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I think you have to really examine clearly what is happening here.
1. Online digital downloading has become more popular than ever. Utachaku and iTunes are examples in which Ayu music downloads are soaring! I guess people decide to not invest as much in getting a tangible Ayumi CD but still support her through digital music downloading.
2. Ayu's tours. She has loads of fans faithfully following her through her tours and a+nation. You have to remember that even till now, she still does sell-out tours, and like it or not, they do take up a huge chunk of the money of her fans. Her fans could decide to budget, get the online music downloads, afterwhich get enough money to see Ayu live.
3. Low on Ayu's standards doesn't mean low across the entire music industry. Ayu's standards are really high. Even Ayu's recently lowest selling single Bold & Delicious/PRIDE, when compared with other artistes, has achieved high sales. As fans, I think we're spoilt with all the "platinum", "double platinum" sales that Ayu used to achieve. I think it's time you examine the entire music industry collectively before you decide.
4. Ayu is a solo female artist. Like it or not, the Jpop scene seems to favour boy groups the most e.g. SMAP, KAT-TUN, Kinki Kids since they have a lot of fan girls. It is more difficult for a female solo artist to actually achieve phenomenal success with the exceptions of Ayumi, Utada Hikaru, Namie Amuro and recently, Koda Kumi. It's a trend that is dominant in the Jpop scene, where female solo artists tend not to be favoured and look upon. Hence, for Ayu to have come this far and achieved sales like this, it's considered remarkable.
5. General decline in sales. I know ORICON would always have a totalled number to display the total number of singles and albums sold in an ORICON year. If my memory doesn't serve me wrong, all I've seen is a percentage DECLINE in overall sales. Hence, it's just part of the bigger trend that is occurring in Japan.
Hope this clears things up for people who are 'extremely disappointed' with her sales figures.
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