Very nice single so far :). I'm hoping to buy this for my ayu collection later.

Oh!!! sorry xDDD Hahaha I would also die of happiness if RED LIVE was like memorial address... XDD but it would be too much for a b-side xDDD

And I also wonder if th 3 poster will be different... I think so... every single has different pics.. so I hope the 3 posters too ^^

i assume its typo error?it should be RED LINE instead of LIVE :P

From what I can see, the credits for RED LINE ~for TA~ are:
composition: Tetsuya Yukumi
arrangement: Yuta Nakano

Programming: Yuta Nakano
Guitar: KIKU

I wonder if it'll be like Life but a bit simpler?

Sounds like it could be a synth-based/programmed track. No credits for a drummer most likely means the drums are programmed, unless there isn't any percussion in the song at all.

Life is wonderful, I hope it will be something like that.

Someone, somewhere (I think in this thread?) mentioned the possibility of RED LINE being a song for her friend that passed away. I remembered a TA entry where Ayu mentioned that the red bracelet she was wearing was a sort of friendship bracelet she wore with another friend and the friend who passed away, so you know what, it might be possible.

wow i think RED LINE will be leaked at any time :-)

anyone remember what is the last song ayu did not disclose the lyric? Memorial Address??

Memorial address, +, flower garden as well I think?

RED LINE is mid-tempo song.

yepp,agreed with you guys, Avex should stop deleting Ayu's Pvs. that's a good platform to promote her to others. >.<

yayy!this single just made me can't wait to get my copy! just really happy with it! good job Ayu,i love u more, ^_^

Ah, you're the one who initially posted the photos of your copies on Ayuchina, right?

Hopefully it's a nice mid-tempo track.

single gonna be out and around for us folks sometime this week maybe?

maybe we can hear RED LINE tonite?? =p

I'm so happy with You were... & BALLAD that I almost forgot about RED LINE! I can't wait to hear it~ Hope it leaks soon :)

Im already spoiled from the leaked single packaging! :D
It was really beautiful! :love


I can't wait to have it!

BTW, why RED LINE doesn't have lyrics again like Present in ASfXX?

haha its so funny how most of us are implying for him to leak the song, which about to do as well, so yes i hope we'll be able to listen to it soon. :innocent

love the packaging btw

lol @ many of you getting upset because Avex is taking videos down... Avex makes no money from YouTube videos, even if they're officially uploading them themselves. It's free promotion. Avex knows they can make a lot of money off their artists, especially Ayu. That's why Avex takes videos off of YouTube and other websites, including DailyMotion, AOL, etc etc. And that's why they throw all this merch at us, because they know we'll buy it.

that's nice! thanks for the info :)

LMAO I love you!

Anyway, it seems like much thought was put into this single by Ayu, unlike Sunrise where everything seemed really messy and not well-put together... I'm so happy!

And RED LINE is a mid-tempo song? I assume it's gonna have the same tempo as Moments/Life... omg.

Mid tempo hmm...I'm thinking of Life now. Life was by Tetsuya too? Nice to see Tetsuya,..coz it's gonna have a good melody :)
and as Ayu always says, Tetsuya's compositions have that slightly sadder feeling.
the fact that there are no lyrics makes the song so special!!! Like MA

i wanna hear it alrready!

woot.mid tempo?this is interesting....i really hope cdjapan will send my copy to me as soon as possible.so,everything is leaked except for the real pic of the blanket

I don't think it will be ^_^ That would mean direct competition against Kanjani8, their NINKI was over 200 and I can't remember the last time Ayu's NINKI for a single was that high.

Yay! I like the first press cover for You were / BALLAD CD+DVD over BALLAD / You were's, thank god I ordered the right one :)

I love the scans so much. :luv2

The thing is though, if it goes like it has in previous years, even though the release date is the 29th, it will be in stores at least a few days before that which puts it in part of Kanjani 8's week. It's possible she could still get number 1 the next week, but her sales are very front loaded, so its hard to know what will happen.

^ even though it's in stores a few days early I doubt we'll be getting the numbers until it's actual release date. To be honest, I am positive she'll have another #1 single. Avex wouldn't change the release date for no reason.

^ That's what I thought too, so most likely the single's gonna counted in the double week, hopefully~

jajaja yeah!! it's a typo XDD I don't know why everytime I have to write LINE I write another thing XDDD

soo.. this night for me it will be already 23 in japan, so RED LINE, sunset acoustic and you were music box 's chaku-uta will be out!! I hope someone will upload them as fast as we got BALLAD and you were...

and I think thsi single will leak soon as I can see people who has it already... (so lucky!!! >.<)

and, so RED LINE is composed by tetsuya... mmm... let's see...

Tetsuya Yukumi: ANGEL’S SONG, Memorial address, HOPE or PAIN, HAPPY ENDING, Moments, walking proud, INSPIRE, (miss)understood, JEWEL, momentum, kiss o’ kill, Secret, (don’t) Leave me alone, GUILTY, MY ALL, Life, GREEN

Love him defintely!!! 3 of my ALL time favourites (memorial, walking *-* and missunderstood) are by him!!!

Oh ! it looks awesome ! i'll buy it immediatly when i have enough money ^^!

nah,its still haven't 23 in japan yet.its still 22 dec T_T
4 more hours to go :thud

woot, there are those my favorite song! can't wait just about 4 hours to go,hope someone will share it with us ;)

OMG BY TETSUYA YUKUMI?? I think I just died!!!
He's like the only composer that I do not hate any songs!!! I love all of his songs, especially JEWEL & happy ending

It would be nice if it's another INSPIRE or ANGEL'S SONG just for kicks :D

But ayu said his current compositions is a bit on the darker side... so more like GREEN/Life/Secret? Hopefully <3

love all his compositions (cept for angels song haha) but i was really hoping it was CREA

One thing is very interesting to me...
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/5048/clipboard02xi.png
Only one line of song?! So the title suits well xD But I wonder how this will sound...

Thanks for posting, the inside pics look really beautiful in my opinion. I like especially the one where her whole face isn't showing. I like the other one too, her expression is really nice in it.

lol, if i could find a one line song in this world.no actually they didn't include the lyric of RED LINE just like Memorial Adress :P

yeah, is what I say, when in Spain at night, Japan will already be in the morning of the 23th, so I hope by this night we'll get the previews!!! *-*

another 1 hour and 30 mins to go!! XD

So the single isn't released this week? (since it didn't leak yet)
Then probably just the pre-order sites already ship their orders before and this week isn't the double week. XD
Tomorrow if ayu's single won't chart then it will 100% say that it's not out yet. ^^

hmm,i thought the release date is 29th?why do you think it will release this week?

Oh.. Only one I like is GUILTY.

uhm...I can not define mid-tempo >_>
Which songs of Ayu are mid-tempo?

songs that are neither fast nor very slow, something like GREEN for example, that would be a mid-tempo ballad

The status of the item in my CDJapan order still says "Processed" in other words the single isn't going to be out a week early, as if it were it would've been shipped by now ;)

that "one line" should be reading something similar to the lyrics page of Memorial address

"The author does not wish to disclose the lyrics of this song"... or something like that. (:

And mid-tempo songs... would be like Life or Moments. Both are Tetsuya Yukumi's compositions as well, so I guess he likes them ballads mid-tempo. :P

^ momentum was more mid-tempo than Moments :p even though I kinda have a feeling it will sound MY ALL-ish, I am still hoping for something momentumish XD

omg momentum would be perfect... one of my favorite winter songs

and I don't think RED LINE would be a happy song like MY ALL cos I read from somewhere in this forum (forgot where exactly), that RED LINE isn't a dedication song to TA, it's a song about her friend who passed away whom she wrote about in her diary entries, and how they wore red bracelets or something.

So it should be quite a sad song...

i lovee momentum too! or maybe that's a combination between Life and momentum XD
nwey, she still wears the bracelet.

it's already 23rd now in japan..can't wait to hear it!

After seeing Namie's first week sales, my hopes for this single's sales dropped considerably. >.<

What does namie's album sales has to do with ayu's single's sales though? XD

And I'm glad that the double week and ayu's singles will be next week. She will 100% get #1 since kanjani8's 2nd + 3rd weeks are lower than ayu's 1st day sales. XD (specially when their singles are limited).
So yeah, no threat for ayu.

Alot. If Namie sells good, alot of buyers might buy her album rather than this single. Also many people can't afford both, and might go for Namie instead because of the hype and good sales.
Of course all hardcore fans will buy Ayu's music anyways, but the target is always to get those maybe-people to buy it (just like in politics with undecided voters), to always reach more people. hardcore Ayu fans will buy anything she makes.

I highly doubt it.
There are a lot of times where the both the album and singles of the same week are doing great, either with the album or single of the same week are great success.
The recent week for instance, namie's first week didn't hurt at all at masaharu fukuyama's first week single sales which was pretty great.
Even BoA's single kept on selling better than BoA usually does (I mean it outsold all of her own recent singles even if it wasn't a smashing seller itself) and namie's album didn't make more people than usual to lose interest in BoA's single and buy namie's album instead. So if what you say would be true it would mean that the maximum of the maximum BoA's single should sell like it usually what do with no more than the usual interest in her singles because those people would prefer buying namie's album.
And ayu's single will be released on Namie's album's 3rd week out so even more.
If a lot of casual listeners liked You were... & BALLAD or highly just one of them they will buy it.
The ringtone of You were... does really well on the recochoku legal downloads on the charts by far. It should do fine.

all this hype about red line. i hope its as great as the songs tetsuya composed *crosses fingers* :yes

I didn't want a ballad n___n

I'm ready for the leak. Bring.it.on.

^ LOL.

Hopefully it will come soon!

previews are up for japanese!!!

and not only RED LINE, Sunset and You were music box, also the instrumentals for you were, BALLAD and RED LINE ^^

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2721/redline2.png

please, leak soon!! XDD

EDIT: OH WAIT! it also says that BALLAD PV is available.. and... a flash of the covers??? xD

I can't hear RED LINE T_T

I hope someone will kindly record it and upload hehe ^^

Even if the single should leak in 5-6 days. xD

I'm really interested to hear how it sounds.

I think for the first time ever I can say I don't care for an Ayu song. You were... just doesn't do it for me, it sounds too ballad generic for Ayu, not special in any shape or form. The lyrics might be typical Ayu which of course I love, but the music just doesn't do it justice. BALLAD is the better song and I have yet to hear RED LINE... but if its another ballad, I was really hoping for a non-ballad song. HOWEVER... I hope its a gooooood ballad that makes up for You were...

I keep hoping it'll grow on me but for now it hasn't. =\

Just read some impressions of RED LINE on 2ch~

- People seem to prefer it over both You were.../BALLAD
- Reminds them of early Ayu
- There is much less vibrato than in You were.../BALLAD
- People think it would fit nicely as ending song in concerts
- "Replace"-type arrangement

Wow I want to hear it >_<

If 2ch's people say that it's good while nothing is never good for them it must be good... XD

Thanks!

I'm so excited right now, I wonder what they mean by that! I love Replace's arrangement, I hope it's little heavier on the quitar side though xD

So RED LINE will sounds like Replace. That's interesting :yes
Yay finally a happy song!

Replace belongs to her worst songs IMO...well, whatever, only the arrangements are said to be similar

wow... better than You were and BALLAD???

IF it's so,, I'll cry because this song will be left like a bleeeh b-side and maybe deserves to be in the album more than other songs... -_____-

though I hope only the arrangement is simmilar to Replace because I don't like this song... I may have heard it 2/3 times...


want to hear itt!!! c'mon!!! before AHS go dead!!! xD

It sounds like Replace!? Holy crap, that's seriously the first song that popped into my head whenever I was trying to picture what each song would sound like! :O So if my other predictions are true.....this'll be a great song! :D Very excited now!! :yes

so excited! i love Replace and those kind of songs :D

We still don't know if the single will show up on store shelves before the 29th. If it does, as it has typically been the case in the past in Dec. then that does not work in her favor.

something like Replace? ew -_- I want something like Life <3
but better wait for a leak to know how exactly it sounds..

Anytime now >_<

You're presuming that both share a similar/same fan base, which is most likely far from being true, you could as well presume that the fans of all the boybands are the same people which would mean they are more than willing to spend their money on all those singles. It's obvious that You were... has no troubles attracting the casual listeners as the ringtone is still in top3 after a month since it's release. Another thing is that casual listeners rarely buy physical releases nowdays which means that those who are "undecided" will most likely just purchase the tracks digitally. In other words what you're saying makes little to no sense mostly because we have no idea to what extent do their fan bases overlap.

Just because we the non Japanese jpop fans listen to many female artists and that many female artists come in package for us that doesn't mean it's the same in Japan (in fact from what I've heard I am sure it's not).

But GUILTY for example was still released on Tuesday (and it was in stores a week before).
This time ayu's single isn't out yet so it most likely be in stores on next Monday/Tuesday and it will say that the double week starts.
Unless if it will be released on a random day.
I mean for what reason avex wouldn't take the advantage of the whole week if it starts this week and will be released after a few days?

GUILTY was releaed prior to its release date but it still had full 2 weeks and not a week +3-4 days.

Is there a way to notice/know soon if the double week starts this week or the next? =P

Yes, the NINKI is for this week only, not for the two weeks. Therefore, the double week is next week

Read my post once more... That is exactly what I wrote. It is not existing fans that are important in sales, it's capturing new audience, gather new listeners. And you can't really say Ayu and Namie don't have the same fans, how can you know? I bet there are alot of those 127 million people that like both Ayu and Namie.

Of course it plays a role whether your biggest competitor releases an album or single ther same time as you do, artits always try to avoid that, and it is for a reason. Namie's album has been out for some weeks, so I don't really see the competition with Ayu's single this time, just someone else mentioned it. Don't you think Ayu and her management are paying close attention to which other artists release music the same date she does? And I can assure you, they keep good count of Namie's sales.

Also, whether you purchase digitally or buy physical copies does not matter. The dough rolls in anyways.

I didn't say they do - I said there is no way to know. Namie's album will already be 2+ weeks old once Ayu's single gets out, considering that You were... is doing better than all the songs from PAST<FUTURE together on Recochoku, it's quite logical that an album that was released more than half a month ago won't affect the sales in any way especially considering it hasn't affected anyone else's sales so far. I am not even sure why would someone bring this up as it makes no sense...

^^ I never understood why he says that either. Sure, they probably don't share the same exact hardcore fan base, but they probably share all the same CASUAL listeners. Pop fans are really not as exclusive as he seems to think. XD

We will just have to wait and see. If it does release in stores on the 29th, that will be the first time that I remember that something at the end of December was actually in stores on its release date only. Even if thats the case though, it will still at least somewhat hurt her sales due to the fact that not all record stores will be open over New Years (which is the entire reason why the releases show up a few days before). Luckily for her though, if it does get released the 29th and she loses a couple days of sales because of store closures, she doesn't really have any competition that week.

Not really, their album and single sales tend to differ. Ayu's a better single seller atm => means she has more hard core fans. Namie is currently selling more albums => she is currently more popular as we all know. I guess if someone would take the time to screen cap the BEST ARTIST 2005 (I am not sure if Namie has performed on there after that?) charts for Namie and Ayu it would be the easiest way to check the age and gender of their fans/listeners. Also, remember those Oricon polls, Namie was mostly voted by females. So considering that after all they do generally sing about different things and handle their music differently I don't think they share a lot of fans nor casual listeners (127 million people is imo a lot...). That's how I think at least.

Reminding you that the company that release namie's CDs is avex trax.

For how long will those stores be closed and how many of them?

I think at the moment that avex put the release date on the 29th and not on 01.01 (like for example kuroki meisa's mini album) to maybe emphasis that it will be in shops already on Monday which is the first day of the oricon week (sales that are shown on Tuesday) means it will have 14 days of the double week (and not naturally 13). So the single would have 3 days before those stores will get closed.

^ plus these are a single and an album we're talking about in no way do they compete against each other on the charts, Ayu's single didn't get postponed cuz Namie had an album released that week, but because Masuharu had his single out and Namie obviously didn't affect his sales...So much about that.

Ah well there are only 3 days left till NINKI's out, so we'll know soon enough.

It really differs depending on the area and is obviously up to the descretion of each store owner/company. Historically, it used to be that many stores in Japan would shut down for several days the first week of January; everything other than essential stores like the grocery and stuff. Nowadays, especially with the economy they don't seem to close as much. Tokyo for example has a lot of stores back up and going after about 2 days. Outside of Tokyo I don't know, but they probably stay closed longer.

It seems the economy is really effecting the normal holiday though because on the Tower Records Shibuya site it says they will not be closing at all in Dec. or Jan.

And you think it will hurt sales even in the total terms?
I mean won't all the people who would or want/wanted to buy this single buy it when they can? (and there won't be a loss of the "meant" total sales or barely a loss?)

So chances are that they only won't work during the first two days? I wonder for how long will the Oricon stop updating the charts, it's usually a week, right?

I do remember though that GUILTY's sales were pretty consistest the whole first week through (like 30,000+,25,000+ per day or something).

Maybe the closed stores are the reason for the consistency?

(And You were.../BALLAD might sell 15,000 per day for a week too lol, or not, but maybe as I suspected it will be released a few days before the stores will be closed).

^ yeah, GUILTY's sales were pretty consistent even during it's second week (the 2nd part of the double week) which was really weird. I guess Oricon has good reasons for merging those.

sunshineslayer question for you xD If the single could be bought on stores 3-4 days before the 29th... those sales would be counted this week or the next one?? if it's the next one it will help her right?? more days to count... If not... then for her albums in the past that wer available days before, the sales of this extra days were counted for her albums real week, right?? so for Yw/B would be the same...

We are going crazy with the release date fo this single!! xD

(RED LINE where are youuuuu~~??? xD)

^ lol. Yeah, the answer is simply, I don't know because it is too confusing and too much to remember, haha.

@Ayumisrael: No, won't hurt total sales but could effect the first week sales.

When I said "all" the same casual listeners, I didn't literally mean all. I meant a lot. XD Of course their sales are different, like no pop stars have the same exact sales. But for the most part, casual pop listeners like a variety of people, not just one specific type like Ayu-pop or something. It's like how a bunch of people on this forum like Namie, Hikki, Kumi, and Ayu, though none of them have the same exact type of music. I doubt that Japanese people are soooo different that they'd only like ONE of those and not like the others.

Well she will have 2 weeks as the 1st week so I'm not sure if it that hurt. XD

Like GUILTY it just might "hurt" the dailies, though they might be consistent.

Oh! SS, I was confusing making the question or you mean that all this thing is confusing? XDD

Anyways... I'm too lazy to quote all posts... I think we can at least agree that when artists release albums the same week sales will be affected!
Not total sales but definately the first week sales, which may or may not make that specific album no 1 for the week.
I'll probably not buy Ayu's next album, I'm liking fewer and fewer songs from her, I really disliked the whole Sunrise/set LOVE IS ALL single, didn't even bother to watch the PVs, and I really don't like You were... BALLAD is alright. Let's see what Red Line sounds like when it's out.

Didn't you really like　BALLAD though? (saw from your posts in the download section). xD

But yeah I would wait for the whole album to judge first unless if 4 (3) songs of it really prevents you from already buying it.

Yeah I did/do... But.. Not like I used to. Some years ago, I was like really obsessed with her songs, loved every song... I do like ballad, but it's the only son in a while I've liked... I haven't even listened to some of the songs on her Next Level album... I think it's just me though, I've gradually moved from Ayu to Utada (minus her newest English album).

I bought alot of singles and albums, but these days I just don't feel like they're worth it just for listening to 3-4 songs on an album...

Oh dear, you poor thing. I can't imagine moving from bad to worse like that...

Ok, I will not turn this into an A vs U thread... So... Back to topic!:P
Red Line sounds like Replace.... I kind of like that song...Hm, this'll be interesting.

^Although notice I said "bad to worse" not "good to bad" >.>

Why won't this single leak D:? Has anyone checked Ayuchina to see if the picture guy uploaded it there yet lol?

no,i just came back from ayuchina :P
no leak yet

Hehe, I see. Well, we're all here in AHS though... :cool

I know.. leak leak!