I checked the ORICON STYLE website at lunchtime to have a look to see the 1st day sales for SKE48′s new single Aishiteraburu! and was astounded by the very low sales they achieved. I did have to look twice if my eyes were deceiving me. They only sold 98,952 which is very odd as usually you expect something over 250k. Even Nogizaka 46′ last single did better on the first day! So what the hell has happened? Is the single not good enough or are fans saving up their money to buy multiple copies of AKB48′s single next week in order to cast many votes in the senbatsu election? It’s possible that the Theater Editions hasn’t been shipped out yet or that’s what many fans are saying but if sales don’t improve in the next couple of days this would be embarassing for SKE48 who have seen their sales steadily building up with their past couple of releases.
Another problem is the stupid amount of releases that are being churned out weekly by not only the main 000 groups but sub-units/solo artists as well. Management need to look at the dates with single releases and try and space them out better in the calendar year. It’s just been one release after another recently and this isn’t the first time for this to happen. Don’t they realise that the majority of fans aren’t rich and we can’t afford to buy every single that comes out especially with multiple versions. Money doesn’t hang off trees that we can just pluck off like leaves and happily trudge off to the shops to buy the CD’s. I have to choose carefully what I buy and the releases that I do miss out I usually buy when I visit Japan.
Anyway I did go off on a rant there but I really hope that SKE48′s sales will pick up before the weekend.
