of course it'll pass 100k. just not in the first week =\

Well, couldn't Avex have just cut down on downloading like instead of letting the whole single be for download but letting one song be for download? That's the solution I prolly would have done but than again I'm not AVEX excutive or manager or whatever. It's like Avex want both things to happen: Good downloading and good physical sales...but that ain't happen no more since consumers have there own mind now! *sigh*

@MemorialAddress08: It'll be okay! Like fanmail said, it'll pass 100k but not in it's 1st week...the same happened to B&D.

lol. I don't. I buy CDs and then download them from iTunes. ROFL.

lol. I can't wait to see the full mu-mo sales.

Considering this single's A side was avaliable for full free download prior to the release, should we really be surprised?


(my personal answer: no v.v)

True

Why the **** would Avex do that for? That's quite retarted!

Because obviously they get more money for this, it's avex after all ^_^.
I don't think that they'll do stuff that will make them get less or loose money.

Yes. Avex just LOVES getting more money ...

I'm sure they got money somehow by letting it go for "free"

I was talking about mu-mo legal downloads, not the free download.
Obviously most of the people download the single legally and not buying a physical copy, so avex gets more money for those legal downloads.
Generally and on mu-mo etc.
Thus we see not so high sales on physical copies.

what is the different between mu-mo and chuku-uta?

chaku-uta is ringtones, not full length I don't think?

There chaku uta full and there's chaku uta just ringtones. XD

I think "Chaku-Uta" = mp3. mu-mo is one of the many companies that distributes them?

Well for FREAKY and THSK's SUMMER, it's pretty obvious why they had the spike in sales - it's because of the multi-song single effect. As for glitter/fated it had more promotion (with the Distance Love thing) and it could be because not many people in Japan actually like talkin' 2 myself?

EXILE's 1st week sales have also been consistent and they're part of avex. (SUMMER TIME LOVE released in May had 90k 1st week sales and Toki no Kakera/24karats released in August had 95k 1st week sales)

Let's not forget that still EXILE is a bit popular boys band XD

...but it seems that EXile just became popular, am I right?

^No, they were pretty popular throughout their 6 years.

I think it's doing "bad" (it's not really doing bad, she's #1 after all:yes) because young people enjoy it. (according to the poll from Oricon) and youngsters are the most prone to download songs legal / illegally...and after all, mp3 downloads by mu-mo started 3 weeks before the actual single was out. :innocent

From the Avex pdf: (And this was back in March...)

http://ayu.no/images/articles/mu-mo_...ipincrease.jpg
http://www.avex.co.jp/e_site/press/2008/070518.pdf

^Where's EMI and Sony? I'm sure they contributed alot to the mu-mo exceeding 1 million membership!!!

Mu-mo is owned by Avex ;)

Oh, wow! That's a slap in the face!:P Jeez they have a club, several sub-labels, and popular artists: What else does Avex own???

yeah, they are powerful :P

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1...kizufq7.th.gif

Sub-labels
* Avex Entertainment
* Avex Mode
* Avex Trance
* Avex Tune
* Avex Globe
* Avex CHINA
* Avex Taiwan
* Avex Hong Kong
* Cutting Edge
* RHYTHM REPUBLIC
* Rhythm Zone
* Espionage Records
* Disc Du Soleil
* Mad Pray Records
* Motorod Records
* Love Life Records
* Sonic Groove
* Tearbridge Records
* True Song Music
* J-more

Total capital: 4,229.6 million yen
Total No. of employees: 1,189 (The end of March, 2007)

Wow! They are that rich but to cheap to hire some more employees.......AND do some decent promotion for their artists!!! Hmph! If it wasn't for Ayu-----never mind!!!

It says on Wikipedia that Avex is one of the most successful indie record labels or something.

So.. I don't get it, Avex isn't a major label?

Major label=Worldwide?
Avex is asia/japan right?

I think "indie" = "independent" = not owned by the Big 4. (Sony BMG, EMI, Warner, Universal)

Blog predicting 1st week sales of ~70k.

Oh, okay! Now I see what there talkin' about...nice!

Anyway, although that's a relatively low figure, it's understandable. T2M sales yesterday where at 3k. So yea, I think I'll have to agree with that predicition.

Why is it always when we (as a forum) love a single, it ends up selling terribly? D:

^....because we give it too hype when we don't really know how the Japanese feel about it. We predict huge numbers like crazy and end up feel stupid when it's wrong. I'll admit that I predicted that t2m would sell over 100k and now feel stupid for underestimating what her Japanese felt about the single. It's going to sell under 100k and by me saying that, I think we should stop doing that so much.....It's only going to end up being a dream crusher or whatever.

I hope Talkin 2 Myself sells well - I love this single ^^

Ah lets not get our hopes down! lol It might have slow decent sales =)! or Maybe it will like boost up next week's chart =D or maybe lots of people online/pre-ordered the single =D!

5th day

Rank: #1
Sales index: 2877 (up from 2811)

Now doesn't that just make EVERYONE'S day?

Total estimated sales 57,612 + 2877 * 1.75 = 62,646

5 days running! yayyyyyy show her some love, Japan!
For reference, Koda's at #2 right now with sales index 1264 while the former #2 contender tohoshinki/DBSK is at...#11...

OMG 2.8k O_O on saturday...with 2 performances the day before.. I can't believe it.

^Good or bad?

lol what an up-go, at least it didn't sell less than yesterday, it could be worse... I think that the first week sales will be around 65,000 or something like that...

67k for the first week i think...and I don't think it can reach 100k ... and maybe it sell less than ai no uta.. O_O!!!!!

in the other words..nikki must be quite inaccurate at times too. lol

nikki is always inaccurate lol

even if it doesn't reach 100k..it should at least sell better as this single is much better than ai no uta:yes

ughhhhhhhhhhh
very low...

this is imposible to get 100K

eh. does it even matter about sales? obviously, sales do not reflect good music.

sifow - fails to chart - excellent, unique, amazing music
glitter - sells like 150k, and sounds like something we've been hearing for the past 2 years.

It's going to sell less than Bold & Delicious... I can't believe it! Well, in my opinion Japanese people prefer Ayu's ballads and summerish songs than the rock style of talkin' 2 myself :confused

I don't think it will be a disaster, if single won't reach 100k at 1st week, at least let's see how it'll sell eventually (personally I'm waiting for my copy)

I want to see (though most likely we won't know) the legal downloads sales, then we can decide if it's bad. We don't know the legal downloads and they can be really high and avex and ayu get money for them as well.

this is true.
anyway i meant 100k of total sales^^

Well, Glitter is better than Talkin' 2 Myself, anyway. I'd personally rank her single tracks this year this way: Decision, Glitter, Fated, Talkin' 2 Myself.

Decision should have been the A-side. It would have sold more, in my opinion.

I think the reason why people in the forum LOVE Talkin' To Myself is just because it's rockish :P For me, rock does not automatically mean good music.

Decision is boring, in my opinion.

I, of course, disagree :) Best Ayu single song since Moments.

I don't know, I just haven't "clicked" with Decision yet, but I feel talkin' 2 myself is FIYAH. ;/ I'm happy with this single, talkin' 2 myself and glitter are my faves this year. (however I've had issues with both singles accompaning tracks)

With me, it's the opposite :P I can't love Talkin' 2 Myself yet. I have the same problem with it as with Step You: songs that everyone here but me seems to like.

Nowadays, I prefer the more subdued rockish feel of Fated and Decision. A new and good direction for Ayu's music, I think. Maybe it's my age :D But I'm hoping for that near acoustic Ayu album in the future!

I'm especially frustrated by my inability to appreciate Step You :dead2 I like parts of it, but I don't think its parts go well together. Same for Talkin' 2 Myself.

Oh well, it took me two years to like Inspire. Maybe when the album comes along...

I'll probably warm to decision and fated, I do with most all of ayu's tracks. My favorites are definitely her ballads, everything else is hit or miss with me. ;D

STEP you is fun, but I get tired of it if i'm not in the right mood, same with INSPIRE.

it will be interesting to see if this will become her lowest selling single since 1998. and also if ai no uta can outsell her. koda shows some unexpected longevity on oricon. o_Ô

Maybe lowest selling single since "Depend on you"? and I think "Ai no Uta" will outsell this single in the long run.

I can't believe this single is having so much trouble selling well.

Opposite from me also. I prefer "decision" and "fated" over the a-sides.

I agree with Uemarasan, wouldn't it be great if she released more songs with acoustic guitar? :heart

Heh, I must agree.
And that thing you said about subdued rock makes me excited about decision. I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet. :P




Yeah, anyway, it makes me a bit sad that Ayumi Hamasaki can't sell 70k in her first week. I don't know, I just feel like it's not just mu-mo that's causing the low sales. :no

I like Decision also a lot, maybe more than talkin' 2 myself as well.

Not Bad!! And I'm happy the sales today is higher and yesterday! Cool!!

Maybe b/c the Japanese aren't feelin' rock songs this or that they just aren't feelin' Ayumi's rock song? :shrug Like I said earlier, we gave it too much hype and not really thinking about how her Japanese fans feel. Now it's not doing well than expect and it's smacking us in the face.

And y'all thought B&D / Pride flopped.

Well, it did had pretty good reviews and such. I guess we can't really trust that.

Well, when I went through the 1 of 5 stars reviews for "talkin' 2 myself" on the Japanese amazon site, it seems quite a few reviewers thought of the song as mannerism (manneri-kyoku). Though I don't know if they were fans, just casual listeners or even haters. *shrugs*

B&D/Pride was the best 2005's single to me. I loved it with passion, but t2m is so much better than it.

Well I thought yesterday. Was it because the downloads on Chuku-Uta (is it right?) or mu-mo so much before than the single release? Probably Ayu will get #6 on the second week :cry

They can do all the talking or whatever they want to do but the question is are they going to buy it?

^That's true. Some even review it, without having heard the full single...

Well it's not doing amazingly well on Chaku-Uta Full. It dropped from #3 to #5 yesterday.

But when t2m started to be downloaded on Chaku-Uta, which position the song received?

I think it debuted at #3 and peaked at either #2 or 3.

Talkin 2' myself peaked at #1 on Mumo a month ago and has been in the top 5 since I believe. It's peaked at #2 on iTunes and Chaku-Uta.

What I've noticed regarding single sales this year is that only die hard fans are buying physical copies; this goes for just about every artist. Whereas in the past people bought the single if they liked the song but weren't big fans of the singer, now they're downloading them. That's why artists like Ayaka can't sell 100k overall with there singles and then manage to have huge download certifications.

what about the remixes and especially the karaoke versions? can you download them too?

in my opinion japanese singles have a lot more value to them than most western ones. I don't really get why people don't pick it up who like the song and maybe some remixes of it. damn those double a-sides, they destroy value.

Official First Week Sales

Rank: 1
Weekly Sales: 70,325

Lowest 1st week sales since LOVE ~Destiny~ back in 1999.

I'm so disappointed in Ayu

That's alright sales. ;D

I'm so disappointed in Ayu

It's not ayu's fault.

she is number one...but the sales is really low
hopefully its just because bad politic condition and disaster at japan

The music business has clearly changed. But that doesn't change the fact that Ayumi is still in top of it. Go Ayu, another #1 yay :D

What are you disappointed about? That Ayu is still making music but due to the fact that her peak of popularity is over so she can't sell as much as she did back then?

Honestly...I don't think it even matters to Ayu anymore if she gets #1 on the charts or not. She is making music, and as long as she still enjoys doing that, that's what's most important. She's already made so much money from the past that she'd be happy if her career can still continue. She's still outselling most of the other artists in terms of physical copies; her single sold almost as much as the #1 album of the week. You don't see Matsutoya Yumi or Matsuda Seiko getting #1's anymore...but they're still alive. It's longetivity and respect that matters. I'm happy Ayu's still around :).

And by the way...congratulations for maintaining the #1 streak Ayu :cool.

^Yeap
Yu guys should see that how convenient to download music from iTunes and mumo and music.jp
It takes a few years to take the sales down.
No big deal look how other artists doing

I'm so happy because she beat DBSK w00t ;D!

Great job Ayu! I'm really happy that she gets #1 spot weekly!!

It's not ayu's fault you know ^_^.

Anyway I think it will reach 100,000 in maybe 3-5 weeks.

Something's happening to the Japan Music Industry. Geez, the sales are really really drastically low. Perhaps people are more caught up with politics in Japan and Yasuo Fukuda than purchasing music right at this juncture? Yup, after all the scandals, I believe they have reason to be more concerned.

Anyway, yup, sales have just really dipped! Especially this year. I believe the total amount of singles sales is way lower than ever before.

no..you cant say that just because the sales figure is low..all of us know that this single is one of ayu's best singles...it's more to disappoinment in japan's fans..well, many other singles can easily overtake this single in terms of sales figure in the long run..hope that ayu's upcoming ballad will be able to impress japan again and experience great sales.

???

How does politics effect the music industry??? What are the politicians telling them to "stop buying Ayumi's music and listen to what have to say dammit!" I can see old(er) people in Japan concerned more about the politics then music but as for the young(er) people.....no way...they prolly weren't feelin' this sinlge as most of us did!

btw, for the person who said that they were disappointed in Ayu, are u serious? I mean, if there's anyone to blame it's----stratch that....No ones to blame. The music industry is crap this days. Heck, u can't really say that any artist is just really popular this year esp. amoung the female (except Hikki but I'm saying that based on her sales. WOOT! *Ahem*)......not even Ayu or kumiko.:no

Couldn't agree more, yeah, these sales suck, I'm really worried about this, but who knows maybe it'll kick up well in the next week.

Yeah it truly is just the music industry changing in Japan that creates the low sales figures for not just Ayu but everyone else. She is still #1 though, so it's all good. She's still selling, she's still popular. She still gets the #1 spot for albums/singles ALL THE TIME! So she's still the top as always. Hopefully sales figures pick up though and she has a breakthrough smash single like Flavor of Life that Hikki had. It's Ayu's turn now :D

^Only if she can get a good freakin' tie-in like Hikki did....then we'll see some awesome sales for her.

bad sales for this time TT

Well they do suck if you compare to old Ayu. Which you shouldn't as everything is different now in Japanese music. Compare her with other artists now today and then the sales aren't too bad :)

Sales suck? Do you actually know if it didn't sell well on mu-mo, itunes and the different legal downloads site? =P
You base the suck sales only on physical copies...
And the physical copies themeslves aren't that bad actually, most artists can't get even close xD
I think that generally avex females aritsts physical copies sales decreased mainly because of mu-mo specially that the membership grew means more people download legally, less people buy physical copies.
It's just like that...
Thing is avex and ayu get over mu-mo downloads money as well, and we can't know how it did there, so we can't say that sales really suck xD

^Look at BoA! :rolleyes

can anybody post info about other artists' single recent sales?

for example,
utada 'beautiful world'
ken hirai 'fake star'
koda kumi 'ai no uta'
ayaka 'clap & love'

just wanna know the comparison.

i'm still happy with this single.
too bad the physical sales dropped
i thought its gonna be a great hit

I was on wiki, and i saw for the first time....
the sales...
of
T2M




Someone can tell me WHOOAT THE HELLO IS HAPPEnING?
Gliter/fated sold more!!!

__

sunny:
utada - BW/K&C
I'm really happy, shes still strong at the sales.
This week she was #5!
Sales till now: 190,151

Fake star of Ken has really bad sales =(
26,404 > BAD LOL

koda kumi 'ai no uta'
Not so bad as Ken, but still...
87,653

ayaka 'clap & love'
52,459, not so good as expected.

There's a bit of a difference between ayu&kumi to BoA and their popularities xD

Foxxy, the japanese people is getting stupid and ungenerous with ayu, simple & easy. But look at BoA. Look at the famous artists that were so popular. All those got low low low extreme low sales if you can see the Ayu's sales.

Probably if Ayu makes a pause on her career she will get better sales.

^Well BoA wasn't much of a single seller anyway. I think LOVE LETTER will do better than Sweet Impact though.

Well talkin' 2 myself didn't do that well on downloads either (at least I don't think it did)

Recochoku Chaku-Uta ringtones: #14 weekly
Recochoku Chaku-Uta Full: #3 weekly
Recochoku Chaku-Uta overall: #6 weekly
music.jp Chaku-Uta ringtones/Chaku-Uta Full: Not in weekly TOP 10
au by KDDI DOWNLOAD MUSIC CHART: #15 weekly
dwango.jp: Chart hasn't been updated yet.

I judt hate to see how her next album will sale. gawd, maybe somethin' like BoA's MIT....:weep I agree with u Cloud_Honey. maybe her Japanese fans are tired of seeing doing the same thing: touring, releasing singles + DVDs, and CMing) but those are just guess but that's how I'm looking at it.

I think it did the best on mu-mo, avex's legal downloads site. And chaku-uta full #3 I think it means it did surpremely well, or does it have to be #1 to sell loads of full single legal downloads?
Btw ayu was #1 with this radio thingy, the radios pays avex/ayu to play her songs of course so they got loads over the radios as well.

LOL no, I'm almost sure it will sell over 500,000. XDD
It will take more time for ayu to reach MIT's sales for an album lol...

I think it's time for the Ayu and Hikki duet to come in place. lol

i think the same thing by 2years!!

Yeshhhh. Ayu beat Ai no Uta's first week sales. (: