Let's recap a few things about the japanese music industry right now... Last year only 3 female solo acts (JUJU, LiSA and Milet) topped #1 for albums on Oricon. If we go to the single chart, only 2 (Mariya Takeuchi and LiSA). If Ayu gets the #1 with A BALLADS 2 she will be the first female solo act to get the #1 for album this year so far. So this shows how much female solo acts are not selling at all in Japan. And for streamings, Ayu is doing pretty well (better then most acts from her same generation - except for Utada that alrrady got 10millions streams on her latest song). So maybe is - more than - time to wake up and face the reality and stop being bitter about her not selling 100k. :)

Was gonna comment - it's just the sign of the times. Physical music just doesn't sell as it used to.

^I think so too

but its not true all the way - there are still artist that can shift "massiv" numbers of CDS - even without gimmicks. Just very few tho.

ˆ If you are a boyband, girlband or have a huge tie-in, yeah it's possible. Otherwise...

Honestly nothing has been done to moves some sales ... The popularity of Ayu is what she is but it sound to me like besides her fans and some people following musical accounts on social media nobody are aware that she released a new album and it’s like that since some times now...
No tie in, no promo, no interviews, underwhelming contents etc... even with that i cant assure that her sales would be much better but it would definitly grabe some interest from nostalgic people of her songs.

The singers of her generation who are doing better than her at the moment have all big tie in and promo. These singers probably have a better likeability than Ayu but still ...

That's what I meant when talking about "artistic purpose". Make the piano sound "fuller" in forgiveness is important, makes the arrangement more powerful (and that's an intense song, for sure).

Not throwing shade to any other artist but Ayu is literally doing the same as other singers in terms of sales/streams without having any tie in, no tv shows, no tv variety, etc. I feel that she is doing this for us, the fans that kept following her, not the general public or to attract new audience.

Guys I found that if you put Days to Disc 1 (probably after You were) instead of Disc 2, the flow can be better, at least to my ears. That way Disc 1 is like the winter mood, and Disc 2 is spring, which follows winter.

She consistently released material since her debut and guess what happened? At some point she was running on empty and the quality of her output seriously suffered. Not to mention that her deafness worsened because this kind of spoiled, entitled behavior from her fans demanded that she work as though she were a factory instead of a human being.

Give your favorite artists some breathing room. Unless you want to push them towards creative and literal death.

Like Hikaru Utada. Her song has 25 million views. But I believe it's because of Evangelion. Give the opening theme of Attack on Titan to Ayu, and she will have 100m views:D. Just kidding, but yeah..

I think the era of greatest hits being a safe value is resolved since people can make their own greatest hits with streaming services.

Wait, first female solo to get number 1 album this year? Utada’s latest album did not reach 1 on the first day?

Also realizing that LiSA sold 66k with Leonine in its first week and that she’s had a huge hit on the album paints a good picture of how much the public cares about CDs. Gurenge had over 170 million streams on Spotify and Adamad over 35 million. Literally every other song she releases has an anime tie in.

The same with Aimer, her last 2 albums sold around 35k each in 2019 again every other song has a tie in.

If you consider TROUBLE even Ayu isn’t doing that bad really...

One Last Kiss peaked at #2 on Oricon although it sold 100k physical and over 20k digital

King Gnu, Kenshi Yonezu, SEKAI NO OWARI?

She’s fourth today but third place sold 757 copies...I was expecting more copies sold on a Saturday for everyone but it’s only 1k copies even for first place

Wow, which boy group got the first on that day

the story for OLK is different since it is essentially a single classified as an album.
Some Anime stuff got #1 that week

https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/780787...cts/1384078/1/

edit: OLK was still #3 the week after tho

edit 2: and #1 today lol

I hope all those who are concerned with the sales, actually helped out in increasing the sales. If not, why do you even care about the sales? Don't think ayu cares about sales. Or it haven't reach to the state where she is worried yet.

Beautiful :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:heart