Why do Mizuki Nana's recent single contain four songs?

[Fencedude]

Not that I'm complaining, I'd much rather have four songs than 2 songs and their Karaoke versions, but she's the only artist I see putting out singles that way.

Mugen (White Album OP 2), Phatom Minds (Nanoha Movie 1st OP) and Silent Bible (Battle of Aces OP) have all been like this.

[beatmania]

Probably low sales with just 2 real tracks ...

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by beatmania

Probably low sales with just 2 real tracks ...

That doesn't really make sense.

[beatmania]

Why not? Not like singles are flying off the shelves even when economy was good.

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by beatmania

Why not? Not like singles are flying off the shelves even when economy was good.

If it were a larger movement, sure. But the only datapoints I have are 3 Mizuki Nana albums and 1 Tamura Yukari album. I'm curious if anyone has some actual information if this is going on on a larger scale, just with artists I don't pay much attention to. But at the very least, these are the ONLY Anisong singles I've seen with this pattern.

And it still doesn't explain the lack of Karaoke tracks.

[littleharlock]

Other artists (Ayumi Hamasaki for instance - her H Single back in 2002 was even a "3A-side single" containing six songs in total) do release such Singles as well and to my knowledge (please correct me if I'm wrong) it's often associated (and in case of Nana Mizuki's Mugen Single I remember the TV spot actually advertising it as such) with "Double A-side Singles". While Wiki suggests this term mostly used for Single A-side with coupling or c/w track this method of four songs on a Single as Double-A side (referring to two main songs with others as c/w tracks I suppose) it's not something entirely new and on terms of both Nana Mizuki and Hamasaki Ayumi I tend to enjoy that little "more value for the money" extra ^_~

[Skywise]

Ayu is still different though, since a lot of the extra tracks tend to be remixes, and the karaoke tracks are always included. Sometimes the extra tracks are unique versions that you can only get by buying the single, and sometimes they later release remix album collections to cash in even more. It's part of a larger release strategy to make the most money, but I really don't see that happening with the Mizuki Nana singles.

The only thing I can think of is those tracks might be "too weak" for a normal single release, and they're trying to increase exposure to her music. Alternately they're just there to compensate for the missing karaoke tracks - there could be something in her contract or something that prevents them from releasing them.

[littleharlock]

Okay this thread really needs someone like houkoholic to clear up the question ^_~
Looking at Mizuki's Single discography it's not like a recently started trend she keeps going to put out Singles which involve more than just the "title/A-Side plus c/w B-Side track" structure. As for the lack of instrumental / vocalless versions of the Single content this is a mere guess but *maybe* something in the veins of keep focus on the songs themself while saving these "karaoke" tracks for sort of a special CD release like ULTIMATE DIAMOND INSTRUMENTAL TRACKS (which featured the instrumental ver. of all songs on her Album hence also those off-vocal ver. of "Trickster", "Shinai" & Co. that were not included on the respective Single releases themself)...

I still think the idea behind the three or four songs included is the Double or All A-Side Single concept (btw. here's the Mugen CM Spot stating "All A-Side Maxi Single containing 4 tracks" in referance to the release). Another more or less recent example which came to mind thinking about such releases would be Chihara Minori's PRECIOUS ONE which represents her first 4 tracks Single.

But as said before...this thread really needs someone like houkoholic to fill us in.