I can't remember what article I read it in (Billboard Japan?), but while SCANDAL's
YELLOW and Silent Siren's
S had close sales numbers,
YELLOW's album lookups far exceeded
S's by a large margin. Each album lookup is counted when the album is looked up in an online database, like Gracenote. I can't remember how it exactly works in the grand scheme of things, but album lookups factor a lot in an artists popularity and rankings in this era of rentals and digital distribution.
I don't know if that helped anyone a bit, sorry....If only I could remember where I read that article....
Ah, going back a bit....While I don't particularly like the business practice of buying multiple copies of a CD for certain premiums, idols are hardly the only artists doing that nowadays. A lot of artists have had a "buy both copies for a special present" deal for a while now. It's all for additional sales, and at the same time rewarding those that decide to shell out the extra cash with a "present." Even SCANDAL has that going on now too, though not by their fault, I imagine. They've been having a buy a copy of
YELLOW at the release events for a prize lottery, right? A couple of people I know on Twitter who attended the events bought multiple copies of
YELLOW for a chance to win. One person bought I think was 5 or 6 copies with at least one of each edition, but his gamble paid off in the end as he won a poster (signed, I think), a backstage handshake meeting with Haruna, and personalized, signed copy of the album. w
