Japanese super-idol group, AKB48, breaks records by surpassing 560,000 sales of its 18th single on the first day alone. This is the most sales the group has been able to amass on a single on the first day and will mark this single as the third to surpass half a million in its first week. The single, titled "Beginner," was released on October 27 and an estimated 1,030,000 copies of the single were shipped out to stores in preparation for Beginner's release.

Beginner first made news when its PV was aired to a live audience at two of AKB48's events. The PV was deemed too violent by management and they believed that it would have a bad influence on children, so they decided to pull the PV from the official release. The replacement PV on the DVD ended up being a dance version cut with some making-of footage. Fan reactions ranged from despair, anger and delight. Later, it was announced that the PV would be available exclusively through a mobile content provider called Recochoku. Despite what could be considered a marketing mistake, Beginner is doing very well in initial sales.

[Source: tokyohive]