[thinkingoutloud89]

ayu is one of the richest *****es in japan. Thh airplay and downloads of her backcatalouge and the millions she made is enough for her to open 5 own musiccompanies if she wanted to.

ayumi has, like many other artist (namie, kumi) and so on surely a lot of creative input. The record label just gives prediction, sometimes sets dates are decides on the promo songs. (I don'T think the latter is the case for ayu anymore)

most of the release patterns is made by her own staff. they make sure the communication between the artist and the company works, and they want both to be happy. so they come up with something cool when ayu is all "I wanna do something for my fans" but they are also looking out to make the things happen that her contracts sets (so and so many new songs a year and blaa)