[KarenPang]

As someone who has supported Hirai Ken for more than 10 years , his physical sales has dropped over the years likewise with the charting of his releases on Oricon

Ken's selling power for his releases have long ago been over even though he had the number 1 selling single in 2004 and number 1 selling album in 2005

But Ken still can sell out his solo tours , be it in a Hall venue setting or Arena which applies for his current ongoing Ken's Bar 20th Anniversary Special!! while this year in August , he performed in New York for the 1st time in 8 years

Same thing applies to other male solo artistes such as Fukuyama Masaharu-san , Shimizu Shota

Bottom line is the current era in Japanese music ain't the same as before which makes things harder for solo artistes to thrive in the market

But as long the respective different solo artistes are continuing to do what they do best in , that's all it matters and as fans we should continue to support them as much as possible

Kuu has not reach a stage where her releases have problems charting on Oricon . When that happens , then I will worry a bit but that's secondary to me . I rather she put out quality releases where it cannot sell well instead of the opposite