^ yeah but I think the numbers posted on wiki are way too high to be true. Cuz as far as I know Japanese market is the 2nd largest music market in the world. Even though, without a doubt she is popular in Asia, cd sales in other Asian countries can hardly reach those numbers, plus the piracy in most of the other countries (most notably China) are on completely different level :( and S.Korea prefers to legally download than purchase cds plus the majority of the international artists rarely sell over 30-40k with their studio albums there.

^If I'm not wrong, Ayu past albums sold amazingly well on taiwan... and if 1,5million all over Asia counts Japan, that means something like... 1million copies shipped outside japan, what can be true depending on how many countries she releases

^ I guess. All I am saying is that considering the ways cds sell in other Asian countries those numbers seem exaggerated not that I wouldn't want them to be true XD

^That's why I think it's possible, but it can be wrong too :P

We will never know, they don't release the numbers xD

^ Koreans do. It's just that the majority of people sell around 1-1.5k in a month there XD

anyway, as this album keeps charting, Sunrise/Sunset will follow? who knows :P

Good 'ol Wikipedia. It's too bad that they don't have a reference or anything...

BTW, do they have charts like the Oricon in other Asian countries? Would they include NL if they did? If so, I'd probably take a look when I had some free time and see if the numbers add up.

Hm. I would've thought that it wold hit 400K by now.

I think that just Japan and Korea have this... Taiwan's sales are released on % of market share...

Hahaha yeah go figure lol.

That's probably where I listen to the album the most, in my car. Especially to NEXT LEVEL the song.



I think 1.5 million is a bit exaggerated, Maybe 1 million or 800K.

if Taiwan doesn't have Oricon but relies on percentage of the market, then is there an official site that shows exactly how much each release sells?

Doesn't Avex shipment sort of factor into possible world sales??? What was her certification?

It was double platinum which means it shipped between 500,000 to 749,999 copies. XD

We have to take into consideration the other companies who release ayu's CDs in other countries with payment and permission of avex trax japan of course, for example in korea - SM Entertainment, China - Avex Trax Hong Kong. (The makes of the overseas versions from yesasia), Singapore's company, etc.

:yes

http://www.riaj.or.jp/data/others/gold/200903.html

I didn't know I will need to update NEXT LEVEL daily positions again!!

But a miracle happened =DDD

22nd Week First Day:
Position: #49

As I said to you on MSN - she must be doing something good, as many of the albums who were in front of NL for weeks didn't have a jump NL did ^_^

Yes yes, I agree. ^^
I guess it means a longer chart life than we thought!

Unless if it will go back to where it came from :laugh

Well it's going out of top 50 tomorrow anyways :( But hopefully it will manage to stay on the charts for a longer time.

#49. O_o WHOA! nice one Ayu!

Wooooah. She jumped from 150+ back to 49?! How'd she do that? Or maybe my NL shrine is working...!!

Back in Top 50, go Ayumi! ^^

Wait... WHAT? She's back in the top 50??.... :shakehead

Be right back, praising Jesus.

WHAT THE?!?
Its a miracle jump!

from 100+ now to #49?
That really surprising!

ho my god xD THIS IS AYU guys xD never die xD it's so good !! =D =D
and the 21st week what did it ?

Yeah, what's the chart position for this week?
And #49... 0_0

Maybe Sunrise / Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ boosted NEXT LEVEL sales? The musical styles are similar.

WOW! That's amazing so at least 100 places were jumped. XD

lol after a night's sleep, logically speaking, I guess it jumped to #49 cos of summer sales or something, or maybe the USBs are suddenly calculated now lmfao.

THAT'S why S/S is selling so badly! everyone went out to buy NEXT LEVEL. haha!

J-Ongaku updated NL's sales adding 1,201 copies of last week, so it goes to 373,866. Let's hope that's correct.

by the way, 2CD+DVD first press is again available at CD Japan... I think the they bought more

Yesp the sales went up above the 1,000 again! (probably the position went up too).

21st Week
Position: Still Unknown
Sales: 1,201
Total Sales: 373,866

NEXT LEVEL began to have a surge of sales =D

How exciting to see such sales so late in the game! I'm very happy! :D

Good to hear, hopefully it will manage to keep selling over 1000 copies/week for a little while.

its nice to see a huge increase on NL sales! :D
A +500 on 795 from last week sales.

And im hoping for more 1k copies per week after august.

yiihaa. thats nice rising...
in 2 or 3 weeks its gonna hit 375k.

Wow suddenly back into the top 50!? D:

and what about today's position?

interesting... feels like the album ate a Revive and is back into the game!

^ Lol!!!! That's hilarious! I'm glad it's back regardless of how it got there.

It's sad that she won't be at the top ten years end... ( :( ).

Maybe Sunrise actually IS popular (but people are buying it digitally) and it boosted NL sales

*1 1,235,500 ***,972 SUPERMARKET FANTASY / Mr.Children 08/12/10
*2 *,944,963 *17,947 塩、コショウ / GReeeeN 09/06/10
*3 *,821,911 **1,775 EXILE BALLAD BEST / EXILE 08/12/03 累計1,765,812
*4 *,652,766 **1,737 DO YOU DREAMS COME TRUE？ / DREAMS COME TRUE 09/03/21
*5 *,488,382 **1,044 レミオベスト / レミオロメン 09/03/09
*6 *,417,747 **1,501 My song Your song / いきものがかり 08/12/24
*7 *,398,997 **9,401 残響 / 福山雅治 09/06/30
*8 *,390,041 ***,720 TRICK / 倖田來未 09/01/28
*9 *,373,866 **1,201 NEXT LEVEL / 浜崎あゆみ 09/03/25
10 *,324,568 *93,558 CALLING / コブクロ 09/08/05

Ayu is gonna be pushed back 1 position soon

I can't believe that the top 10 yearly will have only 1 album by a solo female artist and it will be a compilation (ayaka's album unless it sells less than 400,000). T_T
Solo female artists' position became awful.
I can see it.
kobukuro pushes ayu and kuu down.
Then arashi pushes ayu and kuu down.
And then ayaka (again unless if it will do less than 400,000).
Ugh.

miliyah kato might be on the top 10 but it's just 1 solo female with a studio album and 2 overall.

not only arashi ayaka and kobukuro will push ayu and kuu back but Michael jackson as well..
his album sold like

86K->63K->40K->26K->18K->19K
and now he's up to 297K at #13

beside that miliyah kato's sales quite strong
12 *,300,943 *19,222 Ring / 加藤ミリヤ 09/07/08
last 2 week was 24K and 18K sold and this week 19K

OMG OMG OMG
I was so excited to see Ayu's over one hundred position jump!! :thud I really think this album deserves a long chart life and good sales. I mean, this is the album with Sparkle, Days and identity on it!!! :O I'm so proud of our Ayu!~ :love

Recochoku and iTunes indeed show that. And if anyone mentions B'z, their songs were only released as Ringtones and not Chaku-uta full, so that might be the reason for them having high physical sales.

^ New marketing strategy to be considered upon for Ayu lol... I think it's too easy to get legal downloads for Ayu's songs nowadays...

@Andre: I hope we're thinking of something different cos I had such a dirrty thought! :laugh

unfortunately at this day & age , if you're a solo artist , it's tough to sell a lot of physical CD units as compared to 5-10 years ago

nowadays being in a band (be in non boyband or not) , it does help the no.s to a certain extent

I say NEXT LEVEL might be pushed all the way back to #12-#14 if this keeps up in weeks to come

I know by next week it will probably go down to #11 since Kobukuro's CALLING is selling really well & steadily (#1 for them 2nd week in a row) & this week , ARASHI's All the BEST ! has dropped

I don't know how will ayaka & Aqua Timez's best albums will fare but it might hampen NEXT LEVEL's position at the end of the year

hey that's so goood... she's currently top 10 best selling of the year?? heehee that's great!

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

why mr.children sells so well? WHY!? i don't see their appeal

eeeee :(

oh maybe older generation heheheheheehhe

hehehehehehe

ayu :D

:roflmao

Well I guess for the "prettier"/younger ones like ARASHI, it's the looks factor... since the fangirls do everything to get all editions of their singles or something lol?

I read somewhere that Mr. Children has been around for a long time... so I guess it's reputation and their music are really... down-to-earth if I'm not wrong.

But who cares? LOL Ayu earns $1 million this year (for example) and she can spend it all.

EXILE can earn $3 million but by the time they divide it among their 839083298493284 members they probably get like... less than half of Ayu's income. :P

Yeah that seems to be trends. Many singers seem to have trends lol.

Kuu iirc has so-so single sales but her albums tend to sell decently.

Ayu sort of strikes a balance in both but recently... haha (oh F.Y.I GREEN/Days sales was 190k and NEXT LEVEL [so far] is 370k... that's about 200k in difference... whoa).

The best sales since the 15st week =O =D

The 20th week position was #188 (two week ago's position).

*1 1,236,414 ***,914 SUPERMARKET FANTASY / Mr.Children 08/12/10
*2 *,957,055 *12,092 塩、コショウ / GReeeeN 09/06/10
*3 *,823,216 **1,305 EXILE BALLAD BEST / EXILE 08/12/03 累計1,767,117
*4 *,753,430 753,430 All the BEST！ 1999-2009 / 嵐 09/08/19
*5 *,654,422 **1,656 DO YOU DREAMS COME TRUE？ / DREAMS COME TRUE 09/03/21
*6 *,483,128 ***,746 レミオベスト / レミオロメン 09/03/09
*7 *,418,960 **1,213 My song Your song / いきものがかり 08/12/24
*8 *,405,801 **6,804 残響 / 福山雅治 09/06/30
*9 *,390,609 ***,568 TRICK / 倖田來未 09/01/28
10 *,374,807 ***,941 NEXT LEVEL / 浜崎あゆみ 09/03/25
11 *,373,627 *49,059 CALLING / コブクロ 09/08/05

NL will out from top 10 next week

I'm really impressed with Mr. Children!

And that's also great for Ayu.

Thanks riozz. ^^

22nd Week
Position: Still Unknown
Sales: 941
Total Sales: 374,807

NEXT LEVEL officially charted as much weeks as RAINBOW and next week it will pass 375,000!

woow.. I didnt realize it's been 22 weeks on chart..hoho..
she has better chart life now and of course thats because S/S//
without that I doubt it will keep charting til this week

:heart for 375K next week (I knew it somehow that's able to happen) & YAY for ARASHI

It was promising even before SS... I would say it's Days+some popularity boost she is receiving in a while now fault :P

Well, glitter/fated didn't help Secret to keep charting. XD

NEXT LEVEL is back!:) Too bad it won't reach 400k T_T

I think before the Oricon year 2009 concludes , NEXT LEVEL might probably end up around #15 or so , position wise ?

now I was told that 3 artistes are releasing best albums in due course @_@ whom're Aqua Timez , ayaka & then now otsuka ai :dead2 which probably might hampen NEXT LEVEL in a way or 2

NEXT LEVEL definitely will be pushed down to #11 next week since Kobukuro's CALLING (which I haven't get it yet but soon LOL) is still selling very well

because Secret already stop charting so it's hard to help secret back...
in this case NL is still active so many ppl buy NL because they want try ayu's new album and its still hot and new. in secret case just something forgotten because it's been 8 months before glitter/fated coming.

I'm very proud of NL's success and very happy to own a copy myself. :) Congrats Ayu!

Wow. Is Koda Kumi still touring? is that why Trick is still charting? Theres no hope for NL to ever outsell it.

kumi's tour was only april-june. ayu's still got the second leg of NEXT LEVEL tour, so the sales might continue... i doubt she'll outsell TRICK, but it'll be close.

maybe they'll have some sort of gimmick for the album during the second leg to try to boost sales, who knows.

Kuu's album always have better chart life since secret compared to ayu. actually TRICk already stop charting, when 3 SPLASH released it back to the chart again.

I hope NL can stay for 30 weeks

okay first week, I was worried for a while then. :P

Ahh 22 weeks. Where has my life gone. XD
It's nice to see it's still charting!

The 21st week position was #105. ^^

^ woow.. that so close to top 100;...

Next level sales is like beating a dead horse, it doesn't die! Haha -knocks on wood-

NEXT LEVEL is not going to be in the top 10 for 2009, but what about other years? Like, was GUILTY in the top 10? And her other albums for that matter.

I honestly don't care whether or not any of my favourite albums for the year (including NEXT LEVEL) are in the top ten. I'm proud if they make it to top twenty. Especially when we're talking about Ayumi. She's up against major bands (specifically boy bands, lol...) and quite a few best albums. But even if those weren't in the competition, being in the top twenty albums of the year is nothing to be ashamed of. ^_^ Of course, I still hope NEXT LEVEL can continue to sell for a while longer. I'll be overjoyed if it can sell around ten thousand more. Which actually shouldn't be too much of a problem. :)

A Song for xx - #16 yearly
LOVEppears - #15 (1999) yearly, #14 (2000) yearly
Duty - #2 yearly
A BEST - #2 yearly
I am... - #2 yearly
RAINBOW - #2 yearly
A BALLADS - #8 yearly
Memorial address - #5 yearly
MY STORY - #7 yearly
(miss)understood - #8 yearly
Secret - #22 (2006) yearly, #73 (2007) yearly
A BEST 2 -BLACK- #7 yearly
A BEST 2 -WHITE- - #5 yearly
GUILTY - #17 yearly
A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~ - #8 yearly

A BEST 2 -WHITE- is #5 yearly NOT #6

Wow, thanks for that. It sadly shows that she's plummeted down though. She'll be lucky to get ~#15 this year. That's OK though ( :yes )!!

chart positions & sales are secondary to me

what matters's that she continues to deliver the music goods as it's :yes

since Duty she always have album in top 10

2000 = duty #2
2001 = A BEST #2
2002 = I am... #2
2003 = RAINBOW #2
2004 = Memorial Addreas #5
2005 = MY STORY = #7
2006 = (miss)understood #8
2007 = A BEST II-white- #5
2008 = A COMPLETE~All Singles~ #8
2009 =?? out from top 10?? pooor

NL is always in charts for a 23rd week?

We will know for sure on Tuesday/Wednesday ^^

GUILTY wasn't in the top 10. And now NL.

Secret wasn't top 10 as well but that's because it's first week and the rest were divided by the oricon years.
The first week was of 2006, the rest were 2007.
If it would be released a week afterwards Secret would be #9 yearly of 2007.
So the reason for Secret is that, but it had all the possibilities to be on top 10 yearly, it was just released a week before it should in order to do that.

Hopefully though NEXT LEVEL might be on top #15 and that's better than the yearly position GUILTY had.

As long as it's in the top 20 that's great. :)

I believe riozz means a Top 10 album every year (not in a row). I was thinking this too. It would be a cool record for Ayu if NL was able to make it into the top 10 and have a top 10 album for 10 years :D

maybe avex will decide for A BALLADS 2 to came out before the year ends then she will make the top 10..XDD

PLEASE NO AVEX. They tend to do what we never want so maybe this will happen ( :dead2) ( :weep ).

That would like be a waste of time and money (A BALLADS sold around 1/5 of A BEST), they seem to be making a similar concept album for Ai Otsuka. A BALLADS didn't sell better than RAINBOW, there is not a reason good enough to presume A BALLADS 2 could sell more than NEXT LEVEL.

Aw, I'd actually like a second A BALLADS, lol... >.>

yeah. that was I meant. not the studio album position..

yeah otsuka will be releasing her 2nd best album called LOVE is BEST on Nov 11th & mind you , everyone's all barking over in the otsuka thread in AHS over this seemingly useless release :laugh

me too , I don't mind it really as long as good ballads of hers make the cut :yes

seems like A BALLADS 2 is getting mixed reactions O____O
a new batch of NEXT LEVEL USB's at half the price and more memory would be good idea..but then we would have to see who will purchase it..

I want A BALLADS 2 too with studio version of B'z itsuka no merry christmas and yuming's haru yo koi.

Omg I would be kicking myself if that were to happen. *is an owner of encore press of USB*

I think Ayu needs to focus on her musical direction more than another compilation.

Btw, A BEST 2 -BLACK- = A BALLADS 2... Just saying...

^ Well there were songs like Because of You, is this LOVE? and GAME...

^ excatly. no pure BALLAD feeling in A BEST II -black-

It's close enough for me personally. If it weren't for the release of RAINBOW and the reworked A Song for XX, A BALLADS would have been a total bore to me -_-; A BEST 2 -BLACK- song arrangements may have varied, but the dark/emotional undertone of all of the songs was the best thing about it. Much better than a compilation of a bunch of slow songs *yawn*. But to each his own :)

They are not silent/slow songs but they are definitely ballads (rock ballads). XD

RAINBOW wasn't that quite as well (A Song for xx too), I love those songs :love

I always think of A BALLADS carrying over the feel of the entire of RAINBOW album...haha. They're both "watery" albums to me. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but they remind me of water...haha.
And imo BLACK =/= BALLADS. A ballad album to me would be something that has an unplugged feeling~. But a compilation would be stupid...considering we've had like... A BEST 2 and A COMPLETE so close to each other.