[Charts & Rankings] The Official Oricon Thread ~A SUMMER BEST~

[emi♡]

They are, but they're becoming less so for anyone who isn't immediately popular.

They're going to have to address one day, that there are very few groups selling well with singles, and even less solo artists.

[isthisLOL?]

Originally Posted by emi♡

They're going to have to address one day, that there are very few groups selling well with singles, and even less solo artists.

I think you could say the ones doing well with singles are mainly the ones known for "obsessive" fans, especially otaku fans. And especially the ones that use promotional tricks like "buy one to vote for your favorite member!". Nana Mizuki has seen a rise in single sales rather than a decline and is now one of the bestselling solo females in that area - and it's obvious a big part are her otaku fans. AKB48 are ****ing gigantic - and they seem to almost only have otaku fans and use promotional tricks like crazy to promote buying several copies of the same single.
That's how you sell singles now. To hardcore fans and by making them feel they need to buy them - not to casual listeners, you sell downloads to casual listeners - and you can usually download every song of an album individually, hence little need for singles when you have promotional songs.

[bondingo]

Originally Posted by isthisLOL?

Nana Mizuki has seen a rise in single sales rather than a decline and is now one of the bestselling solo females in that area - and it's obvious a big part are her otaku fans. AKB48 are ****ing gigantic - and they seem to almost only have otaku fans and use promotional tricks like crazy to promote buying several copies of the same single.

Great point on Mizuki Nana, but with AKB you're a bit off. They have PLENTY of mainstream music-loving fans, and they're all over the place. They're very popular here with not just otaku, but teenagers, children, some young adults, etc. It's just that the otaku are, like you said, the ones who go crazy and buy a million copies of each version so they can vote for their favorite members or whatever the promotion is that single.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Promotional tracks such as How beautiful you are, Love Songs or Microphone are the same as singles, they just don't get physical releases... As Namie and Utada proved again and again, you don't need a physical single to have a hit.

Namie and Utada may have proved that, but Ayu hasn't. None of those songs were hits for her, as they generally weren't very good choices to hook casual listeners in (with the exception of HBYA...maybe, and that clearly didn't work).

[chu-lips]

ayu need to make a handshake event again for promoting her album
lol

[truehappiness]

She's going to get charged with something again unless she does the event in some huge event space and not the middle of the street, haha.

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

^ couple years late for that...

Earlier this year she was at 49.9X million, iirc.

[TeamAyu2004]

^ that was just by oricon.
You have to also count the fact that they dont count all sales.
Accounting for everything, bringing in Avex's numbers and oricon I would think it's somewhere in-between.
She hit the 50 million mark years ago.
If you count her over sea's sales she hit that mark even quicker.

and with the single discussion.
As long as you have the few that are successful, then you are going to have others that try it.
Singles are here to stay and are amazing cheap/free way to promote.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

^ that was just by oricon.
You have to also count the fact that they dont count all sales.
Accounting for everything, bringing in Avex's numbers and oricon I would think it's somewhere in-between.
She hit the 50 million mark years ago.
If you count her over sea's sales she hit that mark even quicker.

Avex counts shipment numbers, Oricon counts final consumer sales... Selling 50million copies to stores is far different from selling 50million copies to the listener.

Originally Posted by Diego-kun

If we think of Namie and Seiko they gained popularity thanks to singles (60s70s80s and Anata ni Aitakute ~Missing You~) so singles are needed in Japan if you wanna be popular again.

Ayu needs to go back to what she used to do back in 2005-2006 and stop releasing albums with no promotion and stupid best albums with the same songs over and over again...

Promotional tracks such as How beautiful you are, Love Songs or Microphone are the same as singles, they just don't get physical releases... As Namie and Utada proved again and again, you don't need a physical single to have a hit.

[TeamAyu2004]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Avex counts shipment numbers, Oricon counts final consumer sales... Selling 50million copies to stores is far different from selling 50million copies to the listener.

this is true, but the ones ship could be sold.
And it still doesnt change the fact that Oricon still doesnt count all of the sales.

Sales at concerts are counted at a 1/3 corrected?
Plus, Oricon doesnt count ALL sales throughout Japan. And from that we dont even know what percentage of Japan Oricon counts.
It could 60%, 95%, or even just in major cities.

Thats why i say a number between what has been shipped and what Oricon has counted would be a great number.
Also for the fact that digital sales are not included.
The fact remains, ayumi has passed the 50 million album sales a LONG time ago.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

this is true, but the ones ship could be sold.
And it still doesnt change the fact that Oricon still doesnt count all of the sales.

Sales at concerts are counted at a 1/3 corrected?
Plus, Oricon doesnt count ALL sales throughout Japan. And from that we dont even know what percentage of Japan Oricon counts.
It could 60%, 95%, or even just in major cities.

Thats why i say a number between what has been shipped and what Oricon has counted would be a great number.
Also for the fact that digital sales are not included.
The fact remains, ayumi has passed the 50 million album sales a LONG time ago.

Still, Oricon numbers are considered to be the official ones... Without it, she can sold 100million copies, there will be no actual proof of it

[Diego-kun]

If we think of Namie and Seiko they gained popularity thanks to singles (60s70s80s and Anata ni Aitakute ~Missing You~) so singles are needed in Japan if you wanna be popular again.

Ayu needs to go back to what she used to do back in 2005-2006 and stop releasing albums with no promotion and stupid best albums with the same songs over and over again...

[TeamAyu2004]

^^ they are only official to oricon.
The reverse can be said about that too.
They can only choose to report 20 million copies sold. (which they do pick and choose how they want to show how many copies have been sold, example from the concert sales again.)
Oricon is just one company, they cant track everything. Which yet again I say its best to chose a number between the two companies.

I also think a good single would spark interest.. I mean look at what Blue Bird did.
Japan loves that single and it came from ayumi in the middle of her declining sales.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

^^ they are only official to oricon.
The reverse can be said about that too.
They can only choose to report 20 million copies sold. (which they do pick and choose how they want to show how many copies have been sold, example from the concert sales again.)
Oricon is just one company, they cant track everything. Which yet again I say its best to chose a number between the two companies.

I also think a good single would spark interest.. I mean look at what Blue Bird did.
Japan loves that single and it came from ayumi in the middle of her declining sales.

Again, the same can be said about Avex... they can announce bigger sales than the actual ones... in the end of the day, that's why Oricon doesn't consider all the concert reported sales.

[TeamAyu2004]

^ Because its an amazing song.
Season on the other hand... I could ask the same question.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Again, the same can be said about Avex... they can announce bigger sales than the actual ones... in the end of the day, that's why Oricon doesn't consider all the concert reported sales.

actually, it wouldn't be beneficial at all for avex to lie about how many copies they sell.
If they sell more then what they did it only hunts them on the books for profit margins and taxes.

if anything, it would make more sense for them to report less sales then what they actually did sell.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

actually, it wouldn't be beneficial at all for avex to lie about how many copies they sell.
If they sell more then what they did it only hunts them on the books for profit margins and taxes.

if anything, it would make more sense for them to report less sales then what they actually did sell.

Considering the amount of time a lot of people from her fandom, you included, spend discussing her sales, and how she have overall monster sales, and if she sold or not 50million copies, I would say it's very beneficial for them to lie about it.

The most stupid it is, some people only followed her and bought her stuff because she had big sales... Even on this forum some people seen to be like that.

[TeamAyu2004]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Considering the amount of time a lot of people from her fandom, you included, spend discussing her sales, and how she have overall monster sales, and if she sold or not 50million copies, I would say it's very beneficial for them to lie about it.

Um, you are missing the entire point of why it's NOT beneficial.
Just because people talk about it doesnt mean anything.
Someone saying: Ayumi has sold a trillion copies of something does nothing for anybody.
Yet again. Reasons why its not beneficial in avex's case is profit margins and tax fraud. If they lie about it its tax fraud and messes with their stock, which would piss off the board and throw off how much money they are actually making. Not even going to go into the problems about the stock market (ENRON scandal anyone?)

So no. It is not beneficial for avex to lie about stuff like that.

[Delicious n Bold]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

I also think a good single would spark interest.. I mean look at what Blue Bird did.
Japan loves that single and it came from ayumi in the middle of her declining sales.

I still don't understand why that song is/was so popular in Japan. I find it quite dull at times. I understand why SEASONS was so big, though.

With the winter season coming, Ayu needs that ballad. MAYBE something like Days, but with better arrangement. I mean, Days is a great song, but something enjoyed in small doses.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by Delicious n Bold

I still don't understand why that song is/was so popular in Japan. I find it quite dull at times. I understand why SEASONS was so big, though.

With the winter season coming, Ayu needs that ballad. MAYBE something like Days, but with better arrangement. I mean, Days is a great song, but something enjoyed in small doses.

Days's arrangement is effing flawless. The arrangement on many of her recent songs on the other hand...

[TeamAyu2004]

^ you know, days wasnt a hit for me at first, but I will say that it has grown on me, in HUGE amounts.
Now I like to listen to it with any ayu mix I make

[emi♡]

Blue Bird was 2006 O_o she was still fairly popular then


I think Days arrangement was the only thing that kept me from hating the song. Cause it's sweet. I just dislike that composition.

I don't think there's any single, besides maybe a super popular winter ballad, that is going to give her a boost in sales. Maybe if it gets drama tie ins, and actual hype and promotion.

I think she also needs to stop being so on her own. Doesn't mean she has to go do collaborations...but just mingle more...so people can see that she's a person, and not some plastic diva ***** lol

[Bigtop]

It's official - SMAP takes #1 weekly spot in the Oricon ratings over Ayu that we don't even need to talk about it here:
SMAP’s new album takes top spot on Oricon’s weekly album chart - Tokyohive