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It was clear early on that Party Queen was risking low first week sales.
Although external promotion has been done what Avex really needed to do was release singles from the album so that people knew what they were buying. Ayu changes style so often that it's hard to predict where she is going to go next. Although how beautiful you are was released as a single it was only a digital release; even though this might seem like a clever move with the internet being so accessible it also alienates people who: (a) don't use the internet to browse music/keep up with their favourite artists; (b) dislike downloading music; or (c) may want it but lack the means required to purchase online (although this mostly applies to younger fans). What Ayu needed was a strong physical single to lure in listeners to make them want to buy this album. Many people are likely to have decided to wait until they heard some of the songs from the album before they would purchase it - this could also have been why they released it early on iTunes: to give people a taste of what is to come. However, doing this in itself was also a poor move because it has taken away the incentive to go out and buy a physical copy and this, of course, means lower sales as far as the Oricon charts are concerned because digital sales aren't counted.
It's a shame some people haven't had their boxsets dispatched yet. I ordered the CD+DVD ver and it was dispatched by CDJapan on Monday along with the LE of Namie's new single. <3
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