Ayu's Wealth Extremes

[jang-kun]

What do you think about Ayu's standing on the economic point-of-view? After all those years of ultra success, how vast do you think is Ayu's wealth?

I remember her credit card for having "no limit" and her house "having so much rooms" she can't even explore them at all lol

Edit: and don't get me started with that New York Daily news blah. doesn't seem legit for me. i think her account's waaay "fatter" than that.

[TeamAyu2004]

well her estimated wealth is about 400 million.

[microphone]

She doesn't see anywhere near $400,000,000 USD, I can promise you that, but you can safely assume that she is incredibly wealthy. I mean, several houses, several cars, dedicated personal assistants and all the personal things she could ever desire.

[isthisLOL?]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

well her estimated wealth is about 400 million.

That's an old rumour from a faked Forbes article.

[TeamAyu2004]

@microphone, wealth is different from having money.

the problem is that the Japanese society doesn't reveal the money they make in a year much like in western countries. What they do release is the top 10 payers in tax and you can kinda of guess how much a person makes from how much tax they paid, but everything is very unofficial.

[Leaf King]

^I rather like that they do not. Why do we need to know how much money these people make? It's good enough to assume that they're not having financial problems.

[saigodansu]

50 million CDs sold, most artists get around $1 sometimes more for each sold in US dollars. Considering Avex prices I'd say she likely get $2-$3 for each sale. Then there is all of the additional products they release, her spokesperson jobs for Rimmel, Lands of Eden, Morinaga and many others. Then add the concert tours for atleast 13 of 15 years that everyone says woud earn more than her Cds. All together $400 million in US dollars would be on the low end of her possible earnings.

As far as the multiple homes and multiple cars things go or the huge house. The cars she's been shown to drive herself show her in standard coupe models and only owning 1 at a time. She said since laws changed she's quit driving. PQ interviews talk about a huge house with rooms she's never seen, I've never heard of anyone buying a home without checking every room to know what theyre getting. Pictures from her house interior and exterior show a much more modest size. The interviews for PQ also describe this huge elaborate multimillion dollar car for her drivers to take her places, but she still shows up everywhere in the same style SUV she's used for atleast 3 years.

If you want a better idea of how she lives, closely watch the tweets & TA entries where she shows places she goes and around her home. You're much better off ignoring what is told to the press, because with each album's new image the details about her life are usually changed to help sell the current image and all the products that go with that image.

[TeamAyu2004]

she most likely gets more per CD just because of who she is and owns stock in the company and also being able to control who the president is... lol

But, most artist do not make their money on the album, but the contract that they sign with the company. Avex makes their money back from paying her in the contract through album sales and what not. She gets a small percentage that was agreed upon at the time of signing.

Ayumi makes the bulk of her money through endorsements and concerts. Id on't know about the house or the car thing, but I have never seen her once get of a driving car before, not to say that she hasnt but most of them time if its for the press its going to be a company car. But it is interesting to hear about the laws changing and her not wanting to drive anymore... lol I wonder if that has to do with strict laws or shes a bad driver.

[saigodansu]

ExodusUK in another thread had the estimated total and taxes paid by Ayumi from one of her peak years and so I stand corrected by a whole lot. If she matched the income of her peak years through all 15 years it would bring her to $120 Million US Dollars, only about 1/4 what I would have guessed based on american artists. And since the taxes listed show she pays about 40% of her income in taxes, that leaves her with only $72 Million US dollars over the last 15 years.

Very bad contract for her and Avex is really taking advantage of her at that amount.

[ExodusUK]

It's likely her original contract ended along time ago, it's unlikely Avex would have signed some unknown singer with no real prospects for anything longer than 5 years. I imagine she has a much better deal/agreement now with Avex. She's made it clear in the past she's considered leaving Avex before and nearly did so during the Tom Yoda drama so it's not like she's afraid to do it if she's really unhappy with it.

To be fair Avex does seem to give Ayu a bottomless budget for PVs and touring. I'm curious as to who pays for Ayu and her 20+ team monthly stays in 5 star hotels in expensive cities like LA, New York and London. Ayu or Avex..

Her income is actually probably more than what it was considering now she tours a lot more than she used to back then and her ticket prices have risen over the rate of inflation.

[saigodansu]

I hope you're right. Those kinds of numbers sure don't appear to be in her favor.

[TeamAyu2004]

If its for work then Avex fronts the bill...

but you guys are still confusing wealth and income.
the tax she paid was for INCOME, that doesn't include everything she owns (which is her wealth).

Also, I can assume much like Exodus that she has a much better contract... but also at the peak of her career she was like, what, 20, 21... avex owned her at that time and so the bulk of what she made went to avex, that's what A best and My story were all about... she started to break away from them with A Best and told the story in My story.

Also during those times where she would make much of her money, she didn't have such huge amounts of tours... She probably didn't tour to as many people as she does now (to my understand, she has been adding more and more dates since 2006... correct me if im wrong), which adds more to her income and wealth.

And who knows how avex controlled her earnings through endorsements and what not when she first started... it's sad really to think how much money she lsot out on just because she didn't understand what was going on...

[saigodansu]

If at $8 Million she was #1 among singers, then I doubt there has been much of a change, probably a small % up each time she renews the contract. More concerts might be adding another 1-2 million a year but she's also got way lower sales since they added more concerts. Fortunately with the changing exchange rate, every million she made before would be about 1.3 to 1.4 million now. The highest she made though, I'd guess is still barely over $100 Million US and I doubt it's that high after seeing amounts from her peak years.

As far as wealth in what she owns, probably her home in Tokyo, 1 car that she owns. Usually rides in a manager's car or a rental. Some stocks, probably more than just in Avex. More clothes than most people. Lots of jewelry and whatever money is left in the bank which is probably directly connected to her unlimited credit card. She calls the hotels she stays at home away from home, so I doubt she owns any other homes. She also bought an expensive burial plot in Tokyo that cost roughy $1 milllion US that is for her grandmother, mother and herself.

[ExodusUK]

She owns another house near a beach IIRC, she talked about it on Hey!Hey!Hey! when was promoting Fairyland.

She probably also owns HANABI too.

[saigodansu]

I think she bought Hanabi for her mom, so it's probably in her mom's name now. As far the beach house goes, I think either she was referring to Rainbow House, her home in Tokyo is close to the beach or it's fabricated since it was being told to the public, just like the multi room mansion she talked about for PQ that when she shares pics from her home, they don't add up. Part of it is simply publicity for Ayumi Hamasaki the product, it gets people talking. In all the pics from her actual home, I've seen inside the door, the downstairs patio, the upstairs patio with her garden. A seperate patio upstairs covered with outdoor furniture, part of the living room, part of an indoor staircase and the piece of the backyard with a hot tub.

If there is actually a seperate beach house she owns, it could be where she stays while in Hawaii since I've seen pics that don't match any advertised hotel.

[relmy]

About who pays for her entourage etc... wasn't there a comment during her stay for Love Songs along the lines of "Avex would only do this for Ayu" and that she'd pretty much overstayed what they'd budgeted or something? The tone was definitely that Avex were not happy with her living in a luxury hotel for a few months.

[ExodusUK]

Originally Posted by saigodansu

I think she bought Hanabi for her mom, so it's probably in her mom's name now. As far the beach house goes, I think either she was referring to Rainbow House, her home in Tokyo is close to the beach or it's fabricated since it was being told to the public, just like the multi room mansion she talked about for PQ that when she shares pics from her home, they don't add up. Part of it is simply publicity for Ayumi Hamasaki the product, it gets people talking. In all the pics from her actual home, I've seen inside the door, the downstairs patio, the upstairs patio with her garden. A seperate patio upstairs covered with outdoor furniture, part of the living room, part of an indoor staircase and the piece of the backyard with a hot tub.

If there is actually a seperate beach house she owns, it could be where she stays while in Hawaii since I've seen pics that don't match any advertised hotel.

It's in Japan. It's not a beach house, it's just near a beach and it's not the Rainbow thing. It's an actual home. I think the subbed video of her talking about it is on youtube.

[saigodansu]

Then it's probably her home she always shows bits of in pics then. If it's near the area around Odaiba or Tokyo Disney Sea Resort there's alot of beach around there.

[TeamAyu2004]

I thought she lived in the Minato area...
her and timmy were twitting about that area.

she could have more then one condo in tokyo as well.

[ExodusUK]

Yeah she lives in Minato, in the NHK 99 documentary they show her home and the view of the harbour and Rainbow Bridge from her window.