Oh I never doubt Kingdom could be selling better than ayu's new album (cuz I kinda think ayu may not be able to pass 400K on the first week like last time). The thing is, I have faith on ayu's materials. I'm sure she will not produce craps. And sales is not as important as it is, as long as her total sales over 500 - 600K in the end, I will be happy.

I do agree that AVEX is slowly letting BoA become a new Shimatani (the same thing is happening to BoA's sales, what happen with Shimatani's after Garnet Moon) , and I am really sad cuz her voice is getting stronger and better every year, she had some amazing singles the last 2 years, and I thought that she was slowly getting back after Winter Love, but MIT was poorly promoted and I guess the fact that there were no PVs probably made it even worse.And I am guessing that AVEX is just going with the current flow, and investing in what seems to be earning the most atm.

I think the main reason avex is doing this is because japan is always craving fresh meat. I can only think of two female solo (actually you could include groups too.. ) artists that have had a career that's been somewhat revived (in terms of CD sales) and not constantly declining after a peak (which both shimatani and BoA had) and that is Namie Amuro and yuming. Yuming shouldn't even count as she's not an idol in the way the others mentioned are, same thing with Utada.

I don't know why it's like this, male artists do not seem to follow this pattern to the same extent. Maybe it's because the society values (young) looks above everything when it comes to female artists. That could certainly explain the new gained success of namie amuro (she still ooks like she's a 14 year old).

ANother reason is that it's probably more profitable to have semi peaked artists slowly decline in sales to 50 % of what they did when they were at their peak level, while at the same time promoting other artists to their peak level. As an example, look at what's been happening in avex after the sales peak of ayumi hamasaki (she's still their most profitable artist though. ;) ). It's more profitable to have ayumi at 50% of what she sold during A best / I am while having a two more artists selling almost at the same level as she currrently does (Otsuka and Koda) than having one ayumi selling at her peak level all the time. Thus, is' more profitable to spit a little more money in into promotion of new artists just in case they hit it big. Giving Kose Visee to Beni arashiro was such a move IMO, allthough it did not work well in her case.

All in all it might be sad for their fans, but it makes perfect sense. And IMHO it's not affecting the quality of the music as the artists seem to get more control and choice in their careers after their peak.

Titles aren't important.

^ yes they are.

I actually considered not buying "Kingdom" simply because I think "Kingdom" is mildly (or more than so) conceited.

I'm going to buy it, yes, but I really, REALLY, didn't want to buy it at first because of the title.

Well, first of all, i don't think anyone can say whether or not anyone has passed their peak or not...mostly because a lot of these people saying these things aren't label executives, nor paid critics.

Kumi obviously hasn't lost her popularity. I mean, she's having her first arena tour this year which is definately a step up from an all-hall tour.

I think Kingdom will sell comparably to Black Cherry, maybe not quite as much, but calling it a failure for not selling 500,000 copies in it's first week is absurd...especially since our own Ayu's Secret didn't sell that in it's first week.

ANYWAY....
i hope we get a name and tracklist for this album soon...it's making me anxious!!!

and, although i loooooove Together When..., i sincerely hope that it isn't the only song she sings to promote the album...if that's the case, we may have another Secret on our hands...Don't get me wrong, I adore JEWEL, i just hope that she uses an upbeat song to promote aswell.

I don't think Kingdom will sell close to BC.
Our own ayu started to loose popularity when kumi just started to get it.

I just don't know why people actually can't see kumi's popularity decrease lol it's funny. It's just like that. Her singles this year pretty show it. Except for the general flop of most of the female artists.

When ayu sell a bit low from her strandarts so it's a flop, but when kumi sell slightly less than her own standart so it's the general flop, well it doesn't go like that.
kumi suffers from popularity decrease just like ayu did, and she won't keep selling a million for an album... like ayu didn't. That's it pretty much.

I don't get the point of that. It's just like saying how Namie started to lose popularity when Ayu started to get it. :\

I think Ayu's flop this year was talkin' 2 myself which didn't do well physically or digitally. As for Kuu, it might be LAST ANGEL (not sure how it did digitally yet).

Yeah but ai no uta and even FREAKY didn't go greatly either.
From 250,000-300,000 (and 390,000 selling 4 hot wave) selling singles last year kumi could only get 195,000 for her best selling this year, which had 4 songs and was promoted (not consitently but 3 songs were used on that way or another to promote it).

kumi's single sales this year were close to ayu's sales this year (I mean for singles) so they're aren't that far though the only single glitter/fated couldn't manage to get to its sales (Because of 30,000 copies) was FREAKY.

Well Ai no Uta has the strong digital sales to back the lower physical sales. 250,000+ downloads of the entire song in 2 weeks is pretty good.

For FREAKY, it's the 3rd highest female single this year no? That's not much worse than 4 hot wave which was 2nd. And fpr this year, compare 2nd to 3rd, the difference isn't very big. Plus, FREAKY was able to do one thing that 4 hot wave couldn't do and that was have 1 song certified digitally (which was girls and it was certified Gold)

glitter/fated - It did OK this year. If we compare things to last year, I think it would have done better than Startin' but just a bit less than BLUE BIRD.

lulz.

I think Kumi's declining single sales are not a sign of declining popularity, but a sign of generally declining physical sales of Japan as a whole.

As I have said MANY times, Kumi and Ayu are going badly compared to their previous sales, but compared to the rest of Japan they are doing wonderfully.

With the exception of Utada Hikaru, the outlier in this situation.

Yeah but now you're comparing digital sales and digital sales (even ina huge amount) aren't close to the worth of physical copies I guess...
I think that digital sales mainly show how many people liked the song and doesn't really a fan of the artist or like him/her, because the digital sales are mainly ringtones or of that 1 full song, but not the whole single and stuff.

Physical sales are more showing fans, people who like the artist because it's the whole deal.

But anyway, I still didn't say kumi had bad sales, I only said that her popularity decreased since last year, it's sad I know but it happens to eveyone... are you saying that she is as popular just as last year?

Digital sales may not be worth as much as physical sales, but they do show popularity of the song. It's like saying because Mikazuki sold less than Yume no Uta physically, Mikazuki is less popular when in fact Mikazuki was pretty much more popular than Yume no Uta due to it's 1 million + downloads.

Plus, all these certifications I used are based on the entire full song and doesn't include any ringtones whatsoever.I thought we were talking about flops this year.

Utada is just a monolith in the j-pop industry
i am almost 100% sure her next album will sell extremely well, especially since Flavor of Life will be on it
and we all know that it's the world's most downloaded single

Oh well. We were.
Sometimes I just wished you wouldn't try so hard to show ayu's flops, and when it comes to kumi's then no.

I just assumed that since I quoted the flop part of the post, we were talking about flops.

And if this makes everyone else feel any better; as I said, LAST ANGEL might well be Kuu's flop this year - so they're tied with 1 each.

Well, look at it this way also, though.

"A" single has four A-Sides, but it sold 1.5 million copies or so.

But dividing that between A-Sides, thats pretty much only 375,000 or so copies per song.

Now look at HEAVEN, which had 2 A-Sides, and had total sales (physically+digitally) of nearly 2 million. Divide it up, and it's 1.0 million copies per song.

I'm not saying this is how it works, but it's a way of looknig at it.

Some people will be like, to a triple a side, they will say the title track is a more popular song whatever week than a single a-side single, even though the sales are near ever.

its like ... for example

1. 3 A-Side (110,000 copies sold)
2. 1 A-Side (100,000 copies sold)

It's probably a more powerful/popular song, since it got 100,000 on its own rather than getting 110,000 with the help of two other songs. ;)

see what I mean?

Yeah, with that one I agree.

sooo when is Ayu going to release anyyything about the new album! I pre-ordered like two weeks ago and now I am getting angsty because I would love to have ANY new information... track list... covers..... PVs.... ANYTHING!!! :shakehead lol

i really cant take it anymore!Everything about koda kumi always revealed so fast!The tracklists,covers n everything!And her new album is like 3-4weeks after ayu!!!What is avex doing man!LOL

ayu's team and koda's team do things differently...ayu likes making us wait....I'm still waiting for the covers to see if I should order the cd only too....and where is my asia tour dvd???

well I like ayu's way. What's the point of revealing the covers and tracklist 2 months before the actual release? It makes more sense to release such valuable information about 3 - 4 weeks prior to the release. This will create a higher anticipation LOL :D.

^Excellent point, bluegie! I think Ayumi's team is very wise to wait a few weeks before the release of the album. I don't know what Kumiko's team was thinking about though. Her album isn't schedule to come out until to months from now. That's way too early plus by releasing early info like that would kill all the buzz surrounding the album. Also, I think oit was quite dumb that Avex would release a single a week before album especially in Kumiko's case. I mean, c'mon....We know that "anytime" is going to be on the album yet is releasing a single but only it's the "single" version. I rather wait for some one the put video on youtube than buying the single just to see the "single" version. This also proves that AVEX are really money hungry.

Probably a lot of persons will forget about "KINGDOM" in the next weeks and just will remember with "anytime" promotion, if the song is really good.

Ayu is always making us anxious, and Together When... was a success of critique by fans. I don't care about the sales if they are medium, I just know we'll have more an ayu-ish thing. But I just hope she won't disappoint us with the album tracks (it's quite impossible but well... nightmares happen) and perform other songs of the album. I got tired to listen JEWEL past year. It was really repetitive. I know it's a high risk of the people dislike the song if it is a different song/rock/pop song instead of the ballad. But why do not take risks? Why do not make a super powerful song to everybody like?

This is what I hate in avex.

Actually I think there might be an advantage to releasing information a bit early. With the track list out and the covers people start getting really excited about the album. They already know what is coming so they start pre-ordering more fervently. I don't think Ayu should wait too long to release information because it just makes people kinda forget about the whole thing. Die hard fans will be on top of the information no matter what, but other people who might just be "so so" might forget about the album altogether and when the information comes out they might not be as interested anymore or they might have decided to go spend the money on something else.

Its good to create an expectation but it's not too good to just bombard people with information about the album just like a week or two before its released.

If the album has a super promotion with the covers and tracklists revealed early, it does mean: SUCCESS!

I prefer be expecting covers and tracklists to be released later.

I am sorry? I don't understand what you are trying to say... :no.

ROFLMAO. Ok, I'll try to explain to you.

If the album has a great promotion, together with the covers and tracklist revealed before the release, it makes the album be remembered by the people. But if there aren't much promotion, I do prefer wait for covers and tracklists be revealed later.

Hope you understood :P :roflmao

Ah yes I see... sorry I have been awake for over 24hours studying for stupid tests =(

No problem :D I thought my engrish was wrong :laugh

Well, that's just crazy. "(miss)understood" is one of the most ridiculous album title I know, and it didn't affect me on buying it or not. I bought it for the songs. Titles don't matter to me. Ayu has some of the most common and bland titles, but who cares if the songs are good? Sure, "Kingdom" totally scream "Hey! It's me, Koda! The new Queen of J-Pop. I rule." but I will consider buying it if the songs are good. (Which I doubt somehow.)

Relax people, almost everything will be revealed over the next week. :yes

:roflmao:spinning


I can't wait. I love this feeling of anticipation/suspense XDXD!!

^ i agree...patience is definately needed!!!

i think i'm going to die of anticipation.

It's hard to be patient, the days are going by slowly for me.

Absolutely agreed! That's why I think all her production and stuff sucks. She's a little bit beautiful and funny but NEW QUEEN OF JPOP? Just **** it :eviltongu

Jesus Ayuuu more infooooooo.
The people are becoming crazyyyyy ahaha =P

*Loses mind* I WANT MORE HIKKI AND AYU INFO NOW! I WANT MORE HIKKI AND AYU INFO NOW! NOW! NOW!

XD I agree with u XD

LOL ^^
Well about Hikki Im really impacient.
I really want more news about the album and the stay gold song.

Wait... I'm confused? She's coming out with a new album =/

Yes, a new album in winter. Like pretty much every other year...

OMSCEXCITED.

=D

Utada?
Yup !
=D

Yeah and it will be released on 01.01.2008 and will come with a special photobook.
Tracklists and title are still unknown.

I can't wait, gosh I want info. (If you were refering to ayu lol).

yea me too...if it wasn't for the songs on it, I wouldn't of bought it even though its ayu and the album came with a extra photobook. The covers were just :dead2...too bad the cd version is worse or else I would of bought it too for the other photobook.

I actually liked the title (miss)understood *shrugs*

*hides from flying sharp objects* lol

I love it too.

Actually I was referring to what Foxxy_Fuyumi said haha. I should've quoted it then:

Oh lol, so no news about hikki's albums yet ^-^

^Hikki probably won't release another album till mid-2008-2009

Hikki is suppose to have two albums out next year. So knowing that, I would say she is doing a March or April release on her Japanese album and for her english album, tthat won't be released to the end of the year. This my opinion of course, We do know that she was going to releasing singles like crazy next....well, I hope so.

I liked the title (miss)understood too, it's amazing and creative (and a little bit engrish too lol). My favorite album of ayu is missu and that's why I love everything put in the album (except for that thing called In The Corner, huh).

About Hikki... I don't care. She disappointed me a lot and I don't want to hear her music anymore. I hope she release a good single/album but with those most recent songs I don't believe it will be as amazing as her older albums.

^i think hikki's style has changed since EXODUS..

im hoping AYu can do a special MV whereby there are familiar scenes from some of her past MVs...u noe, quite reminiscent

I just want to hear the full Stay Gold song.
It reminds me a lot COLORS.

it seems ayu new album is titled "Thorns & Roses"

^ where'd you hear this??

yes, source please

I wonder why this isn't on Blu-ray/HD-DVD. Ai's new DVD released 1.1 is on thsoe formats.


I'm guessing ASIA TOUR will be on Blu-ray/HD-DVD :D:D:D!

http://wiki.theppn.org/Hamasaki_Ayumi

EDIT: sorry ''thorns and roses'' has been removed.

I'm imagining the album cover and title to be released on Dec 1st

Yeah ... I think im with Demure on this one.

I think this probably has to do with the fact that I have Scarlet fever and last night my fever was like 102 but I had a dream that everyone was complaining because Ayumi's new album booklet was just her surrounded by naked guys LOL The whole thing was just her in various poses in different parts of a house wearing full gowns with naked dudes hanging all over her lmao!

I am glad I woke up from that one haha

^ Why complain? :lech And yeah, I agree with Demure Dusk, it's very logical.

It'd be a lot of surprise if that happens.

I'd be a bit scared if that happened...

Hmmm....maybe it's a sign that ayu might pose topless again or something similar to Janet Jackson's pose on the Rolling Stones cover (A guy holding her boobies)! :lech The appears cover was HAWT but in a cute way. lol

I know!!! That is one of my favorite covers ever! She looks super cute :D

She looked really cute back then... and she still is now!

^ i agree. Still cute.

Ahhh December 1st, i can't wait! Leslie Kee please XD!

^3 days from now, be patience guys!
hope for the best!

Wasn't the (miss)understood title announced either the 25th or 26th.... I was so expecting the same this time around *cries*

^Someone said it was the 15th.

That was the tracklist.

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36596 <--the title's release via her site :x