Oricon vs. Billboard

[Delirium-Zer0]

The Billboard charts are useless in the USA since record labels pay radio stations to play their songs. The radio stations manipulate the charts by manipulating airplay - Billboard is TRYING to show how popular songs are, but since the industry itself is so corrupt, it's horribly inaccurate.

The Oricon chart's CD sales is far more accurate a gauge of a single's popularity, even if downloads aren't taken into account. There are download charts, and if you look at both the single sales and the downloads, it's very easy to see what songs are popular.

One day, the Oricon single chart will probably be downloads rather than CDs - just like how the charts once counted Vinyl record sales and had to make the transition to CDs later. It happens.

In any case, I doubt ayu's streak will be affected. CD sales in general will fall all together as download numbers rise, it's not like ayu's physical CD sales will dip below everyone else's. Fewer CDs will be produced overall.

I wouldn't worry about it.