[Editorial] Purely For Profit: Avex's Treatment Of Ayumi Hamasaki

Aymui 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.