What are the sales volume of SEB???

[orochi]

Does anybody know this?
Since SEB is only released in Japan and is sold here, can I conclude that a huge portion of the profits made by selling the SEB are part of the labels' income, after Avex had their share, of course.

If not are there any other income sources for these label houses other than those labels releasing vinyls and those compilations from Hi-NRG website?

Is there a minimum sales level, when Avex would suddenly say STOP!!!

[Ricfiam]

The main question is interesting.
Nobody knows?

[orochi]

No adventurers brave enough to wade through this challenge??

What a pity though, would've been informative.

[shdwrlm3]

Not as good as the sales used to be. Sales peaked with Vol. 100, which went 7 times platinum back in 2000. Ever since then, though, sales have been down considerably.

Here's a nice chart that shows sales up to Vol. 122:

http://homepage1.nifty.com/j-project705 ... oricon.htm

Keep in mind that Oricon may or may not collect data from all retailers, but the numbers are still a good indication. The numbers in the right-most column are how many units sold in TENS of thousands. Thus, SEB 100 sold 700,000 units. SEB 110 was the only SEB to ever rank 1st on Oricon, but it sold slightly less than SEB 100. As you can see, sales took a nosedive by the time Vol. 120 came out. Although the chart only shows up to Vol 122, I've seen more current charts and as far as I know, SEB hasn't broken into the Top 20 in quite some time. I believe SEB 150 sold only in the tens of thousands (last I checked, 35,000+) The sales are at least good enough to still warrant 10+ releases a year, though. I wouldn't worry about Avex pulling the plug on SEB any time soon.

In somewhat related news, nowadays the biggest "dance" sound in Japan is Dancehall and Reggaton :{ Who knows, though? Perhaps Eurobeat will see another revival in the future.

[orochi]

It might seem cheesy to ressurect your own topic, but seems that now we have Mr. Newfield here. Mr. newfield, are you allowed to share this kind of information with us, the fans. If not, then it's OK.

Do you have other markets for the music from Delta other than to Avex Japan for SEB? Do you release it in Europe enmasse in vinyl forms to every club in Europe or in Italy???

[Rave Dodgers]

Above: Those are some surprising numbers. They apparently went from 700,000 to 17,000 on the next release at one point! Ouch.

They must not have sold too well in the 120's and 130's. Even the local store (USA) where I shop had copies of some of those sitting on the shelves for ages. In that store they still get every new release*** by the release date - usually several copies - and most sell out in 2-3 months.

I wonder what the US import sales are? Probably impossible to track. I bet very low, but steadily rising.

***except some LPs and really odd releases. I never did find Nuage, but did get Speed & Power, D-1, JGTC, etc

[newfield]

bad,very bad!! SEB standard is now 4-5000 units.

Asia is the only market for now...but things could change from next year.

[Pol NRG]

I think Europe and the eastern countries will be a great market ...there's a lot of Eurobeat fans in UK and also USA and Canada. As far I know AVEX is present in England like... AVEX UK.


ciao,
Pol

[Jjb]

I think Europe and the eastern countries will be a great market ...there's a lot of Eurobeat fans in UK and also USA and Canada. As far I know AVEX is present in England like... AVEX UK.


ciao,
Pol

I'd like to see delta, scp, abeat-c etc have saifam-ish compilation on demands at a reasonable price. so us hardcore fans can order the complete acappella/instrumental/last/bonus/extended mixes of our favorites, and so on.

Or small batches of unreleased stuff like HRG.

But going for an even smaller niche market might not be the wisest, and other labels might have stricter contracts than HRG/ARD. and it probably wouldn't be that lucrutive ... but I can dream.

Not sure how you would get a wide audience in the UK/US though, maybe if one snuck something into a semi-popular eurodance/etc compilation and let things grow from there ...

[Vadim]

I think Europe and the eastern countries will be a great market

I ám not very sure about the whole of Europe,because eurobeat has
been only imported by one country in Europe,Russia. Ít is a very
difficult task to sell a sound that is designed for Japan, in other nations.
Alessandra Gatti had a point in her interview when she talked about
adapting a sound to fit the taste in a targeted market.

...there's a lot of Eurobeat fans in UK and also USA and Canada.

I dissagree. In reality,a very small number of a group of japanese
anime fans in North America have made a transition to be also fans of music which was featured on some of these anime. It is just that this
group of people is very resoursefull and fully utilizes the internet for
communicating their interest in eurobeat.
Most of people who listened to hi nrg in the 80-s are not into eurobeat,
in my opinion, because it is not made for their taste,but rather for teenagers who dance para para in Japan. This audience always preffers
a real techno anyway,so that is probably a gamble to try to always target
just them and their everchanging taste in what they like to dance to.

[Jion]

Well actually in US, Eurobeat wouldn't fall. Realize most people aren't going to be fans of techno as a whole (the 70's and early 90's have passed unfortunatly =( ) But, in the clubs, techno is very prevalent. In Philly, they've actually had DJ's play Eurobeat with much success. Go Beat Crazy, Fine and Wonderful Feelin' were extremely successful in the clubs (since I gave it to one of the DJs there) and they seem to be on his playlist. Eurobeat would work but I think the most successful style of Eurobeat that would work in the States would be Trancebeat (such as Fine, Wonderful Feelin', Livin' In The Night), Electrorock (The Fire's On Me, Right Now, Power Of Sound) Powerful Eurobeat (Dance The Nation, Go Beat Crazy, Like A Fire) and Dancebeat (I Wanna Take A Chance, pretty much any Nuage and Susy Wender song, Raisin' Hell). With a certainty I can say that most of the US population is not ready at all for most of HI-NRG Attack's stuff and Vibration's stuff. They either are too silly (HRG) or sound too Japanese (Vib) (just most of the reactions I get from people that I've given a sample of Eurobeat to). This is definately a market in which slower BPM works.

[Rave Dodgers]

The two original sources of eurobeat promotion in the US seem to be primarily anime (Initial D) and games (Initial D Arcade Stage) so the audience is going to be mostly teens and 20's.

A tiny number are also exposed through a rare Japanese import arcade and home game called beatmania IIDX. I have become a fan of that. Too bad there are no SEB tracks on the latest version (12th Style). If you like to "play" eurobeat music, I highly recommend that series.

Eurobeat is definitely not flooding the market. The fact that there are as many fans as there are is a testament to the quality of the product. Unfortunately, it is mostly the hardcore fans that actually buy the music. I don't know if more casual American fans are, at this time, willing to pay US$30-$35 for a standard compilation.

[orochi]

4-5 K only of sales per volume???
This is so dissappointing... I was expecting 10K at least.
If even the Japanese do not seem to be really buying, then it is a grim situation.

And I doubt that Saifam-style compilations will sell well. In my country, these discs are present in nearly every CD store and it is very cheap (about 1/2 the price of a normal CD) but it hardly sells because there are no promotions / publicity at all. It is always stashed together with all sorts of compilations, even with Grammy Awards Nominees 2001 once!

However, para para dancing via Para Para Paradise machine and Initial D video game is still very very popular and blaring eurobeat music non-stop.
But I doubt these poor souls even know what eurobeat is