oricon: (miss) understood 6th week sales
 

rank: 11
sales: 15,855

recap
week 1+2: 653,830
week 3: 82,731
week 4: 38,861
week 5: 25,885
week 6: 15,855
TOTAL: 817,162

the magic number is now: 182,838!

Only 15855?
It seems impossible to reach 1 million.

I tought after 25,000 sales will be steady but I guess I was wrong, what's the average week like for an album that's been out for a moth in Japan?

Is it just me or have all sales slumped recently? I don't know if she will make 1M, 15K is a bit low. Time will tell. ):

praying hard

I'm sure once she starts her tour her sale is going to go up!! Don't worry guys!! The tour is for sure going to boost the sale!!

it's harder because of the computer... too many people downloading it... I'd say that's 100,000 potenital buyers down the drain because of iTunes Japan.

Slow indeed.

The fact that any album, regardless of artist, can make #11 with selling only 15,000 copies says something about the current state of the Japanese music industry.

I've never really seen anything in ayu's past album sales to indicate that a tour would make the sales jump significantly.

I'm also cautious to put so much of the blame on iTunes. A lot of people have been blaming iTunes for the lower sales of a lot of artists lately (namely, Hikki) and... I really haven't seen a lot of proof for that either.

But I really think the album's selling fine. Go ayu! :)

Is there any way to see how other artists are selling after a months time??
maybe this isnt too bad in comparison?.. maybe the music industry as just hit a slump lately.. I am sure that someday the album will hit 1mil.. I am not overly worried.. too bad there is no way for me to make a purchase that will up the number at all being all the way here in the states

it's just 182838 copies left. Let's say the album is gonna be sold around 10K to 15K for the next three or four weeks... then around 8000 to 10K for 3 - 4 weeks again... then we can say (m)u will break 900K in about 2 months. Then if the number of copies are around 5000 copies for another 20 weeks... it should be able to break 1 million copies by the end of the year... :P so dun worry, put our trust on the album sales :D

Wow, that's a big drop!

Man...This is so not gonna break 1 mill soon but i really really hope the sales will boost once she starts Arena

Seriously. Sales seem to have been horrid since the start of the new year. x___x I hope it gets better as the year progresses. Its none of Ayu's fault, remember. I doubt it'd reach 1 million, who cares anyway. No one's gonna reach 1 million again perhaps.

Well I'm still hoping it will get 1 million even if it is something improbable.

^yeah same.
even though the goal seems far off now :(

wow the sales are still dropping alot, and hopefully the sales will go up somehow and break 1m

thx for the info

quite a surprise... we ayu fans really like that album.... but overall market thinks that the album and the quality of the music in the miss understood... is not as good as previous album.... I think this is because that every singers is chasing ayu right now.. they hungry and they want to compete ayu... Ayu needs her magic like her-used-to magic..... with super duper single... booming quality of songs.... ;D people just cant stand at top forever.. thats the reality... but we also like if ayu compete at her best before other singer take her position right? :D
my pick to ayu's biggest competitor: Mika Nakashima, Kouda Kumi ^^

15000+ and still it reached #11? Looks like the Japanese are giving up on CDs already.

I'm hoping it gets 900k, but 800k+ is very good these days, isn't it?

I guess we'll have to wait and see for the yearly. Compared to last year, it's not good.

Thanks for the information, I hope she will reach the million copies soon :yes

well again, its been a boring week. the new releases werent strong enough. next week will start to get more interesting. by march, sales are gonna be flying thru the roof w/so many big name artists releasing albums.

well its just depends on the artist. i mean, otsuka ai is selling really well with both her album and single at the same time. (yes, Planetarium is STILL selling). and koda kumi is consistently selling 25k+ every week w/her best. so it really depends on the album and the artist.
heres the sales for BoA's BEST OF SOUL (2005). it took her 4 months to pass the million mark. if it wasnt for her tour, she wouldnt have made it pass the million. heres her 1st 8 weeks sales
BEST OF SOUL (release 2005/02/02)
week 1: 489,067
week 2: 197,821
week 3: 087,562
week 4: 050,205
week 5: 044,216
week 6: 027,734 (BOS= 896,605 vs. (m)u= 817,162)
week 7: 017,801
week 8: 014,206

3 albums (although they are BEST albums) have passed the million mark. hirai ken's BEST is approaching the 2 million mark.

look on the bright side, ayu's (miss) understood is currently the best selling ORIGINAL album of the 2006 oricon year, followed closely by otsuka ai. (ai is behind by about 50,000)

^^ Best original album so far! :)

The sales are so slow...

Yes, thats what I meant.. xD Ken's getting to 2 million, maybe a month or two more. And the only hope for another original multi-million seller is utada Hikaru's next album.

I think these are still amazing numbers

dont be so pessimistic. we're only in early feburary. theres still artists like EXILE, BoA and a whole bunch of other artists that still have to release original albums.

As I stated in another thread, I've never seen much of a correlation between record sales and tours like there is in the US. Probably because Japanese artists tour a lot more. I wouldn't expect to see a spike in sales.

a re-release wouldn't seem as bad now, if startin' sells well (and I hope it does), releasing a especial edition of (m)u with it and Born To Be.. will surely help it go over themillion copies.

But then again, it seems to me that Avex wasn't really expecting this album to do amazingly well, I think executives at Avex and Ayu's management just said "let's release an album, it seems like the next step".

well most likely not cause a spike in sales, but i think it could help stabalise the sales (ie: sell 10k consistently every week or sumthing like that) i've seen it done before with BoA last year

Sales are slow but I think It'll sell a million eventually.

i really look forward to avex releasing a special edition of (miss)understood. It will surely boast her sales and maybe get (miss)understood over the million mark :P

Just a thought.... Technically, if Ai's next studio album would sell more than ayu's next album. If her singles continue selling as much as planetarium and Smily....

And I do not think it would be smart of avex to release her first "best" already, since she seems to be getting a bigger and bigger fanbase all the time.

I've not been a fan of avex's marketing strategies anyway. Look at what they did to Ayu. And I'm not too sure Koda's sales are going to pick up after her 12 singles. It all seems as though they only had the short term in mind.

And people are really being stingy these days! 15000+ copies and it still manages to reach #11. Let's hope the following months see more CD buyers. Otherwise I really fear for the music industry as a whole.

As for million-sellers, I'm sure there will be a few originals, even though a shoo-in like Ayu is struggling. Just hope that people do realise that they have to support their idols by buying their CDs if they're want to continue to enjoy their songs.

We should blame widespread file shring and illegal downloads. :D LimeWire/Kazaa/SoulSeek are all culprits. Not to mention YSI, MU, RS and ULS.

I can't see what Avex did wrong with Ayu...? She's the top selling female solo artist of Japan of all time and she's still selling quite a lot. obiously they did something RIGHT.

Ayu's sales dropped (and chart positions) mostly after she got a lot more freedom from AVEX, and started doing her "own-thing". I know she's not her own marketing director, but f.ex releasing B&D/Pride seemed to be her own idea. And, like most idols, she's still choosing which songs to sing herself, she decides who she works with, what she wears, so If anyone is to blame for less people enjoying her music and fashion, it's Ayumi Hamasaki herself.

She also declined a lot of awards (which isen't so strange cause she won them all before), which are important tools to gain recognition and attention.

Also it seems that Ayu lost some of her "wow" factor, because she's been around for so long. She's done everything; Changing her music style in almost every direction possible, she's done every fashion, been on every show, gotten every award. No matter how many times she "reinvents" herself, she'll still be Ayumi Hamasaki kind of.

***

I don't know what will happen to Koda, she's kind of an outsider. I doubt that her regular sales after the BEST era is over will be better than her pre-best era though.

A lil off-topic but I just wanted to state how i think koda kumi's change of style to sexy and provocative actually made her popularity now. I remember back then when I actually listened to her, her sales weren't that good and she wasn't that popular (back then her pvs weren't as hot as current ones), she's became more well-known after being the vocalist for Final Fantasy X-2 theme songs where her single got into top 5.

Then when she headed for the sexy image, she really gained much more recognition and become of what she is today. Kumi fans don't take it as insults. It's a part of my opinion how the current mainstream music industry is like.

And just as petit said, Ayu has done everything that it's really hard to see ayu come out with something new with no slight repetitions at all. As for startin' pv, I think it's really considered something fresher and new already, in fact I think it's almost a direct competition to Kumi.

I dunno issit just me but I think startin' single has great potential to sell very well.

that is very true. This is the reason why i'm unsure how long her popularity will last once that "wow" factor wears off. artists like hirai ken, ayu and hikki earned their popularity with great songs, and that gave them longevity.

bt yes i agree that Startin' has the potential to sell well, too. :)
but at the same time, i also agree that while avex obviously hasn't totally neglected ayu and her sales/promotion, (miss)understood was nothing out of the ordinary for the record label the way koda kumi's releases have been lately.

Sales are so horrible lately. *sigh*
But Ayu is still doing very well. Most artists don't really get more than 500,000, so 800,000 is pretty good.

I think it'll get 1 million, it'll just take a little longer than usual.

yay! keep it up ayu! ^^

for one thing, otsuka ai's cds do keep on selling (ie: Sakuranbo, Planetarium, LOVE PUNCH/LOVE JAM are still selling), while ayu doesnt really have much selling life. so dont rule out that LOVE COOK beating (m)u or tying it. but i dunno, avex usually would make 3 original albums then a best album (as they have done to ayu and BoA), that would mean ai's best album is due in 2006. but i see ur point on how ai is getting more popular after each release. maybe they'll wait another year like koda kumi did (she released 4 albums then a best instead of 3). i guess avex will make the final decision later this year, to see if ai can sell anymore 300k+ singles, which have been 'ayu territory'.

some one mentioned about a 2nd version (re-release) of (m)u, personally i dont think its a gd idea. wut would she put sumthing 'new' in? PVs? someone mentioned putting some of new single's songs onto (m)u. personally, i think thats a bad idea as it will sabatoge the single's sales.

I'm thinking of this, wat would happen if 2 pv were made for B&D, 1 for the album and the other for the single. 1 with NY theme and the other the B&D cover theme. Wouldn't that boast the sales of both (miss)understood and B&D/Pride?

^maybe. but the only thing is that 'Bold & Delicious' wasnt the right song to promote with in the 1st place. 'Pride' would have been better than 'B&D'

Well I personally didn't think it would have been wise to put out a "best" album that early in her career (remember she was at her peak then, and looked like getting bigger still) and the release date was even more appalling. It seemed as though they were more concerned about taking away some of Hikki's sales. Even though it sold well, still it doesn't sit right with me.

But I agree with you on the point that she's lost some of her "wow" factor. I think people often ask "What's next for her? She's done everything I can think of!". Maybe she'll have to come out with a very good song to have more of the spotlight on her again.

And finally, yes I think Koda will encounter some difficulty in trying to sell as much as her pre-Best era. It's quite a miracle that Best~first things~ managed to sell as much as it did already, and I don't expect it to happen again in the near future.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

I say we take an AHS field trip and everyone bring money and buy up all the copies of (miss) we can find!!! That'll get her 1million!!

Yes, but I just can't imagine how that songs would be. O.o I think most of her material is very good. As for the songs she released pre memorial address and MY STORY, I don't think any of them had the same wow factor as say "M" and evolution. But I think that f.ex HEAVEN had that. I feel that her songs are overall so good (not just saying this as a fan, The reason I became a fan was because I never really found a song I disliked. (untill B&D came along =P) That's the reason why I think it's worth "following" her music) she has an impossible job topping herself.