With the right song and the right time...

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by sinfonietta

A strong single (at least double A-side), heavy promotion in the week or so before the release and a drama tie-in would easily see a major increase in her sales. I also think a change in her image would help too.

A strong single will increase sales, but probly not popularity at the same time. I agree with Mayayu's post:

Originally Posted by Mayayu

IMO Ayu's main problem is that she's disconnected from the market, trying to challenge pple's expectations instead of meeting them. Guess we all want back the pretty big sister she used to be, not the Japanese Madonna she's portraying lately.

If she really wants a second peak, she has to do something that can echo people's expectation. I'm not sure if she's out of the place or not, but obviously the Japanese don't buy her recent images. I think that people cannot copy her fashion and stuff, and her lyrics are not close to their daily lives. So basically they don't have resonance with her. Sometimes I think artists must have a balance between what they wanna make and what the audience wanna hear. Obviously only hardcore fans wanna hear her stuff, and I'm not 100% sure if those fans share common thoughts with her, or they just buy the stuff because it's ayumi hamasaki.