the white noise is still there, and pretty much during the whole song lol it bothers me so much

Well, I was wrong, it only sold 2184 copies today :(

Happy to see her number 1, but when I saw it’s only 2k copies I am like mehhhh

These photos look promising. I hope anyone could find the time and effort to make some good scans.

But honestly, I am in no place asking for this, because I'm not bothered to buy the actual album. So I'll wait forever, if that is what it takes.

It doesn't seem like they've uploaded all the remastered tracks to Spotify or some of them have not been remastered as most of the songs are actually linked to the old releases and had retained their play count (much like TO BE had on the LOVEappears 20th Anniversary edition). i.e. You were...'s and TODAY's A BALLADS 2 version has less than 1000 plays while the original has 300k while momentum, Love song, Life and the majority of DISC 1 songs have retained their play count.

^thats weird.
However, I think we can finally call her an online artist. I don't even bother to look at her physical sales anymore. I think her streaming numbers are pretty solid and far from "a has been".

beautiful :luv2

A BALLADS 2 is #2 on Recochoku :
https://recochoku.jp/ranking/album/daily

I found these on Instagram today

The way that any of those pics would've been a better cover lol

That last picture is so kawaii.

Not sure if this was posted, but she’s No 1 today as well, with sales of 2184 copies. :)

OMG... US$50 in an album without 10K in sales. People tried to warn me but I really believed I she would make 100K.

Now we are really lucky if it gets 30K. Omg...

Wow. Gorgeous!!!!

This whole photo shoot is amazing. She's such a wonderful and expressive model. :heart

As for this album, I'm disappointed in it personally. I never really care about the sales, but I'm glad it's not reaching higher numbers to maybe tell Avex that they made the wrong decision not making it closer to how A BALLADS was (with its re-arrangements giving new life to certain songs).
Perhaps they'll do a ballads 3 in a better way, if that comes to exist at some point.

the A COMPLETE version really is the best we have—and even in that you can still make out the white noise! this song is so difficult to get right :laugh

sales number is really sad, but at least she's number 1. thanks for sharing this!

I actually thought that the white noice in forgiveness is intentional lol

Yeah if they wanted to re-mix it, they would maybe take out the noise, but all they did was remaster the original final files (which has some noise on the piano). It’s not at all distracting to me though. Makes it feel like it was all recorded in a room together.

Why on earth would you think she’d sell 100k? She hasn’t managed to sell this much since 2013? She hasn’t had any hits in the interim and her fan base is aging and has different priorities than collecting cds 😙🌸

Lol

It's cute how some of you are way too optimistic lel

Sad to realize that the last commercial success she had is a salacious gossip fiction novel about an affair with her manager. We are a beautiful society.

It says in the booklet that Randy Merrill was the engineer behind the remastering. Just to mention a few of his recente works: Lady GaGa's Chromatica, Miley Cyrus's PLastic Hearts, Ariana's Positions, Taylos Swift's Folklore, Harry Style's Fine Line. Basically every single famous nowadays pop album.

I alwats thought the white noise on forgiveness is on purpose and it's an artistic choice, not an "error". The same for the "noisy" mix on Last minute.

Aww, I think fans should worry less about her sales overall.

She's a mature artist, and like every artist (notable exceptions being Amuro Namie and Utada Hikaru) sales went down with time when she stopped being the big thing. But what has she, or have we as fans, lost?

She's rich as hell and continues to make loads of money from thousands of fans and she gets to make whatever the hell she wants, which will still be consumed and profitable thanks to those fans. She's doing great.

We as fans get regular new music, photo shoots, concerts, goods, just like we always have. We're doing great.

I get the disappointment, especially because jerks like the Arama writers and Japanese message board trolls want to tear her down and we want to show them up with a big success. But they don't matter. Ayu matters. :love I enjoy the great stuff she's making.

Oh, how I wish it was that regular

Well, think about Japanese BoA fans, Amuro Namie fans and most of 2000s J-Pop acts, we are good.

Because I dreamed a dream she would reach it. Omg.... Lol. I'm so desilusional

Oh, please, stop it. She was releasing a ton of music every fucking year from 1998 to 2016. Some people act like she has not released anything for the past 10 years.

Oh yeah, because releasing 9 songs in the spam of 5 years (for someone who used to drop a full album each year) is a LOT :rolleyes

A Ballad was never going to sell A LOT.

I think the next A BEST or A COMPLETE will be the one to sell 100k copies.

No, it,s not. But she still releases a lor before that and even ar her quietest she still is releasinf. Girl is not a robot, don't be so salty.

A BALLADS 2 is at #4 on today's Oricon albums chart

#3 sold 1,325 copies

maybe it's intentional (also at the beginning of æternal) but it certainly didn't sound like it lol. unlike, say, teddy bear, where you get that gramophone(?) sound throughout.

sounds to me like someone forgot to smooth out/didn't notice this part in forgiveness, Last minute, and æternal.

Hopping a good number for Saturday sales

I thought she would be able to sell 50k copies, because I know the Japanese like to buy compilations. Looks like I was wrong. It will be good if she manages to hit 20k.

I don’t think it’s necessarily intentional or that someone missed it, but adding noise removal to the piano tracks would ruin the “fullness” of that piano track. Listen to the end of RED LINE, for example. Even Ayu’s vocal track has some noise, it’s just more noticeable because it’s isolated.

What about in Kate Bush fans who haven’t had an album since 2011 and then who didn’t have an album since 2005 and who had a concert in 2014 and a concert in 1979?

Compared to some fandoms Ayu fans have it really good.

Even most western acts take a few years between releases.

If it helps, she's outselling pretty much all of her contemporaries except for Utada, and she DID make the daily number one.

I honestly don't mind the noise in music I think it adds to the songs, these kind of imperfections make them richer and more alive. The overly cleaned up stuff, it's just too fake for me. I think that's one of the reasons why i enjoy certain tracks more than the others, cuz they have "texture". I think good layering of instruments is more important than some white noise. If the instruments are layered right and have depth, i honetsly don't give a crap about a little of white noise somewhere lol

Also i'm confused as to why you people expected massive sales. Most of the music is now online. Very few people nowadays buy albums unless they are die-hard fans or collectors. People just listen online, it's easier to access. Plus she hasn't been selling as much as she was like a decade ago, for a few years now. If she managed to get into the top 5 with 1k, you can just imagine how low the sales in the market are overall if that's a thing now, i don't know why you guys are surprised lol

Let's recap a few things about the japanese music industry right now... Last year only 3 female solo acts (JUJU, LiSA and Milet) topped #1 for albums on Oricon. If we go to the single chart, only 2 (Mariya Takeuchi and LiSA). If Ayu gets the #1 with A BALLADS 2 she will be the first female solo act to get the #1 for album this year so far. So this shows how much female solo acts are not selling at all in Japan. And for streamings, Ayu is doing pretty well (better then most acts from her same generation - except for Utada that alrrady got 10millions streams on her latest song). So maybe is - more than - time to wake up and face the reality and stop being bitter about her not selling 100k. :)

Was gonna comment - it's just the sign of the times. Physical music just doesn't sell as it used to.

^I think so too

but its not true all the way - there are still artist that can shift "massiv" numbers of CDS - even without gimmicks. Just very few tho.

ˆ If you are a boyband, girlband or have a huge tie-in, yeah it's possible. Otherwise...

Honestly nothing has been done to moves some sales ... The popularity of Ayu is what she is but it sound to me like besides her fans and some people following musical accounts on social media nobody are aware that she released a new album and it’s like that since some times now...
No tie in, no promo, no interviews, underwhelming contents etc... even with that i cant assure that her sales would be much better but it would definitly grabe some interest from nostalgic people of her songs.

The singers of her generation who are doing better than her at the moment have all big tie in and promo. These singers probably have a better likeability than Ayu but still ...

That's what I meant when talking about "artistic purpose". Make the piano sound "fuller" in forgiveness is important, makes the arrangement more powerful (and that's an intense song, for sure).

Not throwing shade to any other artist but Ayu is literally doing the same as other singers in terms of sales/streams without having any tie in, no tv shows, no tv variety, etc. I feel that she is doing this for us, the fans that kept following her, not the general public or to attract new audience.

Guys I found that if you put Days to Disc 1 (probably after You were) instead of Disc 2, the flow can be better, at least to my ears. That way Disc 1 is like the winter mood, and Disc 2 is spring, which follows winter.

She consistently released material since her debut and guess what happened? At some point she was running on empty and the quality of her output seriously suffered. Not to mention that her deafness worsened because this kind of spoiled, entitled behavior from her fans demanded that she work as though she were a factory instead of a human being.

Give your favorite artists some breathing room. Unless you want to push them towards creative and literal death.

Like Hikaru Utada. Her song has 25 million views. But I believe it's because of Evangelion. Give the opening theme of Attack on Titan to Ayu, and she will have 100m views:D. Just kidding, but yeah..

I think the era of greatest hits being a safe value is resolved since people can make their own greatest hits with streaming services.

Wait, first female solo to get number 1 album this year? Utada’s latest album did not reach 1 on the first day?

Also realizing that LiSA sold 66k with Leonine in its first week and that she’s had a huge hit on the album paints a good picture of how much the public cares about CDs. Gurenge had over 170 million streams on Spotify and Adamad over 35 million. Literally every other song she releases has an anime tie in.

The same with Aimer, her last 2 albums sold around 35k each in 2019 again every other song has a tie in.

If you consider TROUBLE even Ayu isn’t doing that bad really...

One Last Kiss peaked at #2 on Oricon although it sold 100k physical and over 20k digital

King Gnu, Kenshi Yonezu, SEKAI NO OWARI?

She’s fourth today but third place sold 757 copies...I was expecting more copies sold on a Saturday for everyone but it’s only 1k copies even for first place

Wow, which boy group got the first on that day

the story for OLK is different since it is essentially a single classified as an album.
Some Anime stuff got #1 that week

https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/780787...cts/1384078/1/

edit: OLK was still #3 the week after tho

edit 2: and #1 today lol

I hope all those who are concerned with the sales, actually helped out in increasing the sales. If not, why do you even care about the sales? Don't think ayu cares about sales. Or it haven't reach to the state where she is worried yet.

Beautiful :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:heart

I saw on twitter that all the version of the album were out of stock in several stores like HMV so I assume they really didn't expect it to sell so the stock was low.

I think she’d have more luck with Jujutsu Kaisen, but I do wish she’d do a major anime/videogame tie-up again. It would seriously help.

Que pedrada. Assim você me mata.

It peaked at #2 and looking at how it is selling it gives me the impression that animes tie-in are driving the sales for solo acts. The solo male singers from the EXILE TRIBE from this generation are reaching 50K maximum from what I saw though.

Yeah, like LiSA, and I saw how Ku’s most streamed song on Spotify is the one she sang for Black Clover.

If she can get a tie in for One Piece, My Hero or even Black Clover.. that will be great

If this is true then maybe we will see an increase this week?

She’s 7th (11 April 2021)

Billboard Japan for the period of 2021/4/5～4/11

#3 A BALLADS - 11,584

http://www.billboard-japan.com/d_news/detail/98918/2

Hope it is indeed because of a lot of people buying it and not because of a lack of stocks due to the covid situation...

A BALLADS 2 is at #3 on the Oricon Weekly Album Ranking with 11k copies sold, making it Ayu's 53rd TOP10 album.
https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2190231/full/

I find the sales + position to be great for what this album is tbh. I think It’s what avex expected as well. Probably it’ll reach 15k+ so yeah, congrats to Ayu!
On the other hand, the possibility that the numbers have anything to do with the contents of this album and they’ll keep dropping kinda scares* me. I believe she would do great (20k+) with a studio album but who knows...

*im kinda traumatized because Tommy heavenly stopped releasing music due to low sales. It’s all her fault.

Edit: anyway, why should I worry about physical sales at all? Lol She’s doing great on streaming. I forget we’re in 2021.

It sold similar to A7 Classical which probably cost the same thing to do(But the price of A ballads 2 is much more expensive)

My copy has arrived in Canada! It has an small postcard with it of alternate cover. Can't wait to listen to this remastered version in the car :).

Unboxing video of TA version 2 cd/2 dvd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ztKYfgIb8

Yeah, the worst part is that she keeps teasing that there's new music coming but then doesn't follow through. She answers questions online all the time but always dodges questions about new music and just releases goods that nobody asked for. I think people would rediscover Tommy and get some sales if they put out a new buriguri album, but that probably won't happen....

Looks like avex knew since the beginning it wasn't become a best-seller. Hmmm... Is it going to reach 15K or 20K?

I’m not sure it’s only ayu though.

I’m hearing around that recently Avex is in a pinch and it has money problems.
Rather than physical CDs, at least with ayu they try to get money from lives (which became a problem because of corona) and selling goods (and I suppose online stuff). That’s why I also think ayu concentrated on touring rather than making new music these past couple of years.

I’m not sure about other avex acts though, avex is nowhere and nowhere in the leading acts label nowadays unfortunately.

Guess it's more a "Anything Goes" stuff, but I was curious about that: if avex breaks for good, what Ayu should do? Signing with a new label? Making her own label and hiring some management to arrange her live shows (like Madonna did with Live Nation)?

I know it's a hypothetical and strange scenery, but I was thinking about that a lot since avex financial issues popped up a while ago.

When artists make their own label... it rarely boosts them.

A BALLADS 2 first week position & sales - #3 ; 10,984

https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7300675695

Ok who’s tommy?

I feel that in Tomoko's case it's just her not really motivated to do music anymore unfortunately. :( Like she gave up every social media and all, wanting a quieter life for now.

^Could be. But she addressed the sales issue directly on her blog. And she had, at least, one album finished. Also changed labels a couple of times too. But could very well be to personal reasons to not want to releasing anything. Btw the fact that after months of silence Tommy uploaded content to her Instagram out of the blue lol Our power.

Sorry for deviating from the A ballads discussion.

Why would people think that Ayu would leave the company that made her career? Specially since changing label is not something that the japanese audience see in a good light in general, as far as I know. Avex income doesn't come only for new releases, that why you would see acts barely selling 10k and would still release stuff back in the early 2010s, when selling more than 100k was normal. And this still happens even for today's standards.

Avex is struggling pretty much like all other music companies, except the ones which aren't only based on music itself (which avex isn't either, but since live concerts are a no no for right now, the income is shorter), and it's not like changing for Sony Music would make her music sells more.

The sales are fine, 10k for a compilation with only few new songs is alright. And congrats for the top 3!

all that thirst for new music. I don't really get it.
We have hours and hours of good music that never gets old. Tommys albums are great and still listen to them regular, same with ayumi. If you don't, you basically say the musc is not good enough to last forever.

Ayu/avex should pull a misono and threaten the fans for those sales with the next album :spinning



jk

not really

^ what’s does the texts say

Iconic

That if the album doesn’t reach 10k. She won’t be able to release any more music

I don't know why anyone expected any significant sales from this. Most of these songs have been released and bought many times over by people in various forms - the average person isn't going to care about the random album tracks. This was strictly a serious fans only release because at this point she's released so many best of albums and her music is readily available on streaming. Why would anyone else other than hardcore fans care?

And thinking into that perspective, sales are expected, even good.

I agree with this. Even as a fan I wasn't even sure to buy it as I already own these songs often on more than one media. the sales are mediocre compared to her albums standards, but pretty much similar to her latest remastered and remixed albums (A7 and LoveClassics, loveppears). The only success on that best of that wasn't included on a best of already is Days.

I will also add that they didn't propose anything interesting with the DVD content.

I think the release reaches avex expectations and will still give them good profits. The first press have already sold out and they still sold over 10k for a best of that cost them probably very little to make. They are also making profits on Haru koi streamings which did decent. I also think a lot of people won't buy the album but will still add it on their streaming service as an occasionnal ayumi playlist and it will stream more on the long run than a new album.

Haha yes!! Saw that and instantly thought about what we said :D

I think that A BALLADS 2 will reach 15K by the end of the month and maybe 20K+ by the end of the year.

I don't like comparisons but looks like female soloists have a new "standard" in Japan for CDs which ranges from 20K to 100K+ to be considered a success.

aiko is in major japanese playlists on Spotify still the her new album sold 50K. Looking from this angle 20K+ for A BALLADS 2 would be really great mainly taking in consideration that the DVD didn't offer nothing interesting... I agree.

I think we need to be glad she's still releasing ANYTHING :D Look at GACKT...he's a YOUTUBER now, writing business books, and playing competitive poker....:shakehead :laugh The last thing he released was in 2017....

My thoughts exactly
If only Gackt could go back to his music instead of wasting time in stupid YouTube sketches ...
I respect Ayu because She still believe in her music and I'm totally with her <3

He is such a disappointment.

And that album was absolutely underwhelming , considering that at the time when it was released it had material from like 10 years ago.
People all pretty much overlooked the whole thing, but when Ayu pulled the same thing with Love again
God forbid , how could she do such a thing :D
I totally gave up on Gackt 3 years ago.
Although , that remix album he released was pretty good.
Back on Ayu , I am glad that she is still releasing stuff , and what we got so far is good and clearly shows she hasn't lost it.

The sales are great for a compilation album that didn't get any promotion and that only contains one new song. I always saw it as a "luxury" release for fans, so I'm actually surprised it was able to get #3 and sell more than 11,000 on its first week. Let's see if it can reach 15-20,000 in the long run!

I'm thinking the same thing. kind of baffling that there doesn't seem to be any promotional materials like TV-CM shared on this forum—is there really none? no poster or whatever billboard anywhere in the cities there in Japan? :(

so yeah, considering that, the sales are ...expected. plus, it's great that she's on the top 10 list—her 53rd album to do so. that's still a fantastic record.

^I only saw some small posters someone posted on Twitter, probably from Record Tower but no CM or big billboards so yes, I'm actually surprised as well, I felt this was really meant only for TA somehow since there was no promo on mainstream media! Also she got a new record so yas queen!

I actually liked Last Moon, I didn't mind the older singles (I don't think they were 10 years old though) as I didn't have them on other albums. ''PS I love you'' is a masterpiece.