Though if we think about it namie is not so new, having been in the music industry 5 years more than ayu. HA people. I love when they get fixated on something and love it/bash it for no reason. Anyway yeah, I think the same. hopefully she will focus more on promo this year...going a bit OT, am I the only one thinking that nowadays she doesn't seem so confident anymore on tv lives? like, back in the day she was very very confident. Now it's as if she's nervous and afraid of not being appreciated...also her voice trembles, while when she tours she has everything under control, and she looks much more confident. Maybe she feels more at ease performing in front of her fans, who love her? idk if I'm reading too much into this, but it's something I noticed from quite a long time now. ex: inspire at kouhaku, while being very good vocally she looked tense, usually she performs this song with much more energy..
ps. it's not a critic, just something I wished to point out

yay 4k! ^^ hopefully it can reach 40k in the end! :)

She might actually reach 39,000-40,000! Wow! I actually thought it would drop to 2000s for the 2nd week. I'm pleased!

The second week sales are good, 40k is the next goal

I'm just thinking her Japanese fans are so fickle. Where have the fans who supported her last L single gone?

It's amazing how this senior center disco single sells...

at first glance i read it as "senior citizen". Spare me! lol

It's selling much more than what I have imagined!!

3rd Week

1st Day
Position: #49

woah! I thought it'd drop much much more! it's kind of stable... this means that it's still selling somehow! good job!!!! ganbatte ayuuu

yeah I thought it would drop from top 50

This is good news :) Now I'm a bit ashamed for thinking she'd be off TOP 50, like waaaa~y off by now... :S

3rd Week

2nd Day
Position: Out of top 50

:@ sadly...

where do you check the position under #30? oricon.jp reports only positions up to 30...

At a chinese forum called tieba baidu there's an oricon thread and the people who can access oricon members only content provide the numbers ^-^

What's the url for that thread?

Here you go: http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kw=oricon&fr=home

^ Thank you~!! :D

wow... just wow.
Im happy she is still selling, but man o man, I wish she was at higher numbers

thank you very very much for sharing!!!!! <3

Thanks for the link :)

numbers are really poor this week for everyone, I doubt it will sell above 1,500....

3rd Week

3rd Day
Position: Out of top 50


top 3 numbers today are:
#1 1,323
#2 1,107
#3 978

it's pretty common low sales in January, I wonder if ayu will be able to reach 1k this week >>"

o____o

Why the numbers are so low in january ? '__'

People spent a lot in the last four months of the year (Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Holidays, year-end sales...). It's common to see a retraction in January.

Thanks for the explanation ! =)

That's why we have "Sales" in January, for people keep buying things xD

You do realize that Thanksgiving and Black Friday don't exist in Japan, right?

I'm just giving some examples, sales in January are low worldwide...

3rd Week

4th Day
Position: Out of top 50

guess this is it for this week ^^

oh well, 35k is not so bad I guess...

It's out of the top 50 not 200.

^

I meant that she won't chart on top 50 this week again...

My post was to Maemi =P I wonder if it could reach 2000 this week.

How could the world not possibly revolve around America? :D

Hardly believe it... my expectations are around 900~1,000 copies this week

even so, it'll never pass 40k... so it is still ok, in some way

Hmm, I just have to ask, what does the k mean after the number 40? Ugh, I always feel stupid asking things like this...

K = Thousand. 40K = 40000. :)

Thank You a thousand ;)
But 40k, that's good or bad..?

nowadays 40k for a female solo singer is pretty good =) check the previous pages of this thread, we did some comparison between the most relevant female solo singers ^^

40k is good for nowadays artists, was bad on 2012

40k was low 10 years ago

I did, it makes much more snse now that I know what that k at the end of the number means xD

3rd Week
Position: #55
Official Sales: 938
Official Total Sales: 36,027

Just what I expected.. ^^

40 k in 2013 for solo artists is pratically uncorking the champagne worthy stuff. (I don't know why, but I suddenly remember that time I wanted to run on the street screaming when Kana Nishino Believe single stopped charting at 39.500, lol).
Ayu is doing ok! <3

#1 Single this week sold only 11k and #1 Album sold 32k, it was a really poor week.

Lower than I expected, at this rate I'm not sure if ayu can reach 40k

She might sell around 400~500 copies next week. 40k would be hard... It took 11 weeks for Kana Nishino's last single (Sayonara) to reach 40k, but I doubt Feel the love will have a longevity like that, it might fall out of top 200 in two weeks. But in terms of comparison it outsold Kana's summer single (Namidairo) released last August, which sold 27,652 copies and charted 6 weeks.

Omg huge flop :(
But still cheer up for Ayu!

I just hope she will start releasing singles on a more regular basis ^^

Plz, the only flop ayu is concerned with these days is her fiancé's dong.

She just got a house on beverly hills last year, money is in the least of her problems lol.

If she keeps touring she will just increase her bank account by millions.

Touring is indeed where the money is.

It does break my heart a little that this is one of her first #3 peaked single in a very very very very long time.. I was really rooting for this to peak at #1, such great composers! None the less, it`s doing pretty decently in terms of sales for the time..

She didn't earn gazillions selling discs. Her publicity contracts and shows made her rich and her tours are established (and in a very good situation). Even CDL had 3 dates this year again, despite the rumors about some venues not being full-crowded at A BEST LIVE (proving, imo, that was not a big deal after all)...

She's ok.

I won't update Feel the love daily charts from now on because it's obvious that she won't chart on Daily Top 50 anymore... :~

Thank you for your work ^ good job ayu :) we're always proud of you

4th Week
Position: #87
Official Sales: 530
Official Total Sales: 36,557

Over 30,000 is pretty good.

Thanks @ayumisrael, I'm kinda waking up 2:30PM everyday :~

To be honest this single is surviving because of the low sales in January, I mean, look at it, #87 with +500 copies sold, I wonder how many copies the #200 position sold...

By the way I think I may share that A BEST 2 -BLACK- & WHITE are charting digitally on Rechochoku, probably because of the holiday sales... ^^

I just hope her next single won't sell 20k

^ better hope that it won't be another EDM single then.

If it's a ballad i'm sure she could get better sales.

Is Feel the love / Merry go round charting digitally? I wonder how much it sold digitally

^ Poorly :~ the highest position Feel the love peaked was #14 on iTunes (it did worse on Rechochoku though). It charted during the digital release (one week or two before physical release) and a little bit during the first two weeks, but now it is out of top 100.

The only thing that could potentially boost Ayu's sales is a major tie-in...else I don't see her sales increasing in the next few years.

She needs a succession of the right songs/promo/big tie-ins and do it constantly for awhile if she wants to get back up. She can even do it without TV/Magazines appearances (even though I would miss those so she should lol)

I just don't think she wants it...

^ She is financially secured and she is bored/tired of being in the spotlight all the time, which is ok I guess. She is the one who said in some interview that she didn't like being slaved during her peak... I dunno, 10 years ago? I don't care as long as I like the music she releases, even though I feel meh about most of her songs from the last couple of years... ~

I was looking at past threads, especially for A Ballads
And I found that people were pissed and saddened that she didn't sell a million in a week and only about 500k in 5 days
Oh how the times change.

^ we would probably sell our mothers now if it could get her even close to 100k.
I don't know what emotions I should be feeling right now.

I remember myself really angry because of Secret sales (that everyone including me was considering very low) :P seems like it was yesterday... I also remember that people were very mad at Kumi because she was selling better than ayu that time...

Kumi selling better than ayu at that one time? there must have been major meltdowns :P

I was really sad that A Complete was not a million seller. I wanted it so much to revive her million-selling days.

I think that was around 2006-2007 when kuu put out singles every month and became the highest tax payer that year.

lol, Kuu was highest selling artist of Japan for both years 2006 and 2007. She pretty much outsold everyone at that time.
And I'll never understand, why this was a problem to anyone. Ayu was probably happy, she wasn't avex golden cow anymore and the pressure was smaller.

You are right but I think some fans back then didn't know how to take this even though ayu had great years both before and after 2005-2007 era and even in these! ayu did pretty well all along even though she wasn't the #1.

1996-2013 best selling female artists (ayu, kuu, namie, hikki only) The positions are off the overall yearly lists (including bands, solo, males, females)
1996 - namie #1
1997 - namie #4
1998 - namie #13
1999 - hikki #1, ayu #5 (TOP 30)
2000 - ayu #1, hikki #22, namie #27 (TOP 30)
2001 - ayu #1, hikki #2 (TOP 30)
2002 - hikki #1, ayu #2 (TOP 30)
2003 - ayu #1 (TOP 30)
2004 - hikki #1, ayu #5 (TOP 30)
2005 - kuu #3 ayu #4 (TOP 30)
2006 - kuu #1, ayu #5 (TOP 30)
2007 - kuu #1, ayu #2 (TOP 10)
2008 - ayu #2, namie #4, kuu #8, hikki #10 (TOP 10)
2009 - ayu #9 (TOP 10)
2010 - No solo female at all (TOP 10)
2011 - #7 namie, #8 ayu (TOP 10)
2012 - #10 namie (TOP 10)
2013 - #8 namie (TOP 10)

Thank you for this piece of information :)
Very interesting
OMG...look at 2008 for example where all four entered top 10 and then look at 2010 ...in 2010 ayu didn't entered top 10 (with two studio albums!)....I won't even mention 2012 or 2013 :dead2

ayu did really well selling in most years, like she was selling awesome all along. The positions are from the yearly lists counted by sales/earnings.

In 2012 and 2013 at least she still sold a couple of hundred thousands more copies of stuff.

Thanks for sharing those numbers @ayumisrael :)

ayu did an awesome job during her career, it's understandable that now she just wants some rest of all that attention she had on her life

Thanks for that list, ayumisrael!
Very interesting indeed...

Oh yeah, and the whole 12 singles thing...people were having fits. :yes

Namie sold 18.7k and Aiko just sold 17.2k today.
Seems that it was not bad for 1st day for Ayu.

5th Week
Position: #111
Official Sales: 447
Official Total Sales: 37,004

This proves that ayu's now in the status quo...but is it possible if aiko is "that" consistent, aiko may be selling more than ayu...? (just wondering)

aiko will end up selling around 50~60k

Yet aiko is older than ayu...how can aiko be mroe popular than ayu? Hmm...

:thud its not all about age, it is also is about the songs, and the promotion.

Also consistency does play a role, ayu always has a huge 1st day in comparison to her 2nd and 3rd days.

aiko's fans stick to her like glue. It also helps that aiko probably hasn't changed her style once in the last 10-15 years, and Japanese fans LOVE that.

^

word!

and it's kind of annoying now how every song of her sounds exactly the same to me... =\

My podcast has had a running joke for years that aiko is boring & no one likes her... I'm sure we're insulting a few aiko fans with that but we just CAN'T like her, heaven knows at least two of us have genuinely tried, lol.

She releases a lot of medium ballads, but songs like "beat" are amazing

lol what?
Isn't this forum proof that Ayu fans stick to her like glue too even when she releases her worst (IMO) single ever?
Aiko knows what she's good at and she just keeps doing it (like Ayaka, and Ikimonogakari, and Takahashi Yuu, and Yuzu... need I to go on?) and that's just as good an idea as it is to risk your career with a wild change.

And her songs sound the same in the same measure that Ayu's do. :P

It's probably her freshest single ever. When was the last time she had a standalone non-album recut dance/electro single?

And as for those groups, they're all the same type of boring pop that doesn't change much that Japan eats up, so what's your point? Ayu's fans for the most part don't seem to stick around. Even if aiko didn't have loads of #1s or whatever, she's very consistent. Ayu on the other hand has had a veeeeeeeeeeeerrrryyy slow decline ever since 2000 which probably sped up after 2005/2006.

Boring for you, you mean? If you've just heard snippets of some songs, why bother?
They are as GOOD as Ayu was (is?).

If Japan has a thing for it, so what? Japan had a thing for Ayu back in 2004, does that mean does that mean that she's not good at all?
Actually, Ayu's decline could be seen as proof that she just got famous due to external factors. She was trendy, she was in every CM, she had a show, she put music out non-stop, bla bla bla... and now people are on to the next thing. That really doesn't say much about her music, tbh.

I really don't wanna come off as an anti or anything, but I don't like it when I see stuff like Oh, they're boring, why are they famous? to other artists when they're doing better than Ayu. It comes off as whiny and jealous and childish. Like they don't deserve it.
Well, they do, and for the same reason Ayu does. Cause they're GOOD.

I mention it because it explains the disconnect between the fanbases in Japan and the fanbases in the West. How else do you explain their popularity there and why it doesn't translate here?

Did somebody know how charted Namies TSUKI Single?
i mean, where can i get the actual sales and chart positions?
i think it would be interesting to compare Feel the Love / Merry-go-round and TSUKI from day to day

I still thinks aiko's boring af and is not good at all, certainly not like ayu. I don't care if other people think she or any other artist are good or as good as ayu. If I don't think so then I don't have to say so. People say the same about ayu and I could care less because taste is relative. It's not being whiny and jealous and childish lol.

I still ask myself why many other Japanese artists are famous but my baby girl JASMINE hasn't been selling so well when I think she's way better lol. But I know why. And it's okay to think that

Aiko who?

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/never.../59433_600.gif

On TSUKI -official sales- thread :)