[News] 『A BALLADS 2』on sale 2021.04.08 [III]

[RealLight]

It's cute how some of you are way too optimistic lel

[AyuCanada]

Sad to realize that the last commercial success she had is a salacious gossip fiction novel about an affair with her manager. We are a beautiful society.

[pedronekoi]

It says in the booklet that Randy Merrill was the engineer behind the remastering. Just to mention a few of his recente works: Lady GaGa's Chromatica, Miley Cyrus's PLastic Hearts, Ariana's Positions, Taylos Swift's Folklore, Harry Style's Fine Line. Basically every single famous nowadays pop album.

[summerain]

I alwats thought the white noise on forgiveness is on purpose and it's an artistic choice, not an "error". The same for the "noisy" mix on Last minute.

[MKAyu]

Aww, I think fans should worry less about her sales overall.

She's a mature artist, and like every artist (notable exceptions being Amuro Namie and Utada Hikaru) sales went down with time when she stopped being the big thing. But what has she, or have we as fans, lost?

She's rich as hell and continues to make loads of money from thousands of fans and she gets to make whatever the hell she wants, which will still be consumed and profitable thanks to those fans. She's doing great.

We as fans get regular new music, photo shoots, concerts, goods, just like we always have. We're doing great.

I get the disappointment, especially because jerks like the Arama writers and Japanese message board trolls want to tear her down and we want to show them up with a big success. But they don't matter. Ayu matters. I enjoy the great stuff she's making.

[RealLight]

Originally Posted by MKAyu

We as fans get regular new music, photo shoots, concerts, goods, just like we always have. We're doing great.

Oh, how I wish it was that regular

[summerain]

Originally Posted by RealLight

Oh, how I wish it was that regular

Well, think about Japanese BoA fans, Amuro Namie fans and most of 2000s J-Pop acts, we are good.

[j.graziano]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

Why on earth would you think she’d sell 100k? She hasn’t managed to sell this much since 2013? She hasn’t had any hits in the interim and her fan base is aging and has different priorities than collecting cds 😙🌸

Because I dreamed a dream she would reach it. Omg.... Lol. I'm so desilusional

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by RealLight

Oh, how I wish it was that regular

Oh, please, stop it. She was releasing a ton of music every fucking year from 1998 to 2016. Some people act like she has not released anything for the past 10 years.

[RealLight]

Oh yeah, because releasing 9 songs in the spam of 5 years (for someone who used to drop a full album each year) is a LOT

[URANUS]

A Ballad was never going to sell A LOT.

I think the next A BEST or A COMPLETE will be the one to sell 100k copies.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by RealLight

Oh yeah, because releasing 9 songs in the spam of 5 years (for someone who used to drop a full album each year) is a LOT

No, it,s not. But she still releases a lor before that and even ar her quietest she still is releasinf. Girl is not a robot, don't be so salty.

[rainbow_smile]

A BALLADS 2 is at #4 on today's Oricon albums chart

#3 sold 1,325 copies

[Deep snow]

Originally Posted by KPL

I actually thought that the white noice in forgiveness is intentional lol

Originally Posted by summerain

I alwats thought the white noise on forgiveness is on purpose and it's an artistic choice, not an "error". The same for the "noisy" mix on Last minute.

maybe it's intentional (also at the beginning of æternal) but it certainly didn't sound like it lol. unlike, say, teddy bear, where you get that gramophone(?) sound throughout.

sounds to me like someone forgot to smooth out/didn't notice this part in forgiveness, Last minute, and æternal.

[dumbellz]

Originally Posted by rainbow_smile

A BALLADS 2 is at #4 on today's Oricon albums chart

#3 sold 1,325 copies

Hopping a good number for Saturday sales

[KittyKathy]

I thought she would be able to sell 50k copies, because I know the Japanese like to buy compilations. Looks like I was wrong. It will be good if she manages to hit 20k.

[TheRainbow]

Originally Posted by Deep snow

maybe it's intentional (also at the beginning of æternal) but it certainly didn't sound like it lol. unlike, say, teddy bear, where you get that gramophone(?) sound throughout.

sounds to me like someone forgot to smooth out/didn't notice this part in forgiveness, Last minute, and æternal.

I don’t think it’s necessarily intentional or that someone missed it, but adding noise removal to the piano tracks would ruin the “fullness” of that piano track. Listen to the end of RED LINE, for example. Even Ayu’s vocal track has some noise, it’s just more noticeable because it’s isolated.

[barisuta53]

Originally Posted by RealLight

Oh yeah, because releasing 9 songs in the spam of 5 years (for someone who used to drop a full album each year) is a LOT

What about in Kate Bush fans who haven’t had an album since 2011 and then who didn’t have an album since 2005 and who had a concert in 2014 and a concert in 1979?

Compared to some fandoms Ayu fans have it really good.

Even most western acts take a few years between releases.

[MKAyu]

Originally Posted by j.graziano

Because I dreamed a dream she would reach it. Omg.... Lol. I'm so desilusional

If it helps, she's outselling pretty much all of her contemporaries except for Utada, and she DID make the daily number one.

[BlackSilence]

I honestly don't mind the noise in music I think it adds to the songs, these kind of imperfections make them richer and more alive. The overly cleaned up stuff, it's just too fake for me. I think that's one of the reasons why i enjoy certain tracks more than the others, cuz they have "texture". I think good layering of instruments is more important than some white noise. If the instruments are layered right and have depth, i honetsly don't give a crap about a little of white noise somewhere lol

Also i'm confused as to why you people expected massive sales. Most of the music is now online. Very few people nowadays buy albums unless they are die-hard fans or collectors. People just listen online, it's easier to access. Plus she hasn't been selling as much as she was like a decade ago, for a few years now. If she managed to get into the top 5 with 1k, you can just imagine how low the sales in the market are overall if that's a thing now, i don't know why you guys are surprised lol