Koda Kumi - Alive / Physical Thing

[crazycool]

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/553/214961.jpghttp://img34.imageshack.us/img34/886/214962.jpg

Koda Kumi's new single, following 3 SPLASH.

Release date: 16th September

Cannot wait for full HQ versions of both songs.

I assume there will be another single before we get a new album in 2010?! I hope so anyway. I love Kuu :P

[Neil]

She's very hit and miss with me.
Haven't enjoyed one of her singles since TABOO, but damn I love that track.
Also didn't like TRICK :/
But Black Cherry & Kingdom are ace!

[britneyfan09]

I love her so much in my eyes she's the J-Pop version of Britney. :)

[AyuM]

I hope she debuts at #1. ;)

[crazycool]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9-fwJ-APRQ

^ Preview of the "Alive" PV.

[AyuM]

The MV is just amazing and of very good quality. Koda's voice is so strong in this single... and the song has a gorgeous sound. Generally, a very beautiful ballad.

BTW have you noticed that all the Jpop MV's tend to be of way better quality and of a way higher budget than the US ones, whose quality has declined dramatically since the 90's when they were ultra expensive and had that "epic" and "classic" thing in them? ;)

[crazycool]

Yeah, I've noticed that too ^
It's strange, J-Pop videos have massive budgets.

I mean Koda's 3 SPLASH single had 3 videos filmed for each song, and the videos weren't cheap at all.

I find the Japanese music industry so much more exciting than anything else. Music is being constantly released, and at such a high standard and quality.

[AyuM]

Yeah, that is so true. Artists in Japan seem to be so eager to release new material and to keep their fans satisfied all the time!

On the other hand US/European artists seem to be a little bit -well- bored as they do not release new albums/singles so constantly. if they did so, then record sales would be 2-3 times higher worldwide during the 80s-90s. ;)

[crazycool]

The full single leaked, and I think it's out tomorrow.

I wonder how it will fair on the charts.

[Neil]

^ It was released today, bbs. So tomorrow morning we will know how much it sold on its first day :)

[Neil]

16,246 sold on the first day at #1. 6K in front of #2.

[AyuM]

Yes! :D Another #1 hit for Koda!! :cheer: :cheer: :mrgreen:

[Neil]

Meh, sales aren't really very good though.

3 SPLASH
x->2->2->2->1 >1->1 - Koda Kumi - 25,478 + 13,194 + 7,478 + 5,649 + 5,458 + 4,354 = 61,629

It's All Love!
1->1->2->1->1->1->2 - Koda Kumi x misono - 38,587 + 12,592 + 7,172 + 3,967 + 3,486 + 3,950 + 3,918 = 73,672

She's losing about 10k on every first day of sales. :?

[AyuM]

That's rather common in the Japanese industry though. Sales tend to explode and then fade extremely quickly. But physical single sales have decreased very much indeed. :( Digital singles sell million and million of copies... ;)

[Neil]

^ That's not the decline of the Japanese market, that's the decline of Koda Kumi.
Japanese people prefer to download ringtones to full songs anyway.
I do think ORICON should sort themselves out and start combining downloads with physicals though.

[AyuM]

Yeah, why don't they do that??! :?

Do they even have a digital or multi-format chart? :? Singles would start debuting with 1,000,000+ copies again if they included digital sales... :(

[crazycool]

I'm pleased she might be going to #1 but dissapointed with the low sales. :?

[Neil]

Do they even have a digital or multi-format chart? :?

ORICON don't. They have chaku-uta but that just confuses the hell out of me :rofl:
You don't get sales, just certifications (like Gold, Platinum etc...) but they are split up into various categories. Mostly, the 'sales' come from ringtones. Even Billboard has a ringtones chart, but they don't contribute towards the Hot 100... But in Japan, most of these million + sales you see actually come from download of ringtones, and not the full songs.

[Neil]

x->1->1 - Koda Kumi - 16,246 + 6,592 = 22,838

:/

[AyuM]

Mediocre. Very disappointing but still #1. :mrgreen:

[Neil]

x->1->1->1 - Koda Kumi - 16,246 + 6,592 + 3,425 = 26,263

We're looking at a 40k first week here :hide:
Her last 'bad' selling single was 'anytime'; which sold 43k in the first week, but it was released just one week before her album so those sales were expected. Prior to that it would be one of the 50k limited edition singles she released, when she released 1 single each week, for 12 weeks.
Though she is doing some performances tonight on TV so her sales on the weekend could increase.

[crazycool]

Sad that her sales are so low actually.

[AyuM]

OMG, bad sales...

But she'll be #1 so who cares really? The single will go way better digitally, Koda has got twelve 1-million+++ selling digital singles (one 3,1 million selling one and one 2,5 million selling one). :D

[Neil]

x->1->1->1->1 - Koda Kumi - 16,246 + 6,592 + 3,425 + 2,186 = 28,449

:crazy:

[AyuM]

Oh, no! :?

It will free - fall next week! :cry:

[Neil]

An absolutely awful week for single sales all round this week.
This will be one of the lowest selling #1 singles of all time!
I know that 'Feel' made the top 10 lowest selling #1 singles, and that was with 39,110...

[AyuM]

OMG, bad news Neil...

Will the single sell 30K during it's debut week at #1. I really don't know anymore... :? :cry:

[Neil]

Anything could happen :D
Tomorrow, we get the rough sales for Today, which is the day after she's done promo, so hopefully that will have a positive boost on sales. I wouldn't expect them to drop, but I wouldn't expect them to rise a lot either.

And of course, these sales aren't definitive... Like, Kingdom sold 421k in the first week (crazy when you think Trick hasn't sold that much in it's lifetime), but the day-to-day sales suggested it would sell 432k that week. They can go up, or down, or stay roughly the same. We won't know for sure until late on Monday :/

Like I said before, I really don't like this single, but I hate to see her having bad sales. But still, it's a #1 :teehee:

[AyuM]

Yeah, anything could happen...


Is it selling well digitally though? ;) But on the other hand, it might have not been released digitally yet! :)

[Neil]

Is it selling well digitally though? ;)

No :rofl:
#1 and #2 on the video clip charts though!

Alive is #27 on the 'overall' chart, and Physical thing is #53...
This is that Chaku-Uta thing I told you about, btw. It's a downloading service for mobiles, the #1 in Japan. Japan is the only country that iTunes isn't #1 for downloading. Neither songs are top 10 iTunes either :hide:

http://recochoku.jp/recochoku_ranking/index.html

Might be interesting for you to have a look :D

[AyuM]

^
^

Hmmm... interesting chart! I'll be checking it out from now on, thx Neil! ;)

[Neil]

x->1->1->1 >1 >2- Koda Kumi - 16,246 + 6,592 + 3,425 + 2,186 + 1,994 = 30,443

:doh:

[AyuM]

At least it surpassed the 30,000 mark. Still tremendously low sales for a #1 single though. :cry:

[Neil]

x->1->1->1->1->2->3 - Koda Kumi - 16,246 + 6,592 + 3,425 + 2,186 + 1,994 + 1,642 = 32,085

[AyuM]

2,3... She left the top spot so early? She'll be out of the top 7 next week... (#8-#11) :?


**Praying for a miracle to happen**

[Neil]

32,468 in the first week.

Kuu's lowest first week sales since Hot Stuff (which was a limited 30k single released after the album) in April 2005!

She was still 9k above 2. Absolutely atrocious sales all around!

[AyuM]

Absolutely atrocious sales all around!

Exactly. Phenomenally low debut week sales for her. At least it's another #1 single for Ku... :? ;)

[crazycool]

A good result that Kuu is #1.

Just sad that allll sales are so low :evil:

[crazycool]

Any news of the 2nd week sales?

[Neil]

#14 6,448

= 38,916

[AyuM]

#14 and less than 40K?? Very disappointing indeed... oh well, at least it hit #1! :mrgreen: