Attending to YUI’s live appearance at Maritime Square Mall can be more expensive than the Hong Kong ~ HOTEL HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN concert itself.
Written by Kikino and Gotchi.
When the news announced that YUI would be performing live in a public space conference, before her concert in June, everyone was excited for this extra opportunity. But as days passed by, an uncomfortable truth was revealed.
In order to participate in this event you need to spend a certain amount of money in the mall to get certain benefits:
HK$500+ = To enter the reserved area and a HHITS DVD for free
HK$800+ = Enter to reserved area + limited pick (No details of what it looks like)
HK$1500+ = Only 25 people will get an autographed DVD
These prizes are on a first come, first serve basis. The signed DVDs has been sold out.
Notice the fact that Maritime Square is actually putting YUI’s autographs for sale. A behavior that has been always disapproved by YUI-Lover when YUI’s autographs are being sold in auction websites.
All these customers will get the chance of a “greet and meet session”. Details of these meeting are not clear. But these tickets are already being sold on Yahoo Auction Hong Kong:
http://hk.f1.page.auctions.yahoo.com/hk/auction/b18584684
Notice also that the venue’s fee is considerably lower than the amount of money they will earn after all the tickets are sold:
Fantasy Island – Venue A: 40,000HKD per day
Fantasy Island – Venue B: 30,000HKD per day
http://www.maritimesquare.com/eng/venue.html#2
Mall’s revenues :
(1,500 x 25) + (800 x 160) + (500 x 400) = 365,500HKD
Fans on the Sony Hong Kong Entertainment Facebook page and the YUI-Lover forum have expressed disappointment and are upset after the highly commercial turn this event has taken, considering it could be seen as an insult or a discredit to YUI-san’s artist image.
Comments in the forum:
“I’m sure when YUI hear about this, she will be quite upset, and THAT is UNFORGIVABLE” – Kim
“I thought Sony was being nice to those that can’t afford to go to the concert, but I was completely wrong and very, very disappointed with Sony. This is just ridiculous!!!!
I’m kind of happy that I won’t be able to go cause I am not going to give my money to them like that, they don’t deserve it. This makes me angry >:/ ” -GC“This money should be spent on DONATIONS to the Japan relief disaster” – Gotchi
“What would YUI have to say about this?” -waratte
“I think YUI’s japanese staff didn’t understand anything when they met the HK staff and they just said “hai” to everything. Then this happened.” – dso
“YARARETAII” Anonymouse
“The thing for YUI is people are gonna spend that amount for stuff they probably won’t need (if they’re rich enough) just to get close to her. If she learns of it i think she’ll feel really bad, especially since most of her fans are probably not old enough to have income.” – Asuna
“I dont think YUI knows anything about this, she’s just an innocent girl, coming to HK just to sing to her beloved fans!” – aron94
“RRAAAAAAGGGEEEEEEE!!!$%@#^&$#$ ” – Anonymous
“All this time I’ve we been wondering how to meet YUI and now we find out all it takes is money” – Pedro
“If Sony wants to promote YUI in HK they should pay everything instead of making deals with a mall trying to screw fans in the process!” – Kikino
“I hope that this is being done against YUI’s knowledge or at least without her consent because if it is not I will have lost all the respect I had for her as artist and a person.” – /\/\r.x
The following message was posted and reposted several times in Sony Music HK Facebook page:
“Since the start of ‘Taiyo no Uta’ (movie) era, YUI has been my idol. A lot of people say that YUI isn’t pretty or can’t sing very well and etc… But, my love towards YUI has never changed. Ever since YUI announced that she will hold a concert in Hong Kong, I straight away bought the 780HKD ticket. Then after that, knowing YUI will be in Maritime Square on the 15/5 , Do you understand how excited I felt? But after knowing that I just needed to spend 500HKD to meet YUI, my heart sank……. Every time I thought of attending a YUI function, I would think of a higher price to see her. Now, you have destroyed the image of my favorite idol!
My friends who don’t know YUI all say that I am crazy, but I’m very calm and know what I am doing, I am extremely mad at Maritime Square management!! “
Translated from: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150195624312893&oid=100921436827&comments
As avid and dedicated fans, it is upsetting to see how some marketing schemes can be put together in order to take as much as they can from our admiration towards our dearest artist.
Unfortunately for us, they have put a label price on YUI’s signature, and it’s sold out until a next opportunity. Let’s start saving!
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