Rock'n'Roll Circus - album information and covers [X]

[love in music]

I think she could get some new fans with this album, some songs sound like nothing else in her discography so people who don't like her other stuff might like it. I think they should take a chance and spend more money and promote it more.

[polka-dot-jewel]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

As for Ayu's relative lack of promo these last couple of years, I think its a few factors - one Ayu probably just doesn't want to do as much and two the money that the promo costs - you don't want to keep throwing out the big bucks for artists that have been around for so long if you aren't seeing an upward trend in their sales to make the cost worth it. If it is a new artist, you do. ex. Girl Next Door - put a lot of money in and hope for a return in the future (in this case though it was a failure.) After all, promo is generally designed to pull in new fans/appeal to the masses. Hard core fans will buy the album regardless of promo. But older artists are less likely to pull in new/casual fans because everyone knows them already.

Ayu did quite a bit of promotion for S/S, and did a fair amount of promotion for YW/B. Well, at least TV and magazine promotion, anyway.

I know she's been focusing on her fans a lot... eh, maybe she was on TV more because her fans missed seeing her on TV. lol

[truehappiness]

The thing about A BALLADS is that it was a "BALLADS BEST" aka "remix album" imo.

A lot of the songs on it were retailored and there were SEVERAL recuts from RAINBOW. I felt that the album was simply a single that had 10+ other tracks on it but cost as much as an album... or was a remix album with some new tracks on it, haha.

Bolded are "remixes/rearranges" and italicized are new tracks.

『A BALLADS』
2003/03/12発売
01 RAINBOW
02 appears (HΛL'S Progress)
03 Key ～eternal tie ver.～
04 YOU (noｒthern breeze)
05 TO BE (2003 ReBirth Mix)
06 HANABI
07 M (HΛL'S Progress)
08 Dearest
09 Dolls
10 SEASONS (2003 ReBirth Mix)
11 Voyage
12 A Song for XX (030213 Session take #2)
13 Who... (Across the Universe)
14 卒業写真

[bluegie]

^ That's why I didn't buy A BALLADS lol. It's a big rip off for me . I guess it's part of my fault to let A BALLADS didn't sell over a million back in the old days .


@ identity: For an old artist (not his/her age btw) to attract new fan is a pretty difficult thing. It's easier to attract the long gone hardcore fans back to the fanworld (in ayu case, the ones who left after 2003..?).

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Yeah, the promo for the album actually wasn't nearly as big as it could have been. I never would have expected a million in sales for an original album these days anymore - only Mr. Children can pull that off it seems. Over 500k for an original album is excellent these days.

As for Ayu's relative lack of promo these last couple of years, I think its a few factors - one Ayu probably just doesn't want to do as much and two the money that the promo costs - you don't want to keep throwing out the big bucks for artists that have been around for so long if you aren't seeing an upward trend in their sales to make the cost worth it. If it is a new artist, you do. ex. Girl Next Door - put a lot of money in and hope for a return in the future (in this case though it was a failure.) After all, promo is generally designed to pull in new fans/appeal to the masses. Hard core fans will buy the album regardless of promo. But older artists are less likely to pull in new/casual fans because everyone knows them already.

That's always a factor as well especially when it comes to groups like News, Tegomasu etc. Arashi, the biggest one though, does not fall into the category. They definitely have fan girls just like every other group does, but they are definitely popular with the general public too these days.

You keep forgetting GReeeeN who did sell a million copies of their last studio album, released in 2009. And you keep forgetting that Ayu is still among AVEX's best selling artists, someone has to pay for the production of her videos and tours and we all know that the production of her concerts were higher than of a-nation.

While now days physical sales can show you if a person/an artist is popular, the digital sales will show you if their actual songs are popular or not. When it comes to JE groups, I think their original studio album sales show what people really think about their music.

[bluegie]

^I forgot to include JE studio albums . Their sales are not as pretty as their single sales... hehe.

So... does that mean microphone is pretty popular in Japan?? Or at least, it's accepted by the general public?

[njanjayrp]

^ that remains to be seen For now, the ringtone is doing well for a studio album track ^^

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

You keep forgetting GReeeeN who did sell a million copies of their last studio album, released in 2009. And you keep forgetting that Ayu is still among AVEX's best selling artists, someone has to pay for the production of her videos and tours and we all know that the production of her concerts were higher than of a-nation.

While now days physical sales can show you if a person/an artist is popular, the digital sales will show you if their actual songs are popular or not. When it comes to JE groups, I think their original studio album sales show what people really think about their music.

Well, my main point was that its an extreme rarity for a studio album to sell a million copies these days, especially for a female artist. 2 artists doing it, does not equal a trend. So I would never expect that for Namie (or Ayu or whoever). And when did I say Ayu wasn't among their best selling artists and all that? I was just giving a possible explanation for why she wouldn't do as much promo these days as in the old days....

About the JE thing - I don't think their album sales are a good indicator of how popular they are or not. Johnny's has rarely if ever had high original album sales for any group, but there is no doubt that groups like SMAP, Kinki, Arashi etc are indeed extremely popular with the general public. The albums just have a very bad reputation of being filled with filler songs that are no where near as good as the single tracks. (which is usually true.) I wouldn't buy them and I'm a fan, haha.

[waterballoon]

Hmm about digital sales... I think for now, even though physical sales have been on a downward trend and Ayu isn't 'doing as well as she used to', but she's still among the top for physical sales, at least for female solo singers.

But, if we factor in digital sales, then honestly Ayu's gonna plummet down in her ranking because there are many other artistes out there who had much better digital sales than Ayu. Digital sales may be a good indicator for popularity, but it certainly wouldn't help Ayu.

And lol about the million-sales thing... it's pretty rare already isn't it? It seems like the artistes who can pull off the million-sales are the bands who really appeal to Japan as a whole, and not a niche group. Mr. Children & GReeeeN appear to be such artistes/bands who have such an appeal, so...

Just praying Rock 'n' Roll Circus surpasses the sales for NEXT LEVEL, although I don't think that's very possible.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ I hope that it does surpass Next Level because I feel this is a much better album overall. But I doubt it will happen considering the sales trends, which is unfortunate.

[truehappiness]

But, if we factor in digital sales, then honestly Ayu's gonna plummet down in her ranking because there are many other artistes out there who had much better digital sales than Ayu. Digital sales may be a good indicator for popularity, but it certainly wouldn't help Ayu.

Actually, factoring in "digital sales"... Ayu would probably still kinda be on top.

She was on top last year for female soloists in both chaku uta and chaku uta full which was surprising imo. Trailed by Kana Nishino for regular chaku uta though. (top 5 placement, basically, under the juggernauts) Her massive discography helps, I suppose, with people buying from both the past and present works, giving her a higher total than someone who had one million selling chaku uta or whatever.

[bluegie]

Digital sales is a weird thing compared to normal physical sales.

A song with really high digital sales doesn't necessarily translate to the popular indicator for an artist. It general indicates how well that particular song is received by the general public. On the other hand, it does somehow estimate the popularity for artists with established fame. Whether the song is popular or not, there'll always be a portion of casual listeners who willing to pay for those artists to download the songs. Unlike unknown artists who may probly disappear once their one hit wonders are gone.

You know, if a bunch of people rush to download a popular artist's digital, at least it means he or she is still quite popular rite?

[y_nathz]

Yeah I'm still happy that she's doing good with the chaku-uta.. But physical sales are declining ? yes
It's kinda normal in this time, I mean look at Tohoshinki's best album which only sales around 500K when artists as famous as them can easilly pass 1million on the past time
Not saying bad things about the band, just trying to compare so please don't get me wrong

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Well, my main point was that its an extreme rarity for a studio album to sell a million copies these days, especially for a female artist. 2 artists doing it, does not equal a trend. So I would never expect that for Namie (or Ayu or whoever). And when did I say Ayu wasn't among their best selling artists and all that? I was just giving a possible explanation for why she wouldn't do as much promo these days as in the old days....

About the JE thing - I don't think their album sales are a good indicator of how popular they are or not. Johnny's has rarely if ever had high original album sales for any group, but there is no doubt that groups like SMAP, Kinki, Arashi etc are indeed extremely popular with the general public. The albums just have a very bad reputation of being filled with filler songs that are no where near as good as the single tracks. (which is usually true.) I wouldn't buy them and I'm a fan, haha.

You didn't say that, I simply tried to prove that AVEX still heavily invests in her, just in other fields, Koda has never had a PV budget that GREEN or JEWEL got and you can't say those 2 were recorded in Ayu's peak and the same goes to Amuro It also seems that Ayu is among the very rare AVEX artists who get to record their albums in other countries quite often.

I didn't say they are not popular, I said their songs aren't that popular, with arashi and SMAP obviously being an exception, I am pretty sure the last real hit NEWS had was weeek and I am pretty sure people don't like Yamapi for his amazing vocal skills ^^

Do you remember the yearly Recochoku rankings? Plummet you say? Regardless of what songs actually made her rank that high, the fact is, she is obviously doing very well digitally.

I actually missed you btw~ it's nice to have an actual conversation again~

As Tal and th posted:

Most Downloaded Artist for chaku uta

#4 ayumi hamasaki

Most Downloaded Artist for chaku uta FULL

#3 ayumi hamasaki

[ayumisrael]

I agree though that a song's success digitally is showing how much a cerain song is popular and not often the artist though an artist can have some digital hits in a row because he became a "popular digital selling artist" kind of like Kana and JUJU who do better digitally~

Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~ overall had over 750,000 legal downloads and it's ayu's highest popular song since Together When... back in December 2007.
It doesn't mean though that the next album for example (unfortunately) will sell like GUILTY did or that ayu's popularity increased (and that goes for everyone with digital hits).

Another example is kuu's new best. Her best album (besides that it was released with an additional studio one) had many digital (and some were phyiscal) hits she had but it didn't really help though it might be because non of them were from the last year. So the point is that digital hits don't always help or show popularity of an artist.
It does clearly show a popularity of a song.

I'm glad to see though that people want to see Rock'n'Roll Circus to outsell NEXT LEVEL!

It really does look like it's going to be a way better album with a greater effort and an overall of a high musical quality.
I highly doubt it will outsell NEXT LEVEL unfortunately.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by y_nathz

Yeah I'm still happy that she's doing good with the chaku-uta.. But physical sales are declining ? yes
It's kinda normal in this time, I mean look at Tohoshinki's best album which only sales around 500K when artists as famous as them can easilly pass 1million on the past time
Not saying bad things about the band, just trying to compare so please don't get me wrong

Well, at least in the case of Tohoshinki I think that their popularity in Japan is very overestimated on foreign forums. The fact that it is a best album and for a best album it did relatively poorly shows that they aren't as popular in Japan as some seem to think.

[truehappiness]

All I expect from this album is 250k-300k, haha.

Anything better will be amazing!

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

Do you remember the yearly Recochoku rankings? Plummet you say? Regardless of what songs actually made her rank that high, the fact is, she is obviously doing very well digitally.

I think you got me confused with waterballoon cause I didn't mention digital sales at all. But, since we are talking about current popularity/promotion and stuff I think only the digital releases of songs from the past year should be in the discussion, which means not the overall rankings.

And yeah, I missed you too.

But anyways, yeah she actually did quite a bit of promo for You Were and Sunrise/Sunset, however it didn't really seem to have a dramatic effect on her sales. So unfortunately Ayu does kind of seem to be at the place where promo no longer really helps her that much - it can't hurt though.

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Well, at least in the case of Tohoshinki I think that their popularity in Japan is very overestimated on foreign forums. The fact that it is a best album and for a best album it did relatively poorly shows that they aren't as popular in Japan as some seem to think.

I think Tohoshinki is just another boyband with lots of crazy fangirls, except they're not under JE. Their popularity do arise tho (comparing their recent single sales), but not like they're very very popular to the point that they can become Arashi or SMAP.

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Well, at least in the case of Tohoshinki I think that their popularity in Japan is very overestimated on foreign forums. The fact that it is a best album and for a best album it did relatively poorly shows that they aren't as popular in Japan as some seem to think.

Originally Posted by bluegie

I think Tohoshinki is just another boyband with lots of crazy fangirls, except they're not under JE. Their popularity do arise tho (comparing their recent single sales), but not like they're very very popular to the point that they can become Arashi or SMAP.

True... their best album had like 3 editions but the sales barely broke 500k. After all, they are not native Japanese so I never really expected anything anyway...

Anyway, I'm hoping Rock 'n' Roll Circus at least breaks 300k... the sales for other female solo artistes have been shocking to say the least for this year and I'm kind of worried, but it's Ayu after all, so I have faith!