horrible.......

i'm a girl......:love

i find it..................:D

i'm prefer to see manly boys......
such as brandon stoughton...etc...........:D

^There is a MULTIQUOTE button for a reason.

But really the only surprising one there is This is the One. I never expected BoAs album to sell well. Also, This is the One has been gaining some momentum - I think it will end up being quite a long seller.

Also compare to Mika Nakashima's latest album. By Mika's standards it sold very well and isn't that far behind Next Level, when typically Ayu's album sales leave Mika's in the dust.

I wouldn't count out dr./wild yet - its still selling and if it can maintain some consistency should definitely surpass Rule. Also from what I can tell it has done very well digitally (we'll know exactly how well probably next month.)

But I think what is missing most overall is just more female artists that the public really likes in general. There hasn't been a new hit singer in a long time. So of course its easy to say "Ayu's doing well" when only 3 other albums have come out - 2 of which were english albums and one of which is currently higher than Next Level.

I don't know why people are so quick to discount Dreams Come True as a relevant example of a female artist selling well. Yes, technically it is two people, but everyone associates the group with her and she is also the main song writer.

Dreams Come true is A band :p. WILD/Dr. might surpass Rule/Sparkle in a couple of months but it's already selling less than 5k/week and it's obvious it's not going to outsell Days/GREEN. And WILD has been doing well digitally but not better than Days, at least for now. VOICE sold really well imo. I thoght BoA would sell better due to the fact she had a best of album and I am pretty sure no one expected it would sell less than THE FACE. TiTO shouldn't sell more than 300k but you never know.

umm are you talking about VOICE ?

it was released last year & frankly I'm surprised that it has sold even more better than YES , at most a 40K sales gap between both

:yes

I'm not a BoA fan but I do know how many editions BEST & USA were released in

it's surprising to know even a 2CDs + 2DVDs edition among in the mix of a CD & a 2CDs compliation can't save BEST & USA from having flagging sales & this's a compilation we're talking about , not a studio album

damnnn

FIGHTIN' TO THE TOP

NEXT LEVEL is now AT #16!!!
(17 > 16 > )

yeah, I was very surprised at Best & USA's sales as well... it's not purely an english album release btw 'cos consumers have the option of buying the version that contains her Japanese hits (plus 2 bonus eng songs).

DCT's album is also not purely a studio album cos one of the versions contains 17 of their past greatest hits so if you buy the 2 CD version, it's pretty much like buying a best-of-album+new studio album. I'm definitely not surprised by their sales, I was expecting higher numbers.

According to RIAJ, Together When... in chaku-uta format got double platinum and in chaku-uta full platinum, also avex reported it sold 920,000 in one of their pdfs.

http://http://www.riaj.or.jp/data/ot...w080120_3.html


Yeah #16 today, went up!

Non of the female artists did amazingly well by far this year, it's not only ayu that her sales are average.
Even if hikki's TITO album would chart for year I doubt it will sell more than another 80,000-90,000
copies and it would still be less from 300,000 or what people expected. The album didn't reach 200,000 yet and it already sell around (maybe will 5,000-6,000 this week?). A lot expected at least half a million for that one. For BoA's best, everyone could totally ignore the english album and get the CD only or CD+DVD of the japanese best.
Also kuu's TRICK even if it sold more than NL and not in huge amount, it still didn't do amazingly well, if ayu's sales blown mika's on the recent years kuu did it by way higher numbers.
So ayu's state is not the worst and she still can get some slack.

dreams come true is a band, so we cant consider it in the female artist/singer category, otherwise ikimonogakari, every little thing, girl next door, etc. would have to be counted in that category. just because they're the only ones singing, it's still a band...

for example: no doubts gwen stefani. she was the only one singing in no doubt and she was the one people focused on, but when she went solo, it was completely different...


but anyway, it's nice to know it moved up a spot :)

at least went up by 1 position

^Yes, but it was number 10 on the second day T_T I hope it charts at least as long as Guilty. That might prove that the drop in sales is an industry factor, and not an ayu factor.

But couldn't you argue then that Ayu is in a band too? Because technically she is. Honestly, I don't see much of a difference between Ayu and Yoshida Miwa. I think it just suits peoples purpose to not count Dreams Come True as a female artist - when she is in fact a female and an artist. :) - same goes for other bands like Every Little Thing and Girl Next Door. I think the line between Ayu and female fronted bands is a very fine one and negligible imo. In fact I would say that Ayu is even more of a band than many of the female fronted bands are. (such as Girl Next Door)

It's like people are saying that DCT is only selling well because its a band, therefore their sales don't count when compared to Ayu. Which is ridiculous imo. DCT also showed that it doesn't matter if you are a female artist, you have the ability to hang up there with the top selling male artists. Most people here seem to act as if its an impossible dream or something to sell as well as male artists and then use that as a reason to excuse whoever their favorite artists low sales are. When in fact those same artists have had sales that matched, exceeded, or at least came close to matching those same male artists in the past. It's not something that's impossible, as DCT proved, but its all in offering a product that people want and enjoy.

I'm not sure what kind of tangent I just went on. lol.

....I did. BoAs sales have been in a talespin for a long time.

Right, that's what I said. It sold platinum. :) Certainly not millions. It would be easier to believe Avex's number if they actually gave some sort of source for it.

It's different. People don't look at ayu as a band but as a solo female artist even though she has her own band members to play for her in performances and tours. Same thing as Otsuka Ai. You can't put them in the same category as dreams come true, every little thing, do as Infinity, girl next door, etc...its just different. That's just saying Namie and Koda are in a group like Exile coz they have their own dancers.

They're selling well not because they're a band...a lot of bands don't sell as well....but for other reasons...popularity, music.

I do think there is a crucial difference between Ayu and DCT in the sense that there is a world of difference in how the public perceives them as musical artists. Much of the impact of Ayu's music is dependent on her being seen as the center or the core of her musical identity, even if her collaboration with various producers, composers, arrangers, stylists, dancers, and directors is of utmost importance to breathing life into this identity. The core and center of DCT, however, is borne by two people instead: Miwa Yoshida and Masato Nakamura. Even if Miwa Yoshida is clearly more prominent among the two, the musical identity of DCT is tied in with both and not just one or the other. In the media, Miwa Yoshida is not identified as DCT but as Miwa Yoshida. Also, you don't read or hear news about Ayu's band members or dancers in the media but you do about Masato Nakamura. He is a constant, permanent factor in DCT, whereas Ayu does not always use the same collaborators. That is the difference between Ayu and DCT as artists and, I daresay, this has much bearing on the sales of their records, even if technically they could be seen as kin. DCT has always been seen as a group.

Edit: Ayumiko is basically saying the same thing as I am :)

But to me, that's just a technical difference - not something that's actually real. A lot of female fronted bands, are nothing but idol acts similar to female solo artists - girl next door is the best example of this. Otsuka Ai IS her own band because she writes everything. Yoshida Miwa, also writes the songs and is the main face of Dreams Come True. Like I said, imo - the difference between Ayu and those kinds of groups of really negligible. I'm sure that if Ayumi were called the "Ayumi Hamasaki Band" or something, people here would still find a way to discount Dreams Come True's higher sales. :)

Uemarasan: I technically agree with you. But like I said, I really don't think that the difference is that large between Ayu and female fronted bands - not enough to totally discount a female fronted bands sales at least. Also, to me, just in general I don't like separating one type of artists sales from another no matter how big the difference might be. Say like comparing Ayu to Johnnys or something - if the public likes something, it will sell regardless of factors like a band, or a solo artist, or a pop group, or male, or female. That's why I never like the argument, "Ayu's doing well(or insert any female artists name) considering there are only men in front of her." Well, so? Just because she is female, that's a good reason to not sell higher? huh? Doesn't make sense to me. What happened to gender equality here? Women artists shouldn't be given a lower sales handicap excuse just because they are women.(If I'm making any sense, lol) It's definitely possible for Ayu and other female artists to sell higher levels (and some still do, though its become rare). That's why I use Dreams Come True as a positive example of that.

And now I've confused myself so much that I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore, haha.

Right, that's kind of the point I was trying to make - it doesn't matter whether they are a band or not, their sales are just simply higher.

I don't think majority of the people think in that point of view. Ayu and Otsuka Ai are viewed and labeled as solo artists. I just asked my brother and he was like WTF? they're not a band!...lol

Well anyways, very sad but I found myself kinda stop listening to next level...only a few tracks. The album was refreshing and great at first but didn't last that long. This never happened to any of her previous albums before. =(...I was one of those people that wanted something different from ayu and was happy with next level but I've been listening to the older songs, even tracks from Guilty and I really miss the older ayu....lol ayu can never satisfy.

Right, Ai is a solo artist but she is also her own band because she writes and produces everything. And I pretty much just explained that of course Ayu isn't a band, but I don't think that means we should count out female bands sales either.(or any bands sales for that matter, as I explained above.)

I don't think sales are a difference of male, female, group, solo etc. But rather a difference of knowing your audience and what they like and making yourself likable to the public. And at this point with the exception of Dreams Come True, it seems that male bands and groups have a better grasp on that than most female artists.

To me a band consists of more than one person and are viewed and labeled as a band. That's a band to me. I think of Otsuka Ai as a musically talented individual who happens to do her own music like Utada.

I only brought up Otsuka Ai because you mentioned her. :) I certainly don't consider her a band in the traditional sense of the word, neither do I consider Utada that. They are the abstract concept "the one man band." I think my post was structured badly so some of the meaning got lost.

But this thing about Otsuka is totally not even the point of any of my posts. :)