Quote:
Originally Posted by KarenPang
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  |
Have to agree with those words, this is not the Warner days - remember: A stAtion is Ayaka's OWN label, though Avex is responsible for marketing. But where's the marketing material on mu-mo or the Avex website??? Umm...
Okay, maybe #1 is out of the question, but #2 may not be. She's #4, so we have no idea what her numbers are, but if she's THAT CLOSE to #3 - and #3 is THAT CLOSE to #2 (see picture below) - then she might have a chance for #2! But yeah, we're now into the digital era, and it seems Oricon is favoring more that are Johnny's (which does NOT release full songs digitally AT ALL, or if I'm wrong, maybe a little) and AKB48/Nogizaka46 (okay, they do release them digitally, but it's those handshake tickets and AKB48 election votes that jack up the sales numbers) (and a little bit of an extent to EXILE/JSB as well) these days. Remember: 2006, 2009 and 2016 are NOT the same, even though the technologies have been evolving! We didn't have iPhones or Android smartphones back in 2006, and even then, in 2009, iPhones and Androids started to appear slowly in Japan...now what do we have? AWA Music, LINE, all sorts of stuff that offer digital music streaming in Japan, not to forget mentioning Japan's domestic Recochoku service and the worldwide iTunes?
I'm a bit disappointed with the sales numbers physically, but again, I do have to agree what Karen has to say with the declining physical sales that not just Ayaka, but almost all artists (save for the Johnny's and AKB), are suffering as more people are starting to go digital, although there is a reason why some people still buy physical CDs. But yeah...it's still impressive she can perform in such big venues, like the Budokan, these days!