[Raleigh]

Actually lives do affect sales more than many people think. I was surprised myself. When Hikki released "Be My Last" it sold really poorly. But then when she performed it live her sales improved, a little. And Hikki is like known to sell like crazy. I do believe that the same would have occured to Ayu if she performed it live twice and appeared in no magazines. Few artists can barely promote their song and sell well.

Remember that not all fans would know of her releases apart from die hard fans. So unless Avex promotes it a lot in magazines and live performances, not everyone will know about her release.

And Heaven was well supposed to be a really good release especially since it was the theme song for a huge movie so I wasn't surprised seeing it having a decent coverage. Actually I expected more since there was such a high expectancy from Ayu and many fans. Like two magazine appearances were too little imo.

Personally I know it must be a lot of work.. but a lot of work must be done in order to sell releases even if she's the queen. Plus there are loads of artists who are going to release a single by the end of the month. BoA and hitomi on the 23rd, Ami Suzuki in the beginning of December, Namie Amuro on the 16th. And I bet all those artists are going to work like crazy to get the top spots. Also with two albums from Ai Otsuka and Mika Nakashima, even if they're not competing, there will be a lot of attention towards them, especially Mika with her best album. I don't blame them since everyone wants to sell well. And this is also a new genre and all.

But anyhow maybe it is too much for her since she must be really working hard on her album and Countdown Live so it must be pretty stressful for her. I do agree with you. However I still think this single does need a little more promotion. At least there are more magazine appearances which will definately attract attention especially if she's going to dress in the same style of her release.