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In the Japanese industry, the idol is the only product that matters, the music is just an way of making the idol profitable. That's why a lot of idols are forced into projects that has nothing to do with their talents (and they end up producing low quality music, acting and modeling). Promoting any of the idols projects is up to the Agency, as they are the ones making the most money from it.
The Label doesn't manage any part of the creative aspect of those idols, as they already have a whole image constructed by the Agency that their music MUST follow (breaking the mold = end of idol career), their part on the idol's career is as a company hired to do a job. The music is recorded with them, the music is distributed with them, but all the production and hiring of producers, musicians, composers, songwriters, etc is up to the agency, and the same works for the creative direction.
Namie's music is a product of Namie and Vision Factory, so, Avex isn't investing anything on her, they have no creative control over her and have no good reason to promote her themselves. To the point of Namie almost never singing at A-Nation (what she did only once, BTW). In a nutshell, she is not an Avex artist, she's an Vision Factory artist that hired Avex to release her work.
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