What's wrong with avex?

[nmskalmn]

It's quite common for members of this forum to bash the avex company.

I personally have never read any article or seen any data that indicates that avex's practices are different from those of any other business in the recording industry.

So my question: what is so bad about avex? I would like to see facts with sources, and not opinions or hearsay please.

Only thing I don't like about avex is that they favor certain artists Waaaay too much.

[nmskalmn]

Originally Posted by j_nerd

Only thing I don't like about avex is that they favor certain artists Waaaay too much.

Do you have any data to back this claim up?

Once again, I am requesting verifiable facts, not opinions.

Originally Posted by nmskalmn

Do you have any data to back this claim up?

Once again, I am requesting verifiable facts, not opinions.

Comon.

Who ever is doing good at the time will most likely release about 4 singles in the same time period.

Exile, Glay : Heartsdales, Hitomi Shimatani, etc.


Yeah I know it's a buisness but isn't avex supposed to be a big family? And you should'nt favor one child over the other now should you?

[nmskalmn]

Originally Posted by j_nerd

Yeah I know it's a buisness but isn't avex supposed to be a big family? And you should'nt favor one child over the other now should you?

Treating all of it's employees equally is a sure way for any business to fail, and fast. It's necessary for the staff members who perform the best (that is, bring in the most revenue) to get the most compensation.

Corporations, including avex, are not created to serve the public interest or to make their employees feel happy. They exist for one reason: to make money for the shareholders.

So far no one has shown me that avex is different from any other corporation in the entertainment industry.

[PickleCookies]

Originally Posted by nmskalmn

So far no one has shown me that avex is different from any other corporation in the entertainment industry.

That's because they're not different than any other corporation. People just want to have something to blame when things don't go their way. In this case, it's Avex.
They don't actually have any real logic and reasoning behind it. They just complain to complain.

[yys113]

I think avex is the coolest company ever, mainly because they are successful in producing the best J-Pop artist, such as ayu, Ai Otsuka, BoA, Namie... it's like all the good ones are from Avex!

I don't like it when they force ayu to release her "A BEST" album, ayu was really upset about this release back then if you watch the NTV Special Report interview with subtitles.

[Qt Mashi]

Originally Posted by yys113

I don't like it when they force ayu to release her "A BEST" album, ayu was really upset about this release back then if you watch the NTV Special Report interview with subtitles.

yeah, Ayu wasnt very happy about that, people might have thought Ayu did it on purpose to have competition with Utada, Avex seems very sly...

[elaniel]

avex are very clever. and i mean very.

They know how to market and they built up ayu so much she just took over.

Its like the Galerians games. Build up something to do so much for you and it takes over.
Its not bad but its dangerous for the rep of the company.

Well, I think many here are more willing to jump to Ayumi's defense when faced with supposed problems at Avex. Of course, I think that Avex is just doing it's job by trying to make more money. I can't deny that I think there are problems within the actual running of the company somewhere, there's no solid proof. Eh, business is business.

[nmskalmn]

Originally Posted by devilayu

I can't deny that I think there are problems within the actual running of the company somewhere, there's no solid proof. Eh, business is business.

Sure there are problems at avex. The ousting of Tom Yoda last year is evidence of that. But every company is going to face issues sooner or later. In my opinion, the only thing unusual about what happened is the public and dramatic way it came out.

I have worked for 4 different businesses so far. All of them had management issues, and at two of them really dirty things were going on. I don't mean being rude to guests or showing favoritism towards certain employees. I'm talking about things people can go to jail for. And in both of those cases the company's customers had no clue what was going on. Likewise, none of us would know if Giza, Pony Canyon, etc was having inner problems.

At least at avex it's only been personality conflicts, and not fraud or other criminal acts (that we know of anyway ).

-----

Originally Posted by luminaire

Both "A BEST" and "A" were released in order to try and force Ayu to end her career, for whatever reasons. I don't know if Avex wanted her to pull a Yamaguchi Momoe, but it certainly left her very upset after the "A BEST" incident.

We know that Ayu did not want to release "A BEST", but it would make no sense whatsoever for avex to 'force Ayu to end her career'. I assume this is just a theory dreamt up by fans.

Another unsubstantiated claim I've seen is that avex is 'trying to bring Ayu down', or 'make Ayu less popular'. Again, it makes no sense for avex to take such action. I don't understand the basis of such comments.

-----

Remix albums, compilation CDs, multiple covers. I don't see any negative side to releasing these things. It's no extra work for Ayu, except possibly a cover shoot. Remix albums make work for the DJs and brings in extra money for avex and Ayu. If avex can sell more units through these tactics it's incredibly foolish not to take advantage of it. No one is forced to buy them

(Incidentally, I tend to buy best collections for singers besides Ayu. I can't afford to get every album from every singer, and the compilations contain all the tracks I want anyway.)

-----

Originally Posted by hanabiwings

I have viewed stock holder meetings where discussing "managing the idol" has been a major topic.

Toshiba-EMI, Sony, etc don't do this? I understand why people dislike the way record companies treat their artists as commodities. I don't think it's right either, but that's the price of fame and fortune. This is the reality in our consumer culture.

Originally Posted by RAISKA

I think Ayu choosed her way in life herself, I think, if she felt bad, she could go away from Avex everywhere she wanted to, even after "A Song for XX" album. I'm not protecting Avex, but so many people say, how bad it influences on Ayu, but I say, as I think, Ayu choosed herself that life...

I agree. Ayu is an adult, she knows way more about what is going on at avex than any of us, and she can decide for herself.

[elepop]

Actually, I don't personnally have anything against AVEX.

Some people are saying that they have all sort of different technics to bring Ayu down, but who really knows if this is true or false? And on the article that was post today, it says that the people that works here hate Ayu. They why don't they just fire Ayu instead of trying all possible ways to bring her down? This is why I'm not sure that it's a realistic article. But Ayu did 40% of AVEX's money, why can they just be thankful even though the rates have decreased? I'm sure she have help AVEX company a lot in the past...

Like devilayu said, business is business.

[hanabiwings]

My opinions are not entirely based on the Hamasaki-Avex ties. But, I have viewed stock holder meetings where discussing "managing the idol" has been a major topic. Most of the information upon which I base my opinion is only available in Japanese, so it's tough to say. ^^

I don't have an empty opinion, I have personal experience. I've participated in Avex searches, gone to the Avex building in person, spoken to people on the phone. They're very rude. The only person I dealt with at Avex who was pleasant was a young man at the reception desk in the Avex Experience. He was very sweet and helpful. (I actually wanted to ask him out for coffee at Choco-Cro. ) But otherwise the whole company has a general mood about them that just turned me off.

From just a fan's standpoint, though, I agree that they're very biased with their artists. Some get more attention than they should, while others suffer. (Did anyone see Sunday's 2nd PV? You don't promote a failing artist with potential by completely crapping out on them.)

And on a humorously light (albeit, sure, slightly biased, but still arguably valid) note, can anyone explain Arashiro Beni to me? Why does she exist? Ahh yes, she won a beauty contest (and boy does she take the cake when standing still, quietly).

Avex doesn't have a strong enough eye for what makes an artist. They have a strong eye for safe-money. I really feel they got lucky with Ayu (Max had to beg Ayu to sign, as the story goes) and BoA (although general opinion says SM is Avex's equally evil twin, she was originally SM and brought over to Avex by default because of the companies' sistership).

[TeamAyu]

Originally Posted by evolusean

And on a humorously light (albeit, sure, slightly biased, but still arguably valid) note, can anyone explain Arashiro Beni to me? Why does she exist? Ahh yes, she won a beauty contest (and boy does she take the cake when standing still, quietly).

LOL Wow that was hilarious, glad to see I'm not the only one questioning her existence. She's pure cr*p, sorry to her fans but I just don't see her talent besides her face.

[marty518]

Originally Posted by evolusean

can anyone explain Arashiro Beni to me? Why does she exist? Ahh yes, she won a beauty contest (and boy does she take the cake when standing still, quietly).

It's true that Beni isn't as talented as Ayu or some other Avex artists, but you have to forgive her because she's only just begun her career as a solo artist. When Namie was in the Super Monkey group, and Ayu was releasing her first songs, their voices definitely sounded different than they do today. I'm not promising that Beni will come to have a beautiful or distinct voice like Namie and Ayu (who were also Kosé Visée spokeswomen like Beni is now!), but I think that she deserves a chance.

Her latest single is my favorite new summer song so far. I like it considerably better than fairyland, though I like Namie's new stuff a little better than Beni. I'm not going to fight to the death for Beni, but I'm a huge fan and now is the time that she needs support most. Hopefully then she'll be able to be more heavily promoted by Avex and release really great songs.

I think one thing Avex has done right is to allow Beni to be one of the opening acts at A-nation '05! This will be her chance to showcase what she's got, and hopefully she'll do a great job and win a lot of fans over.

[ImpactBreaker]

Why is avex supposed to be a big family? When it comes to business unfortunately, those who give more feedback will be highly promoted. You can't expect avex to be releasing 10 singles of Tokyo Pudding and not releasing anything of ayu in a year. so those with the highest popularity/sales numbers will get far more promotion. That happens with any company out there. It doesn't mean avex will block their other artists. Aikawa Nanase has gone pretty unpopular these days but she still releases stuff under avex. She doesn't get much promotion though but I bet it would work anyway (I love her stuff but she just can't be popular anymore imo)

[Coelacanth]

Their marketing techniques, clever, but evil. 4 different covers, 4 different tracklistings, 4 different formats, SACD, DVD-AUDIO, etc... I'm sure they're not just doing that to give the fans more options...

A BALLADS. What was the purpose of this? It had like 8 songs from RAINBOW on it. Does it make sense to put out an album called RAINBOW, but the song RAINBOW is not even on the album RAINBOW? Oh gee thanks Avex, now I'm going to have to buy A BALLADS if I want to hear RAINBOW... And you know what, if RAINBOW was on RAINBOW, it would have been a better album I think. Hell, it probably would have been a single and sold A LOT! But nooo... They had to release another BEST album with her singing ASFXX for the 212th time... Unless maybe I'm wrong, Ayu decided one day she wanted to put out a ballad album... I doubt it though.

[jerms]

i know it's off topic, but if you're looking for a bad record company, i'd say JIVE.

[lolo66]

I don't know. I'm totally neutral on the matter.