Possible cause of Ayumi's shrinking Sales
 

No, Ayumi debuted in 1998. Her CD's continued to sell more and more copies up until 2000. Then they started to decline, along with all of Japan's. Now, I'm sure everybody knows what a "Digital Download" or "Digital Single" is. Well, these came out about 2000, right? and they have since gained much popularity all over the world, although mostly in Japan. Since Digital Downloads aren't counted on the oricon charts it would make it seem her sales are shrinking significantly every year, even if they aren't. Ayumi is still selling great compared to the rest of Japan and still has all the chart topping power she always did. If oricon started counted digital downloads I'm sure she would have more million selling singles and such. Just look at Utada Hikaru's "Flavor of Life", it's now the best selling DIGITAL single of all time in the entire world and one of the most successful songs of all time, but oricon doesn't even recognize its digital sales, much less include the in their charts (like Billboard does.) If I am correct, BLUE BIRD and HEAVEN had over 1,000,000 digital downloads each, a big number off of the 200,000-300,000 copies sold in physical sales. So, if this is all taken in to consideration, Ayumi is probably still just (or at least almost) as popular as she was during the time that is considered her 'peak'.

It may not be the whole reason, but I know it's at least part.

Who agrees?

a small part maybe.. you also need to understand the hype-factor. Ayu has been around for 10 years, that's a whole lot of time.. hype only exists for like 1 year, maybe 2... it's a true miracle Ayu still sells so much...... sure, Ayu still does great, but million-sellers didn't disappear, they're still around. just not with Ayu

And btw..

"Utada Hikaru's "Flavor of Life", it's now the best selling single of all time in the entire world and one of the most succesful songs of all time,"

whaha don't make me laugh.. internationally, much greater records have been set.. for instance, the single "candle in the wind" sold 25 million approximately.

I put "Digital Single" didn't I?

because it is the best selling digital single ever. :)

EDIT: nope i didnt. but i meant to. XD

Weren't those 1 million downloads of HEAVEN 45-second long samples that people downloaded to their phone?
And um, yeah, Ayumi's sales would be bigger if both forms of digital downloads (computer/mobile phone) were incorporated in the Oricon charts, but her #1 streak would end. ;(

I am absolutely positive you JUST edited that, since I copy+pasted it from your thread... anyways... There are so many excuses for Ayu not selling as much anymore.. okay, maybe she is not the unbeatable artists anymore... but she IS still at the very top, she is, I think, the only artist that can compete with short hypes like Orange Range, Koda Kumi etc.
Look at Ayu's recently-achieved "grand 5" #1's... that's amazing... cherish that.. don't wine about her decrease, but celebrate her many records.

I totally agree xD It's a shame how people don't take that into consideration. Like, I'm sure she's not AS popular, but she's still pretty popular! I'm so happy you made this thread, hopefully more people can pay attention to the digital downloads now~

Look at my second post. i edited that i didnt put it. so i edited my first post to make it correct.

and im not whining, simply explaining my theories.

Declined? her best selling album was in 2001 - A BEST which almost sold 4,300,000 xD and after that I am... sold around 2,300,000 and her album still have good sales (I mean 600,000/700,000 is still considered as good it's tones of money) of course not like millions and it's declining but it can't be helped... the whole industry falls down and yes, it's the reason and it's the fact.

Yeah but people arent going to download BEST albums. BEST albums are like ... for beginners of teh artist, and hardcore fans who love tangible items.

casual fans have probably alerady downloaded all the songs they like, so why would they download a BEST album?

that is why i did not count A BEST for anything. :)

If Digital releases were incorporated the charts could become a complete mess. If someone released an album and loads of the tracks were downloaded individually rather than 'Buy Album', then an artist could feasibly hold positions 1-12 in the charts. The top 40 could be made up of 4 artists :laugh
Oricon should just register a 'downloads' chart, so you'd have 'single's' 'albums' 'downloads'.

I think the true miracle is that ayu's hype grew untill in between the release of A BEST and I am... to a height which an artist rarely experiences. Also, was very lucky to be the biggest star during the time that the japanese wave started to streak the western world, adding a much larger number of foreign fans than a japanese artist ever had.

that doesnt make sense. how can you say 600,000 is as good as 4,300,000????? it certainly is not.

I still think that ayumi's sales are dwindling only because she stopped accepting awards...though a good thing to do for other artists...not for her. Oh well, making music is what she does, and the fans hear, so why do we care?

That inner spirit wanting her to overtake the world with music domination I bet.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to even reach 1 million nowadays?! XD


Oh well. I still think that there's a hole in which her fans in Japan need to fill, soon.

They all kinda just "left" after HEAVEN. WHY?! lol

^ Because Bold & Delicious sucked. Her singles sucked right after HEAVEN. I was going to say that Ayu's best year was 2005, until she released Bold & Delicious. STEP you/is this LOVE?, fairyland c/w alterna and HEAVEN c/w Will were alllllllll great singles... Bold And Delicious just ruined it. I think the main reason I hate it is because of the whole American style she tried to portray, and the terrible shreiking and weird background music the song encompassed.

But I think norain has a good point about the 'she's not accepting awards anymore'...

I don't really mind. As long as she continues to make good music. Yes, Secret didn't sell that well, but it had some kick arse songs in it that are just as good as her I am... and duty era songs.

That's so very true

That 7 million figure EMI gave out is kind of flawed since like 5 million of that number were ringtones and not the full song.

I agree. I think it's easier for Billboard to count digital releases since I think less American artists release B-sides/double, triple or quadruple A side singles. In Japan, should the B-sides be charted separately? or should they be included with the A-sides sales? etc. etc. It would be nice if Oricon did do a weekly digital chart with actual numbers.

B&D was amazing. >[

Why else would she promote it so much? I think that B&D's sales are just a reflection of being released too close to the album.

i agree with true on the B&D sales thingy.

and yeah - i dont think western artists even have a single with more than 1 track, but i could be wrong.