uh this is kinda bad .__.

^ Are you serious? Have you seen other female soloist sales? (other than Namie lol) The fact that she only dropped what, less than 40k from Rock'n'Roll Circus is amazing and she's still managing to shift copies after 20 weeks

^^
Yeah, and its to my understanding this is physical sales only... this does not include digital sales...
As for Namie, her last album was a compilation which almost always sales a lot. But her music fits a trend right now, she is conforming to what the people want, so her albums are going to sell more anyways...

She is doing this kind of music for years now, even before it was trendy...

how do you think things get trendy? :D
I think she reentered popularity in 2008 with best fiction??
She had been doing R&B for awhile, but it wasnt very big... I just cant image Ayumi doing R&B... but I wonder if she did if her albums would shot through the roof??

Namie became big again with 60s70s80s. Those songs were not R&B.

^ werent those songs off of Best Fiction?
The album seems RBish to me.

Well NEW LOOK had a very pop feel to it which is why I loved it! WHAT A FEELING was electro. ROCK STEADY - idk what that was I never listened to it in full besides like once maybe it was gross. Lol.

Ayu's sales are superb considering how long she's been going at it.

I mean she sells out concert venues (arenas) and maintains her #1 streak even after 13 years in the business... not many other artists can say that. There are maybe like less than a dozen acts that still have that sort of grasp on their Japanese audience, and maybe like three or four of those are female soloists.

The songs were released as a single, later included on Best Fiction.

Ayu's sales are awesome, she's better than most solo female artists. Namie's definetely the most popular one right now in Japan, Ayu only beats her in single sales.

@ren'ai yep, I'm serious^^ Even though she is still able to sell more than 100k after 13 years (even singles!), it means that people still love her, but it is the fact that her sales are declining and that maybe in the future, her studio albums won't be sold in more than 100k. People say that doesn't matter and maybe it doesn't matter to us, but it does matter to Ayu ^^

@TeamAyu2004 well best of albums are usually well received in Japan, not collaborations, and this is what Checkmate! is. Namie has been doing this urban/r'n'b style since 2000, so it's nothing she started recently to fit the trend. And yes, her music is popular, but it isn't only because people want that, I'm sure she does it because she enjoys it too. I guess that Ayu and Namie both do what they want, and they're totally different in terms of musical style and performing. It's just that Namie's work pays off...

^ lol! More like it's paying off *now*. Namie hasn't stayed trendy for the entire decade - she only started getting trendy when her style and music got popular. Whereas Ayu kinda got outta style - but for someone out of style she's doing really well.

Well, as long as there is at least one copy sold, I don't think that ayu really cares about her sales, lol.

Well collaboration bests aren't usually popular but in namie's case she sells it also because she still has big leftovers of her recent high popularity. At this point I don't think that her next album will sell better but only decline, unless of course if she brings hits and excellent marketing ploys like BEST FICTION-60s70s80s had.

^Her album sales are only getting better though... I think she has one more good album in terms on sales and then they will start going down... (maybe 2 more albums, if albums sale trends are the same)

As Checkmate! is a collaboration album and it does well for one, it's more received like an original album (that they usually do less better than bests) and it will sell less than P<F so at this point I think that it will continue with each original album.
Of course it might not, it's just a guess.

ofcourse, Namie has been in music industry way longer than Ayu...

...but it doesn't seem right when Namie has been in music longer she sells more than Ayu...

^ Namie sells more as she had a second boom, she hasn't maintained these sales the WHOLE time. Ayu has just steadily declined like Namie did (but Ayu with lower figures because we're in a digital age now). Namie released a hit single coupled with a strong best collection, which meant her popularity revived, so she sells more than Ayu. Ayu has stagnated (lack of a better word, I know this sounds negative) into a well selling female artist, but isn't THE female singer in terms of popularity right now.

To repeat what every other post is saying lol

Ayu still tends to be the highest grossing female soloist despite this, FYI~

It's her DVDs, haha.

I kinda wish she'd try to gain new fans somehow, but I think that's probably not on her agenda at all. The only way I suppose she can sell a loooot more is to have a groundbreaking ballad or summer pop track that people won't be able to resist downloading/purchasing~