10th on 20/11 
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/d/2014-11-20/

16th on 21/11
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/d/2014-11-21/p/2/

My friend who is Tokyo right now told me that the single is sold out immediately.

So, she bought me the Best Scandal CD for me instead.

Well I hope this means that the sale numbers will be high and that they are just "unlucky" to have such a huge competition with other artists.

Let's wait the official sale numbers for first week but right now it doesn't look too good to be honest. The rankings so far for Image : 13-9-10-16-20

The single that had similar result is Pin Heel Surfer (13.585 sales) : 5-11-10-11-17-21. But it had a top 5. Anotehr example with LOVE SURVIVE (17.250 sales) that had 7-10-14-17-18-21.

Now I just really hope that it will sell over 15k and not become one of the worst selling single just after Yoake that is their new record... That would be weird even if it's a pre-album single.

But again rankings only tell us a part of the story ^^

24th on 23/11.... Still waiting for total sales for last week

It's the most important yeah, let's hope we get a nice surprise despite the ranks.

I don't know but releasing a great song just weeks before the launch of a new full length album is a bad idea.

They always do it and it's also for the promo, they can "sell" the single and already talk about the coming album. They know the sales won't be high so it's not really a "problem" to sell less and make a low score. Still would be better to sell a lot of course hihi xD

But I guess there is no "rule" and they can do how they like and they choose to do it like that ^^ I don't know how others japanese artists (or from all over the world) do it =P

MamiNoodles wrote:I don't know but releasing a great song just weeks before the launch of a new full length album is a bad idea.

What do you mean?

Many bands/artistes have done so. I'll just quote one example - Enter Sandman by Metallica was released in the month prior to the release of their Grammy-winning eponymous album. Tried and tested formula, that.

Sorry to be out of topic. I'll stop now.

@maharizm
It seems to me that western rock band are generally not selling singles every two or three months like Japanese band do, they are usually selling a pre-single to promote their future album so that can partly explain why Enter Sandman was a big hit (that and the fact it is a good song).
It may also explain why Image are not selling good for some people but as far as I am concerned, it is a very good ranking! I know that a lot of people are caring about that matter but the sale ain't everything in music (I am not talking about market industry here I am talking about the real stuff) especially that:
a) they are already earning a lot of money so that they can live of their passion which is a great satisfaction in life.
b) and there are not at the bottom of the charts, stop worrying

Oricon weekly - #14 with 12,245 copies!

(* LOVE SURVIVE - #11 with 13,507 copies
* Pinheel Surfer - #9 with 11,300 copies
* OVER DRIVE - #7 with 15,957 copies)

sillentdx wrote:Oricon weekly - #14 with 12,245 copies!

(* LOVE SURVIVE - #11 with 13,507 copies
* Pinheel Surfer - #9 with 11,300 copies
* OVER DRIVE - #7 with 15,957 copies)

That's a good start! Fans of SCANDAL, thank you for proving me wrong about my post last night. Let's hope for Image to sell at least 20,000 copies.

Hey, wait. Does radio stations in Japan have their own countdown or charts?

Image did pretty well, sales-wise! 

The thing is, OVER DRIVE sold the amount it did last year probably because of the Yasutaka Nakata collaboration. That collab made pretty huge headlines around the net and Japanese websites so it's no shocker that the single sold more than the other pre-album singles.

sillentdx wrote:Oricon weekly - #14 with 12,245 copies!

(* LOVE SURVIVE - #11 with 13,507 copies
* Pinheel Surfer - #9 with 11,300 copies
* OVER DRIVE - #7 with 15,957 copies)

Yeah that's what I thought it would be.

No guys it did not sell good and it's not a good start but yeah it was expected ^^

And they will not reach 20k, unless something incredible happens next week they will probably only sell 16k total over the next weeks. It's the first week that has almost all the sales (a very big % of it, 70-75% roughly).

They will probably sell between 1500 and 2000 next week, then 1000 to 1500 then only a few hundreds.

It's just how it is when the album is so close and they know it. It's just that it pains me a little bit for them because a lot of people judge by numbers...

I'm very sad because "Image" is very good, in my opinion one of the best songs ever, and to have only 12.245 sales in first week

I'm not in the position to say this but I think SCANDAL has to release a track (with a couple of unreleased songs or remixes as B-side) from a full-length album one to two months after the album's release date like most international artists do.

Sad to say that online orders from overseas customers (maybe hundreds or thousands) further hurt the number of sales since Oricon does not count those. I mean, I'm NOT discouraging people overseas to avoid ordering records from online merchants such as HMV Japan and Tower. In fact, it will strengthen their fanbase and eventually reach the status of Japan's best rock export. Besides, SCANDAL still get pretty hefty sum despite of low sales because of the download sales and specially their songwriting credits. I just want Oricon to realize that Japanese recording artists has listeners elsewhere and they have no choice to buy records but online.

Do I make sense? ^_^

Well yeah, I think it's also stupid the way Oricon works. Basically they maybe sold 10.000 copies to international fans but this is not counted in the "12.245" copies... So maybe they sold over 20k because they have a huge international fan base but Oricon announces 12.245...

But I suppose that companies/SCANDAL have ALL the numbers/stats in internal private documents so they know obviously how much exactly they sold.

Image is 23th on 24/11
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/d/2014-11-24/p/3/

Out of curiosity, do these numbers include digital downloads or is it only physical CD-single sales?

saldiven wrote:Out of curiosity, do these numbers include digital downloads or is it only physical CD-single sales?

From wiki:

Oricon monitors and reports on sales of CDs, DVDs, video games, and entertainment content in several other formats; manga and book sales were also formerly covered. Charts are published every Tuesday in Oricon Style and on Oricon’s official website. Every Monday, Oricon receives data from outlets, but data on merchandise sold through certain channels does not make it into the charts.

Oricon does not include download sales. In Japan, single sales decreased sharply in the 2000s, while download sales hit three to four times the amount of single sales. Therefore, this chart is considered by many as not a reliable source in the modern market today.

Personally, I see no reason why ORICON should include overseas sales. It's pretty much the charts for Japan. Each country has its own music charts and they are based on sales for the respective countries, eg Billboard only does charts for the US (although the artistes could be from anywhere, provided their products are sold in the US.

As for how well 「Image」has done, Sony Japan knows full well the score. SCANDAL will be fine!

Yeah, I think that focusing on the sale of physical CDs really is kind of a dinosaur the music industry (in Japan and elsewhere) is desperately clinging to.

I'd honestly be more interested in the digital sales than the physical sales; I'm sure those numbers are far more impressive.

I haven't purchased a single Scandal physical CD. In fact, I haven't purchased a physical music CD from any artist in more than five years. My MP3 player doesn't have a slot for the CD....

Other charts:

* SoundScan weekly single chart: #12 with 10,663 copies
* RecoChoku weekly J-Rock chart: #3 (Image) / #30 (Nai nai Night 2014)
* RecoChoku weekly singles chart: failed.to.chart (WTH?)
* RecoChoku weekly album chart: #28 (WTH?)
* mora weekly chart: #50
* mora weekly chart (domestic music): #49
* Billboard Japan Hot 100: #14
* Billboard Japan Hot Top Airplay: #21
* Billboard Japan Hot Singles Sales: #12
* Billboard Japan Adult Contemporary Airplay: #15 (this is their 3rd best after Yoake (#8) and Departure (#10)


(hmmm, wonder if there's any way to purchase music from mora without a Japanese credit card as they have Standard in 24/96...)

What?! There's noooo way that Image didn't chart at all on Recochoku! I think they really stuffed it up this time lol.

@HRMT. We can't treat Image like the normal singles the band release, so in a sense, yes Image did sell pretty well much better than what the rankings would've indicated.

And besides, the pre-album singles usually have some sort of background to them that would boost their publicity/sales — Image is the only exception to this. Love Survive had that whole abandonment of uniforms shebang, PHS had Triceratop's Sho Wada's participation and OVER DRIVE had Yasutaka Nakata. Sure you could say that Image has the Women's Cup thing going on, but that hasn't actually happened yet. I doubt it would change the sales much as I doubt the cup is *that* popular, but eh who knows.

sillentdx wrote:(hmmm, wonder if there's any way to purchase music from mora without a Japanese credit card as they have Standard in 24/96...)

If you find out, please let me know.

@syakmp : I don't treat it like a normal single at all... Compared to the pre-album singles, Image is already doing worse (for now).

LOVE SURVIVE & OVERDRIVE did better, just saying that Image isn't selling good that's all. In the 2010+ area only Pin Heel Surfer did worse than Image.

Not judging the song, just the stats we have currently ^^