Sorry for the commotion...
I am referring to the following posts: [1] and [2]
I am the author of the original message, and I didn't mean to imply that the upcoming single was going to be their last one or that the date they're going to disband is set. I was a bit panicky when I posted it, but I didn't expect that people will come to the conclusion that w-inds. are going to disband after this single. I apologize. Clearer info backed with sources under the cut...
Also, I didn't explain clearly that contracts can be renewed. Anyway, one simple way to see when w-inds. contract is good until is by looking at until when w-inds.tv is registered. Last time I checked (and I don't check very often), w-inds.tv expires in early 2010, which most likely means their contract expires earlier. I noticed w-inds.tv's exp. date going up to 2006 after renewed their contract before, so 2009 is an estimate for the next renewal.
Also, if you check w-inds. CD's sell-by dates, they're only 6 months after the release dates. I'm not sure if all J-pop artists' releases are like that nowadays, but w-inds. sell-by dates for their earliest singles used to be a year after the release date. The short sell-by dates worry me a bit because it would make sense that their CDs can't be sold after their contract ends.
And here's the revised, hopefully easier to understand, and backed up with sources version of the original message. Please still support w-inds. even if this isn't going to be their last release like you thought it would be:
So why is this a mini-project you ask?
Hopefully this is a reminder for all of w-inds. fans here in North America to support them, and one of the ways we can support them from all the way over here is buying their new single. Also, if we buy their CD from an established store in Japan, your purchase will count towards w-inds. sales on the Oricon Charts, which is one of the main standards used to gauge how well an artist is doing.
If you have the resources to, please buy a copy of this single prior to its release date from a store that is located in Japan, such as www.cdjapan.co.jp. With SAL shipping included, this single cost 2000yen (~$18 USD) from CD Japan.
Here is a list of prices if you purchase this single elsewhere (and these purchases don't count towards Oricon rankings):
Kinokuniya (in California): $19.50 + $1.66(tax) = $21.16
YesAsia: $16.25 + $2.99(shipping) = $19.24
Although I eventually end up buying every single CD released by w-inds., I often procrastinate on buying their releases, so I assume that there are others of you out there like me. Therefore, if you're going to buy it anyway, pre-order it before its release date, so you can help out with their first day Oricon rankings.
Why is the first day rankings so important?
CD stores use the Oricon rankings to rank and provide samples of that week's release. The HMV in Shibuya had the top 6 singles of that week for sample. Smaller CD stores might provide less samples. If w-inds. can get into the top 4 or so on the first day of the new release, their new single will be displayed and available for sample throughout Japan. That is a huge amount of free promotion right there. Since it's a really good song, people who aren't w-inds. fans might buy it just for the song after sampling it.
Why should you buy this single?
Just listen to it. It's a really catchy song, and it has been a long while since w-inds. released a song that was a hit. The Shrek 3 promotion was huge, but still w-inds. popularity continue to decline, as shown by the trends at the shops in Harajuku: w-inds. had multiple wall panels of photos 2 summers ago, they had exactly 1 last summer, and this summer, they have a part of a wall panel. Sadly, I went to the same shop twice this summer, and I saw the w-inds. photos decrease significantly in only 2 weeks, replaced by other artists' photos (this was while their tour was going on this summer, too!).
This upcoming single is the first time that w-inds. has scored a promotion with a TV drama series. As shown by the successes of other artists (First Love / Utada Hikaru, etc.) who received their big breaks through drama theme songs. This could be w-inds. big chance for a hit that rivals Shiki.
However, if this promotion flops, w-inds. won't be getting such a big deal again. Their management company is really poor (money-wise)[1], so w-inds. won't be getting much paid promotion. No promotion for w-inds. while other artists are getting heavily promoted will prevent w-inds. from gaining new fans while current fans might switch over to other artists since the Japanese love to follow the newest and hippest trends.[2] w-inds. will be yesterday's news.
Sources:
[1] w-inds. and Lead have the same management companies. When Lead first debuted, they couldn't afford to buy rice, so someone had to donate a bag of rice for them. Last year, Akira has very bad allergies; he could only afford to use toilet paper and not even facial tissues. Lead's latest single, which received zero promotion, sounds really good (look up "Umi" on Youtube) but sold less copies than their debut single, when most people didn't know who they were yet. I got all of the above information from a very trustworthy source, and you can verify it yourself through rankings and interviews.
[2] I worked on a few marketing projects during my internship in japan two summers ago, and my supervisor told me that "Japanese people like new things" was the main market trend.
What are the stakes?
Ever since Johnny's Entertainment debuted groups like NEWS and Kat-tun, w-inds. popularity in Japan has been steadily declining. Many former w-inds. fans, looking for something newer and more popular, switched over to JE's groups. Also, at the same time, JE has been blocking w-inds. from appearing on many TV shows and magazines for many years. However, JE has been especially aggressive recently, and that explains why w-inds. are giving less and less live performances of their new singles during times when the sales actually make a dent on the Oricon Charts (compare the number of live performances for It's in the Stars to Hanamuke).
After w-inds. announced the date for their new single, JE announced that NEWS will make their comeback on the exact same date. NEWS will be releasing their new single AND new album on the same date as w-inds.
If you are a NEWS fan as well, by all means you should support them by buying their comeback CDs, but at the same time, please also buy w-inds. new single if you have money left over.
So please head over to CD Japan and pre-order w-inds. new single, so it is counted towards the first day's sales! First press comes with a DVD, and Normal Press first edition comes with a calendar card:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/
[EDIT]
Just a note: It would be appreciated if people would stop saying things like "I'll kill whoever gets in w-inds. way!" Business is what it is...you want to make as much money as you can, and that's what JE's doing; their tactics might be unethical, but it would be stupid of them to give away market share to w-inds. or any other artist. Also, please don't hate on the JE groups for any of this (I think they have enough anti-fans of their own to worry about). In the music industry, when the management company tells you to jump, you don't ask "why" but rather "how high," so the artists themselves aren't the culprits. JE fans would feel kinda uncomfortable here if people keep making death threats, especially if they like both JE groups and w-inds.
[EDIT #2]
For those of you that are curious about how big of an impact the Oricon rankings have, here's a good and unbiased example (please be warned that the article is PG-13 though):
http://wiki.theppn.org/Kahala_Tomomi#Information
Finally, rankings might be overrated, but sales figures don't lie (click on each single or album to view the number of copies sold):
http://wiki.theppn.org/w-inds.
I am the author of the original message, and I didn't mean to imply that the upcoming single was going to be their last one or that the date they're going to disband is set. I was a bit panicky when I posted it, but I didn't expect that people will come to the conclusion that w-inds. are going to disband after this single. I apologize. Clearer info backed with sources under the cut...
Also, I didn't explain clearly that contracts can be renewed. Anyway, one simple way to see when w-inds. contract is good until is by looking at until when w-inds.tv is registered. Last time I checked (and I don't check very often), w-inds.tv expires in early 2010, which most likely means their contract expires earlier. I noticed w-inds.tv's exp. date going up to 2006 after renewed their contract before, so 2009 is an estimate for the next renewal.
Also, if you check w-inds. CD's sell-by dates, they're only 6 months after the release dates. I'm not sure if all J-pop artists' releases are like that nowadays, but w-inds. sell-by dates for their earliest singles used to be a year after the release date. The short sell-by dates worry me a bit because it would make sense that their CDs can't be sold after their contract ends.
And here's the revised, hopefully easier to understand, and backed up with sources version of the original message. Please still support w-inds. even if this isn't going to be their last release like you thought it would be:
So why is this a mini-project you ask?
Hopefully this is a reminder for all of w-inds. fans here in North America to support them, and one of the ways we can support them from all the way over here is buying their new single. Also, if we buy their CD from an established store in Japan, your purchase will count towards w-inds. sales on the Oricon Charts, which is one of the main standards used to gauge how well an artist is doing.
If you have the resources to, please buy a copy of this single prior to its release date from a store that is located in Japan, such as www.cdjapan.co.jp. With SAL shipping included, this single cost 2000yen (~$18 USD) from CD Japan.
Here is a list of prices if you purchase this single elsewhere (and these purchases don't count towards Oricon rankings):
Kinokuniya (in California): $19.50 + $1.66(tax) = $21.16
YesAsia: $16.25 + $2.99(shipping) = $19.24
Although I eventually end up buying every single CD released by w-inds., I often procrastinate on buying their releases, so I assume that there are others of you out there like me. Therefore, if you're going to buy it anyway, pre-order it before its release date, so you can help out with their first day Oricon rankings.
Why is the first day rankings so important?
CD stores use the Oricon rankings to rank and provide samples of that week's release. The HMV in Shibuya had the top 6 singles of that week for sample. Smaller CD stores might provide less samples. If w-inds. can get into the top 4 or so on the first day of the new release, their new single will be displayed and available for sample throughout Japan. That is a huge amount of free promotion right there. Since it's a really good song, people who aren't w-inds. fans might buy it just for the song after sampling it.
Why should you buy this single?
Just listen to it. It's a really catchy song, and it has been a long while since w-inds. released a song that was a hit. The Shrek 3 promotion was huge, but still w-inds. popularity continue to decline, as shown by the trends at the shops in Harajuku: w-inds. had multiple wall panels of photos 2 summers ago, they had exactly 1 last summer, and this summer, they have a part of a wall panel. Sadly, I went to the same shop twice this summer, and I saw the w-inds. photos decrease significantly in only 2 weeks, replaced by other artists' photos (this was while their tour was going on this summer, too!).
This upcoming single is the first time that w-inds. has scored a promotion with a TV drama series. As shown by the successes of other artists (First Love / Utada Hikaru, etc.) who received their big breaks through drama theme songs. This could be w-inds. big chance for a hit that rivals Shiki.
However, if this promotion flops, w-inds. won't be getting such a big deal again. Their management company is really poor (money-wise)[1], so w-inds. won't be getting much paid promotion. No promotion for w-inds. while other artists are getting heavily promoted will prevent w-inds. from gaining new fans while current fans might switch over to other artists since the Japanese love to follow the newest and hippest trends.[2] w-inds. will be yesterday's news.
Sources:
[1] w-inds. and Lead have the same management companies. When Lead first debuted, they couldn't afford to buy rice, so someone had to donate a bag of rice for them. Last year, Akira has very bad allergies; he could only afford to use toilet paper and not even facial tissues. Lead's latest single, which received zero promotion, sounds really good (look up "Umi" on Youtube) but sold less copies than their debut single, when most people didn't know who they were yet. I got all of the above information from a very trustworthy source, and you can verify it yourself through rankings and interviews.
[2] I worked on a few marketing projects during my internship in japan two summers ago, and my supervisor told me that "Japanese people like new things" was the main market trend.
What are the stakes?
Ever since Johnny's Entertainment debuted groups like NEWS and Kat-tun, w-inds. popularity in Japan has been steadily declining. Many former w-inds. fans, looking for something newer and more popular, switched over to JE's groups. Also, at the same time, JE has been blocking w-inds. from appearing on many TV shows and magazines for many years. However, JE has been especially aggressive recently, and that explains why w-inds. are giving less and less live performances of their new singles during times when the sales actually make a dent on the Oricon Charts (compare the number of live performances for It's in the Stars to Hanamuke).
After w-inds. announced the date for their new single, JE announced that NEWS will make their comeback on the exact same date. NEWS will be releasing their new single AND new album on the same date as w-inds.
If you are a NEWS fan as well, by all means you should support them by buying their comeback CDs, but at the same time, please also buy w-inds. new single if you have money left over.
So please head over to CD Japan and pre-order w-inds. new single, so it is counted towards the first day's sales! First press comes with a DVD, and Normal Press first edition comes with a calendar card:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/
[EDIT]
Just a note: It would be appreciated if people would stop saying things like "I'll kill whoever gets in w-inds. way!" Business is what it is...you want to make as much money as you can, and that's what JE's doing; their tactics might be unethical, but it would be stupid of them to give away market share to w-inds. or any other artist. Also, please don't hate on the JE groups for any of this (I think they have enough anti-fans of their own to worry about). In the music industry, when the management company tells you to jump, you don't ask "why" but rather "how high," so the artists themselves aren't the culprits. JE fans would feel kinda uncomfortable here if people keep making death threats, especially if they like both JE groups and w-inds.
[EDIT #2]
For those of you that are curious about how big of an impact the Oricon rankings have, here's a good and unbiased example (please be warned that the article is PG-13 though):
http://wiki.theppn.org/Kahala_Tomomi#Information
Finally, rankings might be overrated, but sales figures don't lie (click on each single or album to view the number of copies sold):
http://wiki.theppn.org/w-inds.