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Originally Posted by orangeakira
Utada Hikaru performed in America. Didn't every venue sell out? She's a huge artist. Her worst selling Japanese studio album to date sold around 900,000 physical copies. Technically she didn't need to come to America. Ayu is a pretty huge artist. Even if she's not in her prime, I'm sure she'd still be able to sell out a pretty huge venue. Most people did get into her through anime. I first heard her song Dearest at the end of Inuyasha.
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Before I say anything else, just know that I'm absolutely CERTAIN Ayu could sell out concert tickets. I just don't think avex is certain of that, which is the argument I'm making.
For one thing, Hikki herself wanted to come to the USA, not just for concerts so her fans could see her but actually pursuing a career stateside - Ayu has said in the past that she didn't really have an interest in doing that, even if she does do shows over here. Hikki got a contract here and toured in support of that album with a US label backing her. So it wasn't something Toshiba-EMI was taking a risk on, it was IDJ & Hikki taking that risk. Fans of Hikki's Japanese material brought their previously-resistant-to-Japanese-music friends, fans were willing & able to fly or drive from other areas of the country, and the venues she played in were fairly small (each fits about 1200 people max - compare that to stadiums that fit up to 18,000 people) so the tour easily sold out.
As for Ayu & "Dearest"... she's not as known for anime songs as some other artists are, given that that IS her only anime theme (unlike other artists - even non-anison-specific ones like L'arc, FLOW, Ajikan, etc. - who have all done multiple anime theme songs). Anime fans KNOW those names, they don't know Ayu's name, at least not anymore. And while she's done game themes (like Hikki has, and is reasonable well known for stateside), only the recent Tales of Xillia tracks were included in the US releases on games that sold well (while Depend on you WAS on the US release of Thousand Arms, it was a bit of a niche game being mostly a dating sim rather than a pure RPG... plus it did kinda suck). At this point, also, I don't know a single person who's played the ToX games and made the connection that Ayu did an Inuyasha theme as well. It's just been WAY too long. Most of the fans who were turned onto back Ayu when Dearest came out have since left the fandom. It's easy to forget how long ago "Dearest" and Inuyasha's height of popularity really was.
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If that's the case, I don't think I want her to perform a world tour, because her sales are so bad she's desperate. This shouldn't be a desperate attempt at making money. She should do this because she knows she's going to be successful. She should pay the rest of the world attention because of the whole "A world is one" idea. Not because we're her last hope and she's only turning to us for profit as a "plan B".
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It's not that it would be a desperate cash grab, far from it. It would just be EXTREMELY costly, so they'd need a damn good reason to do it.
It's not likely that she'd sell too much better than Hikki - figure 1200-capacity times 10 dates, same deal. That's 12,000 tickets sold. Ayu's shows cost between 60 and 90 dollars so let's split the difference and say $75. That'd be $900,000 avex could safely expect to get out of this, and that's GROSS income from the tour, NOT profit. If Ayu does, say, one or two shows in a big venue - because she'd want to do a BIG AYU CONCERT as opposed to a small, club-like show (like Limited TA Live Tour was) since that's what people have come to expect of her - she could at most expect about a $1.5 million return in ticket sales.
Which brings me to the other problem - ayu's shows are big. Hikki's shows did well, and alot of that $900,000 was probably pure profit for her, but they were small and not very showy. Ayu has dancers, special effects, special stage construction, etc. that Hikki didn't have on her US tour, and most of the bands & acts who come here don't (even bigger stars like L'arc don't have dancers - just fairly inexpensive lighting & pyrotechnics & video). Ayu would probably be operating at a loss if she did one or two of her big shows here, breaking even at best if they're very economical about it.
So why would they do it over here? Well, Ayu would probably be all for the idea, sure. But they'd only LET her do it if they really had nothing to lose. And given ayu's faltering sales, they really don't at this point. When she was a bigger seller, an Ayu show that flopped after a ton of hype would be embarrassing - and NEVER underestimate the importance of saving face when it comes to Asian entertainment companies.
And I hate to say it, the scant showing to the A3D and A3D II screenings probably isn't helping them feel more secure about the idea either.