I do wonder what do other people felt when Namie announced she was literally closing down everything online from her main website and her other SNS

When that was announced back then I thought it was so extreme & drastic . The only saving grace of sort is that her YouTube account was not deleted . That almost happened but even after it underwent changes , it wasn't the same as before

I understand why Namie wanted to retreat from the public spotlight as she was in showbiz for so long . However , other artistes who have retired or disband over the years due to wide variety of reasons let alone passed away , their main website are still up and running

Anyway I don't know what else to add on , what's done cannot be undone again :shrug

We can't ignore how tired she looked in her past tour. With some theory regarding she was already seeking for retirement during her 20th anniversary, everything sounds logic to me. And I hate to admit this, but when we see that she shows no interest talking to her fans during her concert, it kinda makes sense that she was so tired being an "entertainer" for her fans anymore.

But nevertheless, all she needs to do is upload all her discography to spotify and I'm sure all of us will shut up.

But to retire because she don´t want to be in the spotlight anymore and deleting herself from public music history are 2 different pairs of shoes.
I can understand she doesn´t want to be in public anymore, but to maintain the website, to put the discography on streaming sites, even to relaese Best albums and other complilation stuff is still still possible because it´s music lable´s staff to do this. maybe she has to sign some papers here and there but nothing more. (at least I guess it is not more)
But this complete shutdown is like "inthezone" said a bit unfair to her fans who supported her for 25 years (and brought her a sure not little amount of money to be able to retire at 40 and never have financial sorrow again)

I have been keeping up, but does Namie plan to "retire" for good, or is it one of those I want to take some time to myself?

And release a PV collection or put the full videos on YouTube!

It always made sense to me that something like this would happen though. I was thinking we'll probably never get another release such as a new compilation or a remix album as this keeps her in the public eye. So to maintain a quiet life it's almost like she does want the general public to forget about her. Any releases or adding her music to Spotify just creates hype. Although at the same time, I do wonder why they didn't keep the official website as it was as there will always be a Wikipedia page for her and fansites.

I'm almost surprised her music hasn't been removed from iTunes tbh!

She is completely done

Sadness. Hopefully after a few years shell decides to do something.

That’s the thing. I respect and understand her decision to stop being a performer/public figure. It’s totally fine to do it, but shutting everything down is very extreme and it’s impossible to erase all traces public existence with the internet. And it’s not like she’s pulled her stuff from amazon or iTunes or hmv/tower records so people still see her stuff. I wonder if there’s a different kind of feeling or motivation behind it that we don’t know, because it doesn’t seem like it would be a big deal to leave stuff up online, even unmaintained. I really wonder if this erasure is because of the jerks in the press that kept harassing her and her staff last year.

Possibly cos I doubt Namie had a good relationship with the press prior to her retirement & seems like things escalate to an all new level after her retirement news , so much so that even the media bombard her staff and family members relentlessly which's not right

In a way somewhat at least Namie's releases are still available for sale , be it physically or digitally . At least she didn't go through what Hilcrhyme did & now as a fan , I kinda take that aspect for granted :x

it's like if you were an architect that retires and not only wanted your name off of the architectural plans but also almost wanted to destroyed all the buildings you built up :/

Not really... It's like if you're an architect and closed your website and social media.

It's probably boring like resources, why keep them up if they're not being used? I think it's also meant to hammer home that this is definitely the end and not a retirement that will maybe result in a comeback or special performances.

You can still buy her music, digitally and physically. It'll probably get put on steaming when people finally stop buying Finally. (lol)

^ haha yeah but I mean she should have expanded to other places to keep her history alive, remember how they said they were gonna erase her YT account?? that's pretty much destroying some of the things she built up, social media is very important in this day and age. I get the no releasing full PVs but they don't want anything of her work out there. Her website supposedly was closing too. And what happened to her dimension company, it's gone! so... yeah.

But.. wasn't Naruto.. I mean, Boruto... HARUTO (!!) going to debut under Namie's label?

^ haha didn't know 'bout that but, dimensions.jp is gone so, dunno what they plan to do, they had some artists on that label too.

^ I think the Haruto thing was just speculation/assumption on the part of media people. We don't know if he even wants to go into music. And Namie might not want him to, especially after how she was treated. It looks like she wants total privacy for herself and her family, nothing at all to do with public life again, which is understandable.

There wasn't a rumor about Haruto going to study in New York or something?

^ it’s possible, but I don’t remember that one. I remember there was a rumor he was going to sign with dimension point and debut as an artist, but it was just a rumor as far as I know...

She may want that, but unless she's got *extremely* unusual clauses on her contract(s) with her record label(s), then she's hardly in any position to enforce that even if she wished it. She gets her royalties, but the ownership of the material ultimately remains with the record company(ies) she's worked with throughout her career. I can't imagine *any* record label would've agreed to such clauses, no matter who the artist is.

But then, here we are. So I honestly have no idea what's going on. It simply doesn't make sense to take away what is essentially passive advertising. Keeping a promotional site running--and this is what an "official" artist's site is--especially when content no longer gets updates--can't cost very much.

The 33rd Japan Gold Disk Awards has besotted 2 awards to Namie

- Artiste Of The Year (Japanese music)
- Best Video Release (Japanese music) for namie amuro Final Tour 2018 ~Finally~

https://natalie.mu/music/news/321483

For Artiste Of The Year (Japanese music) , this's the 3rd time Namie received while it's the 2nd time she received back to back

Don't let this thread die pls ;-;