AWA Music (streaming service) teasing 'big news' on May 11th involving Ayu #ayu511
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFJnyWYl...n-by=awa_music
【Big News from AWA】
-2016.05.11-
#ayu0511
@awa_music

http://i.imgur.com/goBHmkx.png

Now just what could this be?

Maybe new way of promotion - songs for digital download before album release?

I'd guess her entire catalog + new album on AWA first.

Any of her previous albums available at this AWA?

I mean that's not necessary new album release, this may be general debut at this service

Not sure. I want to sign up but I need Japanese Google Play.

I think I found answer on my question

this is http://mdpr.jp/music/detail/1509444 "AWA" experience report, it says that you can find ayu there
and this https://awa-official.themedia.jp/posts/394930 AWA share campaign with Winter diary

Hmmm, nice.

I'm more excited now since there isn't much else that can be new, lol.

Because of "this is the beginning", I would say that they'll release the songs that Ayu shared the lyrics snippets. Like this fans can recognise them at the concert.

I wonder if this service is as popular in Japan as Spotify is in the West.
Also, their use of Ayu's logo in that advertisement reminds me of when avex was promoting A BEST (so I'm expecting for huge news on May 11th):

http://i.imgur.com/mlS7hRR.png

I wonder if Ayu isn't doing a traditional release for MIJ...

It's hard to imagine this being anything other than new material. I don't see them doing that just to say "...and now you can listen to all her old stuff" because I'm pretty sure that's already available lol.

But Avex loves to drop the ball. I'm pretty sure dropping the ball is Avex's pastime.

Digital music is not as popular as in the west in first place

I think they will make the new album available for AWA users earlier, and we'll get the physical release later. Or I hope so at least

Two part album maybe?

I am very aware of that, but I have no idea about the streaming market there specifically.

AWA was launched 1 year ago, so I don't think it's that popular at the moment. Btw, it's co-owned by avex. There's some more info about AWA here

I'm guessing this is like a "Tidal" for Japan.

^ Pretty much, but at least Tidal promises high quality music if you pay for a "Premium" subscription type :D With AWA you have to pay for premium membership to listen to anything you want, with a standard membership you only have access to playlists and radio.

I think they just gonna make Ayu's discography available on their platform at 11.05 but it doesn't have anything common with new stuff (at least not on this early date).

They already have all her music, I believe.

If that's true than it changes things.

I really really REALLY doubt they'll release the album out of the blue on a digital plataform (as much as I can't wait to listen to it hahahahah), but I can see, as Baernash said, a couple of songs being there just to promote the album since we have no singles. If the countdown was still going on during the weekend and/or this date was the same that the countdown finishes on, maybe it could really happen, but given how things are... Well, we'll have to wait and see

Quoting from other thread because conversations are bleeding into each other once again.

The question is if ayu will start her Made In Tokyo Arena Tour 2016 before the album is released. Colours was released 2 months after the tour starts so anything is possible, but I hope she will release the album before the tour.

I don't think it really matters if it does, since Ayu will do as she likes regardless of what reaction happens.

If this is for an early album digital release, the tour will start shortly after.

"This service is only available in Japan"

The f*ck why they wrote a press release in English??? Haha.

I think this press release is meant for shareholders and investors etc., not general public

Anything could happen now. New album, whole discography...oh goshhh ><
Anything for you, MIJ. Ayu please drop it

Just downloaded the app and it does seem most of her stuff is already available.
It's really badly designed though. Her artist page only shows her most recent releases if you select 'view all', and you have to actually search for songs/albums individually.
It would be a bit of a mess around if you wanted to make an Ayu playlist.
Otherwise, it seems to be a very similar layout/design/function wise to Spotify.

^ Thank you for the picture, I was really curious about how the app looked like :)

Are you in Japan or did you use some sort of a proxy server to change your IP to a Japanese one?

Based on the line "This is the beginning" I'm predicting like one new song to be revealed and then slowly they'll get more new songs leading up to the album release. I definitely don't think the whole album is going to appear on there on the 11th.

Maybe those songs she will has teased will be on it...while the rest will be slowly unveiled. Then its gonna be a halfalbum. Kinda like singles and album release at the same time. I hope this way, more emphasis will be placed on each individual track!

I'm UK. I downloaded the AWA .apk via google search, then ran the 'Best VPN' app, set to Japan.

The weird thing is I've put in no details whatsoever and it's now letting me play both radio and individual tracks with no subscription/login.




It won't allow me to make playlists without registering (fair enough) but I've so far played 6 tracks with no adverts. Quality isn't amazingly high but a neat feature is the option to show lyrics.



Also worth noting that if anything new is released Wednesday it's quite easy to use a recording app on the streams, so, ya know...

^ I guess it's because it comes with a free trial for like 3 months! Great to know we can download it!

Oh, does anyone know if this 'Best VPN' app is safe to use?

It's really weird though, I thought you still have to register before you can use the trial version lol

Btw, the trial is only 1 month, seems like they changed the policy since that press release.

Very excited for the new stuf~

I easily found the awa apk, but which vpn app are you using? there are so many...

This one:



Tried getting the web link but it kept opening in my Playstore, sorry.

THANKS!

Ayu's official FB updated with the "This is the beginning" image...

I sense the album coming tomorrow.

7 more hours! Only if this is revealed at 00:00 JST.

I hope it will be!!! argh >< this is nervewrecking
honestly even 5 songs is better than nothing (just make sure she delivers another 5 songs next month HAHAHA)

Midnight would be a little late :laugh I'd say noon!

hmmm If it is on AWA Music 00：00 JST I wanna rip and post it XD

9 more minutes. Hope you're ready :D

Many times when things would be released digitally they'd be released at midnight

Unless they specifically had a time announced

But I have no idea how this service works

The time has come, is anything out??

Bleh unfortunately no lol

): Guess it'll be out at noon then.

nothing updated go to sleep

I really hope it will be MADE IN JAPAN album. Would be exactly what I need to cheer me up

hahahahhaa look at you

If they had specified an hour, people would have been all over AWA waiting and the impact would have been bigger. Too bad they missed that opportunity

New videos on Ayu's YouTube channel tend to go up around 4/5 AM Japan time. I doubt AWA would follow the same pattern, but we shall see.

Damn I keep going back-and-forth from ayu's avex site and here in case there's news but nope :laugh

Big news: they changed Ayu's profile pick to the Zutto... cover in the app LOL (it used to be A BEST)

cool. worth waiting =)

Ugh could they come on...

Amazing!

:dead2

So her new insta post has a tomorrow at 10 am hashtag lol

Okay okay...

Why is she posting stuff at 2am lmao, go to sleep Ayu!
This means we now have to wait 8 hours, but i'll be sleeping when stuff will be happening, too bad

I hope it is 8 and not 32 hours lol.

"Tomorrow" would be May 12 though? Because it's already May 11 in Japan

I guess she defines tomorrow as 11th. I also say tomrrow when I am still awake past midnight, because I define tomorrow as "when I wake up again"

Nobody knows how to run a fucking campaign in the music industry anymore over there. Lol.

So confusion...

I think it's the new way to promote music. Releasing an album by surprise on a streaming service. It provide from leaking.
And somehow it's much better! No more "waiting" haha

10AM, while everyone in Japan is at work/school... lol.

If she's doing this, it really needs to be the entire album (not just few select songs or previews). It would be so incredibly overwhelming and exciting to get all this new material in full at one time, without any snippets beforehand.

...but I'm not getting my hopes up, the Japanese are terrible with this kind of stuff.

"This is the beginning" though doesn't allude to a full release. If she was going to drop it entirely, start to finish, something like "This is it." "It's coming." Or something to that effect would be more fitting.

^ My thoughts, unless it refers to "the beginning of the MADE IN JAPAN era" but that's so unlikely.

I'll die of laughter if there aren't even full songs but just previews

I don't think she will give us new song though...most probably announcement for new album..or stuff...

Hyping whatever she's about to drop like this is gonna be the stupidest move of the century if it's anything less than the full album at this point lol. Especially if it's just previews or some shit. Everyone is just gonna be disappointed :)))

Edit: I guess tbf they aren't really hyping it as much as this forum is lol

"This is the beginning" could mean initial streaming release, then iTunes/recochoku/whatever, then physical release... but yeah, I'm more inclined to believe that is not the case.

Also, "This is the beginning" could mean it's the first step of fully transitioning from physical releases to digital streaming lol

I am so confused by this.

That's true, we overreacted lmao
But now that i think about, she changed her fb/insta/twitter profile picture to the AWA picture, i don't think she'd do that if it were just previews?

The official site also has the AWA picture too.

I would be ok with previews but do they even have short tracks on AWA?

HAH! This made me giggle!

So true! All we have is a picture!

A LITTLE MORE THAN 5 HOURS LEFT

Lol

It'll probably be nothing. We shouldn't get our hopes up. This whole thing is a hot ass mess though if we don't get AT LEAST ONE FULL SONG.

It better be all or nothing :weep I wanna hear the new songs for the first time all at once

But yeah, I doubt it's going to be anything all that exciting

damn

http://az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/...03_vHKALkt.gif

I don't think I've been this nervous about a release before

I mean...never know. It could be some lame announcement about nothing or she really COULD pull a Beyonce and put the entire album out. I just don't think the latter is smart for marketing or sales, but I don't think ayu cares much about that at this point. Maybe Avex knew the album wouldn't sell too great regardless, so they teamed up with AWA for this album. Who knows. I just hope we get SOMETHINGGGGG

You can still wait for the whole thing to leak but i know how much of a pain in the a** it is

I just thought of something, i imagined if we were living in that situation of upcoming big surprise and excitation back in 2013 only to find out about "LOVE again", that would have been the funniest thing. The meltdown would have been so harsher it would have killed this forum

Love again stunt #neverForget

Frankly, I think the only meltdown I ever had as far as I can recall is when the 10th anniversary was a bit lacking, but it was made up for later on in the year. Initially though, that was quite the sad anniversary. I am hoping 20th anni will be more well planned out.

Avex didn't team up with AWA, they actually co-own it ;) So I'm guessing they're using Ayu to promote the app.

They always use Ayu to try new things.

I wonder what is next after this. The last big thing they did was the Love songs .wav thing right?

^maybe the last was to promote an album with "free" singles at concert venues?

I suppose so, but I think a lot of artists have had free CDs at concerts as far as I can recall.

^yeah, but all new songs from the next album?

I want to say "new song(s)" usually. But just a new distribution method overall is what I was getting at, not the specifics about content. I think Ayu was one of the first to have a CD+DVD album way back when or also one of the first to have a microSD+USB album.

Was she also one of the first for PLAYBUTTONS too?

I'll say Five bluray
Plug air wasn't new,right?

I don't think so... but maybe she was one of the first on avex?

I know she wasn't first for MUSIC CARDS either.

great... 10AM in japan is 3AM for me which is the latest time I wanna go to bed. damn you AWA/ayu/avex

I was just thinking... Last year, A ONE was released 4 days before the premiere of AT2015. So it would make sense to release MADE IN JAPAN 4 days before the premiere of AT2016.

Well, hope so! ^^

Personally, I wouldn't much enjoy going to an ayu concert and hearing new songs. I love knowing them and the lyrics. Much better experience, imo.