They, at least idol groups like AKB48 (not sure about KARA, though I wouldn't be surprised), always offer handshaking tickets and other goods like that with their singles. You can't get those with digital releases. Plus, at least with AKB48, there's 48 members... with Ayu, there's one. Only so many people like Ayu, yet millions of people could like AKB48 because there's 48 of them.

^actually in AKB48, there's at least 64 of them in different teams, and having so many members, the media exposure is much higher as different members get different jobs offer. Their CMs are all over Japan with different members.

And yes, the handshaking coupon is the major bait to get people to buy the CDs.

Groups always were big in Asia, and this no surprise considering how their culture perceive the idea of individual x group... It's not really a fad.

you gotta realise they're not first and foremost selling the tracks / the music on those CDs. When the most important segment of their fanbase buy 50 copies to win a prize or something not at all related to the music but to one of the paricipants, no wonder they get sales far out of the ordinary. Same goes for handshake events that have been mentioned here, if they can make each person buy one extra CD per handshake and they have that many girls in the group it can of course increase sales quite a bit.

Japanese CD sales have always been pretty front loaded, but these days it's gotten to the point where you can pretty much tell that only people that follow an artist vigorously, usually core fans, buy CDs and so the sales aren't necessarily indicating any sort of mainstream popularity of a track. It doesn't just go for idol groups, but any artist really.

I might be in the wrong thread to ask this, but did anyone who attended the concerts get this limited photobook Leslie did? It'd be interesting to know some more about what's inside or seeing scans. :)

(sorry for interrupting the ongoing conversation:P)

The whole "declining sales" mess would be fixed if Oricon got it's act together and started counting digital sales.

Although, then you'd have the problem of how a loot of the downloads are ringtone downloads, which you can't really chart alongside full track downloads or buying a single.

I didn't say all groups I said a few.
If you look at last year's chart, it was AKB and her sister groups that were about 60 our of the 100... it was horrible.

Oricon should have their own digital sales chart, but they should focus on trying to count all the damn physical sales first, including all the ones they sell at the concert venues, not just some stupid percentage.

^ there really is no way to track that though. they could go by what the company tells them, but there is no way to know if that its the real number.
I think thats why they only track a "few" of the copies.

They only do the percentage thing now because apparently some labels tried to cheat and submit numbers that were overinflated/false during events.

The thing I found interesting about AKB48 though, is how long their singles stayed on the Oricon after the events they were tied to had passed. Many even appeared in the following years top 100. Heavy Rotation came out in 2010 but is #52 on the 2011 yearly chart (http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/y/2011/more/3/), Beginner was #92 and Ponytail was #100 (http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/y/2011/more/5/).

yeah :rolleyes

lol The conversation going on has nothing to do with this thread, which is the tour thread. Interesting conversation, but yours is more relevant ;) (It may have been relevant at first, but now it's not...not to this thread, anyway.)

The tour blog posted a picture with one person who got the book. (There may have been more than one, but when I checked about a week or so ago, they just posted one picture.) It's very, very hard to win the book. There's only so many copies of the book and eyelashes. Most people were winning posters from the draw.

yeah I noticed that picture of the winner, she didn't look happy though lol

call has replaced Letter in the encore starting with the second Osaka show.

^ aw, i like both songs so much! She should just do both and get it over with!

I bet we won't hear either on the DVD, it will be an upcoming single or something. That's what I hate about earlier live shows, we end up missing out when it comes to DVD. :(

It would be nice if they would always make dvds/blu-rays with the extras like they did with PoL (even though they didn't shoot blossom in).

I like Letter more than call but if it's a new song replacing them later I won't mind :)

preview of new vivi
http://i.imgur.com/G6Ods.jpg
@Acrea_Midori

^What day is it released?