Quote:
Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0
I do think that Party Queen in particular was a marketing failure (the drop in sales between PQ and FIVE, or between PQ and Love songs, is FAR more pronounced than previous drops). I think Ayu had one idea for what the album was supposed to be, and the people around her had another.
Ayu put together what is quite possibly her most personal album since A Song for XX, bringing back old composers that the fans would know and like, and the album was very, very dark. This album really had the potential to bring Ayu back from the clutches of repetitive, commercial-friendly mediocrity. This album COULD have been touted as a return to form, a return to the optimistic melancholy and intimacy that really set ayu apart from the competition through "I am...".
But I think this album scared avex's marketing people. I think the album isn't in tune with today's music-buying crowd, and staying "safe" has kept Ayu's sales at a reasonable level since about "Secret." But nothing about this album was "Safe," aside from the few songs they did promote & play on MTV. But even those just barely got any attention.
The album was too risky to promote, and since it was Ayu ("the album will be profitable regardless so what's the point in spending extra money on marketing"), they didn't bother. If they really went out of their way to accurately represent the album, they'd have been out that marketing money, and it may very well have done even worse if they promoted songs that were, in my opinion, more representative of the album's overall tone and message. Songs like "Letter," for example.
I think since Ayu is a pop artist, and this album is more of a piece of art than a piece of merchandise, avex weren't really sure what to do with the album as far as selling it to anyone outside her established fanbase.
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I agree about the album most likelly being her most personal since A Song for XX, and it's not fitting the pop image 100%, and I also think the way it was promoted hurted it Oricon sales, as Oricon doesn't count 100% of event sales and this was the way the album was promoted the most.
During Love songs, Ayu broke her last big record. There's no big record last for her to break, either because she already broke it or because it's impossible for her to do so... In a way, Love songs is her last moviment as the Queen of Jpop from the 00s. When FIVE was out, while discussing it with isthisLOL we came with the theory that maybe the easy-listening album was announcing that Ayu was taking a different road on the future (as, on our opinion, the album lyrics listened in order can be a open letter telling someone, the fans we presumed, it was time to take a different approach to her career). After that she comes with a very alien album to her whole discography, I believe she never polarized her fanbase this much before.
And them, she promotes it though smaller reginal tv channels, internet interviews and live events, making herself as closer physically from her fans as she can... I don't know... I don't think Avex was lazy or scared to promote her because the album was way too risky... IMO it felt like she was re-introducing herself to her fanbase, something like "This is the new
Ayu, she puts what she likes and feels above what her fans expect, she is personal but is not filled with teenager angst, she has nothing to prove at this point of hr career". Starting on the Fukushima incident and her releases inspired by that, I feel like she is trying to be more human and less diva lately, even to her fanbase, and IMO her recent marketing choices are just reflecting the need to create a strong and durable base to this change.