After much anticipation, mega idol group, AKB48, has now released their new “Teacher Teacher” single. And as expected, the new single became very successful, selling 2,580,513 CDs on presales alone. This means that it reached double platinum even before the actual sales even began.
Now, each CD came as a bundle together with a ballot to vote for the upcoming AKB48 general elections. This means that one CD entitles the owner one vote. This gives the fans the power to decide if their favorite idols get to have more exposure in the future. And with AKB48 having a ton of sister groups, it would certainly be tough for an individual member to win.
However, this system has its flaws, as it encourages fans to buy multiple CDs to ensure their favorite idol wins. Remember, it’s not really that democratic if it’s not one man = one vote. And because of this, fans would buy a mountain of CDs just to have multiple votes for their favorite idols. This also means that fans care more about the ballot which comes with the CD, rather than the CD itself. And now, many have found bags full of these “Teacher Teacher” CDs in the trash.
Twitter user @songokkun1, who found the CDs in the burnable garbage area, lamented at the sorry state of the CDs. He said that this is so wasteful, as CDs in Japan aren’t exactly cheap. He also said that record companies should just sell the ballots directly and not bundle them with CDs if this was the case. Many fans also agreed, and one even commented that “This isn’t even music anymore”.
The poster tweeted this out last 31st May, and this may mean that they might have already burned the CDs by now. Sadly, this batch ain’t the only “Teacher Teacher” CDs that are getting dumped and burned out there in Japan.
Source: Sora News 24
