[Charts & Rankings] The Official Oricon Thread ~Colours~

[kouga]

Good position considering that she didn't make any appereance to promote her album. The Tv lives era has ended, that we know for sure ;___;

[DonkeyKongRemix]

I'm not surprised to see her at that spot on the charts. I think it's ok, but I know people may be concerned over how much money she'll be able to make off of her music. I'd say she's doing as well as she possibly can in the kind of economy we live in where people are always downloading music online and not paying for it.

I heard that musicians in America are also having trouble selling music the way they used to. :S

[brener]

Originally Posted by KuuXAyu-fan

Sorry about that, I haven't posted the daily positions in a while.

No problem, I would appreciate your help with the sales =)

[NintendoHTF1242]

Originally Posted by nalini-dahlia

I heard that musicians in America are also having trouble selling music the way they used to. :S

Musicians in America are still selling well. It's all about digital numbers over here.

[brener]

^
No, they're not. The music industry is decreasing everywhere. US singers sell better than any other country due to the fact that USA still the biggest music market in the world, but they're also decreasing. Go to billboard archives and you will see. Here's a note about it.

Music Record Sales Drop 3.9% Globally as More Fans Listen Online

The worldwide recorded music industry’s revenue dropped 3.9 percent last year, even as more fans listened to music on Internet streaming and subscription services such as Deezer and Spotify Ltd.

Global revenue for the industry, whose best-selling album was One Direction’s “Midnight Memories,” totaled $15 billion, a group representing music labels said in a statement today. At the same time, revenue from Internet subscription services soared 51 percent. The European music market expanded for the first time in more than a decade, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in the statement.

Worldwide recording industry revenues were dragged down by a 16.7 percent drop in Japan, the world’s second-largest music market, where sales of CDs are only now starting to decline and subscription services are working to establish themselves. The news that digital revenue continued to grow was welcomed by an industry that’s spent most of the past decade closing record shops and figuring out how to stem drops in CD sales.

“Even accounting for the difficult situation in Japan, the global recording industry is in a positive phase of its development,” said Frances Moore, chief executive officer at London-based IFPI. “Revenues in most major markets have returned to growth. Streaming and subscription services are thriving.”

An estimated 28 million people now pay for music-streaming services including Rdio, Spotify and Beats Music and together with ad-supported streams account for 27 percent of digital revenue, IFPI said. Downloads make up two-thirds of all digital sales and are helping drive growth in developing markets such as Hong Kong, Slovakia and South Africa, the group said.

Piracy Threat

IFPI estimates some 26 percent of Internet users still regularly access unlicensed music services and said piracy remains the biggest threat to development of legitimate services and investment in artists.

One Direction sold 4 million copies of “Midnight Memories” last year, followed by Eminem’s “The Marshal Mathers LP2” and Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience.”

The best-selling single last year was Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” followed by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis with “Thrift Shop” and Avicii with “Wake Me Up.”

source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...en-online.html

By the way I wonder in what position Colours would be if Oricon had counted the last two weeks of digital sales (recochoku, iTunes, Amazon, etc...). It debuted at #3 on Recochoku Weekly Albums a week ago and it was #13 this week. On Daily Albums Colours was #6 today, she was supposed to #5 if Recochoku didn't count whole singles as albums (there's AAA's new single above her).

[mi|kshake]

Number 5 sounds great to me!

[marty]

#5 doesn't sound too bad, but what I'm really curious about are the sales.
The chart positions are relative.

[brener]

^ yeah I can't wait for the numbers next Wednesday >.<

[DonkeyKongRemix]

So.......the 24 Hour Party Music! cover is seriously terrifying!

I can't help but crack up at the fact that Ayumi's on the charts with some......unique competition.....like the reggae party hits cd. XD XD XD

[Coelacanth]

I work in one of the oldest & largest (in terms of inventory) CD & vinyl retailers in the NY/NJ metro area. By today's standards, we're considered more of a 'niche speciality' shop because that's how foreign buying physical music is to people. My older co-workers remember the period from 1980's through the early noughties where new music releases were considered EVENTS (think of Britney/boyband/teen pop explosion in USA and A BEST vs. DISTANCE in Japan).

People are just on a different level of consumption now.

Personally, I don't think physical sales or even legal downloads are the be-all, end-all predictor of popularity or relevance. I've seen J-pop fans claim that Japanese fans are less likely to download illegally, but I've seen no evidence of Japanese consumers being staunch advocates of anti-piracy, and I bet they'd be less likely overall to admit they were illegally downloading music due to the shame they'd feel for taking part in that.

'Pop music' is undoubtedly suffering the most in terms of physical sales. An overwhelming majority of our clientele seem to be fans of independent rock music and/or over 35 years old, a demographic for whatever reason that seems to still appreciate tangible music. With the exception of 1D—the supposed 'big names' in pop like Beyonce, Timberlake, Gaga, Lea Michele, Rihanna would be considered total flops if you just went by the physical sales from our shop (and we are doing quite well, thanks to 'hipsters' and the revival of vinyl).

Studies have actually shown that people are now listening to more music than ever before, but the democratization of music has changed a lot of things—for instance, from this HuffPo article:

Music marketing and promotion is simply giving music to media outlets in hopes that they play it, talk about it or write about it. In the old days, there were three main media outlets that provided the general population a way to discover music en masse: commercial radio, TV (i.e., MTV, VH1, BET) and print magazines like Rolling Stone.

These three media outlets created a second subjective filter as they decided which music videos to show, albums to write about or singles to play on the radio from a limited pool of artists promoted to them via the labels. If an artist was not on a label, the possibility of getting exposure from any of these three outlets was virtually impossible -- MTV in particular.

Just getting pitched to any three of these media outlets also required a label due to the costs (i.e., making a video, greasing the palms of the programming directors at commercial radio stations, hiring a publicist, etc.) and connections.

Once again, enter the digital age. The Internet has created new media outlets and given everyone global access. Commercial radio is being replaced by Internet based recommendation streaming radio stations like LastFM that let all music in for programming, not just music pushed from the labels. MTV (when they actually played music videos and nothing was being pimped out, dated or real world-ed) has been replaced by sites like YouTube. All anyone needs now is a cell phone to make their own video and broadcast to a potential Internet viewing audience of hundreds of millions. Print magazines have been replaced by MP3 blogs like Stereogum, Gorilla Vs. Bear, PitchforkMedia, My Old Kentucky Blog and many others. These, combined with social networking sites like iLike, MySpace and more, have limitless circulation and the ability to allow readers and users to form a community that listens to, shares, rates, comments on and in some cases, even buys music. Everyone can become their own commercial radio station, magazine and/or TV network, reaching tens of millions of people.

With the restrictions of the physical world removed sites like iTunes have new vehicles allowing people to discover and share free music (make sure to snag a copy of 34 Stars, a 34-artist compilation album available for free download on iTunes

Subjectivity and filters have been removed. All music can be discovered, downloaded, shared, promoted, heard and bought directly by the audience itself. It is truly the democratization of an industry.

And this article is only from 2008. The democratization is occurring on an even larger scale now. I can't speak for Japan, but I think it's a huge problem in that the current media consumption landscape doesn't seem to allow for a canon. A few acquaintances of mine and I were discussing Beyonce the other day and her massive 'popularity' and 'cultural relevance' but we couldn't hum the melody of any of her current songs and noted how incredibly weak her back catalog is, or rather, seems to be.

[rikku1994]

LOL I was more surprised with SxWxAxG's position XD

[visionfactory]

Originally Posted by brener

^
No, they're not. The music industry is decreasing everywhere.

Except in Japan which is increasing since 2011

And the only place where digital music industry is decreasing too

[emi♡]

tomochin's covers are so stupid and funny lol

im totally getting this album


I guess ayu's album placed....just where everyone thought it would lol

[maikaru]

Honestly I feel like what I'm about to say is just going to fall on deaf ears and will be dismissed, but eff it, I'm going to say it anyways.

I am not one bit surprised by this ranking because honestly this is her most lazy release yet. There was not ONE promotional activity for this album. Usually she'd have Yahoo Stream, or some other stuff, but this time there was absolutely zero coverage for this album. Maybe there was one 15 second news segment about her PV, but on the internet it just turned into a bash fest of her voice and how she looks.

For those of you who don't live in Japan, please don't take this the wrong way, but you don't actually know what's going on in Japan unless you see it for yourself. Ayu is 100% over, there is no one on the streets that will admit to liking her, and most of the time it is actually because they don't like her. Out of a nation of more than 100,000,000 people, filling a 17,000 seat arena is absolutely nothing to a pop star that once commanded Tokyo Dome. She used to be the one you skipped school for, you stayed up for, and waited at TV stations for her arrival. Now, very few people actually care because it looks like she doesn't care.

I am going to be 100% blunt and say her voice in this album absolutely sucks. It is nasally, not powerful at all, jacked up with auto-tune and reverb, and half the time she is yelling. Like her voice in Terminal is the hardest thing for me to listen to. Everyone is like "Her voice is so much deeper than before, that's why," But I challenge you to listen to Feel the Love or Merry-go-Round and then skip to a song to Rainbow, like close to you, and you can hear that her voice isn't deeper - she just sucks using her voice now.

I feel so absolutely frustrated because these songs could have been so much better, but they all sound like she decided super last minute that she wanted to make an album, did not prepare her voice for it, and just was like "HIDE IT WITH EVERY PLUG IN EVER!!!!" She is struggling in everything, and I dunno. The first time I heard the album in full, I'm just like "AKJHAKDJHSKJHASKJDAHSDSKJKHDSA" and I wanted to cry because this isn't the Ayu that I grew up listening to. I feel ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from this album.

I don't even know where this is going, but I'm so incredibly sad. It doesn't really matter that she is putting in effort for real, or whatever, the fact is that to most people she looks like she's fallen off the rails, she's a drunk, and she doesn't really care about music anymore, only marrying foreigners and living in LA. And it really sucks because there are long time fans who are now believing that she actually has turned into that person, and now for me, with Colours, I don't even know anymore. I'm so so so so so disappointed.

[YUKARI]

She should have retired right after Love songs release. Guess she can't do it because she loves money and wants more & more.

Oh well, I expected #3, but #5 is so... low. At least though she outsold Tomochin. Poor girl, she actually promoted her album and was really active. It's sad that babaa did nothing except showcase and still outsold her. I feel sorry for her. Hope she continues to fight.

[KarenPang]

Honestly there're many artistes that release albums on a yearly basis but at least they do put in decent amount of effort to get their albums promoted . Doesn't mean you're the most famous person out there means you solely can rely on your name to get your work heard , promo is still important/vital

From the way I see it , in recent times , the amount of promo coming from ayumi has been getting lesser & now with the release of her most recent material , it looks as though she doesn't care anymore + for a longtime fan like myself , it's really sad & it reflects really badly on her

It feels as though , ok I will release 1 album every year for the sake of doing so in order to fulfil the terms/conditions of the contract I signed with avex

It's quite appealing to know that the ayumi then & now is the exact same person , except fame probably has changed her a significant deal for the worst

And yeah people can complain that she has been outsold by Kisumai + UVERworld but if she put in some 1/2 decent effort , she probably could get #3 overall but now I'm not so sure

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by maikaru

Honestly I feel like what I'm about to say is just going to fall on deaf ears and will be dismissed, but eff it, I'm going to say it anyways.

I am not one bit surprised by this ranking because honestly this is her most lazy release yet. There was not ONE promotional activity for this album. Usually she'd have Yahoo Stream, or some other stuff, but this time there was absolutely zero coverage for this album. Maybe there was one 15 second news segment about her PV, but on the internet it just turned into a bash fest of her voice and how she looks.

For those of you who don't live in Japan, please don't take this the wrong way, but you don't actually know what's going on in Japan unless you see it for yourself. Ayu is 100% over, there is no one on the streets that will admit to liking her, and most of the time it is actually because they don't like her. Out of a nation of more than 100,000,000 people, filling a 17,000 seat arena is absolutely nothing to a pop star that once commanded Tokyo Dome. She used to be the one you skipped school for, you stayed up for, and waited at TV stations for her arrival. Now, very few people actually care because it looks like she doesn't care.

I am going to be 100% blunt and say her voice in this album absolutely sucks. It is nasally, not powerful at all, jacked up with auto-tune and reverb, and half the time she is yelling. Like her voice in Terminal is the hardest thing for me to listen to. Everyone is like "Her voice is so much deeper than before, that's why," But I challenge you to listen to Feel the Love or Merry-go-Round and then skip to a song to Rainbow, like close to you, and you can hear that her voice isn't deeper - she just sucks using her voice now.

I feel so absolutely frustrated because these songs could have been so much better, but they all sound like she decided super last minute that she wanted to make an album, did not prepare her voice for it, and just was like "HIDE IT WITH EVERY PLUG IN EVER!!!!" She is struggling in everything, and I dunno. The first time I heard the album in full, I'm just like "AKJHAKDJHSKJHASKJDAHSDSKJKHDSA" and I wanted to cry because this isn't the Ayu that I grew up listening to. I feel ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from this album.

I don't even know where this is going, but I'm so incredibly sad. It doesn't really matter that she is putting in effort for real, or whatever, the fact is that to most people she looks like she's fallen off the rails, she's a drunk, and she doesn't really care about music anymore, only marrying foreigners and living in LA. And it really sucks because there are long time fans who are now believing that she actually has turned into that person, and now for me, with Colours, I don't even know anymore. I'm so so so so so disappointed.

I absolutely want to hug you right now. I feel mostly the same. I enjoy the album on a shallow level (I actually like voices that do what hers is doing for most of this album - Angel is the only place on the album where I feel like she's just plain doing it wrong), but as a long-time Ayu fan. I don't like it as an Ayu album at all for those exact reasons.

The connection between us and her just seems to be totally severed.

Coelacanth mentioned above that there's a lack of canon in the japanese pop music world, and that's so true. There can't be one because there's never critical analysis of any of it. I feel like Ayu has always been very deliberate and careful about her presentation, but over the years she's collected a team of "yes" men who just do whatever she says, but she has no one correcting her, making her aware of things she's doing wrong, or helping guide her so she uses her greatest talents most effectively and hands off the things she's bad at to other people.

This album, for example, has proven that Ayu and her team are NOT filmmakers and should never be in charge of making the videos ever ever ever again. Ever. But she'll do it again because NO ONE around her is telling her not to.

It's a bad habit she got into over a decade ago - doing things she's not talented enough to do, while suppressing the things she's best at. Because she has no one guiding her. There are no J-pop critics whose reviews she can read and say "Okay, I won't do that anymore." There aren't people telling her objectively that an outfit she's wearing doesn't look good on her. Her three sources of input are fans who are fervently for or against absolutely everything, hikikomori internet bashers, and the "okay boss whatever you say" types that work for her. That's not an environment where high quality creative output can thrive.

And yeah, what's really upsetting is that over the years, we've SEEN the greatness she's capable of. Every now & then she'll have a great piece of work that restores my faith in her at least partially, but they prove to be teases - in the end, she goes back to phoning it in, making something safe and boring and disconnected just for the sake of making something. And no one is truly helping guide her towards doing truly great work. She has worshippers and haters, but no true lovers of her work that are helping her be the best she can be. And it's really upsetting.

But I've been watching this downward spiral of the Hamasaki Ayumi product for years, and I knew it'd get to this point eventually. The alterna video ended up coming true, and it's killing me to watch it happen.

[visionfactory]

Originally Posted by maikaru

I am not one bit surprised by this ranking because honestly this is her most lazy release yet. There was not ONE promotional activity for this album.

That's totally nonsense because Tomochin who got #6 did SEVERAL TV appareances, CMs, news coverage and promotional events lol

[Coelacanth]

I think Ayu is capable of better. I think we all do. I hope she reads some of these comments, because as snarky as some of our posts may be, some of us mean it passionately and constructively (there's also a lot of trolls here that just have nowhere else to be though).

I remember complaining about the "yes-men" surrounding Ayu around the time of Mirrorcle World when her photoshoots, PV's, and overall image started to take a huge dive. It's gotten much much much much worse though since then. Her staff is everywhere. She needs to regain control of HER career and HER art.

I have to say, unlike some of you I still think her music is pretty damn good (especially relative to most J-pop)... Visuals though are god awful. Might be a good concept, but poor execution. However, I've always thought there was a disconnect between her image/PV's and her music. Her only stellar PV's IMO are the Kouki Tange ones, Endless sorrow, Don't look back, and maybe a few others. The rest are merely acceptable to downright embarrassing/bizarre. There's almost a camp factor to many of her recent ones...

Anyway, I hope Ayu starts seriously reflecting on her work and the state of her career.

EDIT: I wish some of you here would stop giving Japanese xenophobia a pass. The fact that it's SUCH a spectacle and joke that Ayu is marrying "foreigners" (why does this seem to be uttered with a kind of contempt?) and choosing to reside in the U.S. isn't something to take lightly.

[Calico]

Her voice in Terminal was my favorite thing on the whole album. I was floored at how beautiful it was.

Then again I've been a hardcore fan since 2003 and Party Queen is my #1 favorite album from her. I don't even listen to most of her albums pre-2005 anymore because they just don't do anything for me anymore.

My only real gripe is the lack of cohesiveness on this album. It doesn't seem to have any real theme, but I love the tracks individually. I feel like this is half her albums though so whatever.

I stopped caring about PVs years ago. I feel like most music videos in general don't really do anything anymore other than try to be visually appealing, so I've lost interest.

I've lived in Japan numerous times, and people always looked at me in surprise when I told them Ayu was my favorite artist. Japanese friends my age say they think of me every time they see/hear Ayu because I am the only Ayu fan they know. None of them dislike her though. It's more like they're super indifferent. In fact after I fangirl they often go get one of her albums for a nostalgia bop since they grew up with her on the radio. But I wouldn't expect them to suddenly start stanning her, lol. (I once had a Japanese friend who would get in fights with her bf and come over to my place to watch AT concerts because it cheered her up, lmao)

I guess what I'm saying is that I honest to God do not care what place she gets on the charts. I do agree about the yes men, but as someone else said that's been going on for years and it's probably never gonna stop. But I'm still happy with what she puts out (2011/2012 was a grand time to be alive~) and if she enjoys her life that's all I ultimately care about. Her relevancy is pretty much dead but it's kinda like shrug and move on man.