TeamAyu

TeamAyu is Ayumi Hamasaki's official fan club. It launched in 1999 as Ayumi Hamasaki Online Fan Club, then re-launched as TeamAyu in June 2000.

This page is incomplete and will be updated with more detailed information in the future.

History

Ayumi Hamasaki Online Fan Club

The fan club launched (or at least began accepting members) in July 1999. The fan club at the time was primarily a pay alternative to the "Playing room" chat area of Ayu's official website, with some other materials available. It required a subscription to the avex alert! service to access.

The fee was 6,000 yen, to be made via money transfer at the post office; after making the transfer you were instructed to e-mail a fan club e-mail address with your information to finalize your membership; once you received your confirmation e-mail, which could take up to two weeks, you could log in to the ayu fan club with your avex alert! login information.

Benefits as of September 1999

• Issuance of a premium membership card
• Participation in Ayu BBS/Chat system
• Ayu original photo gallery
• Ayu Diary
• Downloading screensavers, etc.
• Plus the promise of more services in the future, at the time "still under planning and production".

TeamAyu Relaunch

In 2000, around the release of vogue, the fan club was rebranded as "ayumi hamasaki Online Fan Club 'TeamAyu'". This rebrand launched with a physical membership card, packaged for a limited period of time with a business card sized CD-rom that included a greeting from Ayu and PC wallpapers of "appears" behind-the-scenes photos.

At one point the Ayu BBS was closed after a time of Ayu interacting with fans using the service, but some fans being less polite and abusing the service. It was replaced by a members-only BBS where members could chat with each other.

Benefits as of October 2000

• Issuance of premium membership card
• Participation in MEMBERS BBS
• Report delivered in video format
• PHOTO GALLERY
• Screen saver & wallpaper download
• Invitation to watch TV programs, etc.
• Concert ticket priority reservation

Magazine Era (2001-2013)

In early 2001, around the release of A BEST, TeamAyu finally got its own TeamAyu.com website, rather than the club being a subsection of Ayu's official site. Membership was also now separated out into two tiers, "A course" and "B course." The higher-cost "A course" was the only part that allowed for access to the members-only TeamAyu website. Both tiers gave members access to the official TeamAyu magazine, published every few months, and bonus merchandise.

The TeamAyu website was revamped sometime around 2005, and most of the members-only contents from before that relaunch were not retained, and have been lost.

International Launch (2014)

At Ayu's 2014 a-nation appearance in Singapore, it was announced that TeamAyu would relaunch with an entirely new website. This site migrated much of the old site's content into an Archive section. While it was a lower cost subscription (down to 3700 yen per year), and did officially allow access from international fans now, TA members no longer received the magazine or physical merchandise, or a physical membership card, replacing the latter with a QR code to be scanned at concert venues for any exclusive benefits.

TeamAyu App Era (2023-)

Now that avex no longer used Global-FC.com for fan club services and instead migrated their fan clubs to a new company, the TeamAyu website services closed as of June 2023 to move all users to an app-based service instead. The price of membership tripled to about 10,000 yen per year, phone & PC wallpapers were eliminated as a benefit, and the app does not allow for any auto-translation service. While there are exclusive behind-the-scenes videos, there is no way to watch them on a screen any larger than your phone. In 2024 a scratch card gacha feature was introduced, where for a small microtransaction fee members could try their luck at winning prizes.