AKB48’s single [桜の木になろう] sells 942,000 copies in first week
 

Thats quite an achievment and I wish I could be happy for them...

They just keep breaking 'em records. Congrats to them!

So crazy ! congratz them!

wow... they really are reviving music industry... :D

me too. i dont like them even a bit... tho im happy cuz it means too much for the japanese music :D

My girls are so amazing~~~ :cool

I think perhaps we should not make threads like this anymore because they will just lead to hating like the above comment.
There aren't enough AKB fans here to appreciate such threads.

HOLY ****ING ****. If this were released in 1999 would it have sold 10 million copies or something?! O____O

same here.

I'm telling you - AKB48 could become Japan's next big music thing joining the likes of Southern All Stars/Keisuke Kuwata, early Johnny's groups, Seiko Matsuda, Utada, Ayu, and most recently Arashi.

^They already are "the next thing" after they made (and keep making) history several times over.

I wish I could be happy for them, lol.

My brother said (which I knew from before) most articles fail to mention how Amuro Namie ended up selling over 2 million copies of "CAN YOU CELEBRATE?". Just thought I'd put that out there.

But I'm really happy for them—they've literally gone from total obscurity to (probably) the biggest thing in Japan.

^ These are for first week sales. "CAN YOU CELEBRATE?" sold 828,480 copies on its first week.

Lol, I thought the same thing... i rewally cant stand there music, but I have to say I do like this single more then the others..

I was going to say it but....

You beat me to it ! lol :lech

"Sakura no Ki ni Narou" has now sold 1,005,052+ copies. Been awhile since we had a million-seller in the year-end charts. :yes

"Beginner" passed the million mark, but 2010 total sales were 954,283 copies.

^ good for them. Maybe it will pump up the music industry a bit. Although its not that bad... but it did take like 10 months or so to get a million seller with Arasis or whatever they are called.. lol

oh. these are highest selling first week singles. I was gonna say "where's ayu's A single?" haha. Congrats to them.

^ yeah.. i don't think she has ever sold any close to those numbers in first week.. M or evolution maybe?

Ayu First Week Sales
 

1. 552,730　SEASONS
2. 541,350　M
3. 508,940　A
4. 503,020　evolution
5. 430,220　Endless sorrow
6. 423,480　NEVER EVER
7. 417,870　H

It's actually SEASONS single that sold the most in first week, when it comes to Ayu.

^ cool, good to know!

People buy good music. It's not anyone's fault certain artists don't sell cause their music is crap :shrug

^hahaha :laugh

^
^No but seriously that is really insulting to me as a huge fan of AKB!! I actually REALLY REALLY enjoy their music! At first I didn't even know all the members yet I still liked their music. Now I love the members and their music and for you to say it's 'disturbing' that people buy their CD's is an insult. And what do you mean 'what they stand for'! They're a musical artist! They don't stand for anything! They're entertainers!
Geeze~
Like I said before we shouldn't make any more threads about AKB's achievements because there are not enough people here to appreciate them.

why would you even click on a thread if you are just going to hate :shrug


congrats to these girls!! the sales are craaaazy :faint i remember i downloaded a song by them in their debut days and not really liking it :x did their style change abit or is it still the same?

^I know right people keep coming here to hate!

Well I know a lot of people who are not fans enjoyed Beginner. Perhaps you can try that! Or I recommend the Kamikyoku-tachi album~

Keep in mind that going into an artist's thread just to bash them and say how much you hate them/can't stand them can earn you an infraction. If you don't like it, don't click on it.

^ What she said.

Major achievements should be posted. This thread is perfectly justified.

1) Sixth highest first-week sales in history.
2) A record streak of seven #1 singles for a female group.

Riiiight, because sales indicate quality. :rolleyes

Side note: I don't have anything against AKB48.

Has it been a new week yet?? any news on what the sales are at now?

As for the other post, sales don't equal good music, true, sales equal whats popular.
But is whats popular good?

Ahh... the age old question.. lol.. to be or not to be...

@Zemus: I want them to be posted too I just hate seeing people bash my favourite artists :(

And woo hoo seven #1s!! With many more to come!!

Total sale: 1,022,482

Another million sold.

I understand that, but we were just talking about staying power and the ability to sell consistently high numbers in a shorter amount of time.

I'm not trying to knock AKB48's achievements because I love them too, but I think the final sales count should matter in these articles, too (especially since they mentioned Amuro's single in the article to begin with). I mean, even though Hikki sold over 1 million copies of "Addicted to You" that first week, she ended up with 1.78 million compared to Amuro's 2 million.

(I'm not trying to start a fight or a debate, I just think it's important for Amuro's final sales figure to be known if they're gonna mention her in the article.)

The final sales don't matter in these articles precisely because they're discussing first week sales not total sales. Its very common knowledge that Namie has the #1 best selling single by a female artist or w/e but that's not what the article is discussing here so no need to go off on a tangent.

^^I agree with you—I think it's common knowledge to those of us who have been around Japanese music for a while and know what the music scene before was like. But there are also a lot of people (esp. after the literal storming of Arashi, this phenom of AKB48, and the relatively recent worldwide exposure of our namesake Hamasaki Ayumi) who may have not been (for lack of a better word "properly") exposed to the music scene before us, and would probably not know how crazy the music market was back in what many others would call the "Golden Era" of sales in the '90s and early '00s (which is made clearly by the chart on the bottom of the initial post—the whole top five is all from the '90s), and may have also not known about Amuro Namie's single.

I just think because they do have the final numbers in the chart (which I assume is for comparative purposes), they could have mentioned Amuro's as well.

I also totally understand this article was mainly about first week sales, and I just wanted to mention Amuro's final sales since there is a chart which also mention the final sales for the other highest debut week sellers. I thought it was important (and interesting) since this article mentioned her as the "runner-up" as a female artist to their first week sales, but I guess it wasn't to everyone else. :shrug