[bluegie]

@ israel: Well I'm the opposite. I dun want hikki moving to avex. I'm used to her releasing schedule. Like you say, moving to avex sorta means becoming another milking machine. And I'm so sure that the quality of her music will drop sharply. That's how I feel about ayu, ai-chan, and kumi. When an artist releases music like crazy because his/her company wants him/her to, that'll lead to the destruction of music quality...

@ karen: true, avex is never a big company worldwide, but it's currently the biggest company in Japan IMO. It has ayu, kuu, namie, exile, ai-chan (well even she doesn't sell anymore), etc. Look at this year's oricon album chart... exile got 2 albums selling over million copies, and the remaining two best albums probly aiming at 800 - 900K at least. Namie's best fiction will definitely selling over million copies. Ayu's asian tour + the upcoming best album... even she doesn't sell like crazy, her cd sales are at least consistent. Kuu isn't selling as good as used to be (esp after the early incident), but she's still a valuable "cow" in avex. I'm pretty sure we'll see at least 4 - 5 of the top 10 albums will belong to avex..