The reason why The beginning sold well at the time of release was because it was ayaka's comeback album as prior to that , it was uncertain if she were to make her return to the music business due to her health problems
Also the way that Warner marketed her (making her churning out singles during 2006 - 2009) & now with her being her own boss is very different
If not how you explain why her discography is considered 'short' / 'small' even though this year's her 10th anniversary in the business ?
After she released Nijiiro which was her last physical CD single release in 2014 , she released a string of songs digitally which probably hurt her popularity/sales to a certain extent
Anyway to say THIS IS ME ~ayaka 10th anniversary BEST~ is a 'useless' release is wrong as not every artiste is lucky to sustain him/herself in the business for so long , likewise 10 years felt like an eternity to some
But I think if Warner didn't release 2 best albums of ayaka before she went indie , sales would have been better . ayaka's History 2006-2009 was a rush release & way too soon for something like that to get put out but at that time , nobody know if ayaka will be back or not
Besides sales are just 1 thing & physical CD sales are not profitable as before . She's still able to perform in big concert venues & let alone Nippon Budokan
But if you don't buy ayaka's past best albums , then THIS IS ME ~ayaka 10th anniversary BEST~ is worth getting , be it the price and/or content . And frankly she should include all of her material from her Warner to her now indie days
Which for that I suspect ayaka paid a substantial amount of $ to get the rights to her Warner discography because if that did not happen , the material in THIS IS ME ~ayaka 10th anniversary BEST~ would be a lot lesser
At least ayaka's best album is not like Yamapi where his 1st best album did
NOT include his solo material before he switched to Warner and for that , I felt insulted as a fan as it felt as though he abandoned what he released when he was still under Johnny's Entertainment before he went over to Warner which annoyed me a lot
