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INTEREST: New Idol Group Offers Chance to Take Hot Spring Trip with Them


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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:03 pm Reply with quote
Wow. I don't think even AKB48 would stoop that low to sell their shitty single. I like how they're a rock group who don't play instruments & their promo video has no singing in, though. Nothing makes me want to buy multiple overpriced CDs like 30seconds of 8 girls awkwardly rocking out.
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AwaysAnnoyed





PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:06 pm Reply with quote
Even if these girls do chart, there's still a thing such as 'one hit wonders', and in this case, add 'forced'.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5509
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:20 pm Reply with quote
Not sure if desperate, pathetic or both. Honestly, if they're banking on creepy otaku to make charts rather than any talent (and that PV really isn't making me think they have any), it's better if they break up already. The music industry and idol industry has always been pretty fucked up, but I can't believe it's gotten this low.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 9:07 pm Reply with quote
Even if the idols seem okay with this sort of promotion, this is taking it way too far. Plus, even if their first single reaches the Oricon Top 10, how else will they fare into the unknown if their next song doesn't bring in huge numbers?
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 9:13 pm Reply with quote
I question what precisely the point of a hot springs trip is when no bathing is involved (at least for mixed, and I assume most people going for this would be male Rolling Eyes ) You get to chat with them for a couple of minutes during the day before they go off on their own? Whoop. Definitely worth purchasing hundreds (even thousands, depends on number of coupons per disk) of copies of their single to get! Rolling Eyes

And...

Quote:
30 coupons: A karaoke session with other fans


What the heck, you don't even need to get any coupons to do this?
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13583
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 9:52 pm Reply with quote
So, 4221 coupons are to be had total. The hot springs trip is such a huge gamble because it is almost inviting potential sex crimes.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 9:58 pm Reply with quote
Japan's most desperate Idol group

That hot springs trip doesn't allow mixed bathing so it's not bad but still, it's going a bit too far just not for explicit reasons.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13583
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 10:11 pm Reply with quote
Hoppy800 wrote:
Japan's most desperate Idol group

That hot springs trip doesn't allow mixed bathing so it's not bad but still, it's going a bit too far just not for explicit reasons.


The fact that they call themselves that name seems appropriate from the hot springs thing, given the frequency of sexual situations in anime hot spring episodes.
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casualfan



Joined: 24 Jul 2012
Posts: 333
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 10:38 pm Reply with quote
As long as the the girls agree to it, then it's all good. After all that's the core of entertainment business. Gotta do anything it takes to appeal to people and get them to buy the products.
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2015 12:06 am Reply with quote
ANN wrote:
  • 1 coupon: A ticket to a meet 'n' greet event
  • 5 coupons: A picture with the group at the meet 'n' greet event
  • 10 coupons: A movie message "just for you"
  • 30 coupons: A karaoke session with other fans
  • 50 coupons: A letter "just for you"
  • 75 coupons: A week's worth of wake-up calls
  • 100 coupons: A photography session "just for you," with homemade cookies
  • 150 coupons: An hour-long phone call
  • 300 coupons: A lunch for two, with ear-cleaning included (Note: this is considered intensely romantic in Japan)
  • 500 coupons: A dinner for two, with ear-cleaning and a visit to a photo sticker booth included
  • 1000 coupons: A day-long date, perhaps with fireworks
  • 2000 coupons: A trip to a hot springs (although mixed bathing is out of the question)


No, no, no. Using advertisements and signing events is one thing: ads run in the "social background", as it were; on billboards, in the radio, etc. Signing events are "go in, get an autograph, maybe a handshake and/or a picture, and you're out".

This, however, is investing time (both work- and personal-) on one or two people who repeatedly purchased the same product multiple times. It is basically the artists selling themselves to promote their music, instead of selling their music to promote themselves.
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itachi06103570



Joined: 21 Feb 2013
Posts: 200
PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2015 1:55 am Reply with quote
Bruh........even if I was into idol groups like that I echo the sentiments others had posted before me and say this just reeks of attention. If this is what it takes to sell albums then just disband because nothing good ever comes from promotions like this especially with a hot springs trip that just invites weirdos of all shapes and sizes to potentially so some stuff that could lead into arrests, lawsuits, and other legal action. This is just ridiculous and not in a good way.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5509
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2015 2:06 am Reply with quote
casualfan wrote:
As long as the the girls agree to it, then it's all good. After all that's the core of entertainment business. Gotta do anything it takes to appeal to people and get them to buy the products.


Regardless of whether they're ok with it or not (and I wouldn't hesitate for a second that they were one way or another coerced into this, either with the fine print of a contract or by their agent telling them they wouldn't make it otherwise), the main problem I see, following up with Hamayadea's comment, is that this kind of pathetic sales tactics are basically making the industry not about the music anymore.

If this group is successful it won't be because they're talented singers, rockers, dancers (judging by that PV, the latter is something certainly they're not), but because they're literally offering to satisfy creepy obsessive otaku's base fantasies (the wording of the rewards is particularly telling, everything's "just for you"). That PV doesn't give us an ounce of what their music is like because for this group's business model, music isn't important.

I'm not saying this thing will ruin the industry, but this kind of idol group that only sort of works because it has a reward system for obsessive fans could potentially change the industry into one where music no longer matters and the artists that make it are the ones that offer more over-the-top stuff (I believe there's already a group where there's a chance to date and even marry the girls and get a reality tv show). The way the idol industry treats women is already pretty gross for the most part, but now they're entirely ditching the music aspect and that's jus really sad and angering.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14813
PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2015 6:09 am Reply with quote
It's all about the # of multiple copies moved, instead of the # of people moved by their music. Their strategy is to capture 10 fans who's the type to buy 10 copies each, than to capture 100 fans who would only buy a single copy each. Their music isn't about spreading the love but narrowing on the crazies.

So it's hard to quantify how many fans they would really have. It's possible they can sell 10,000 copies but turn out they really only have 100 fans. In such a case, are they really popular?
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13583
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2015 9:46 am Reply with quote
Well, they are a recently formed group, so the fanbase is very limited. Maybe a few years from now they will have hundreds of more fans.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:02 am Reply with quote
I see the actual musicians in the video are masked. Are they kuroko?

Zero effort on the choreography, or I suppose rather there wasn't any. They're just running around. I'm pretty sure one of them is falling over at the end.
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