Amai wrote:
Wow. It's been a while since I checked my thread. There seems like a lot more neigh sayers than on utada-online. Come on people! This is UtadaNet! We support Hikki.
Just because it said "she's letting other people take over the production" doesn't mean she's handing over the pen and paper to other people. It means she won't deal with some of the stuff she's not good at.
I think that she's definitely learned her lesson. There's a REASON Exodus '04 and Kremlin Dusk was better liked than her other stuff. And she DEFINITELY learned her lesson with Sanctuary and Simple and Clean. She has to stop changing and keep it with her original style.
Have faith!
And she won't let Timbaland handle her stuff. Oooh no. I'm sure of that. She's just getting used to the American industry.
I hope she keeps us updated and I'll keep YOU guys updated.
Just stop whining!! It'll be great, I promise! And Hikki probably promises too.

sdschwendener wrote:
I study music business in college. I want to become a producer. Hikaru's work with Timbaland was a good move on her part. While the Exodus album did not do well in the US market it was no one elses fault than island records.

Here is how the music industry currently works in the USA. The telecommunications act in 96 that clinton made allowed the radio market to be consolidated by large corporations. This removed the local feel of radio. Currently in the USA there are less than 40, 4-0, privately owned radio stations. The rest are owned by Inifini, Clear Channel, and Cox (for the most part). These companies have made national playlists which allows their artists they promote more spins and in turn the corporations take less risk of financial loss. The music you hear on the radio is what the companies want you to hear. the Mcgrath of MTV said in an interview that MTV owns our youth. He tells people what to watch, drive, eat, and listen to. When you have cornered a market such as apple has done with the ipod or these companies have done with the music industry YOU MAKE THE RULES.

It is a personality and image driven market. If you are a japanese woman and your trying to make your songs work in the USA market you need to be PRODUCED. This is why timbaland helped write songs on exodus. If she will ever have a successful album in the USA it will be darker, sultry, and mirror the current mainstream music today. Why? Island records does not want to take time to introduce hikaru into the USA market and develop her as an artist. Sure she has already had an album out here but it is relativly unrecognized. Island records wants a perfectly packaged flawless masterpiece that holds as LITTLE risk of failure as possible BEFORE it goes into the studios. Companies dont develop artists anymore; it takes to long. Artists are produced in the USA.

This is the way of things.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. The reason the majors (EMI, sony/bmg, universal, warner music) are so large is they had the luxury of having everyone have to replace their cassettes with CDs. That means that everyone who wanted the songs to sound better and not have to rewind their artists had to go and REBUY the same music on a different platform? Remember when sony tried to protect their audio cds and got sued big time? Well guess what. This is the digital age of music. Album sales are down 20% from last year. Music will be free one day. Artists will make money selling t-shirts and dvds and selling out concerts. One day soon the majors wont make the rules. When this happens this is when you will get the english album you want. Until then forget about it.

Get ready to be dissapointed if you want Utada Hikaru. Your going to get Utada at 4/4 on fire, running through a hospital zone, chased by ninjas. The ninjas are going to be on fire also. I'm not worried. I liked Exodus.
The biggest giveaway is her in part speaking to Def Jam. Have you looked at their lineup recently? Get ready for some tight beats.


(in my own opinion I think a Namie Amuro hip/popish english album would do better.. but namie speaks shitty funny english oh well)

sdschwendener wrote:
I study music business in college. I want to become a producer. Hikaru's work with Timbaland was a good move on her part. While the Exodus album did not do well in the US market it was no one elses fault than island records.

Here is how the music industry currently works in the USA. The telecommunications act in 96 that clinton made allowed the radio market to be consolidated by large corporations. This removed the local feel of radio. Currently in the USA there are less than 40, 4-0, privately owned radio stations. The rest are owned by Inifini, Clear Channel, and Cox (for the most part). These companies have made national playlists which allows their artists they promote more spins and in turn the corporations take less risk of financial loss. The music you hear on the radio is what the companies want you to hear. the Mcgrath of MTV said in an interview that MTV owns our youth. He tells people what to watch, drive, eat, and listen to. When you have cornered a market such as apple has done with the ipod or these companies have done with the music industry YOU MAKE THE RULES.

It is a personality and image driven market. If you are a japanese woman and your trying to make your songs work in the USA market you need to be PRODUCED. This is why timbaland helped write songs on exodus. If she will ever have a successful album in the USA it will be darker, sultry, and mirror the current mainstream music today. Why? Island records does not want to take time to introduce hikaru into the USA market and develop her as an artist. Sure she has already had an album out here but it is relativly unrecognized. Island records wants a perfectly packaged flawless masterpiece that holds as LITTLE risk of failure as possible BEFORE it goes into the studios. Companies dont develop artists anymore; it takes to long. Artists are produced in the USA.

This is the way of things.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. The reason the majors (EMI, sony/bmg, universal, warner music) are so large is they had the luxury of having everyone have to replace their cassettes with CDs. That means that everyone who wanted the songs to sound better and not have to rewind their artists had to go and REBUY the same music on a different platform? Remember when sony tried to protect their audio cds and got sued big time? Well guess what. This is the digital age of music. Album sales are down 20% from last year. Music will be free one day. Artists will make money selling t-shirts and dvds and selling out concerts. One day soon the majors wont make the rules. When this happens this is when you will get the english album you want. Until then forget about it.

Get ready to be dissapointed if you want Utada Hikaru. Your going to get Utada at 4/4 on fire, running through a hospital zone, chased by ninjas. The ninjas are going to be on fire also. I'm not worried. I liked Exodus.
The biggest giveaway is her in part speaking to Def Jam. Have you looked at their lineup recently? Get ready for some tight beats.


(in my own opinion I think a Namie Amuro hip/popish english album would do better.. but namie speaks shitty funny english oh well)