Quote:
Originally Posted by truehappiness
FYI, as far as updates go, that is the bulk of what it's been like for years if not from the very beginning.
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Nah. Not at the very beginning. Back in the day TeamAyu got release news first all the time (judging from how quickly the "sixxxxxx" covers got distributed after they were announced "ONLY FOR TA" last night/this morning, they weren't wrong to just put all the news in one place after awhile), and of course back then she released a LOT more. In one year we'd get 8 singles, at least one album, and 2 to 4 remix albums, and she was on TV all the time (and TeamAyu members were given the chance to be audience members for most of those IIRC).
She used to do a lot more video blogging/video diary/video report type stuff back then, which is ironic given how social media and the web work now; the site had a bunch of photo galleries & reports after EVERYTHING she did - most of them ended up in TA Magazine later but the site got them first, and more often almost immediately after the shoot happened.
Not to mention the Today's Photo posts, which got really disorganized after awhile, devolved into galleries, and then just abruptly stopped.
Mr. Kaz was really great at keeping on top of things at TeamAyu, and there has been a noticeable decline in the club's quality, organization, and schedule in general since his departure in early 2010. Publishing of the magazine became erratic, the screensavers went away, the handling of exclusive goods has been really awkward, the yearly items that started in 2006 or 2007 went away, and TeamAyu members used to be able to win video props like the "Ayu" hat from INSPIRE and some of the money/ticket things from the 1 LOVE PV, and items Ayu would specifically pick out from her travels like fuzzy pez dispensers and cool t-shirts - the stuff you can win these days feels more like Ayu decided "Eh, I got this for myself but I'm not really feelin' it. Wanna give these away to TA members?" Overall the whole fan club is starting to feel like an afterthought that minimal effort is being put into, but back in the day it felt like being part of an elite group who got REALLY good stuff.
The first press bonus for "sixxxxxx" being a sticker kinda makes me regret renewing, tbh. =\ If we get live streams of the TA exclusive tour in the fall, then maybe I'll stay cuz that would win me over. If we don't, then yeah, I'm not renewing in March.