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[edit | edit source]
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Ayumi Hamasaki Online Fan Club[edit | edit source]
The fan club began accepting members in July 1999, and officially opened for access in September. A subscription to the avex alert! service was a prerequisite for fan club 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.
Official Benefits List as of September 1999[edit | edit source]
- Issuance of a premium membership card*
- Participation in Ayu BBS/Chat system
- Ayu original photo gallery
- Ayu Diary
- Downloading screensavers, etc. (in the "ACCESSORIES" section)
- Plus the promise of more services in the future, at the time "still under planning and production".
*While this was listed as a benefit from the beginning, it would be about six months before physical membership cards were finally sent out to members.
The Ayu BBS/Chat did include Ayu making posts on the BBS (as a "Message from Ayu" class of post), which were like blog entries.
According to TA Magazine issue 1, the first AYU'S DIARY video was posted on October 9th, and was called "First Diary".
The website also included a "REPORTS" section, not listed as a feature, as of the release of LOVEppears. This section was any combination of photos, text, and video, much of which was publicly-available material (like CMs and PVs) merely put here for ease of access or in case you missed it. The first fan-club exclusive report was "Ayu's New York Photo Diary," uploaded October 9th or 10th, 1999.
TeamAyu Relaunch[edit | edit source]
As of January 29, 2000, the fan club was given the official name "ayumi hamasaki Online Fan Club 'TeamAyu'". On March 4 it was announced that membership cards would finally be sent out and that members should double check their shipping address; they were mailed out on March 31st in time for arrival around April 3rd. This initial membership card was packed in a small thick cardboard folio with a business card sized CD-ROM that included a greeting from Ayu and PC wallpapers of 1999 behind-the-scenes photos.
In July, the TA site had a short "hidden photo" game/event, where photos of Ayu were hidden somewhere on the site. After about nine days of hidden photos, the images' locations were published, and this began the feature that would become the long-running "Today's 1 Photo" feature on the site.
Benefits as of October 2000[edit | edit source]
- 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
Ayu's Diary was also still included, but was not called out specifically on the Information page.
Magazine Era (2001-2005)[edit | edit source]
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. You could now join the club via a web form instead of sending an e-mail (although payment was still made separately from the web form), and avex's alert! system no longer existed and was therefore not required anymore. Membership was also now separated out into two tiers, "A course" for 6,000 yen and "B course" for 4,000 yen. 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.
Some of the behind-the-scenes photo galleries from the original Online Fan Club site were migrated over to Ayu's public official website as additional "Special Issue" reports. Those included the WHATEVER video shoots, the ayu-mi-x CM shoot, the LOVE~Destiny~ music video shot, the TO BE jacket photo and video shoots, the Boys & Girls video shoot, the A single jacket photo shoot, and the A Film for XX cover & insert photo shoot.
Benefits as of April 2001 (A-Course)[edit | edit source]
- Original goods as a bonus for joining
- Issuance of membership card
- Published newsletter
- Advance reservation of concert tickets
- Info on public recording of TV events, etc.
- Mail order sales of original merchandise
- Participation in MEMBERS BBS
- Report delivered via video footage
- PHOTO GALLERY
- Download screensavers & wallpapers
Ayu's Diary and "Today's Photo" were also included as part of the A-Course web site but were not called out specifically on the Information page.
Benefits as of April 2001 (B-Course)[edit | edit source]
- Original goods as a bonus for joining
- Issuance of membership card
- Published newsletter
- Advance reservation of concert tickets
- Info on public recording of TV events, etc.
- Mail order sales of original merchandise
The MEMBERS BBS on the A-Course website was closed in Spring 2003.
During the run of Ayu's TV variety show "ayu ready?", the TeamAyu site featured an "ayu ready?" section for behind-the-scenes photo galleries and videos for each episode.
fc.avex.jp Era (2006-2013)[edit | edit source]
The TeamAyu website was revamped in early 2006, migrating to avex's newly-created internal fanclub organization, and most of the members-only website contents from before that relaunch were not retained, and have been lost.
Benefits as of May 2012[edit | edit source]
- Issuance of original membership card
- Issuance of membership benefits and continuation benefits
- Published TeamAyu Magazine (newsletter)
- Planned to be published twice a year
- Issuance of Original Novelty items twice a year
- The "Original Novelty" benefits are common to A and B courses, but with a more "luxurious" version for A course members.
- Issuance of greeting cards twice a year
- Access to A course member-only site
- ayu's DIARY
- MOVIE & VOICE
- DEAR ayu
- Screensaver downloads
- Advance reservation sales for concert tickets
- In the event of a ticket lottery, priority will be given to course A
- Mail order sales of concert goods and FC original goods
- Priority invitations to public TV and radio programs, events, etc.
- Receive the latest information via e-mail
For Ayu's 15th Anniversary, TeamAyu members got two exclusive wallpapers of photos from the "ayu" photobook.
International Launch (2014)[edit | edit source]
At Ayu's 2014 a-nation appearance in Singapore, it was announced that TeamAyu would relaunch with an entirely new website and finally be accessible to fans outside of Japan.
As of Ayu's birthday, October 2, the website was given a completely different design and layout, making it more current with post-2011 web design trends (including giving the site a responsive mobile layout), and changing the names & content of the main sections. A Google auto-translation option was added as well, and many of Ayu's blog entries would be given official English translations.
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 benefits (aside from sporadic lottery-style gifts and TA-exclusive purchasable items from mu-mo), or a physical membership card.
The web site offered a digital replacement for the magazine, however only one installment was ever uploaded.
The physical membership card was replaced with a QR code to be scanned at concert venues for any exclusive benefits.
TeamAyu App Era (2023-)[edit | edit source]
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.