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![[Editorial] Is avex Afraid Of Letting Ayumi Hamasaki Release Singles?](http://www.jpopasia.com/i1/news/4/12288-vx11wx1xiy.jpg "[Editorial] Is avex Afraid Of Letting Ayumi Hamasaki Release Singles?")
Ayumi Hamasaki is one of the most prolific artists in Japan of all time. After debuting in 1998 with "Poker Face", Ayu quickly became a powerhouse in sales, topping charts, breaking records and slaying the competition. Times have changed though, and Ayu no longer sells the way she used to. With the lack of singles she has released in recent years, avex seems to be afraid of letting the singer lose her records, preferring to preserve her pristine record on paper rather than facing declining sales head on.
During the start of Ayu's career, there was always a constant flow of new music from the singer. In 1999 and 2000, Ayu released 7 singles per year; however, the last time Ayu has released a single was 2 years ago on September 29th with "L". During this span, Ayu has released 2 albums, a compilation album, a mini album and even plans on releasing a new mini album on November 8th.
Ayu currently holds the record for most consecutive #1 hit singles (25 in a row). A new Ayu single means risking breaking the streak, something that avex seems determined to prevent by breaking tradition and releasing albums with no prior single releases or sticking new songs as part of a larger package like they did with "You & Me". It's as though avex doesn't believe Ayu can bring in sufficient sales with her singles to be the chart topping queen her image is modeled to be.
"LOVE", the title of her new mini album, has 12 tracks, but only 3 of them are new. Ayu used to have more new songs and total tracks packed into 1 single than what is being marketed as a mini album today (remember the quadruple A-side "A"?). After announcing her new mini album yesterday, some were left wondering why such a release was being called a mini album. The answer is simple: avex's obsession with maintaining Ayu's records.
Ayumi Hamasaki has had an album top the Oricon charts every year for the past 13 years; however, both album releases this year ("Party Queen" on March 21st and "A Summer Best" on August 8th) peaked at #2. In order for Ayu to continue building upon her record, a new album release had to be put together before the end of the year. And so "LOVE" became a mini album rather than a return to the hit-single producing machine Ayu was formerly known as.
Maintaining long standing records in and of itself isn't a bad thing. As an Ayu fan for years and years, it would be sad to see her unable to build upon her records, further cementing her place as the queen of J-pop. But what's sadder than seeing Ayu's sales streaks come to an end is to see her company lose faith in their most prolific artist.
In the upcoming months, Ayu has committed herself to releasing 5 new releases over a 5 month period. It is time for Ayu to go back to her roots and deliver stunning pop singles to listeners once again. Fans will support her efforts. Its time for avex to do the same and let her be the artist we all know she can be.
| Real name | Ayumi Hamasaki |
| Gender | female |
| Birthday | 2 October, 1978 |
| Debut | 8 April, 1998 (active) |
| Main occupation | singer (active) |
| Official website | http://www.avexnet.or.jp... |
| Official Twitter | ayu_19980408 |
| Official Facebook | http://www.facebook.com/... |
| Official topic | |
| Bookmark | Create account or login |
![[Editorial] Why alan's Bold Decision To Compete On "The X-Factor" Saved Her Career](http://www.jpopasia.com/i1/news/4/14051-s8l1ksd9ks-t.jpg "[Editorial] Why alan's Bold Decision To Compete On \"The X-Factor\" Saved Her Career")
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Oh god, why does Avex completely lose trust in her? like waaaat. I will still buy her albums, because her lyrics are good and everything about her songs are great Oo,
Let her release how and what she wants god damn it! >_<
kpop took overXD
Stupid for the company to not trust Ayu completely. I mean to have top one for 25 consecutive times is actually ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to achieve.
They are extremely focused on their young group Tokyo Girls' Style and very focused on popular artist EXILE... Give them time to get these tours and recordings unway before we all assumed their Ayu-phobic!
shes good but times change and people sometimes lose interest
shes so great, though............
Times change quickly and so do preferences. Not that I'm saying that no one likes her anymore (cuz I still dooo~). She's still the same Ayumi from years back and all we'll still support her.
what? i bet she can still sell lots
I love Ayu but the industry is changing by the times. These days it's about the 48 family, Johnny's and the other idols groups. So Avex doesn't want her to risk her Single record because it would probably flop and not even reach number one. So i guess doing EPs, remix albums and mini albums are the future for Ayu.
ayu is moving up with time. if she remains in the 1990s, people would call her boring. Yet whenever she experiments something different from the usual, people complain. lol. you guys are hard to satisfy, aren't you?
anyway i don't think ayu cares so much about what rank she is on the charts (it's usually company business). what matters most to her is that her fans love and understand the music she released.... and not something like, sending her rude tweets on twitter (some fan you are huh).
the music industry is changing so much, it can be difficult for artists to keep up sometimes. I wish her luck, i'm sure she'll sell lots of singles again since she's already so famous
Her decline in sales, particularly in the singles, has more to do with people stealing the tracks digitally than it does anything else. Also, Ayu has stopped caring about her ranking as much as she did in the past. Instead she is focusing on releasing music that means something TO HER rather than focusing on what the company wants. As for the "mini album" LOVE, You And Me is actually being considered a song on there. It's just that the remixes have become more popular than the original mix so that's why you have them and not the original song. It really is meant to be a four track mini album. As for singles, there is no reason yet for us to believe that one ( or all) of these releases will not be physical copies. It would make sense that a physical copy is released as the last single on her 15th Anniversary.
Well here is a alternative thought, has it ever crossed your mind that the reason for her declining sales is because her "Party Queen" album isn't as great as you thought it was?
Did you even listen to song "NaNaNa"?. That track is absolutely horrid. You can clearly tell she has this obsession with staying relevant in this entire album and her music suffered because of that.
"Horrid"? As compared to what music? Sorry I live in the U.S.A. where we get "horrid" music like NaNaNa all the time. In fact Party Queen didn't sound too different from listening to Rihanna or some other foreign artist. And yet the Japanese buy products from our artists all the time. No, trust me, what you find as "horrid" music doesn't necessarily mean the album won't sell. What sells a good pop album are promotion, looks, and catchy lyrics and hooks. That may not mean the album is the best in the world but that's what is making them sell now days. Look at SNSD for example. They aren't the best singers and their music has no real moral or lyrical value and yet they sell HUGE both in and out of Asia. Ayu released no singles, had little promotion, accepted a weird British man as a part of her crew, had a terrible image for the jacket covers, and divorced in a VERY strange matter. Those are just a few of the reasons why Party Queen didn't sell.
This isn't about declining sales, it's about a consecutive #1 streak. #1 is a -relative- ranking. If #2 sells 500 copies one week, then you can get #1 if you sell 501. If people are stealing her music digitally, then they're stealing her competition's as well... AKB releases their stuff on the internet, officially, one single (that is, 2-3 months) after release... and they still sell 1M+ at the absurd 1600 yen price. "But they..." well that's the competition, and consecutive #1 is just about the competition.
Ayu told in an interview, that she don't care about th ranking, just want to celebrate the anniversary. If she release 5 singles, then in the next album will be 15 song, what was already released? This way she can do next time a new album with a coheresive theme.
But maybe it's true, that avex don't want to risk the record.
The detroned queen will flop hard if she releases a physical single and Avex knows that. Test the waters and see how well the mini album can sell, Party Queen was a total flop by her standards... No promotion, no singles, just a random album that came out of her legs.
We'll see, i hope she sells well, i mean... not a fan, not even like her, but she deserves respect.
The company is sabotaging her here though. Avex did not want to participate on the albums Five and Party Queen. They did not help out as much with promotion and other things. Both Five and Party Queen were mostly Ayu making the albums by herself. Ayumi has actually said this. There was an article in Japan about how Avex CEOS have been sabotaging Ayumi Hamasaki, which has lead to her recent decline in album sales starting with the single of SUNRISE/SUNSET-Love Is All. It was said that some Avex members think she has gained too much power withing the company and have been conspiring to get her kicked off the label. Then on top of that you have the incidents where Ayu has missed a TV show and at A Nation a year ago when she refused to perform a certain way. This pissed the company off and they have not been participating as much in her albums as retaliation. The release of Five was a surprise to some fans as they thought the company would force Ayumi to take a musical break. This in the end has lead to Ayumi doing much of the work on Five and Party Queen leading to not nearly as much promotion and hurting her album sales.
Well i hope she sells well... You can't never win the battle against a records label, they will destroy the artist if they can, that's how the show biz works, Crystal Kay had luck because Sony never gave a damn about her and she's much better with Deli, they haven't gave up on her. Cheers to them...
@WingedSphinx01: That definately explains a lot as to why Party Queen didn't fare too well. I loved Five, but Party Queen only had about four songs I liked (which is really bad because I've downloaded nearly all the songs on a few of her past works). With all the nonsense going on at avex, I wouldn't be surprised if Ayu transfers to a new record company.