i hope Jasmine debut album will get a huge number...and well reception from Japanese public...

I think most of that depends on promotion, and she really hasn't done much in the past with her singles. :/

The Ninki for her album was really low ... only 19. But I'm hoping the album will be a surprise/sleeper hit!

I am really starting to like 'Why' :heart (translation up at my LJ )

:laugh

:hi5

Ikr. Me too. I think she sounds better than sso many artists right now. I really like what this album is turning out to be

Idk why I like jasmine so much lately. Her style of music (mainly r&b) really annoys me lately
But her music is soooo good. She's already cemented a place in my top fav jpop artists
I really wish this album to do well ^___^

Well, I won't expect too much with the sales but hopefully it'll chart for a long time... kinda like Ayu's A Song for XX when it debuted--it slowly sold 1.5 million, hahaha.

Album Interviews, etc
http://www.vibe-net.com/musicinfo/to...interview.html
http://smash.music.yahoo.co.jp/top/powyjm00381/
http://music.biglobe.ne.jp/special/jasmine/index.html

new promo pic
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7343/64841488.jpg

^she looks like cleopatra

JASMINE's pages in WHAT's IN? (Aug. issue)
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5615/30658353.jpg

I don't like the new promo pic too much. Its like awkward. She's like kinda beautiful there but then kinda dead looking and weird
The claws are strangely cool though. I don't think cleopatra was as pretty as jasmine :)

Just a couple more days...why didn't I order this album? T.T I should beg my parents. I usually don't buy other jpop artists albums

you mean like how she looks in ALL her pictures?

I wish that was the cover of the album, actually. She doesn't look like she's balding.

No. I like her other pics. She's beautiful with the expression she makes
This one is dead as in she looks aged and not as young. Or like she's been on drugs...like that
Its not as beautiful as other pics of her. Tis all

I kind of like the expression she has in the promo, it fits imo.

Good luck JASMINE
I hope she can do something great with her album

I love that shot that's in the magazine. That's a really cool ad!

The album leaked!

Album leaked over at kmc I presume. I downloaded from a different website I go to though. So yay me :) Listening right now. PRIDE was really boring...Hopefully the other album tracks are good.

^ omg you have a RURUTIA set, YOU ARE AMAZING :thud

Going out to buy my copy of the album as soon as stores open up in an hour! It'll be interesting to see how much in-store promotion is going on...

omfg stage ~interlude~ -> This Is Not A Game was HOT OMFG OMFG OMFG LOL <3

I love RURUTIA :) Amazing artist right there! Very underrated in Japan though.

And that's cool how you can just walk into stores and buy the album D: So jealous.

Does anyone have a link or is it in the download section here yet? I'm so lazy. xD

Bad Girl is amazing! omggggggg I have a new favorite JASMINE song
I don't really like dear my friend or Why. Overall this is a VERY good album though. One of my favorite albums that has been released this year. I'm definitely going to be buying this. This girl is amazing, I hope she sticks around for a long time.

You will all be happy to know that the color of the album cover in real life is PERFECT! :luv2 Opening my CD up now...

omg I don't want to download it!! since most of the tracks are in the singles, I want to leave the new songs for when I buy the album!!! :D can't wait!!!

Any nice booklet pics?

Sadly no. :no There's a variation on the promo pic where she's standing in a slightly different pose and her skin is made to look like liquid gold, which I am not such a fan of. xD And right as you open up the booklet there's a close-up of her eyes, which are closed. That's all the new pictures we get. D:

I preordered the album and i still downloaded/listened to the whole thing. :lech

I like this album, mostly I'm disappointed that "dear my friend" isn't a ballad. I think it had the potential to be one. Pride sounds like an alternate opening for the people's court. lol and I think this is a really great album. So glad I preordered it.

Do you guys think there's going to be an OS press for it??? :( I'm sooo low with cash atm xD

PRIDE and Bad Girl :heart

best j-pop album of the year for me so far AMAZING :heart really wish PRIDE was longer, I love every new song.

and if anyone cares what the actual album looks like
http://i26.tinypic.com/2v9d5jm.jpg
http://i26.tinypic.com/2yw7fh2.jpg

DAMN.

The album looks so hot in real life. :heart

Bad Girl sounds really good ^-^

Its so....luxurious looking $_$

Love the album

omg are you in japan or something? how did you get your copy so fast O.O

^ those pictures are from yahoo auction japan :P ordered my copy with other stuff so it won't ship until next week

Oh my god the GOLD packaging pics look HOT. I can't wait to receive my copy! The only album track I listened to so far is PRIDE and I won't be listening to the rest until I receive my copy lol

The album was pretty good. The flow was good. But, I did get bored after CLUBBIN". But I regained interest when No More started. Out of all the new tracks, I liked dear my friend (and stage ~interlude~, but, that's an interlude ;D)

wow the album makes me think of kuu's Kingdom and namie's past<future xD

looks HOT HOT HOT!!!! ME WANTS!!! :thud

CD pics


couple of scans from the album

I WAS BORN IN THE HEISEI, IN THE HEISEI

:roflmao

Have to wait till next week to buy the album, hope the limited edition is still available then!

woww, it looks amazing, but i haven't money >.<

I am pretty sure she can get into top 10 in 1st week

doubt about top 5....

hmm..another dissapointment release from 'my girls'...
kana not wow me, YUI not wow me too...
and now JASMINE not wow me again...the single tracks are strong, but the album tracks is so weak...kinda generic and bland...and too american sounded for my taste...hmm..i hope her next release will be stronger than this...

http://twitter.com/J_A_S_M_I_N_E_
JASMINE just announced that she will be doing another Zepp tour in November.

^cool...another free tour?

The album tracks are kinda disappointing to me. I like PRIDE and its piano, but ... eh, they always do this. Promising new female artist, great singles, and then they stuff the album with typical ballads that are kinda boring. I was hoping some songs with more power.

Maybe her next album. For now, let's just hope it'll be a success!

GOLD is #2 on its first day with 7k sold... SMAP is #1 with 65k copies sold. I hope the album will be at least able to break ~75k in the long run...

Wow! Debuting at #2!! That's awesome. Congrats to JASMINE. My favourite new track is PRIDE. :D

WOW NUMBER 2!!! NOT BAD!!!
i think 50-60k for the first week is not bad at all...and reach 100k in the long run!!!

new tour schedule. maybe they'll give us a 2 DVD set of this and the last one :lol: I wish.

#2 ain't bad. I bet she would have gotten #1 if it weren't for SMAP.

Now THAT'S optimistic : P. With first day sales of 7800k I doubt she'll reach 50k in the first week. Maybe in total? That'd be more likely ...

Still, there's always the possibility of a sleeper hit, which is what I'm hoping for!

Around 7k first day? I guess that's okay, hopefully it won't drop too much. Just wondering, how much do her singles usually sell?

^ first week

sad to say 7k
no more 5k
this is not a game 3k
jelous , dreamin 2k

So proud of her :weep :heart

She is amazing, No.2 is a really great peak

ok xD I love all her songs but new album mateerial (exept Pride) is boring as hell....
I was waiting for this album and this is sad...

#2 is so good :D I'm so happy for her!

She's #3 today behind YUI with 5k sold :) I hope it doesn't drop drastically over the next few days

ok..i realise that i put too much hope on the sales...looks like this album just will get around 30k for the first week...we will see

30k sounds feasible for the first week. Realistically speaking, I'm guessing 50~60k for total sales.

Then again, Nishino Kana's love one only debuted with 40k but has since sold over 200k! Of course she had a major hit on that album.

I think there is nothing to compare - Kana is long term saler - Love one gets 1k a year after release...and JASMINE is not really... xD But I hope she can beat 50 k

Btw, JASMINE posted a bunch of pictures of the album promo on twitpic. :) (i.e. links on her twitter.)

http://twitpic.com/photos/J_A_S_M_I_N_E_

Looks nice actually. Now if only she'd perform live on TV again!

And her sales total is 7980+4985=12965 so far.

I don't really think the album can sell 50k :/ It's a bit too much

Good sales, probably she can sell 20k-25k in the first week

I'm not trying to be the thread downer, but how can you guys seriously think 7K is good for an album...? It's true that it's all about the music and quality and I agree with that, and as for JASMINE she has pure, unadulterated talent, but it won't make me think that these kinds of sales are good.

Prepared for a backlash.

#2 is great! Better than I expected, I'm really proud of her :heart. The actual CD looks amazing, sooo...luxurious, as someone else has said :luv2. I must listen to the album tomorrow in the car!

I'm curious about this too.

Are most of us just spoiled by artists like Ayu, Kuu, etc. who normally sell in the tens of thousands on their first day that it skews our expectations when, in actuality, selling in the thousands is normal for everyone else?

Because it's kind of funny to me that JASMINE could be #2 with 7k while SMAP is #1 with 65k. The difference between the two amounts makes me wonder what is actually normal for regular artists versus the big names.

#2 is excellent, but the album at #1 is almost 7 times the amount. What did the #20 album album sell that day, 5 copies? :shrug
An album by an artist on a major label selling an overall 30K or so is pretty much a failure sales wise. People get dropped when they don't sell well.

Again I'm going to emphasize that sales are not everything// Jasmine deserves sales just as good as any top seller in my opinion, and hopefully she'll get to that with future releases, but I just can't see how these sales can be praise worthy whatsoever. I guess some must be glad that she's charting at the very least.

Reaching #2 is great! I'm really proud of her for getting that far. but having her album sales not even reach 5 digits? That sucks. But I don't care at all about that crap. All I care about is if I like the songs or not. Yeah, it's great if it sells a lot and reaches really high on music charts. But even if it didn't, as long as I enjoy the music. That's all I care about.

Well...being that high on the chart is good exposure for her, even if the sales aren't what you'd like.

Maybe not praise worthy, but they're hardly failing.

Aside from sad to say, her songs haven't been promoted all that much, she's barely had any photoshoots, has appeared in very few magazines and has only appeared on TV one time. Her videoclips are all relatively low-budget. It's not like they were gearing her up for a huge debut with at least 100k + sales. I'm thinking they want to go slowly with her, not shove her in the public's face. (Which doesn't work either, look at ICONIQ).

Forgive me, I'm going to attempt a counter-argument. :P

Well, JASMINE most certainly isn't going to get dropped considering she actually has a humble following (enough to perform at ZEPP, even if it's for free.) And considering that she's a very little known artist who obviously has been very low budget, I think her sales are okay. Her low-budget-ness actually makes up for her sales. I don't think Sony has aimed JASMINE at being a high-selling commercial artist with mass appeal. :S Especially seeing the way they packaged her. Some new artists on her label sell around the same as her if not less, tbh, like MiChi and Love (the girl band.) And not to mention JASMINE does pretty well in legal downloads.

So major label or not, I don't see how it isn't praise-worthy because getting a #2 for an artist as scarcely exposed as her is really good. She's not even doing so badly, last I checked JASMINE's songs still hung around the chaku-uta chart for ages (I think when Rock 'n' Roll Circus was released, Sad to Say was still charting.) At least she's doing better than those artists always seen doing anime opening and ending songs--those are almost like a dead-end thing, unless you're YUI and get your own movie, or ikimonogakari.

^No, no, as long as it's civilized these sorts of discussions are good so I welcome it. It's great that she does well digitally then. I've gotten the feeling that a lot of the artists that have debuted in the past five years or so, since they weren't part of the physical CD boom, fans who bought from that era won't start picking up new artists to follow with physical releases.... so many do legal downloads, which is good too of course.

she is not a celebrity (yet), it's her debut album and she is doing great

Just had to make a comment on the recent conversation in here.

Why do you guys feel the need to come into this thread and tell people Jasmine's sales are not good enough. We're happy to see a non-commercial artist like Jasmine chart this high. Her biggest single was sad to say which was released a year ago and only sold around 7,000 copies in its first week. None of her singles have had huge tie-ins or mountains of publicity plus she isn't singing the typical J-Urban ballads. TBH, only a handful of artists sell tens of thousands of cds nowadays. If Jasmine is on the verge of being dropped then I'm pretty sure half of Sony's roster would be out the door with her. Just because your on a major record label doesn't mean your automatically going to have major sales, it takes promotion and hype (something that every artist doesn't get).

I think you guys have been skewed by big sellers like Ayu, Kumi, YUI, etc... A lot of artists find it hard to even reach 50K (BENI, Iconiq, SCANDAL, BoA(nowadays)). BENI's album was #1 a few weeks ago and only sold around 25K should Universal drop her?

^Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

*A lot* of Japanese artists don't sell a lot yet they're never dropped by their labels which makes me think that the Japanese record industry must somehow be different from the US one in how they make/use their money.

If every artist on a major label had to make a profit from their physical releases, then people like hitomi and alan from Avex would've been dropped a long time ago. I'm starting to think that the JP industry must work differently if it's still feasible to keep some acts signed despite "low" sales.

I know that salaries come into play when it comes to contracts, so I wonder if for most of these acts, they're really not making that much more money than they would by working at a regular job? :shrug

Actually, Sad to Say sold 7000 in its first week but around 35.000 in total ; )

Other than that though, I completely agree with you.

^lol well they're making $25-30 a cd so I'm pretty sure they're making more than someone working at Mcdonald's. I think also the revenue difference is a reason why Japanese record labels can afford to keep around more artist with under par sells vs American labels. I also think Japanese labels give more second chances rather than American labels. EX If BoA was with an American label they'd most likely have dropped her with the sales Identity pulled in.

Oops I read 7,000 somewhere. 35,000 is a much better number lol

I'm listening to the album right now, and it's so good. :love

I hope Sony HK/Taiwan releases an overseas version of the album. *prays*.

Beacuse Japanese record industry is rich and they have money to keep even some not profitable artists.

Yup, but I guess it goes both ways. The record companies make a lot more money per CD sold than the American ones do, so it's easier for them to keep artists that don't sell as well. But the other side of the story is that LESS of the earned money goes to the artist in Japan. : /

Also, Japanese companies (not just the music companies, but most if not all traditionally Japanese companies) tend not to drop/fire people once they hire them, so I suppose it's similar in the music industry (unless a big scandal happens and people are forced to resign.) My uncle works in Tokyo and they have to go through a really long interview process before companies hire anybody because after that's done, they usually don't lose their jobs. It's the American style companies that hire and fire people really fast.

And look what I saw on the oricon rank page! http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ not sure if you guys can see it too but nice big JASMINE ad for her new album on the side. :D

JASMINE's on #4 today.

Lol, when you put it that way it makes it seem like you're implying I was trolling. I come to this thread often and I'm always glad to hear new music and find out what's going on with Jasmine so I really resent that since, as you're doing right now, I came to state a viewpoint, be it negative or positive. No, I didn't come here stemming on an urge to tell the people of AHS that Jasmine's sales aren't good enough. I'm here all the time whether I post a lot or not. I just felt it was interesting to see, whether I was right or wrong, that so many thought that these sorts of sales were excellent when I thought otherwise.

People are going to agree and disagree with anything involving sales and chart accomplishments for as long as Jpop fans are around. :shrug

You have the right to voice your opinion but I thought it was coming from the wrong direction. I thought you were trying to compare her sales to that of Ayu, Kuu, or Kaela (since she's your avatar). Those girls are in a totally different league and have been around long enough to have a loyal fanbase. If your going to compare Jasmine's sales compare her to someone who's actually in her league (YU-A, BENI, BRIGHT, Azu, Tiara). When I say 'league' I mean similar genre, image, fanbases etc... A lot of other J-urban artist would kill to have Jasmine's sales right now.

Listening to GOLD now~ First time listening to JASMINE ever~ Let's see how it goes~

I'm kind of with ストロボ・EdGE on this, I'm not impressed by the sales either. I mean they're OKAY, but they aren't something that I'm proud of or would congratulate her on because I feel she can do better, especially with such an awesome album.

Hopefully you'll like it! Let us know which songs are your favorites!

All of us know that she can do better. But that's more of her record label or management teams fault on how well the album sells.

I haven't heard the whole thing, I'm only on track 6! I got distracted, my folks wanted to watch a movie. But I like what I hear so far. It just takes me some getting use to because I don't really listen to Japanese R&B that often (or R&B in general). It's actually funny, I listen to Japanese pop, rock and rap but JASMINE's music sounds weird to me hahahahaha.

You haven't gotten to one of her best songs yet "This is not a game"! Some of JASMINE's music is real different than what I'd normally listen to too, but a lot of it just sounds really good to me lol.

I'll listen to that song now! ;)

^ Yay! Hope you like it! My favourite album track is PRIDE. I like all her singles, Sad to Say, No More, THIS IS NOT A GAME, JEALOUS, Dreamin'. :D

I listened to the album. I really like it :heart
The CD package itself is so pretty makes me want it!

looks like the album ranked 3rd on the weekly charts

Not really impressed with the album, myself. I wish there were more new album tracks so that I could at least find one I really like, but I find myself listening to the single tracks much more often. I still love sad to say as much as I do when I first heard it!

I am looking forward to a new single now! Hopefully I won't be let down~

IA

It's like when people call Ami Suzuki a flop, can you name at least 5 artists of her genre that's able to constantly reach the top 40 singles/album chart? :no


Anyway hoping some footage from her free tour sees the light of day.