oricon: (miss) understood 4th week sales.
 

4th week: 38,861
total: 775,422

The figures will be updated on the ORICON site tomorrow morning.

Source: ayu! love! ayu!

Yup. Won't be breaking the million mark anytime this next month :(

Yeah, it''s a shame, but it's still got pretty good sales. Though MY STORY took like a year or so to get 1 million sales, right?

Hm really? I didn't know that o.O

It won't make 1million.

I dun think so... it broke 1 million sales either before or around STEP you release..

anywayz... it's lower than my expectation this week... I thought it would get around 60K...

It's a shame.
I think this album is really good :/

Aww.. :weep They should count overseas sales. Maybe then it could have reached 1 million by now, thanks to Taiwan, and all the neighbouring countries who slave over work for money.

that really woudlnt mean much then cuz everyone else will have their overseas sales counted as well.

i really dont think it's breakin 1 mil. I really did like it a lot more than MY STORY though..:(.

MY STORY hit 1 million in about 6 weeks

Whoaaa! It's so low. Probably gonna take a very long while before it hits a milions copies. I wish her sales would at least stay stable... It's probably gonna sale more with the single coming, I don't know...

With those sales, it might never reach one million.

I really hope she hits 1 million! Otherwise the tabloids will really pick on her; can't you imagine...

AYUMI HAMASAKI CAREER GOING DOWN THE DRAIN

1st ALBUM TO NOT REACH MILLIONS

LOL

I wonder when or if the at all the album will reach one million at this decreasing rate :(
I cant believe it, this album is soo good

uhhh..no. as sum1 else mentioned already, MY STORY took about 6wks to pass the million. but i hope that sales will stay constant during the tour...

Well, the tour is probably a lot of promotion, especially since MY STORY got sales and stuff during it as well~

[Tour started in lateJan/Early Feb]

All the fans that go might probably even buy one at the concerts! :p

It'll hit a million...eventually...like all sales

How can u say that? The sales aren't that bad.


These past 2 week have just been slow and then album is still in the top 5.

This album doesn't deserve to sell a million in my opinion. The single tracks were all good, but then it just seems like she got lazy and churned out filler tracks like 'In The Corner' and 'Beautiful Day'. The album lacks a theme anyway. I think it would have at least fared better if B&D/Pride wasn't a single.

what do you mean by filler tracks?? In The Corner and Beautiful Day are much better than other album tracks. Oh you hurt me so much... :headache

Just joking btw... LOL.

Back to the topic. According to the speed of the sales.. hmmn, let's say 20K next week... then 800K in total.. Then if 10K for the rest, that means it will need another 20 weeks (which is half of the year) to reach the milestone... oh well I have faith on ayu... :D

ouch!!! this is bad.. oh well what can we do..

i personaly love this album, its so much better then MY story, lots of variaty.
i dunno what happening right know, maybe people tired of AYU they need someone fresh, or maybe the cover of the album, or maybe the lack of promotion..

i really do hope that it breaks the 1 million mark...

I love this album, too. It deserves a million sales, but the only non-single tracks I really like are "Ladies Night" and "Criminal." For those who bought all the singles, it may not be worth $30 for only a few new songs.

Ayu needs to keep the b-sides off her albums. That will make people buy her singles more, and also leave more room for new songs on the album.

I would be sad if Ayu kept the b-sides off her albums seeing as I find them to be better than the a-sides!!! Also, Ayu will probably hit the 1,000,000 mark in late spring or so.

I really wish Ayu would stop making double a-sides singles. More new songs for the album... Oh well.I know she can hit a million. But this time, it's just gonna take a whole lot and long time before she does... :(

People; those songs were NOT b-sides. lol I wonder if people are misunderstanding what B-sides are exactly :\

Me included. I still don't really know the difference between a-sides and b-sides. Although I know most of her singles for this album were double a-sides, but why? How do you tell?

You know what I mean, though. She should have some songs be exclusive to the single so that people buy the singles, and also leave more room for new songs on the album. B-sides..track #2 whatever lol.. Just because the name of the second track is on the CD cover doesn't make that much of a difference to me.

Examples of B-sides:
Ever free [vogue single] - track 10, no instrumental, no pv, no promotion
Theme of a-nation'03 [& single] - track 4, no instrmental, no pv, no promotion
Two of us [Depend on you single] -track 2, no instrumental, no pv, no promotion

^ all these songs were not included in any albums

Examples of 2nd A-sides:
Game [Inspire single] - track 2, instrumental, pv, promotion
alterna [fairyland single] - track 2, instrumental, pv
is this LOVE? [STEP you / is this LOVE?] - track 2, instrumental, pv, in the title of the single

^ all these songs were included in albums

now.....do you see a pattern? If so, then you know the difference.:yes

Will was sort of left out of the PV-mix, but it was probably Ayu's decision to leave it un-PV'd.

yeah. besides; it had an instrumental and the single was often refered to as a c/w-single.

Ooh. I think I get it now. Thanks a million.

wow the sales dropped so much :( , i relli like this album, if her other albums reached over a million than this one surely deserves it too~~

sometimes the covers effects the sales :(

No no no. For most of the time, c/w songs are B-SIDES. alterna is definitely a B-side for sure. If alterna is an A-side, then the title should be fairyland/alterna. instead of just fairyland. is this LOVE?, on the other hand, is definitely an A-side. If you say all the c/w are A-sides it will definitey kill the purposes of writing the titles STEP you/is this LOVE?, Bold & Delicious/Pride, Startin'/Born To Be, etc. Why bothering writing Pride out when it's an A-side??

The only time I've seen ayu promoting a B-side on music show is GAME, which is quite weird because it seems to me that she sang GAME more than INSPIRE somehow. Have you ever seen ayu singing Will or alterna on musicstation, music fighter, etc? You can't say they're second A-sides because they are included on the albums. Some artists put B-sides into albums as well. for example, hikki has all her B-sides in her albums. You can't say B&C is an A-side because it's on Movin' on without you single and later on First Love album rite?? You see the pattern tho, that ayu didn't start putting her B-sides into the albums until MY STORY era... I dunno why she does that... probly she thinks her B-sides deserve for a place in the album..

Btw... ever free do have pv... it's a practically no-ayu inside pv (except probly the last 10 seconds... ayu's there.. :P)

To reach the million mark she'll need to sell about the same number for the next few weeks, if they keep going down she won't reach a million.

You're sure you know what the heck you're talking about? She hadn't done double-a-sides much before MY STORY, so you can't say 'she only started putting b-sides on during MY STORY'. Have you even seen what other artists do when they have B-sides? They don't give them instrumentals or PVs. It's sort of like..

1. Title track
2. Other song
3. Other song
4. Title track -instrumental-

The 'other songs' never make it to the album because it adds a sort of incentive to buy the single. For Ayu, it's usually remixes or something though. [do other artists even do c/w much?, at least in the OBI/posters?

Also, having tie-ups is a common thing for a-sides to have.


Quoting from Wikipedia:

With the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A side/B side differentiation became much less meaningful. At first cassette singles would often have one song on each side of the cassette, matching the arrangement of vinyl records, but eventually cassette maxi-singles, containing more than two songs, became more popular. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the remaining dominant medium, the compact disc, lacks an equivalent physical distinction. However, the term B-side is still frequently used to refer to the "bonus" tracks or "coupling" tracks on a CD single.

[edit]
Significance
B-side songs are released on the same record as a single to provide extra "value for money". There are several types of material commonly released in this way:

a different (e.g., instrumental, a capella, acoustic, or remixed) version of the A-side
another song from the same album, which the record company does not want to release on its own
a song not considered good enough for the album
a song that was stylistically unsuitable for the album
Since both sides of a single received equal royalties some composers deliberately arranged for their songs to be used as the B-sides of singles by popular artists, thereby making a fortune literally off the back of the A-side. This became known as the "flipside racket".End quoting.

For your argument however, have you considered that Avex just wanted to do it like that? That her double A-sides were to just be called as they said, because the titles would be really long otherwise, so they probably just balanced it out by doing STEP you / is this LOVE?, fairyland, and HEAVEN along with Bold and Delicious/Pride INSTEAD of doing STEP you/is this LOVE?, fairyland/alterna, HEAVEN/Will, Bold and Delicious/Pride. She's done one double A-side I can recall, and that's poker face c/w Friend, which made it onto ASFXX. The only b-sides Ayu's ever really had are the ones that Rody mentioned, ever free, Two of us, and theme of a-nation03. [BTW that video does not count at all as a PV, it's just a concert video >>] Anyways, b-sides are usually guaranteed to not make it into an album at all, which can be seen with Do As Infinity's two collections. Do the A-side and Do the B-side. The B-sides having never been on albums at all, but they'd accumulated enough to create an album based on b-sides alone. Ayu however only has what, 3 of them.

...also, about your 'music performances' thingie.. She probably doesn't get to say 'I want to perform alterna' or 'I want to do Will.' The thing is that Avex probably allows her to sing what they want her to sing at those kinds of performances. Ayu did Pride too.. MANY TIMES. She did is this LOVE? at a-nation... she's probably either saving alterna/Will for her tour, or she's sort of not confident in performing them.

Also, for Utada's song thingie.. I think she 'redid' the song, since they call it an album version.. [remember, that album doesn't seem to have many songs in the first place.. so.. yeah.. and she was 15 o-o]

should not blame for that overseas version....... >.< but if you want to blame.. blame for itunes or other source that provide legal download with cheaper price in japan >.<

Well it is not just a problem about the sales. Though it is really a little bit low.

just hope the best...
i still have faith in her

I think she should release singles that have 1 or 2 songs especially composed for the singles only (Bonus tracks). That should boost the sales for the singles as well as the upcoming album. She should do it more often. Or she can put some bonus tracks or bonus discs just like her LOVEppears album but this time, containing 5 or 6 original songs. Like extra cd or something. Or maybe, an album with double disc, a disc contain on my day songs and another will be off my day songs. Maybe 12 songs each disc. Who knows. A little bit sacrifice might give an unexpected result.:D My opinion.

A for missunderstood, i think it deserve to break million sales. Even if it takes a year to make it. It's a great album actually.:D

I think she should release singles that have 1 or 2 songs especially composed for the singles only (Bonus tracks). That should boost the sales for the singles as well as the upcoming album. She should do it more often. Or she can put some bonus tracks or bonus discs just like her LOVEppears album but this time, containing 5 or 6 original songs. Like extra cd or something. Or maybe, an album with double disc, a disc contain on my day songs and another will be off my day songs. Maybe 12 songs each disc. Who knows. A little bit sacrifice might give an unexpected result.:D My opinion.

As for missunderstood, i think it deserve to break million sales. Even if it takes a year to make it. It's a great album actually.:D

not bad, i hope she reach a million soon

i think itll eventually hit the million mark but not anytime soon. A-Ballads didnt hit the million marks before it went out of oricon site, but it eventually hit it. i also think that the cover/booklet also plays a role in the sales. they're all bold n delicious/pride themed and theres nothing new. people could easily download the album, but alot buy the album because they want something tangible to go along with it, and in this case, the booklet/cover doesnt do much justice.

hmmn.. i guess you have points... but something I should point out that the reason she sang Pride a lot is because Pride is A-side. She also sang is this LOVE? at musicstation. Usually artists promotes their A-sides but not B-sides. If like you say Will and alterna are A-sides, they should have been promoted quite often DURING THE SINGLE RELEASE. I'm sure ayu will sing alterna/Will on her tour, but singles' promotion periods are gone already. That's why I treat those songs as B-sides. Yes I agree with Wikipedia's facts, but that doesn't mean the world stop turning. Rules keep changing everyday. B-sides on the singles can be fitted onto album as well...

As for hikki... hmmn... I dun find any differences between single and album version o_O (B&C as an example).

(man i feel so tired arguing... let's stop the fight about A-side or B-side... it's just personal preference... no need to against you or the others :P peace :D)

Ever free did NOT have a PV. Why do people always say that? There was a video for it in the concert tour... There was a video for kaleidoscope aswell in the arena tour, and for wonderland (the pink screen).... those ARE NO PVS!!!!!!! :p

Maybe when her Tour is out the sales will rise again...This happened for some Cpop artistes....When they release some DVD concert or soething, the album sales SOMETIMES go up with it....

No Promotional Tour for this album right/? I think Ayu should make it AT06 ~(miss)understood~ or something like that...It is the best way for the sales to break 1 mill i guess

GO!AYU!GO!
support u 4ever!!><~~

not to be mean or anything .. i found that (miss)understood covers are the worse from all her albums .. i mean it looks so IEW ugly ! and also the booklet its so plain n simple .. all B&D theme ... she should at least make something new .. n i hope that Startin wont use Bold&Delicious THEME !! ENOUGH with the black hair !! n GOSPEL ~ n GEO !! :no

yeah i have to agree with that, some people might buy albums because of the covers, (for me i buy the old singles for the covers :P) and if they don't like it they probably just download the album :( i really miss Ayu's old covers from 2001 - 2003, they were so beautiful like endless sorrow, H, &, UNITE! and more~~

the photobooks were okay, not that great nothing relli stood out except for Ayu's hot body ofcourse :tipsy

i really hope Ayu will make a BIG comeback from the coming single!!!!

i agree, she should of left out some songs out of the album (possibly alterna/Will). rite there she could have had 2 more new songs, n possibly another new PV from that

Yeah, the covers probably put off those who came near cos people might think its a bottleg from the tracklist design and the grammar.

FIRST ALBUM NOT TO REACH MILLIONS

I can already see this one coming..

MAY I PLEASE REMIND YOU ALL..

that these sales are HIGHER than MY STORY!!!!?!?!?


my story 4th week: 38,792
(miss)understood 4th week: 38,861

thanks :P see, it may be a bit slow; but who knows; maybe it's getting stable. It'll probably get 1million eventually

umm...that MY STORY number is her week 5 sales as weeks 3+4 were combined for MY STORY.
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25556

MY STORY up to wk4: 959,348
(miss) understood up to wk4: 775,442
difference: 183,906

^i was just pointing out that his info was wrong cos that misleads ppl

Actually, I think it's more of Ayu never practicing her new songs to sing for lives.
Maybe she's waiting for her tour? but I still think she has the power to choose what to sing for tv lives.

No it WAS correct info; week 4 of MS is better than MU... and yeah in total of course there's a difference, but at this very week MU is doing better than MS...

same as MU 1st+2nd week sales.. doesn't matter; 7 days after the release date is the 1st week, and that's the 7th of january. The fact that it was on sale earlier doesn't have anything to do with that. It's like preorders...

that's sad sales...

i see u didnt bother to read the link i gave u.

MY STORY release: dec 15th, 2004
week 1 (12/15-12/21): 574,321
week 2 (12/22-12/28): 194,556
week 3 (12/29-01/04): oricon doesnt report
week 4 (01/05-01/11): [combined with week 3] 190,471
week 5 (01/12-01/18): 38,792

(miss) understood release: jan 1st, 2006
week 1 (01/01-01/10): oricon doesnt report
week 2 same as above: [combined with week 1] 653,830
week 3 (01/11-01/17): 82,731
week 4 (01/18-01/24): 38,861
week 5 (01/25-01/31): ??,???

either way u want to compare it, (m)u's weekly sales are going to be lower than MY STORY.

Well,give it time,i am sure it will reach the million.

Ok.. I think its guaranteed to hit a million, only slower..

I really really really hope it hits 1 Million >.<

I agree with everything you said. It's not a bad album, but I do think it is one of her worst. However, I think it is more Avex's fault than Ayu's. If she had been given more time to finish the album properly, it probably would have been better. This album and My Story seemed like they were in a race to the finish line in terms of the filler songs whereas in the past, like with I AM, the album was delayed by a few months because it wasn't ready yet.

Also, I DO think it deserves to sell a million even though it is not one of her best simply because there are several album way worse than this that have sold more.

But wasn't it delayed due to the scrapping of the overall design ideas? :\

Yes, that was part of it, but I don't think it would have taken them that long to shoot a new cover. I've always been suprised that year after year Ayu has been able to release quality albums. For most people, a year is no where near enough time to come up with a really well thought out and written album - so in that regard Ayu has been really amazing. But the last couple of years it seems to be slipping a bit and its just frustrating to me to see how good her albums are in such a short amount of time, and then thinking about how AMAZING they would be if her release schedule wasn't so hectic and the albums could come out naturally instead of always having to be like, "oh my god, I have to put an album out in a few months time!"

Well, she's pretty much expected to work like that. If she didn't work the way she did, she'd probably end up slowly losing fans or something and this place would be dead with almost no news! Haha! Anyways, I think that the quality's been pretty high for the past couple albums.. but I don't really get why Memorial Address had to be a minialbum and not an album itself. What I'm extremely thankful for, is that Avex isn't using her like they are using Koda Kumi.. as that would probably result in a bunch of awkward Ayu songs..

or maybe...

her next masterpieces?

Yeah, I know it is what is expected of her. I'm just voicing my frustration about it. :) I hate to see someone w/ great talents such as herself, rushed.

Yeah I agree. avex has been trying to get money off her the easy way round which is pretty much not sustainable. Those covers were simply awful and if I was Ayu I'd probably refuse to release those covers especially the monkey face one. Honestly the booklet wasn't the best and there was no apparent concept which showed how rushed up the album was.

Actually, I think that Ayu was sort of keen on making the album solely in New York to start a new 'venture' for this album. It was to be an album that would define 'change', and that it did. I guess that Ayu was the one who wanted all that was on the album though.. like the fact that her friend Mika Noguchi did all the photography for the booklet and that most songs were recorded in New York.. I don't think that Avex could force Ayu to do such things, so perhaps this album is just one of those creative-adventures that Ayu tends to go on but this time it just isn't as well received.

[I think that the booklet was meant to be sort of 'one central theme' as in 'This is my every day life, and this is how I am outside of 'Ayu'. This is ayumi hamasaki." or something]

Yeah but the concept wasn't exactly clear or original then. I preferred the concepts of Memorial Address or I Am.. for example. They were more typically Ayu and more conceptual than a bunch of photos from NY put together in a messy way.

And no I don't think it was creative. More like it was the opposite.

I guess you could replace the word creative with 'daring'. Not that this was too creative, but it was definitely different from the usual, right? :\

Well yes it was daring but it came out looking really rushed and thrown in at the last moment just to have a booklet. Compare it to the past booklets. Even MY STORY had a better booklet imo. Even the font is ugly and unoriginal. Now if they took some photos from the photobook and used them for the booklet it would have been a different story.

Yes, but I guess Ayu wanted to give it a sense of.. 'this is her. being real.' I wonder if it was Ayu's vision for it to be like this, rather than the glamorous booklets that we've seen before..

Unless she explains it, we'll never know. [Photobook pictures may not have fit the NY-ness though, since they were in Hawaii.] Many things seem to circulate when she goes abroad... She went to the U.S. for two calendar shoots [2005 and 2006], 4+ PVs in the US, 2 photobooks, and one in Taiwan or HK[?] , CD covers and songs being recorded in the U.S...

Perhaps things are left better when Ayu DOESN'T travel the world for inspiration and fun :p XD

We already got enough of NY from Bold & Delicious. Most of us expected something more than the real Ayu in NY and a rushed booklet. Her previous calendars and her photobook in HK were carefully made and really artistic. This booklet wasn't. Especially the cover. It was just awful work done at the last minute sorry to say.

Maybe it was her idea to show us her real self however it didn't impress me much since it didn't look carefully planned.

Personally I don't think the album was rushed at all. The ONLY reason we think that is because of the sudden release of B&D.

Why's that? I have a strong feeling that B&D wasn't meant to be released as a single but ratherwas meant as the main promotion track for the album, kind of like how About You was like for MY STORY. Hence the New York theme used for B&D pv coincides with (miss)understood theme. But knowing Avex they probably decided they could make some quick buck by releasing it as a single beforehand.

Just think about it, B&D's cover (unlike missunderstood's cover) has nothing to do with the pv at all and how Pride's pv was obviously 'rushed' that it hardly felt like a different pv than B&D's.

The result? Fans feel like (miss)understood's theme is recycled, there are less 'new' tracks and then possibly lower sales.

Though I am new to the Ayu-scene, I think this album will reach a million.

I mean, it hasn't even been a month since the release yet, and she's already sold this much? I find that quite impressive. She will reach it I'm sure.

Her sales might seem slow to most people considering how fast she's sold in the past, but I wasn't here for that, and I find all this talk of Ayu retiring kind of depressive since it seems some fans are giving up on her.

That's all just my opinion of course.

come to think of it, yea, i think B&D/Pride wasnt meant to be a single, but rather part of the 'album songs'. just look at the album schedule during nov/dec:

nov 23: ken hirai BEST
nov 30: B'z BEST
dec 07: mika BEST
dec 14: ai's LOVE COOK
dec 21: kobukuro's NAMELESS WORLD

usually, her album would have been released during these 5wks, but w/so much competition being released, avex probably wanted to delay the album release to 01/01 to guarantee the #1 spot for her. the single was just released to keep ayu into the spotlite. if B&D/Pride wasnt released, then there wouldve been like a 3month+ waiting period btwn HEAVEN (09/14) and (m)u (01/01)

And to me it didn't look like her "real self" either, so I don't think that was the intent. Ayu in tons of makeup and a gawdy fur coat does not strike me as "real."

Well, in terms of being 'real' in the way we perceive being real, A song for XX was her most 'realistic' CD cover/booklet. But from what I gather in her many interviews involving New York, it seems that she was trying to make a girl-power focused album.. but I really do not know why she decided to use such covers / photos from NY.. Perhaps because of that thing.. 'Hey, while we here[or if we're going to go to NY..].. why not?'

You know, when you go somewhere and you don't PLAN on doing something, but you do it anyway? :p Maybe.

Then she never is in her real self and (miss)understood/B&D aren't the one to blamed. Look at all the Tu-ka pictures, she wears fur coats and tons of make-up. Bold & delicious wasn't the first time she appeared in layers of make up and using dresses like that. Most of her career has ayu wearing weird dresses and tons of make-up, it's not really anything new at all.

Maybe the theme was being casual and the casual for ayu is showing she's rich and glamorous? And that she can scream Bold & Delicious and irritate the heck out of ppl in new york just because she has money and fame for that LOL :laugh

Dec 21 was a good date, I mean, Kobokuro didn't sold that much in their first week and they're not really popular. But they probably didn't want Ayu to release an album just one week after Ai, another one of their top artists.

Yeah that's true too. That's why I will persist to say the photobook was more appropriate for a booklet. There was less make up and looked less glamorous. The booklet was too much in your face and looked like a botched up experiment especially the blurry effects.

I know what you mean, I joined Ayu forums when everyone was complaining about MY STORY. I guess just tolerate it and it'll slowly die out.

yea i guess but i think that dec 21 was just too much close to christmas, her 3 dec released albums were btwn 15th-18th. (RAINBOW was the 18th; MA was the 17th; MY STORY was the 15th)

Of course it's nothing new. I'm just saying that for those reasons, it doesn't seem like the booklets theme was "the real Ayu."

slowly but surely it will reach the magical 1m mark