[Official Message] 『A SUMMER BEST』8. August 2012

[DogboyShugo]

I agree with Becky. There's no reason to bash Ayu for her choices. She obviously chose to do this. Perhaps not 100% her choice but the decision to release this was brought on by her too.

Ayu chose to release the 2 single tracks (theme a-nation, happening here) plus the new song on here.

I don't agree with how this album was decided. A bunch of summer songs and 3 un-album songs. Kinda silly because anyone can legally purchase the albums before and then just rip them and make their own summer album with any songs they choose. Or they could down them. Either way...It's a waste, but i'm not going to bash her for it. She did it because she wants to. It's her career. You don't like it? Well...That's all ya can do...Not like it because she's not going to change her dream/career .

What she is doing makes her happy and we support Ayu's happiness so what's the big problem?

[kinix]

Originally Posted by relmy

Why can't we count A COMPLETE? It sold extremely well, obviously appealing both to the casual market and hard core fans. It's still a compilation album, even if it doesn't have "best" in the title.

And yes, I own all 3. How is that relevant to me disliking this release and thinking it's completely about money making?

It's like I said, my problem with this release is simply that Avex are doing it because they can make more money & sales with a summer album than a new single. It's disgusting.

Because A COMPLETE is the compilation of all her singles. Regardless of whether it's a hit song or not. (Not all ayu's single is a hit. Fact.)
And since you've own A BEST and A BEST 2, why would you grumble dislike this summer hit? kinda contradicting IMO... If you don't think that this release is meant for you, it doesn't mean that it's not meaningful to the others. As I'm sure that the sale of this wouldn't be zero would it? And avex is a company with share holders of course their priority is making money not charity.
this album do have new items too and more than half of it isn't released in previous BEST albums.

[Jawdarna]

Yeah, I agree with what everyone is saying about Namie and her marketing strategies. It is exactly what has been absent in Ayu's recent eras. Honestly, I'm hoping for this kind of marketing strategy from Ayu, from now, to the end of next year (it'll never happen, but a girl can dream!):

A SUMMER BEST (with some form of promotion aside from A-Nation)
Double A-Side Single (Autumn; hoping for promotion with TOX, and another tie in hopefully)
A-Side/with B-Side (Winter; hopefully a huge, huge ballad with a mellow B-Side as to not overshadow the A-Side)
Double A-Side (Spring; something attention grabbing like Rule/Sparkle)
A-Side/with B-Side single + New Album (Summer; assuming this would be in the middle of her tour)
Remix Album (Autumn)

Sounds demanding, but that would give Ayu 6 A-sides, and 2-B sides.
And we all know she can do it; she's Hamasaki Ayumi.
Namie released four 2A's for Uncontrolled didn't she?
Though, this was over a two year period, instead of one year...
Anyway, I'm assuming that Ayu won't be releasing another A BEST next year, due to the release of A SUMMER BEST. Plus, has she really had enough hits to produce another BEST? I mean, 2007 - 2012, there's been a few hits, but not in the amount she had in earlier years...

I was really impressed with Uncontrolled, I'm hoping Ayu can pull out something as great as, or better than.

[ExodusUK]

Ayu probably doesn't want to release this because it means work/promotion and we know ayu tends to avoid that kind of thing if it's not selling concert tickets

[ExodusUK]

Originally Posted by relmy

Why can't we count A COMPLETE? It sold extremely well, obviously appealing both to the casual market and hard core fans. It's still a compilation album, even if it doesn't have "best" in the title.

And yes, I own all 3. How is that relevant to me disliking this release and thinking it's completely about money making?

It's like I said, my problem with this release is simply that Avex are doing it because they can make more money & sales with a summer album than a new single. It's disgusting.

They're a business, Ayu is a product, this is what they do. They want money out of their investment (Ayu) and products (the songs) since Party Queen didn't do it.
Honestly I think it's best ayu avoids releasing singles until she's ready to actually take her recording career seriously again..for the last five years she's been a live act pretty much and i'm so bored of it now..but hey it's easy money once you've got the show off the ground and running. Keep adding them dates ayu

[ayuuk]

There was an interview by NTV or whatnot... I seem to remember Ayu was against the idea of best or compilation albums, which is why she re-recorded A BEST...?

[ExodusUK]

Originally Posted by ayuuk

There was an interview by NTV or whatnot... I seem to remember Ayu was against the idea of best or compilation albums, which is why she re-recorded A BEST...?

She was against the idea of that release, because it was out of her control and she felt like Avex was putting an expiry date on her career. She's not against bests in general.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Amuro's second peak began with Best Fiction. A best album.

Just saying.

[ExodusUK]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

Amuro's second peak began with Best Fiction. A best album.

Just saying.

That'll be next year (15th Anniversary) with A BEST 3, if a second peak happens no doubt Ayu will do about 100 tour dates instead of promoting and making a second peak happen tho.

[Andrenekoi]

^Well... Namie's 2nd peak started giving signals of being possible before Best Fiction, and, in fact, one of the fundamental aspects for her having a 2nd peak was her name as a live act... To the point of Namie touring even without albums to promote and tending to have longer tours than Ayu...^^

And people are acting as Ayu released a best album every year... She has 4 bests, this is going to be her 5th. Both Namie and Koda have 5 best albums, and Ayu has far more songs than they both...

[microphone]

I'm so excited for the new song. How soon do you think we will get a preview of it?

[SheFliesHigher]

Originally Posted by kinix

Because A COMPLETE is the compilation of all her singles. Regardless of whether it's a hit song or not. (Not all ayu's single is a hit. Fact.)

You're funny. All of Ayu's singles except Daybreak charted at #1. That makes them hits, wouldn't you say? And don't you find it interesting that aaaalll the songs on this album besides the never-before-released ones are singles? You know...hit singles?

A Complete is a compilation album just like her best albums are. Therefore, they belong in the same category. Don't try to make this Summer Best album seem more "fresh" by craftily manipulating semantics.

Originally Posted by Yumsushi

I have no interest in this. I think the fact that people voted for the songs is supposed to create "hype" but I think that her marketing team is really just super lazy and uninspired in general. Gone are the days when her crying face was everywhere you look or she'd re-sing the album's songs. Or maybe it's all her idea; in that case she is the one who is uninspired. And to those that say 'but she doesn't care about sales/#1 album!' the release of this album strongly indicates that she does.

The truest, most accurate post in this thread.

And some of y'all need to stop speculating about what other Ayu fans buy and don't buy and stop using your unfounded conclusions to paint them as bad people. It's illogical and unattractive.

[kinix]

Originally Posted by SheFliesHigher

You're funny. All of Ayu's singles except Daybreak charted at #1. That makes them hits, wouldn't you say? And don't you find it interesting that aaaalll the songs on this album besides the never-before-released ones are singles? You know...hit singles?

A Complete is a compilation album just like her best albums are. Therefore, they belong in the same category. Don't try to make this Summer Best album seem more "fresh" by craftily manipulating semantics.


The truest, most accurate post in this thread.

And some of y'all need to stop speculating about what other Ayu fans buy and don't buy and stop using your unfounded conclusions to paint them as bad people. It's illogical and unattractive.

I think you'll need to do more homework 1st before commenting =)
Not all ayu's singles are number 1 in oricon. And even if it took number 1, it doesnt mean that it's a hit song (eg. Bold & Delicious. Hardcore fans just buy for the sake of collecting) and singles that doesn't reach number 1, doesn't mean that it's not a hit song (eg. TO BE, Fly high, AUDIENCE.)
Take a loot here if you wana know which single didn't hit number 1 http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/...ing/cd_single/

And I didn't say that I don't take this Summer Best as a Best album. But it kinda fall into a different category as it has a theme : SUMMER

And as I've said before regarding A COMPLETE, IMO I don't think it should be regarded as a BEST album. You can call it a compilation album, but definately not BEST (do you call poker face, For My Dear..., Daybreak, Ｂｏｌｄ　＆　Ｄｅｌｉｃｉｏｕｓ etc... a BEST song? I doubt so.

Originally Posted by ayuuk

There was an interview by NTV or whatnot... I seem to remember Ayu was against the idea of best or compilation albums, which is why she re-recorded A BEST...?

That was regarding A BEST as she felt that it was too sudden and made her felt like it's gonna be her last album.
Therefore she rebelled by making new recordings on some songs. But on the other hand, she wana give her best for this release thus appearing on almost all of the major magazine front cover and doing lots of promotions for this.

[AyuWorld]

Originally Posted by microphone

I'm so excited for the new song. How soon do you think we will get a preview of it?

talking about the new song,im curious too,i feel its a bit late the will released it in August,why not July. so we may get the preview in the end of July maybe or earlier

[emi♡]

We can't always just decide what makes or doesn't make a "BEST" song :/



Actually the fact that this is a SUMMER best is the only reason why I'm not about it. If it was a regular best, I'd have just laughed and been like "Please."

I really wish it was a summer mix like koda's but meh.

[yoshino]

I was thinking A Summer Best compilation was kinda unnecessary. She can release A BEST 3 compilation next year as that would be the best time for a compilation on her 15th anniversary.

If she really were to release another compilation album next year, it would be just too much compilation albums one after another. I see no point!!

There's also nothing much to A Summer Best besides one new song. I just hope they dun release so many Ayu Best when they're not really Best afterall.

[YUKARI]

Originally Posted by microphone

I'm so excited for the new song. How soon do you think we will get a preview of it?

I think we'll get it soon. Tomorrow's July already, so I guess we'll get the preview in 1-2 weeks

[Amuro_Ray]

Hope no winter best afterwards

[Didz-19]

If she going to release A BEST 3, i think she will include the singles from Secret till her latest album....so don't worry, her old hits will not be included~

[Jester]

I still want A BALLADS 2 -BLACK-,-WHITE- with JEWEL (Orchestra Version) on it, but A SUMMER BEST is fine thought because it filled with my favorite song so I just waiting for this release in my country.