Single [SINGLE] Takahashi Minami [Jane Doe] 13/04/03

^ She's presented like the heart of AKB48, she's always on the front of their activities. She's enjoying a good continuous push since 5-6 years ago. She had heavy promotion for this single.
So yes, these numbers are bad. And no need to put the Economy into this, compare to Yukirin 2 months ago with half the promotion.
Personally, I hope it's a Takamina problem and not an AKB48 problem.

And final number for this week is 85,493 (second place behind Exile)

She should get to 100K eventually, but probably not next week.

 

You mean like tiny somewhat boyish girl with low not exactly girlish voice does not conform with your average idol image? Especially when they try to market her as idol.

 

Regardless of whether she's akbs heart or captain - if people don't like her, or more likely, if they don't like her songs, it won't sell. My points are all valid - Yukirin's wotas could be richer or people just preferred her single (I prefer short cake to jane doe, but I choose to support Takamina because yukirin is "eh" to me). Theres are variety of reasons and until we see a second single, and judge by the numbers made in that different climate, we won't know which factor (or factors) are mostly to blame.

 

I personally think the 3factors contributing to the sale difference are:
1. Yukirins single and side tracks might be more appealing to the general public. After all, it is a love-related/sweet/ballad song. Besides, her side-tracks had variety of other types of songs which all seem appealing to girls of different ages. As for Takamina, maybe Im not really into J-pop but her single seem less mainstream compare to Yukirins.

2. Maye Yukirin had more Wotas, who are willing to purchase a single, to begin with. There might be a lot of people who are supporting Takamina (they arent necessarily Takaminas wotas) and actually do like her, but that doesnt mean they would purchase her single like Yukirins Wota would.

3. Maybe Wotas are simply saving up for election. To some degree, I dont think AKBs overall popularity now would affect the sale of the kami members because they already got enough media exposure. The general public should be somewhat familiar with them without necessary association with AKB.

 

^ I only agree with your 2nd reason. Music type is not the case here because both singles are not really appealing to general public (just like other AKB solo artists or recent singles of AKB48). The ones who buy the their singles are mostly wotas and they don't care much about music. Regarding elections, it's the same with everyone.

To me , the reasons are simply below:
1/ Yukirin's single had 7 version while Takamina had 4. Obviously a wota will normally buy all the available versions so that mean Yukirin has an advantage from the start.
2/ Yukirin had more wota and they are more enthusiastic and passionate than Takamina's wotas. This has been proved in AKB activities, esp. handshake events.
3/ If you compare this number to Tomochin's or Acchan's solo debut, it is because AKB48's popularity has decreased a lot since 2011.

 

If songs as indicator of people buying AKB related singles, then Sasshi and Mayu won't sell that high.
Promotions also played big role here. It's just bit odd with those all promotions (+the fact that she's the girl who always be the front girl in AKB), Takamina couldn't sell over 100k in a week.


And I agree that Yukirin's songs are more appealing than Takamina's to general public. Yukirin's music also is more mainstream and the lyrics are typical sweet love songs which girls would love it. I don't know but I think general public probably helped Yukirin's sales number though maybe only 10-15%.

 

Wtf, both takamina and Yukirin have extremely mainstream songs
Takamina's songs mirror the pop-rock by Ayumi Hamasaki (and heck, tons of anime singers sing in her style)
While Yukirin is more like an Ai Otsuka/Nishino Kana/insert ballad singer here

Both genres are extremely popular so I have no idea why mainstream is even a factor here

If you really wanted to know the reasons: it's economic climate, and the decrease in physical sales by non-music fans. (We need to be honest here, most people on average DO NOT follow music, this holds true in every country worldwide.).

Talking about Wotas is a complete non-factor because the whole music market targets a niche group of music fans to begin with. (aka, the ones who feel that they need a physical copy)

 

Economic climate? maybe. Wota is not one of the factors? Yeah, sure. Okay then.

hmm...I thought wota played big role in AKB sales. [wonder]

 

That wasn't the point and you're just cherry picking now....

Wotas don't matter for takamina vs yuki because they both have them. But they don't matter in the grand scheme of things because they're part of the niche of music fans that are even willing to buy CDs in this time.

 

That's right, first and foremost we have to keep in mind that Oricon numbers only reflect physical copies sold, not digital downloads/mp3 purchases. It's been said (dunno how true it is, but I can imagine) that the 48 groups are keeping the entire physical music industry in Japan from total collapse by the sheer number of CDs they sell - but those numbers, as we know well, are only because of the gimmicks included in 48 group CDs (handshake tickets, photos, etc). Normally artists can't hope for numbers close to what Takamina sold.

How well an artist from AKB sells is judged mainly by number of physical copies because that is the main platform we as 48 group fans expect sales to be made in for the 48 groups. But that is not really true for the music industry as a whole anymore - not in the West or the East. People mainly buy digitally now. I know that before I became an AKB fan I really didn't see a need to own physical copies of music I could just keep digitally, it only causes clutter and who even has a CD player anymore? Everyone listens to MP3s nowadays (I know you can listen in your computer, but on-the-go tends to be mp3 players or phones). Now I find myself buying physical copies as a way of support. But I think generally, physical or digital are both fine ways of supporting the artist... it's only in the idol industry that we really see the physical copy phenomenon.

I was still disappointed in Takamina's numbers - I was wishfully thinking that because she's so universally loved both by fans and in the entertainment industry itself, that maybe she would get a lot of support for her first single release. Unfortunately, I set my hopes probably way too high and ended up dissatisfied. I just can't help comparing to other soloists from the 48 groups. But realistically, I do recognize that a lot of the sales of her music might have been digital, especially if there are a lot of casual fans.

 

Digital is also a false hope because 80% of sales in japan are physical. While only 17% is digital as of 2012.

Here are the sales of 2010
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/gg4 ... 7cc7cd.jpg

Here is 2012
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/researc ... 2012-1.jpg

as you can see, digital is on a downward slope. As for the physical increase, i believe it is due to certain artists in the market. Most other artists decrease in sales every year.

This is more of a whole market collapse kind of thing that's not just limited to akb.

 

I just cannot see how digital downloads in any case would be FEWER than the consumption of physical copies. It's very easy to do a search, click a button and buy a song/album, but generally significantly more expensive, cluttering and time-consuming to get a physical CD. If Japan did not have physical CD gimmicks perpetuated by the idol industry and copied by other artists, I can't help but think that their digital numbers would be closer to the US's.

Then again things like AKB's CD sales could be skewing that data for sure. If you consider AKB is definitely selling the most CDs in the Japanese market the past few years, and most of those copies are repeat buys from certain people because of the extra contents of the CD, it's not impossible to think that casual listeners buying digitally do still make up a large amount of people, but overall the physical sales for things other than the music are larger because of the wotas buying mutliple physical copies.

Maybe I'm overestimating AKB's contribution to those overall sales but then again, maybe not >_>;

 

AKB does do a lot but it isn't AKB alone thats making mass sales. Other groups do gimmicks and some people just do like cds. Online sales - I find that to be a bit too small of a number, but I'm not going to do research myself so I'll take your source as fact.
But it isn't just sales. There are ways to rent cds in Japan (like you do with dvds) - people pay a fraction of the price, rip the cd, return it the next day. Or they buy 2nd hand. So people might not be willing to pay the price when they know if they wait, they can get it cheaper)
Additionally, she had a lot of promotion and is already plastered everywhere anyway (being the captain, etc etc). Maybe people just got sick of her? Or they're thinking, "well, its not like she's graduating tomorrow, we don't need to buy it now, we know she'll still be here for ages". Also, how theres the track about the 2nd single - I don't know, I guess some people could take it as "well she's going to keep producing whether the first sales are good or not so whatever" or maybe arrogance or something (I'm not explaining this well, but do you get what I mean?)

In any case, there are a variety of factors. Its impossible to compare to previous solos for economy reasons as well as others. We'll know if its a "people respect Takamina but don't like her voice" type thing if/when she releases the 2nd single and also know if its a real decline in AKB soloists (yes, we've seen he decline with other debuts and previous singles, but the last release were Kasai and Yukrin who both had scandals (Y was mini but hey) when Mocchi releases hers and when Tomochin releases her 4th.

 

I remember an article on TKH saying AKB make up 15% of the music market. It's big but not that much. I think Japan just aren't into digital downloads. Beside Recochoku, which is the big digital service, they don't ultilize digital download services in general, and Recochoku is only for phones

 

AKB only increased physical sales by like 8-9%, you are overestimating it by a long shot.
And no, their digital really is bad, the #1 song in 2012 only sold about 500,000-600,000. The most important money makers are albums.
And the chart i linked takes account of all digital downloads.

Everything other artists does is a marketing strategy... AKB simply has better marketing and the structure of the group allows that.
You can easily know why the sales are low. Again, the average general public is no music fan. They hardly have a reason to sink in so much money for 20 USD singles (1600 yen), 3.50 USD digital download per track(250 yen), and 45 USD albums(About 3300 yen average).

 

I don't know why most of you are questioning about the low sales of her debut single[think] [think] ??
In my point of view the sales of "Jane Doe" Takamina debut singles is quite "AWESOME"!!! [rock] [rock]
So if the sales below 100K copies you think thats is low sales?? Ithink you are Soo Wrooong if you think of that??
Coz i have a reason to explain this thing!!
If we saw the last year vote for Takamina the number of her vote is: 65480 vote..And the Jane Doe sales is more than 85000 copies sold!!!So whats wrong with it???I think mostly of Takamina wotas is already BUY her single and the sales of her debut singles is far more 20.000 copies than her sousenkyo votes!!So this is a MAGNIFICENT achievement for Takamina her self!!!!! [party] [party] ..
If most of you really really care of Takamina show it on the upcoming Sousenkyo vote her as much as you can thats more usefull for her than questioning about her low sale of her debut single so Takamina can be center for the 32 singles that help her Sooo Much!!!!!!GO ON Takamina [clap] [clap] [clap]!!!!!!!!!

 

^They're not saying its bad sales in general (well sort of) but more compared to other AKB soloists, which it is.

Uh, thats what I said?
I don't particularly care why sales are "low" - I'm giving my opinions. I think they're still relatively good considering circumstances. And of course they don't need to spend that much money - like I said, you can get them 2nd hand or rent them, which of course, don't get counted in sales.

 

Gimmick(as a word) has a negative reputation to it. I'm not really fond of the word tbh. Unless you're trying to say handshaking your idol and voting for them is bad.

 

Sorry my word choice annoyed you then. But gimmick, in my books, isn't necessarily negative so thats what I'll call it. And considering I buy these things to get hand shake tickets, votes, photo, whatever else they pile with cds and dvds, then obviously I'm not complaining. My point was that it wasn't AKB only who does this.

 

Regardless of Takamina's position in the group, and how well loved she is by everyone, I think people who pointed out that Mayu, Sasshi or Yukirin are more popular and have more fervent wotas (because of the type of idols they are which is more appealing for the "surrogate girlfriend" fantasy: loli, common girl, classic idol as opposed to Takamina, who isn't very idoly in looks or personality) are right in that her debut single wouldn't have sold as well as those who are more popular than her. Even a girl like Tomochin, who doesn't have as many crazy wotas, can sell better because she's a model and has lots of casual fans, but Takamina has most of her work linked to AKB and while we all probably love her, if she's not your oshi then you're probably not going to pick up all the versions regardless, so it's a disadvantage she has.

Nonetheless, I still think she did well. I think it might be because I follow more music acts other than AKB, and maybe AKB fans are used to seeing HUGE sales numbers, but for the rest of the musicians in Japan I'd say she did well, and even within AKB, I don't think it's like, a huge disappointment or anything. I just hope she keeps improving and manages to stand on her own feet in the industry one day, because she can't stay in AKB forever and I love that she wants to do music.

Akimoto and company probably had guessed that she wouldn't sell as much as the uber populars and that's why they waited so long to give her a solo, even though she's one of the very few AKB members who is interested in being a singer.