[AJFmzk]

Ayu's always been incredibly hardworking, sometimes to the point of making herself sick or physical pain, which is worrying but we know she's done that since at least 2001. As far as I know, the general standard is to release one full length record (approx. 12 songs) every 2 years or so and then tour that for a bit. Back in Ayu's early years she was releasing one, sometimes 2 double-length albums *per year*, in addition to the touring, so she's only "lazy" in comparison to her own personal standard that we've come to expect of her. To me it seems that she is touring continuously because she enjoys it, likes connecting with the fans and maybe she feels time with her hearing is running out, but I'm sure revenue factors in as well.

I think it is correct that the tours bring in more revenue, especially now that she's working on a smaller budget (it became obvious to me about budget cuts when she was hyping PoM 20th as a redux of PoM 2011, but you could tell she was kind of disappointed that it wasn't as big a show as she intended it to be.) But also if you were to compare the fact that the ticket prices are the same as her arena prices but with smaller venues, plus all the goods sales, it definitely makes more money than releasing a new record because she (or Avex) has to pay the songwriters, session musicians and studio time when a lot of people will just pirate it. You can't really pirate a live show since it's an experience unless you physically sneak into the venue.