[Charts & Rankings] Rule/Sparkle - ORICON STYLE

[Max_ZZZ]

well... imagine all the sales we lost for this single are being gained for NEXT LEVEL!
itll make us all feel better lol

[ayujarl]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

I was expecting first day sales of around talkin' 2 myself, which is like 10-15k-ish... but whoa this is really fantastic!

No promotion... no nothing, an album coming out in a month's time... Rule/Sparkle exceeded my expectations!

Here's hoping that 2nd day sales will be good too!

I know, how could she have NO PROMOTIOIN at all for this single ><
probably working hard on her album, but still, ... not a live show like Music Station or HEY!x3.

I hope this single and NEXT LEVEL album will all do great

[noidea]

I'm already frightened of NEXT LEVEL sales, probably below 500k if she doesn't really promote it! At least she isn't losing her #1-Streak, it would take her biggest record away from her! Let's hope for a good 11th year, it isn't starting too well, but better than talkin' 2 myself/decision(which is my favourite 2003+ single of hers o.0)

[AyumiBest]

Well at least its better than the others. So I guess its safe to say that Ayu will get no.1

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

It depends what chart you are looking at really. If its the yearly single chart, she only made it to 34ish last year - I remember a time when it was unthinkable that Ayu wouldn't have a single in the yearly top 10, let alone top 40. Yearly digital charts aren't that strong for her either. The only chart that she is 1-3rd in is the overall Avex only charts - not a bad thing of course but not surprising considering she had something like 7 releases counting last year. She is still of course popular and already has her legendary status, but its also true that she has been losing popularity as well.

Maybe it was 34 overall but it was the 3rd best selling by female artist and one of the two singles that outsold that is Thelma Aoyama's which kind of lost her power quick after the smashing success of soba ni iru ne.
For a female artist and after a long time in the industry we can say that ayu is doing a bit of exceptionly well and not just "oh well, decent like everyone".
We also shouldn't compare her single sales and positions on yearly chart to what they were during her peak or 6 years ago to now as sales are way not the same, and she is still one of the top female sellers for female singers.
Also even if she had 7 releases last year (that she was the 2nd overall best selling artist of the year), they still have to sell quite well to reach there since decent for each release is not enough. Even if she had 50 releases they would worth zero if they would sell low or just decently, without a good popularity she wouldn't be able to reach even close, even with billion releases a year. Comparing how she could do that a few years ago just with few releases is futile of course, and so comparing her popularity (even generally sales) to now.

I think people mention the #1 streak as a measure of her status because of the fact that she is certainly not the only woman who has had a long number 1 streak to maintain. There are several famous jpop women throughout the history of Japanese music that had #1 streaks to uphold and historically those singers always started fading from the limelight the moment they lost their streaks.

Isn't seiko matsuda the only female artist that ayu's streak still didn't take over?
Also ayu still might get #1s for her next studio albums and even if the streak was broken even oricon posts "ayu has 9 #1 original albums" etc. so it might not be her only thing, sometimes she brings up new achivements like she did with A BEST 2 with coping the #1 and #2 position by the same (female?) artist and such things. Her popularity is still enough to bring her new achivements and she might obtain some even if they are not as amazing as streaks and people still look at them with a good and "surprised" eyes.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

Maybe it was 34 overall but it was the 3rd best selling by female artist and one of the two singles that outsold that is Thelma Aoyama's which kind of lost her power quick after the smashing success of soba ni iru ne.
For a female artist and after a long time in the industry we can say that ayu is doing a bit of exceptionly well and not just "oh well, decent like everyone".
We also shouldn't compare her single sales and positions on yearly chart to what they were during her peak or 6 years ago to now as sales are way not the same, and she is still one of the top female sellers for female singers.
Also even if she had 7 releases last year (that she was the 2nd overall best selling artist of the year), they still have to sell quite well to reach there since decent for each release is not enough. Even if she had 50 releases they would worth zero if they would sell low or just decently, without a good popularity she wouldn't be able to reach even close, even with billion releases a year. Comparing how she could do that a few years ago just with few releases is futile of course, and so comparing her popularity (even generally sales) to now.

Several of your points have merit, but my main argument was simply that she is no longer the best selling female on the year end charts and hasn't been for a few years now. Also, in terms of 2nd best selling artist of the year, that is once again only for Avex I believe. And everyone's sales are down from 6 years ago - even the johnny's groups in general are. So, the difference is, is that a few years ago she was able to still hang in with the top sellers in the country (male or female). Nowadays though, despite the fact that every artists sales have gone down since then, she is now not able to keep pace with them in terms of the end of the year rankings as well as she used to in the past.

edit: I should add that Arashi is the only notable exception here that I can think of. Their sales are actually up from what they were a few years ago, despite the fact that this is their 10th year around.

Isn't seiko matsuda the only female artist that ayu's streak still didn't take over?

Currently yes, but there were several other female artists that had number 1 streaks in the past as well but each time that they started to lose their number 1s, it pretty much spelled the end of their careers. Who knows how much modern times might have changed though.

btw, Ayu has a loooong way to go before she has any kind of record for number 1 albums. Matsutoya Yumi has 18 #1 albums, 17 of which were consecutive. And I don't even know if Yumi is the one that holds the record!

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

btw, Ayu has a loooong way to go before she has any kind of record for number 1 albums. Matsutoya Yumi has 18 #1 albums, 17 of which were consecutive. And I don't even know if Yumi is the one that holds the record!

Wow she does have a long way to go!

I hope she is able to maintain her single streak.... I would sure hate to see Ayu's career go into an abyss because people don't think her music is as good because it doesn't have a #1 attached to it...

[freedreamer]

i just hpe this single can break 130k or even 120k
since NEXT LEVEL is coming out...mmm...this single wont do very well wont it?
furthermore the movie is only screening in Japan at 8th April....Worldwide would be march

[pop909]

^I dont think that will be possible sadly enough... Since we are already seeing such a decline in sales..it probably say around 100k at the end of the year...

as from an earlier prediction i still hold with 81.25k at the end of the week >_>

[waterballoon]

Whatever sales become, she's still my #1.

In any case, there are a lot of reasons to attribute her declining sales etc, and as SunshineSlayer has mentioned, sales for all artistes have indeed declined since like 2002/2003? I remember Ayu's H was like the only single that managed to sell more than a million copies in 2002.

So I mean I won't ever expect any of her singles or albums to sell like zomg1million!!!111 copies anymore... it's just really hard to do so in this era. As long as she can sell decent number of copies (going by current trend, I would say 500-700kish for albums, and at most 200k for singles), I would be happy.

Also, another thing to note is that, Ayu is doing MUCH better than most, if not all of her female avex/Japan singers. Right now, if you ask me, I think her only "threats" are Namie and Utada Hikaru.

Even singers whom I really like, like Kuu, Ai Otsuka, Yuna Ito etc... they have had their peaks, and then it just kind of fell apart... so for Ayu to still maintain #1 for her singles... sell 850k or so for A COMPLETE and all that... I think it's very good already.

[love in music]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

Whatever sales become, she's still my #1.

In any case, there are a lot of reasons to attribute her declining sales etc, and as SunshineSlayer has mentioned, sales for all artistes have indeed declined since like 2002/2003? I remember Ayu's H was like the only single that managed to sell more than a million copies in 2002.

So I mean I won't ever expect any of her singles or albums to sell like zomg1million!!!111 copies anymore... it's just really hard to do so in this era. As long as she can sell decent number of copies (going by current trend, I would say 500-700kish for albums, and at most 200k for singles), I would be happy.

Also, another thing to note is that, Ayu is doing MUCH better than most, if not all of her female avex/Japan singers. Right now, if you ask me, I think her only "threats" are Namie and Utada Hikaru.

Even singers whom I really like, like Kuu, Ai Otsuka, Yuna Ito etc... they have had their peaks, and then it just kind of fell apart... so for Ayu to still maintain #1 for her singles... sell 850k or so for A COMPLETE and all that... I think it's very good already.

i agree, very well said

[kirei_ayumi]

wow her sales have dropped almost half!
I hope it can increase again...

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

Whatever sales become, she's still my #1.

In any case, there are a lot of reasons to attribute her declining sales etc, and as SunshineSlayer has mentioned, sales for all artistes have indeed declined since like 2002/2003? I remember Ayu's H was like the only single that managed to sell more than a million copies in 2002.

So I mean I won't ever expect any of her singles or albums to sell like zomg1million!!!111 copies anymore... it's just really hard to do so in this era. As long as she can sell decent number of copies (going by current trend, I would say 500-700kish for albums, and at most 200k for singles), I would be happy.

Yeah, it would be nice if Ayu is able to at least hold these sales numbers for a while.

Originally Posted by waterballoon

Even singers whom I really like, like Kuu, Ai Otsuka, Yuna Ito etc... they have had their peaks, and then it just kind of fell apart... so for Ayu to still maintain #1 for her singles... sell 850k or so for A COMPLETE and all that... I think it's very good already.

Yeah. I think Kuu actually still has the potential to be a big seller again, but I think that "scandal" really did her a lot of harm. Her album sales for Trick fell so sharply from what she sold just a short time ago. (I think its only at 350,000 or something?) And Trick actually seems to have had a ton of promotion.

[a_kingdom21]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Several of your points have merit, but my main argument was simply that she is no longer the best selling female on the year end charts and hasn't been for a few years now. Also, in terms of 2nd best selling artist of the year, that is once again only for Avex I believe. And everyone's sales are down from 6 years ago - even the johnny's groups in general are. So, the difference is, is that a few years ago she was able to still hang in with the top sellers in the country (male or female). Nowadays though, despite the fact that every artists sales have gone down since then, she is now not able to keep pace with them in terms of the end of the year rankings as well as she used to in the past.

edit: I should add that Arashi is the only notable exception here that I can think of. Their sales are actually up from what they were a few years ago, despite the fact that this is their 10th year around.



Currently yes, but there were several other female artists that had number 1 streaks in the past as well but each time that they started to lose their number 1s, it pretty much spelled the end of their careers. Who knows how much modern times might have changed though.

btw, Ayu has a loooong way to go before she has any kind of record for number 1 albums. Matsutoya Yumi has 18 #1 albums, 17 of which were consecutive. And I don't even know if Yumi is the one that holds the record!

becuz this times is d golden era for arashi take a look at their sales b4 their golden era..
is kinda low..compare to d other artist at that time..
n for d 10 year they just got their peak lately that way eventough this is their 10th but their sales r huge..
as for ayu..
this is her 10th also..
but her golden era was gone few years ago..but she's still be able to maintain her sales to b the high margin..compare 2 other female artist..

as her streak may b not only ayu who has it but that would b nice if she's still maintain it..

also dunt forget about d best-seller all of time..
she's d 4th best seler in japan history all d time..
un-debatable..even hikki still be under her in d rank..
as for JE boyband may be need years to maintain sales like ayu did..

[RikkuChii]

I personally think that the single's not doing so bad, considering there's been like, no promotion for it.

..Well, no promotion as in she hasen't sung it anywhere, like Heyx3.

[Luv ~Venus~]

Why are some of you complaining about her sales of this single? =/ It should have been expected that it would drop as much which isn't really a bad drop at all. NEXT LEVEL is out next month. Some of her usual first-week buyers are prolly going to wait until the album is released to buy that instead of buying the single. The sales are doing good especially since it's released a month before the album is out. So let's not complain about something that shouldn't even have a complaint to being with ok.

[KarenPang]

people should be contented that Rule / Sparkle debuted at #1 on the 1st day & not care so much about the sales so extensively

I'm not saying that you shouldn't but considering that there's virtually no promo of the single on avex or ayumi's part , it's really good

imagine if R&S didn't debuted at #1 at all

[jbrat2219]

I'll just be glad when it gets #1 weekly, seriously the overall sales don't really matter as much since the album will be out soon. I don't think this reflexes on whether or not she's losing popularity at all, it reflexes on Japan being smart shoppers lol.

[asmAyumi1992]

WOW (O.O)

[aqua_crystal]

Oh wow. HORRIBLE 3rd day sales!! The overall is good though.