Atomix said:
... her record label is milking on her sucess so hard ...
It's true that Avex have been overdoing it with Kumi of late and that is probably the reason for the relatively 'quiet' sales we are seeing for the current single and album. But Avex produces a huge amount of good music. The revenue stream Ayu and Kuu generate isn't being used to line shareholders pockets, it's keeping a lot of other music careers afloat. Max Matsuura has managed to bring dedication to musical excellence nicely into balance with the ugly necessity of making a profit and I suggest Avex Trax is a model for other independent record companies to emulate.
By no means all the artists signed to Avex are 'big sellers'. Hitomi Shimatani is one of my favourites. The 2005 "Heart & Symphony" album sold about 50,000 copies and "Prima Rosa", on current showing, is going to do about 10k less. Beni Arashiro's "How are U" single missed the Top 200 completely. A 'big four' record lable would have dropped her immediately but that's not the way Avex works - Beni has a new albume coming out at the end of April. I like Koda Kumi and even though I can't quite say the same for Ayu, I'll carry on cheering the pair of them from the sidelines because their sales keeps a whole raft of my favourite artists in business.
As for Hikki taking her time - yes, that's true. But now her divorce is finalised maybe she will have fewer 'distractions' than before and we will get more music? I hope so.
