Nov 27 2007
Looking at the Pro’s and Con’s
-Not only is it the lowest first week sales, but it’s a very big drop
-Ambitious was a worse song than Mikan (most would agree) and even it sold better, indicating an overall drop in popularity that can’t be entirely attributed to the song itself
-Buono outsold this in their first week, and Cute’s latest single is likely to outsell it overall
-While recent first week sales have fluctuated, and some have been pretty good, 2nd week+ sales have been steadily declining(true only for the last few singles), so this song isn’t likey to sell much from here on out either
-People are just tired of Morning Musume, and no matter how good the song or new the members, their steady decline is inevitable
-MM is the flagship group of h!p, but maybe not for long. If they are getting surpassed by the kids groups, they might pushed back to promote Cute, Berryz, and their subgroups, fading into h!p obscurity like the less popular of the graduated members
-The song just needs more hooks. It’s not a bad song, but it’s not catchy enough to stick in the heads of the mainstream audience and make them remember it and buy it. These sales have more to do with that flaw than with MM’s popularity
-With visiting China and Korea, the ongoing concert tour, and promoting the All Singles album, there just hasn’t been much promotion for this single, comparitivey. The amount of promotion can make a huge difference.
-There was no handshake event for this, so less incentive for fans to buy multiple copies
-It’s all relative. We were thrilled when Cute’s first week got about this much, so it’s kind of strange to be horrified when MM does
-There’s still hope for good 2nd week sales. While this song started out low in the chart, it really didn’t fall that far during the week. Kanashimi Twilight, for example, fell 15 places over the course of its first week. Mikan only fell 5.
There you have it. I’m not entirely sure what to expect from here on out. All I know is that Morning Musume’s next single better damn well be a good, popular one, so we can just all consider this a fluke and move on.