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![[Editorial] Purely For Profit: avex's Treatment Of Ayumi Hamasaki](http://www.jpopasia.com/i1/news/4/11541-5n1rulhvrf.jpg "[Editorial] Purely For Profit: avex's Treatment Of Ayumi Hamasaki")
Earlier this week, Ayumi Hamasaki revealed that she would have a new single out this summer titled "You & Me". However, the news didn't come in an announcement about a new single, but rather a summer compilation album titled "A SUMMER BEST".
The compilation album comes with 26 tracks and a very high 3,200 Yen ($39.85 USD) price tag. The 2CD+DVD version filled with bonus live footage and the new music video will cost you 4,200 Yen ($52.30 USD). Is the price worth it? With only 1 new song and PV, it doesn't really seem so. While similar artists releasing new singles this summer are selling their new material for around 1,100 Yen ($14.00 USD), you'd have to pay at least 3 times as much to get Ayu's new song.
It seems as though avex is doing all they can to milk money out of the fans of Ayumi Hamasaki. The hope is that the singer's large, loyal fan base will buy the compilation album to own the new song and some previously unreleased concert footage. However, instead of raking in money from fans, they have caused a negative response from people who don't want to go broke just to have Ayu's latest song. In fact, the high price encourages people to illegally obtain the song.
"I won't be buying the album myself since I have all the songs except 'You & Me'. I will have to illegally download that and it's PV when it's out since I really can't justify buying the album for the one song," one netizen stated.
It becomes increasingly difficult to justify buying this compilation album when you consider how often Ayumi Hamasaki comes out with these sort of albums. In the past 5 years alone, the singer has released 9 different compilation albums. Sure, many of those have been remix album, including last year's 4 different "ayu-mi-x 7" remix albums, but do we really need to go out and buy another album that we could easily burn at home? My answer is no.
Of course, an artist with as prolific a career as Ayu's will undoubtedly have best of and compilation albums; it would be a shame if she didn't. These lengthy albums filled with the singer's best will logically cost more than a regular album. But when you're forced to pay a premium price for music you already have just to have one new song, that is an abuse of an artist's fame.
avex, stop trying to make more money using shady methods. Instead, invest in creating music that consumers will want to buy because its so good they couldn't go without it. It's worked for Ayu in the past, and can work again if you let it.
All opinions stated in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of JpopAsia.
| 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 |
![Mid Season Anime Review [Part 2 of 3]](http://www.jpopasia.com/i1/news/4/14071-upverpelv0-t.jpg "Mid Season Anime Review [Part 2 of 3]")
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I totally agree with this.
Avex is doing the same mess on AAA. It's a shame that they treat their artists this way. I hope they understand the bad dids and correct the mistakes before people get upset.
why is avex putting so much pressure on ayu.....why would they think that fans will by this ablum. if this keeps going on avex is going to lose ayu and wat will happen! the queen will disapear. i am tired of seeing that videos have been removed and all that copywrite junk. wen will the real ayu come back avex is just messing her up
I love ayu, i listen to anything she puts out, even if it isn't at the quality it should be..Ayu has enough money to take sometime off, and just relax a bit...go through a self discovery, find inspiration to make a truly incredible album, or albums, i know she can do it. I think she need sto escape from the pressure of Avex and be the self reliente artists she was. Im sure avex is afraid that now that shes almost 15 years into her career that she'll become less relavent but, i think if Ayu can be herself, she can drop a truely wonderful album. The fans will jsut have to encourage her to slow down abit.
It's sad, I love Ayu but Avex just...they are unreasonable. I usually can't even buy Japan version albums because of the high prices of her albums and end up buying Korean or Overseas versions in order to actually own her albums.
There was a point in time where I couldn't buy Ayu's music even if I wanted to. I honestly don't like Avex because they are so uptight about copy rights.
Agree with you.
Avex is killing Ayu.
It really is true. I would not even pay that much money if it was SID and they are my favorite band. ;-l
I totally agree with this, I've been saying for a long time that by using them as cash cows releasing so much material every year whether it be a studio album, remix album or compilation album Avex are actually doing more harm than good to both Ayu and Kumi.
If you look at Ayu and Kumi's sales they have been declining for a while which in my opinion is down to people having less and less anticipation for new albums because they're released so often without fail. Look at artists like Utada or Namie who have at least a couple of years between albums usually and don't drop as many compilations or remix albums, their sales are still very good which should (but hasn't) give Avex a wake up call to stop milking Ayu and Kumi's fans and give them the time to create a great album instead of a rushed one and to give the fans a chance to miss them, Kumi will have released a studio album, a remix album and a compilation by the time it's taken her to give birth when that could have been time out for her and a chance for her fans to miss her had those albums not been released.
I definately agree with Kumi Koda. It seems that after her album "Trick", all her songs seemed to lose that magic she had. Now her songs are mindlessy fluffy or WAY too provocative ("Koso Koso", "V.I.P", "Lollipop" and anything from her "Dejavu" and "Japonesque" albums). I'm starting to wonder if avex is pushing her to change her direction a bit...
pleaasee make it a single, it's been 2 years
I agree that avex is milking money out of Ayu's fans. But for me, this release is okay as it includes some unreleased footage of a'nations live. Besides she have not released any compilation/best album for 4 years already since her last compilation album A COMPLETE in 2008.(She only released 5 best of, where is the 9?)Ultimately I'm sure the fans will twice before purchasing this album.
The only way I can truly see fans purchasing her other songs (besides "You and Me") is if iTunes here in America put this up. All of Ayu's music has been deleted for several months due to a disagreement with iTunes and avex trax and we've been left with music box renditions. If this was put up for sale in America, I guarantee you people would buy it (sure as heck I would).
I'm starting to question also, if avex had something to do with her last album "Party Queen". That was by far Ayu's weakest album to date and it just didn't seem "Ayu".
I agree, it seems impossible to buy her music in the US(unless you find an album in an anime store). And I didn't like a single song on Party Queen. It just wasn't good.
I actually thought "How Beautiful You Are", "Return Road", "Reminds Me" and "Tell Me Why" were good. Then again, the last three seem to be tied with her divorce with Manuel Schwartz and are really angsty.
hope her company gets just the single thing and don't make ayumi look so ambicious
Hello? That picture has been created by "artcika" on AHS forum. It'd be nice to credit her instead of ripping it from somewhere and smashing it here like it's your property.
We don't take credit for any photos posted on JpopAsia except the ones with the official JpopAsia watermark.
well...business is business...it's not just avex, other companies are also doing the same thing. Even though the companies should be blamed for their greed, as long as there are fans who are willing to spend that much money, recording companies would continue releasing different versions...
How is that expensive, if someone doesn't have those songs, then the 26 tracks can be considered as a bonus. Doesn't mean you can't afford it means it's too expensive.