The period around New Year's is when sales bump up a little, largely due to the year-end shows.

I know they don't celebrate Chrismas as christians, but in Japan, Christmas is extremly comercial, like in St. Valentine so I expect increase...I'm stil wishing! It's free!:D

It's extremely commercial because the companies are, like I said, trying to get the tradition going. Even though there's Christmas decorations/promotion campaigns everywhere (Panasonic anyone?) and probably Christmas-y CM's on TV people haven't gotten the message, the stores does, supposedly, not sell very much more at all.

[12/4] ORICON "Secret" 1st Week Sales
 

NOTE: I know that there is another thread but there were people saying that it's a rumour etc. so I decided to the one with the Oricon link. Mods, if you want, you can merge this one with the other one.

"Secret" 1st Week Sales
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4...d23178bvi0.jpg

Weekly Rank: 1
Sales: ~386,000

link: http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/rankmusic/39829/

-8th consecutive #1 studio album
-12th album (including "Memorial address", "A BEST", "A BALLADS", "ayu-ro mix II") to have gone #1

Post-RAINBOW 1st Week Sales: A Comparison
(miss) understood: 653,830 (over 2 weeks)
MY STORY: 574,321
A BALLADS: 561,127
Memorial address: 524,028
Secret: 386,000
******
MY STORY's 1st week sales were 50.75% of the total sales.
Memorial address' 1st week sales were 49.33% of the total sales.
A BALLADS' 1st week sales were 60.75% of the total sales.
(miss) understood's 2-week sales were 74.52% of the total sales.
If (miss) understood had sold 500k 1st week, 154k in the 2nd week, (m)u's 1st week sales were 56.98% of the total sales.

I estimate that the 1st week sales will account for around 50-55% of the total sales. That would make the estimated total sales for "Secret" around 702k to 772k.

So it's official.. somehow when you type it with a bigger font, the sales look bigger.. :laugh

It's not that bad, quite good actually.

Thx for the info

A bit shocked... but it's an AWESOME album anyways! That's what I really want! I would like it will sell like (m)u...

Thanks for confirming it, I think this makes it as it's own thread, merging them would have people keep on asking if it's a rumor.

ayu_fan929, I thought the 574k copies for MY STORY was actually the first two weeks, too? Could you double check that it's actually the first week?

I predict second week sales of 116k, following her normal drop rate.
3rd: 46k
4: 23k
5: 14k

Total sales of 620-650k

Prediction based on how her weekly drops has looked recently.

Er.. pretty low. Disappointing.

People still seriously think she'll hit 1 million? >__>

But. As long as it doesn't bomb, I'm happy.

around 400k. thats pretty good. I guess its okay since first weeks aren't full cause they release on like wednesdays.

If anyone cared, the difference between #1 and #2 (Ayu and Hitoto Yo) was 160k.

Nope. The 2-week layover for MY STORY occurred in its' 3rd and 4th week. Here's the 1st 3 weekly charts that MY STORY appeared on.

Week 1 (Chart ends 12/27):
http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi...1044805378/167

Week 2 (Chart ends 1/3):
http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi...1044805378/168

Weeks 3+4 (Chart ends 1/17):
http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi...1044805378/169

It's kinda sad really.. I was hoping for more.. but perhaps the second week wont drop by 50%+... so we will get up to (I pray) at least as high as B&D got..
considering Secret is a much better album than B&D... I'm not sure why it wouldnt sell as well if not better.. aside from the market sucking..
but is 386k made it as the #1 for that week... then it must have been a very horrible week for any other artist as well.

Sales for other new album releases:

ALBUMS
01 Hamasaki Ayumi - 386k
02 Hitoto Yo - 226k
03 Sukima Switch - 173k
05 RIP SLYME - 78k
06 Tamaki Nami - 56k
10 Tachibana Keita (w-inds.) - 34k

Having 3 albums sell over 150k is already very good.

Thanks for the clarification ayu_fan929, I remembered something like that.

Not really, apart from Utada and Kumi there's almost no other artist who can even remotely equal Ayumi's first week sales, even when she's having a bad week. There's a few boy bands who can manage as high, or higher, but like I said, almost no other artist.

Eh. Good enough. I highly doubt her sales will be going higher, so I'm happy with this.

Ouch ... Improvment needed?

386k 1st week puts her 33rd on the yearly charts. 1 more week until this year is over.

Maki tamaki should be nami tamaki.

Hmmm. I'm still really curious how this will sell nex few weeks. ...

At least she'll have a chart position with the album. Can't imagine avex decided to release it the date they did. Maybe the charts doesn't matter too much.

Did ORICON end up extending the year?

How horrible. An artist of her status and talent should at least go over 300k. Those sales can be implied to amature artists, which Ayu obviously is not.

Can't people just go out and buy the record? Her popularity in Japan alone is still outrageous, so I doubt she's loosing thousands of fans.

By the way, does anybody know which album (from Ayu) had the most sales? Although sales are basically irrelevant, I am curious...