What is the cure?

[Pieces_of_SEVEN]

Comparing the sales for Party Queen and Namie's new album [UNCONTROLLED], it's crazy that Namie has blown right past ayu in such a short time. I think, while good, the sales for PQ could be MUCH better.

Obviously I don't believe ayu is going to become a million seller again, but I wonder if there would be a way to increase her album/single sales in Japan. Make her FRESH and HOT again, and have everyone anticipating her new releases.

SO how does that happen? An extended break, to not only make fans miss her releases, but for her to rest and concentrate on writing music? Should she change her style (yet again, since she always does it anyway)? Maybe write different kind of lyrics? (I don't think so because I love her lyrics, but just saying.)

Is it impossible for her to increase her popularity and sales? I don't think so...I just think it would require...something...that I don't exactly know what it is. Lol what do you guys think?

[visionfactory]

1) Music quality, work with real composers.

2) Promotion, PQ was not properly promoted as Uncontrolled (plus as Uncontrolled is Namie's 20th anniversary commemoration album they've spend a lot of money in things like the giant paint of Namie in Shibuya, things that they don't do for a regular album release).

[Pieces_of_SEVEN]

^^Yeah, promotion is DEFINITELY a big part of it. You don't think she works with "real" composers though?

[ayu_ready?]

I think that her releases and new music quite indicate the change she went through. as I see it, her taste has changed, and maybe the vision of music too. I think the root of the 'problems' we have to witness is her own self, partly.

I do not know whether a break or hiatus can help. I mean, she can get lost, but then again come back with team Leslie & Timmy and we get another A SUMMER BEST - whatever filled with tons of HBYA-beloved typo songs and Uraya-who collabos. you never know

I don't know why she's seeing things so differently now, but sometimes I think that now she approaches things more easily than before and with less attention.
also, to my mind, her latest works are a bit lazy and uninspired.

she's been much in the music industry and we shouldn't be expecting top-result all the time. yet, I hope we wouldn't be expecting PQ result all the time too. because at least to me, being her fan 10 years+, it is quite a shame.

to me it seems she's quite enjoying herself, all time working with friends makes your life easier, but I just do not understand, at times, wtf she's doing.

as I see it, her team or management or whoever don't have the long-term market strategy & search. then, the production really lacks some good professionals both in music and visually. she might hire new and fresh personnel?

I don't understand whether Max's still her producer, because if yes, we should fire the **** out of him immediatly. not only he as a president doesn't make any company breakthrough & innovations, but he's also doing it absolutely wrong with Ayu

[Kouyou]

I do feel that Ayu does not have as much drive as she used to. She makes music for the love of it, not necessarily to sell well. I think she would need to re-vamp her image and get really strong tie-ins in order to increase her sales. I also think she just has to start releasing singles again!

[Pieces_of_SEVEN]

I guess there's nothing wrong with making music because you love it...it's not all about sales.

I would LOVE for her sales to get a huge boost, but I don't really mind if they don't. She's my #1 artist though, of course I want her to be huge again.

[wildconnetta]

I agree with all the opinions in this post. I feel that the lack of singles (not one in 2 years Ayu? Come on!) is a factor in her weakening popularity. Party Queen had NOWHERE NEAR the amount of promotion that Uncontrolled had - more promotion could lead the way.

And I think that, out of everybody, Ayumi needs to take a hiatus, to refresh her creative juices. Look at Utada Hikaru, whenever she takes a hiatus, afterwards, she makes fantastic and creative music. Ayumi's music, however, is getting stale in my opinion. I feel that she is making music to please avex and to make more money. Her last GREAT song was BRILLANTE, but her last great ALBUM was NEXT LEVEL, 3 years ago.

I realize that, as avex trax's flagship artist, she has some sort of duty to release an album a year or whatever, but I feel that she really should take some time off to write some fantastic songs and record what could possibly become the best of her career - it would revitalize her career, and her sales.

[visionfactory]

Originally Posted by Pieces_of_SEVEN

^^Yeah, promotion is DEFINITELY a big part of it. You don't think she works with "real" composers though?

I meant Timmy

[Mai82Go]

Namies marketing team is much better than Ayus is? IDK at the moment even I prefer Namie to Ayu and for me Ayu ALWAYS came first in the past. Ayus career has been on a decline for years now. I don't think we will ever see her sell a million again. It's just scary and sad that the sales are getting less and less. And I don't think there is a cure.

[channy]

I never really cared for her sales. As long as she can live from the money, it's enough. Most of the singers I listen to, are unpopular or flops. I just want her to become more classy and natural again. I know this won't happen but still I have this wish

[emi♡]

Going off stuff that we were talking about...somewhere else...

I think she needs to be less gimmicky/contrived, and just straight with the music.


I...don't really feel like explaining But I think...sometimes, we need to give Japan more credit. Even if they do buy crap like akb...I think when you present something like PQ to this kind of public...there's a sort of...shut down that happens.

It's just too much. I think Love Songs was nice...concept, pretty everything, but then the music was....special.


But...these things...I think they require her to, not do what she wants. Maybe take a break. Maybe take some direction from different people. Maybe work with different people. Maybe not be so edgy...Maybe she just can't be edgy now that she's old.

And maybe, that's the actual problem idk it's 4 am. Maybe she does need a break.

[KarenPang]

I feel she needs a break especially since she has been working hard non stop for the past 14 years ever since she debuted in 1998

Also as what others have mentioned , her drive in delivering music then & now is noticeably different . Even the quality of her PVs if not music isn't the same level as before & I noticed I haven't really enjoy a decent PV of hers from MOON / blossom onwards which's really unfortunate coming from her that used to release really awesome PVs during her hey days

I think that she has already reached a stage where she feels she doesn't need to please anyone anymore but she shouldn't use this as an excuse & already it's evident in Party Queen where she cannot rely soley on her name just to drum up sales which backfired

At the end of the day , I'm sure she knows what works best for her but for a workaholic like herself , she needs to get a time out , come back with something great instead of releasing albums on a yearly basis for the sake of doing so to please avex

[CherryMoon]

I think her mindset is " I am going to make the music that I like. Fans dont like it? Too bad. I am gonna release this song anyway"

if she still wanted sales, she would have done something long ago.

[channy]

Originally Posted by alternafan000

if pq sold 300k in its first week, but was the EXACT same album, it would not be getting half the hate it gets now. like its just funny/sad that success can have such an influence on opinions!

That's not true. If you rely on AHS opinions, Party Queen was getting an insane amount of hate from the very first moment after it leaked. This is just AHS but Japanese weren't too amazed of the album either it seems, hence the rather low sales, I would assume.

I wouldn't blame the lack of promotion either. If an album catches people's attention the hype spreads automatically. I would always prefer a real success over an aggressive marketing wonder. This point makes "Party Queen" even a little lovable. Almost no promotion but still it got a decent amount of sales.

[Zeke.]

She just really needs to try. Like, avex needs a gameplan. Not just one release here and there - they need to discuss a strategy and sit down and plan like what they are going to do and how things shall proceed. They need to bring QUALITY back to Ayu's releases (better shoots, better PVs, better music production, better promotion).

I have always been against her "disappearing" and taking a break as I feel that would throw her further into oblivion.

[jewelbox]

Why she's declining imo..:
• I think most people who know Ayu' music have kinda high standards when it comes to her. That's why it seems that people are "complaining" about everything she does nowadays..Well, who created those standards? Ayu herself, of course. She was very strict about her image and music.
We can easily accept if artists like 2NE1 lipsync on a stage, but when Ayu does that we get disappointed. Why? Because she normally never does that. It's not Ayu.
Her name still kinda means high standards, after all she is a legend, but she doesn't perceive things as clearly as she did. Back then she was serious, now it feels like she doesn't care or she doesn't know what's she's doing.

•I don't really want to compare Namie and Ayu.. But just look at those two, how different images they have now. Namie's style now is cool, fresh and something for young adults to look up to. She looks good as ever.
Ayu doesn't even look like herself. I don't know what the heck happened to her.
Then compare PQ's and uncontrolled's covers.. Which one would a normal consumer rather buy? And GO ROUND's covers were amazing as well.
I know they're two different artists with completely different musical styles, etc, but theyre rivals in the same market.

•Other thing is the vocals. I know many of you here hate her screetchy vocals from ASFXX ~ Duty era but Japan loved that voice. Now she sounds completely different, not appealing at all to general public (?).

•I also feel like she doesn't have much to write about.. (I know she did like 2 albums about Mannie, but.. You know what I mean..Her lyrics doesn't speak to me like they used to).

•Promotion, yes, it's almost non existant.

•Lack of singles..

The cure? A Break. She has it. She just has to find it again.

I don't care about she sales either, I just want her to be mega-awesome again, I know she can do it.

[hidekirby]

GET RID of her actual unprofessional team. Hire some people who have the guts to say NO. She has to make a brand new start. More promotion of course. Focus on music, on quality.
She has to challenge herself and stop the 2003-2012 formula. She actually tried (jazz elements on PQ and some other things). But the rest is mediocre at best.
If she doesn't go through some changes quickly, I don't see her going anywhere. And it's really unfortunate because I think she really has some talent. But having a great album every 6 years is not enough.

[Andrenekoi]

She is old, overexposed and way past her peak... It's just natural she sells likes she does, and there's not magical formula or marketing strategy that can totally overcome this. If there was a guide to 'how to get stellar sales again after being the best thing on your music industry', Namie's 2nd peak wouldn't be something rare... 2nd, 3rd peaks would be something common and recurrent.

A new big hit song could help... Namie started to get on fire with Baby Don't Cry and entered on her new peak with 60s70s80s...

On the same way, it could do nothing... After her peak and selling poorly, Seiko had a million seller single on the mid-90s... It's one of her biggest hits to date... and it barelly affected the decline on her album sales.

[channy]

^ Yes, I feel the same way.

Like, what happened to all the uber successful singers from the past? Momoe Yamaguchi? She ended her career for her husband and her family. Akina Nakamori? She was big in the 80ies, 90ies, her last album was in 2009, nowadays she reversed to a hiatus for an unkown period of time. Seiko Matsuda, still a welcome artist for shows like Kouhaku Uta Gassen but not anywhere near as successful as in the past when she and Akina were the number ones.

So probably that's what happening with Ayu, too. Within the next few years she may lose more and more recognition and importance to younger people (new generation of teens that are 13, 14 years old) because what are the 80ies and 90ies stars mentioned above to teenagers these days? Often they don't even know them or they do know them but just by their names. Same is going to happen to Ayu.

Circle of life? :'D

[orbitalaspect]

I think some of the opinions in here are spot on and others seem a bit cynical.

Namie, regardless of her comeback, hasn't matched her old sales. And we'll be surprised if Uncontrolled outsells PAST<FUTURE. This is partly because she's been around for a long time, and partly because record sales just aren't on par with where they were 12 years ago.

That said, I think it's important to address the fact that someone in Ayumi's position really shouldn't be selling as poorly as she has since 2003. Somewhere between RAINBOW and Memorial Address, the public started losing interest. You can tell that her first week sales for Memorial Address dropped by half of what RAINBOW's were, and this same sales issue carried over to MY STORY. So, truly, I think her sales took a nosedive during the two years between RAINBOW and MY STORY.

Where I think public confidence in her dipped was when GUILTY hit #2. I think this, coupled with a string of very erratic releases is what has shot Ayumi's career down faster than what would otherwise happen naturally.

Ayumi's releases since 2008, starting with GUILTY, have been some extremely off-the-wall albums compared to her earlier works. The fact she's gone from a hard-rock record [GUILTY] to pure electronic [NEXT LEVEL] to alt-rock [Rock'n'Roll Circus] to almost teen-pop [Love songs] to this wacky Party Queen record shows she's been experimenting a bit more than she did in her first 6 years as a recording artist. This isn't bad, but fans like to hear progression in music and Ayumi is coming out with records that are insanely different compared to previous albums. Further, her singles have been quite lackluster and sparse since (miss)understood, which makes each album harder to tell what the sound or content will be.

The few things I would ask Ayumi to change would be:

1. Get rid of Timothy, get rid of Leslie, get rid of anyone who sounds good right now. If you can't see yourself working with them in 5 years, you shouldn't be working with them today.

2. Find an actual sound and stick to it. Having unpredictable records makes for unpredictable sales, which in this case is just saying that we can't predict how much less the next album will sell.

3. Bring back Kazuhito, HAL, and CREA. Make sure these three names appear for the majority of each record. These were the names that built Ayumi's sound, and these are the names that will guarantee it makes it into every record.

4. The only features you should do are with other big names. Further, take a page out of Koda Kumi's book: Features do not sell as well as solo singles, especially if you're doing them with an artist or group no one knows.

5. Stop playing nice and letting people piggyback on your success.

6. Stop assuming you can rest on your laurels because you're Japan's highest selling female artist. If you even look at a record and think to yourself that something could be different, shelve it and start over.

7. If you decide to try a new genre of music, do not make a whole ****ing record out of it.


I think that sums it up.