What do you think caused Ayu to have less remixes on her singles?
 

Hey what do you guys think about this matter? I know it quite annoys some of you (myself included). Since Ayu released her Free&Easy single the news came like a shock since it would only have 2 remixes (4 tracks total). At first I thought it was just a temporary change but time proved me wrong. After that, Ayu has been releasing a lot less stuff. There's no more Ayu-ro, the Cyber Trance 2 came with short non-stop tracks and only a few new songs being most repeated ones, and no Ayu-mi-x V was announced for us to listen to RAINBOW's songs in a different way.

My opinion:
LOL the remixes are surely missed. I know it has become quite like an Ayu trademark but it's not a problem with Ayu herself I would say. The shortening of remixes affected not only Ayu but all the other avex groups/artists. At the time Ayu-mi-x IV came out the impact of shortening came out as well (the plus selection was just a strategy of avex to hide the problem). After that Free&Easy came with only 2 remixes. The other avex artists at that time suffered as well: H/\L's single "ONE LOVE" came only with one remix made by H/\L itself (usually H/\L's singles came with 5 remixes at least). dream single "Our time" came with few remixes as well on 8.8.2001, after that all their singles had a shortage of remixes. Seems like something happened to avex at around February, March or April 2002 or maybe back in 2001. They probably tried to still invest on Ayu since not only she's avex most powerful weapon but she still was able to get Dearest and Daybreak with a nice set of remixes. And after Daybreak things probably got even worse so even Ayu had to have her remixes cut off. I really would like to know what happened exactly...maybe they lost too much money (Avex was getting bigger with lots of unknown/unsuccesful/new bands and artists, it was releasing too many albums and singles) so probably avex lost a lot of money....maybe Japan's economy also influenced a lot on that....it would be good if avex would have made an announcement about it but seems like it didn't (and obviously avex wouldn''t anyway hhahah. It wouldn't be crazy enough to announce it has been getting weaker).
Anyway it surely wasn't Ayu's fault! So I never really blame her or her work for the shortening of remixes since the remixes never depended on her but on avex itself. All I can do is wish that avex would get its strength back and returned to the old 10/11/12 tracks maxi singles and the loads of remixes sets which would never make anyone bored while having to wait for new releases;) :P

Although the loss of remixes is really a big loss I'm glad to know Ayu is strong enough and still survives well without them because her Original works are still amazing masterpieces!

Remixers cost a fair bit of money to hire, and with Ayu's quantity of remixes....

Well, and remix albums don't sell all that well, plus Avex probably realised the absense of remixes didn't dramatically lower her single sales no. so why bother wasting the money?

All those Ayu-ro Mixes, Cyber Trance, etc. are nice to look forward to and listen, but the sales doesn't even compare with her singles, obviously there are a fair no. of people who looked forward to it, but only DLed the tracks and didn't purchase the albums.

hihi!
:wave

This is a very interesting topic!

I am actually not surprised why Avex cut back on re-mixes...

Consider ayu-mi-x IV acoustic / orchestral...

It is an abolutely superb CD, with 14 fantastically arranged tracks, showcasing incredible examples of re-arrangement of songs.....

It only sold around 70,000 copies....

Meanwhile,

H, with no remixes sold over a million,

Voyage with hardly any remixes sold around 750,000...

Obviously, the remix artists decided that remixing Hamasaki Ayumi songs isn't that profitable anymore.. Hence they don't do it, and thus we don't have as many remix songs.

This is of course a shame, but remember that these remix artists spend a very long time to re-arrange these tracks... take a look at the acoustic version of M or No more words... How long it must have took to program and write harmony for it...

Thus it must have been really disappointing for the remixes to see the poor sales.

Hi Enfluerage! Welcome to AHS!:):)

Yep I agree with you guys. Seems like the sales still go well without the remixes. Hiring the remixers must be really expensive and in the end doesn't really compesate in the number of total sales for avex. Hmm....
At first I thought the shortening of remixes was just to make people pay attention more to Ayu's original works. At the same time her remixes shortened she also went on lots of tours and stuff and at tours she onlys sings her original stuff so I thought it was all a strategy of Ayu to make people value her original works more. Of course I was wrong at that time hahahah. But well it's really good to see Ayu's still strong....if only the remixes could come back:weep

Not having any new remixes annoys me to no end.. really, it does! lol.. I agree that perhaps having non-remixed albums have been a boom to Ayu's CD sales vs. her "traditional" mix CDs, but to me, at least, I find it a bit sad that the old Ayu whom made so many mixes in the past now just makes "Ballads" or something to that calibur. Gone are the days of (Above & Beyond Mix) or (Dumonde Mix), but now in place is (HAL's Progress Mix) or something similar... and altho the songs themselves aren't bad, well... maybe it's just me loving trance, but to this day, I think what got Ayu was far as she is now is her mixes... yes, some of you will totally disagree, but listen to something from Ayu-mi-x 3 or 4 and then compare it to Rainbow or something and you'd notice quite the difference (besides the whole megamix aspect..lol), but man... do i miss the "good ol' days" ... :cry

You could tell the remixes did well in the beginning to boost Ayu's sales, Boys & Girls and 'A' both broke the million mark consecutively, it's lost its hype by now...=/

Yep gohan I also read those reviews from jfan a long time ago. When M was released they freaked out and kept complaining that the 10 track singles were already getting into their nerves LOL. Apparently they were sick of too many remixes to listen to. When Free&easy was released they were all happy to see the usual 4 tracks back again but then, when Voyage was released, they kept complaining and said they wanted the 10 tracks back again hahahahah:laugh :roflmao :laugh

I love most remixes, most of them are pretty sweet. As long as it still got Ayu singing. That's why I hate the Junkie XL remix of Vogue. It's too bland. But I won't have a problem if no remixes would come out anymore, I prefer the original songs anyway.

yep although I LOVE her remixes, I also LOVE her originals so it wasn't really a threat for me....Some of her originals are so good that can't even be remixed at all (SURREAL for example. I LOVE the original but there was no good remix for it...all of them really sucked)

I'm disappointed that she doesn't release remixes anymore. Mixes of songs on RAINBOW would've been so awesome!!

I keep biting my nails and anxiously expecting the day I'll listen to a remix of "Over". The day i get to listen to it i'll freak out LOL I want RAINBOW mixes so much:weep :weep

Do you think Rainbow is THAT crappy??? :laugh Or more specifically, do you think Over is THAT crappy????

LOL I'll freak out of excitment! I love "Over" :P

LOL :laugh :roflmao Ok, so do I :laugh

My interpretation of J-fan's review is that they weren't impressed with Hamasaki Ayumi's remix albums since the singles have many remixes as well...

I disagree on the point of remix albums... Releasing more stuff can only be good for the consumer. It gives them more choice on what to buy.

Secondly, having many remix tracks on singles is definitely a good thing. Given a choice of a single with 4 tracks or the same 4 tracks + 6 remixes, I'm sure that people would prefer the 10 track one.

:P

The main issue is whether or not it is profitable for remix artists to spend time doing re-arrangements. As I mentioned before, it takes ages to do and if there are no significant increase in sales, I'm sure they won't do it.

- Perhaps due to the economic situation, people are prepared only to buy the originals...
:shrug

Remixes cost money, not too much though. But I think that when you have like 7 different DJ's to pay, then it'll be expensive. And I think it's Avex that wont pay for it >_<* I love the remixes on her singles, they should be there still :(

hmmm i remember hearing a few ppl saying how she had too many useless remixes on her singles (which of course i disagree on..) maybe maybe maybe they got tired of making so many remixes....i mean its not much work for the artists itself...though maybe time consuming and a lil bit of money, but not much i would think, because there are many artist that can do remixes right at home on the computer....i really dont know what they are thinking, but i would love to hear why exactly they (avex) quit doing this.....because it sucks...

so she can save them into trance albums or remix albums

But she's not even releasing trance/remixes albums anymore LOL:laugh

Money