wow really good sales for the 1st week , by next week it will outsell GUILTY

Yea, she's definitely bringing in a lot for them. Her PVs are pretty extravagant, so are her tours and all of the overseas stuff she does is probably courtesy of avex.

Ayu is still very much a breadwinner for avex imo.

She sells DVDs consistently (betweeen 75~80k), albums sell well generally, singles also sell generally well..

And it's not like she only releases once or twice a year. She USUALLY has at least 3 singles, an album, and two DVDs.. that's a lot of money to be made.

I wonder what percent she brings in currently against all of the artists under their label :O

Probably under 10%. (~8%?)

I think avex is trying to hold Ayu back so that she doesn't have so much power over the company.. I believe that was something that was brought up in the past. They did not want to rely on Ayu too much, so.. yeaah.

I don't know that, but during 2006-2007 Koda Kumi was close to her in sales (or even passed her in the annual charts), and Namie Amuro this year.

Ah I see! Besides, they have Koda Kumi and Namie (and Ai Otsuka...?) who are also selling like hot cakes! But Ayu is still the queen ;)

She's their icon really... when I think of Avex, I think of Ayu.

That's the reason.

They created new "it" artists that would take the "focus" off of Ayu, and so far that seems to have worked. But I think that in doing so, they've decreased Ayu's fanbase by a lot by offering more variety and so on.

(I don't really know if Namie's popularity resurgence right now is a result of a new fanbase or the result of an ORANGE RANGE-like interest..)

But for me it's OK to Avex to offer a wider variety of female pop-stars. If they still put the focus on Ayu only, people would get really tired of her faster, or at least eventually...

As much as it was great to see Ayu in complete dominance of the Jpop market, I think it's a smart move on Avex's part to not rely solely on her like they used to. It's not good for one artist to have so much sway over the well being of a record company, especially since the day would inevitably come when she no longer has the popularity she once held, which seems to be happening now. I don't mean to say Ayu's unpopular, far from it, but she doesn't quite have the grasp she once did on the market.

oh maybe it had something to do a while back when ayu would live if max left, and other artists would've supported her?

I think Ayu essentially was the Goddess of J-Pop (AVEX) for a while.

Of course, Utada Hikaru had a stronger hold on a ton of people, but I have no clue as to why 7 million+ people held an interest in a girl like her.. it's a wonder how Ayu AND Hikki became popular. Ayu's was very gradual whereas Hikki seems to have drama tie-ins and etc up the hizzy helping her (drama tie-ins in the late 90s like automatically meant HIGHHIGHIHGHIGHIGHIGHGIHGI sales..)

Yes, what you say it's true, but the sales of First Love are still incredible, I mean, she promote it with just 3 singles, so it's like :thud

I don't begrudge Hikki her fame at all. In her own right she's a fantastic singer/performer, but she just doesn't have what it takes to keep me interested for long periods of time. I think it was GOOD for Ayu that she had the competition in Hikki though, and vice versa. I believe it helped to drive up both of there sales with fans either side wanting them to outdo eachother at points. This is mere speculation on my part of course, but i do honestly think it helps. Not only that, but with the two of them battling it out, it meant neither completely saturated the market, which in turn has lead to there longevity in the industry ^^.

She's a fantastic musician, but I don't think she's an amazing performer/singer. I'd say that Ayu is the better performer/singer, while Hikki's stronger points are in her composition/arrangement skills (lyrics are tied between the two)~

I sort of wonder what the world would've been like without Hikki (or without Ayu)... that'd be like... woaaah.

ayu is also the most expensive act to maintain for a recording company in the history of Japan and perhaps the world :X

yeah same with me, i mean hikki is amazing, but i get bored with her music rather quickly while ayu have more variety for me~
i never watched a hikki concert, but i just can't imagine her all hyper and jumping around like ayu