[Charts & Rankings] Official Oricon Thread ~Love songs~

[waterballoon]

in any case... it's bleak. but she's doing well with whatever circumstances there have been, so gj Ayu

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

I know that sales drop for everyone every year but I always wondered where those people who bought 800k copies of her album but only about 600k copies the next album went?

Since you listed 800K and 600K, so let's use (m)u and Secret as example for my hypothesis then.

Let's say there are 80K causal fans didn't really care about Secret (they didn't like Startin' or BLUE BIRD or whatever). Then 60K fan decide not to buy this album since a) they thought the album was bad or b) they didn't have money to buy the physical release. Probly they also thought digital was the new "in" thing to do (they didn't care about oricon anywayz). The remaining 60K fans... Well they have been following ayu since whenever. They didn't wanna give up ayu, but at the same time they have already lost much interest on ayu anywayz. They only bought MY STORY and (m)u because they wanna support her, and in fact they might probly only like one or two songs from each album. Now they came to a point that they didn't have enough reason to support ayu anymore, so they decide not to follow her anymore (i.e., buying her new stuff).

And you see, there will be fans leaving whenever a new album comes out. This applies to other artists. Getting new fans are not easy, but losing old fans are probly just a click. Thinking about that, ayu is actually not that unfortunate. There are lots of other artists who rose around the same time with ayu, how many of them could still worth being valued by the industry (e.g., being invited to music programs, getting better positions in lives)? Mai-K was the best seller in 2000 (I'm talking about albums), Misia had several good sales, CHEMISTRY was yearly no. 1 in 2003, Ringo was pretty strong during those years (well she's like hikki, who only does her own stuff, so probly she's an exception). Mika was like the new female star in 2002-2003, Ai-chan was the kawaii sexy girl in 2004, and they sank before ayu does.

The only person who probly can still hang around like her is hikki, her truly rival (LOL) since the beginning. It's such an honour to be their fans .

[Polyrhythm]

omg people. She got #1 just gtf over the sales already.

[lumieregrl]

I'm guessing the oricon charts don't include overseas sales, and I know it doesn't count digital sales. I feel like we're getting an incomplete picture, and Ayu could be doing even better than we think she is.

[jbrat2219]

@bluegie, Yeah I understand. I mean Ayu still does very well and you can still see people are still interested in her because she still sells out shows. Even if man fans go to multiple shows, it still indicates that Ayu's worth the money to see twice. And those tickets aren't cheap.

I'm not too concerned with sales but I've always been curious about the decrease in sales. I hope one day she'll have a monster hit that'll at least slightly increase sales but at the same time, in my opinion you can pick almost any one of the love songs and it would be tremendously better than most of what's out now lol. I'm glad Ayu doesn't follow trends in her music to increase sales.

[bluegie]

She'll really need a bigger promotion if we wanna see a mega hit. You can see that she does have plenty of better songs coming out this year (from R'n'RC to Love songs). I can see that Love song will have potential to be a big hit (judging from the download chart). Normally ayu's song will stay on top 3 for a few days, then decent to somewhere between 5 and 10. Love song was between no. 2 and 3 for the first 5 days, and it has been no. 1 for 3 days already. If it has a better tie-in or more live performance, I kinda think the song will be much bigger.

Well, we can use hikki as the example again. Look at FOL. An excellent drama tie-in not only boosted up the sales, but it made the general causal listener having interest on her. Of course, the song must be good enough to support the wave, otherwise its popularity level would be around the level of Ai-chan's Planetarium. Namie is another excellent example, with the vidal sassoon tie in (with proper single cooperation) gave namie a second peak.

So I really hope that ayu will have a much better tie-in (and of course, a song that matches the tie-in very, very well). Once the stir creates, the general public will think, "ah ayu is looking good, she's so 'in', her song is so unique/nostalgic! (whatever individual thinks" Of course some of you may say that ayu doesn't care about that. I'm sure Namie doesn't care about that as well, but look how good it feels when we see her getting back to the top.

So please, no more disaster tie-in, such as dragon ball...

[Ayumiko]

Ayu needs better tie-ins and more TV live performances.

[waterballoon]

yeah ia. the tie-in is crucial here... makes me wonder why she has close to none, or even when she does, the tie-ins are hilariously weak/useless. the airline thing for crossroad, the news channel thing for Last Links, and this ancient war movie for BALLAD, and oh Sunrise/Sunset on an UNpopular dorama kthx

[Kazeyomi]

She will have a tie-in with a Tales of game.
I don't know how much popular the j-rpg series is in Japan (maybe more than Onimusha), but I bet would be a good promotion though. Not that much to let her return to a second peak as Namie, but much better than a tie-in for a unknowed chinese drama and a awful american movie :|

[Cherry Dynamite]

A tie-in to a super popular anime or a popular drama, those ought to give her the boost she needs.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ Unfortunately she doesn't just get to pick and choose what tie ins she wants to have. Its up to advertisers to decide who they think can best sell their product.

[Cherry Dynamite]

Yeah that's the sad part lol.

[brener]

i hope the sales dont drop too much today, i mean, all the releasements arent so popular so maybe theres a chance for her to stay in top 5 :~

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

@bluegie, Yeah I understand. I mean Ayu still does very well and you can still see people are still interested in her because she still sells out shows. Even if man fans go to multiple shows, it still indicates that Ayu's worth the money to see twice. And those tickets aren't cheap.

At10 had 40 dates... A fan can go to 2, 3, 5 concerts.... But I doubt anyone had the time and the money to go to all 40 dates of the tour... If Ayu was having 16 dates tour like she did not many time ago, the same people going to more than 1 date would be a very good argument... But with such a long tour, it's clear: There are more people going to her concerts.... So, even if less people are buying her albums, more people are watching her lives ^^

[Masamune]

Definitely Ayu was doing wrong choosing to put a song in the Dragon Ball movie,that was a flop to be a little polite...I think no one had a good idea to be a good movie.

Ayu is not very luvky choosing projects to promote (Hikki on the other side was a great success in the Kingdom Hearts saga & even Kumi in the Final Fantasy X2 was relatively successful).

[AyUmIXx]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

....huh?

I was talking about the 600-700k or so people who purchased MY STORY or Memorial address that haven't been buying her latest works. I always wonder where those numbers go. Do they just go on to buy other artists' works? Do they stop buying CDs in general for whatever reason?

I think people/fans are evolving and like to follow new music trend, so since Ayu's not following the music trend, example autotune kind of thing, or upbeat song with dance~ etc etc.. so ppl might think that her music sounded boring~ therefore, people/fans switch their fandom to other artists who are at their peak right now and with the current trend.. (sometimes, i even think that it's not about Ayu's music being downhill, but it's about what people want to hear, what kind of music that's popular rite now..so since ayu isn't giving him/her like the one she/he likes at the moment, so they often think ayu's music is no more good), i don't mean to say anyone, just in general.. well it's just my own opinion..

and actually, I don't think that's a big deal because I know and admit that every artists has their own Peak era.. and I think if ever Ayu stop making music for like 1-2 years, then when she comes back, I believe she can make something BIG.. but if she keeps the pattern like right now, i doubt that she'll be selling lots~~

for me, with the ayu's current status, I've been satisfied enough because she's still no. 1 and still many people love her, the hard core fans still wish to see her concert ..so yeah.. I'm happy oh yea, i think ayu also gains new fans even though it's not much, but still she has new fans..
so if she keeps making music, that's great, coz i still could enjoy her music..

well, let's hope that ayu could make it big with TALES OF XILLIA Tie-In, coz this game seems so BIG!

[TeddyGrahams]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

^ Unfortunately she doesn't just get to pick and choose what tie ins she wants to have. Its up to advertisers to decide who they think can best sell their product.

That's a part of the story. The other side is that Dorama usually have ties-in with Johnny or Emi, whereas Anime series have it with Sony and Geneon. Avex used to be very prominent with both industries in the past; IDK why they aren't as of now.

Avex usually have ties-in with the Tales of series. The Tales of series is popular, but it isn't a huge as everyone is making it out to be. The last hit game was Tales of Symphonia (6 years ago) and to a lesser extend, Tales of Abyss (5 years ago).

Either way, the sales are relatively good. Was expecting better, but with each day, less and less people are buying cds, I guess.

[Tony G]

Liking the little boost in the official sales, not TOO far off RnRC now.

[brener]

won't we have daily sales this week on ORICON??

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by brener

won't we have daily sales this week on ORICON??

seems not