China Entertainment 2000

Universal Music, one of the old dominant players in the past, is now somewhat lagging behind.

It was just that they had a chance to survive before because of the internal strife of Warner Records. But when Zhou Jianhui pulled out a gold card and a silver card from Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi, Universal became the second to last among the major international giants.

After Boardman Records was merged with Sony, it is now ranked last.

Number one singer, Tam Yong Lam, is no longer as popular as he used to be, and his popularity has declined rapidly in the late 1990s, while Universal has yet to find the next singer who can carry the banner.

Under such circumstances, Huang Weixiang, President of Universal Greater China, decisively started the acquisition mode - and Zhang Xueyou, the singing god, thus became the new number one in the market.

It’s just a pity that Zhang Xueyou obviously couldn’t beat the new generation of singers in the album market, and he began to fall behind in 2001...

Although concerts can still be held in full swing, the album market share is what Universal is most anxious to save.

With the explosive popularity of Zhou Yi's first album, Universal signed Pan Weibo, a sea turtle, for hip-hop and other music elements that young people like, and used its music library to find songs for him to write lyrics for and release an album. The effect was very good, but it was obviously not enough to support the position of the top singer;

So Universal Music contacted Zhou Chuanxiong again and marketed him the title of the Godfather of Love Songs.

Coincidentally, at this time, another unconventional talent emerged in the mainland. Waving a check, Huang Weixiang defeated two major competitors, Sony and EMI, and brought this rising singer-songwriter under his wing.

Zhou Chuanxiong, Daolang, and Pan Weibo - the three pillars of the Universal album market, plus Zhang Xueyou and Tan Yonglin who are no longer involved in these, together form the Universal Five Tigers.

Huang Weixiang originally planned to market the project this way, but the one he favored most among the three leaders was pulled out and tortured by Warner before he even released a new album?

You should know that Warner has not attended any activities targeting Daolang or made any remarks targeting Daolang before. Zhou Jianhui even asked Warner's public relations manager to attend Daolang's signing ceremony and send his blessings.

People’s hearts are no longer the same as they used to be!

Marketing is marketing, what's the point of growth? You criticize one and praise another, how good can your meaningless lyrics be?

If Global General Manager Zhang Songhui hadn't stopped him, he would have made a vampire of Zhou Jianhui.

"I've listened to Pang Long's songs, and there's nothing surprising about them. Warner is very likely to make a big move this time." The former general manager of Shanghua Records took out a report card of Pang Long and placed it on Huang Weixiang's desk.

Above are Pang Long’s experiences and singing achievements over the years.

To put it nicely, the future is promising;

To put it bluntly, it's a piece of shit.

He is not a newcomer but a veteran in the music industry, which further reduces his value by half.

"Don't believe all these data. How popular are his songs?"

Huang Weixiang glanced at him, and after a long silence, he asked, "Did Zhou Yi write a song for him?"

Zhang Songhui shook his head: "The melody is not surprising. In my opinion, it is basically the same as the popular love songs produced by Shanghua in the early years. This type of music is not popular among the mainstream audience. Zhou Yi didn't write a song for him. I guess he signed him just for social reasons."

In the early years of the Taiwanese music scene, if Rolling Stone Records and Flying Disc Records had overall album-making direction and artistic pursuits, then Shang Hua Records was aiming for vulgar and catchy songs when it was first established.

What? The artistic personality of the album? You need to make money and keep my company alive first.

It is also for this reason that after tasting the sweetness, S.H. Records frequently produced homogeneous pop songs, so that it was too late to transform after the market became aesthetically fatigued. Although it tried to save itself, first signing Qi Jin and then relying on Zhang Songhui to sign Zhang Xueyou, the decline was still inevitable.

In Zhang Songhui's opinion, the style of the hit song "Two Butterflies" by Pang Long has been abandoned by the current mainstream music audience, which is why his past albums failed so badly.

No one understands pop songs better than him.

"A favor?"

Huang Weixiang still felt something was not right: "With Zhou Yi's current status, who can he do favors for? Pang Long's agency is not Warner, they just signed a record contract."

Over the years, he was really frightened by Zhou Yi's evil ways and was terrified.

As the president of Global Global China, his life is like walking on thin ice.

"Liu Xiaoqing, right? The title song of Pang Long's album was written by the director of Liu Xiaoqing's new TV series. Coincidentally, Liu Xiaoqing's ex-mistress Jiang Wen has a close relationship with Zhou Yi..."

As we all know, although the two had broken up a long time ago, the man who took care of Liu Xiaoqing when she was arrested was Jiang Wen - after she was released from prison, Jiang Wen was the first to pick her up.

Therefore, as "281 Letters" is the first TV series after Liu Xiaoqing's official comeback, it is reasonable that Zhou Yi would do Jiang Wen a favor and help promote the song again even if it is not popular, to see if it can bring the TV series back to life.

"That sounds fine."

Huang Weixiang nodded.

But obviously, he felt that he could not believe one side of the story. After Zhang Songhui, he asked people like Tan Yonglin, Zhang Xueyou, Qi Qin and others about their opinions on the album, and they all got similar answers.

Sony, EMI and other old rivals also had PTSD when they saw the word "Zhou Yi". The presidents of the Greater China regions of all companies, like Huang Weixiang, gathered people to study it in depth for most of the day, and finally came to the same conclusion -

This is indeed the type of sappy love song that has long been eliminated by the current mainstream music audience, so there is nothing to worry about.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Great, it looks like worldly wisdom!

There is no way. Warner is too scary now. When the contracts of Zhang Huimei and Nayoung expire, there will be no negative assets at all. The entire company structure is so reasonable that it is terrifying.

If a newcomer comes and beats them up, the situation will undoubtedly become even more difficult.

"Did Zhou Yi stand up and say anything?"

"No, he is still filming the music video today. Judging from the public progress, this is the last day."

………………………………

"Card!"

Beijing Film Studio, the "Hush" studio.

As the director shouted "Cut", Liu Shishi, who was playing the role of the wife in front of the camera, quickly retracted her hand that was stroking Zhou Yi's face, stood up and thanked everyone around her, including Zhou Yi.

"Shishi is much more polite than you. She even remembered to thank me, her acting teacher, after the filming was completed."

Gao Yuanyuan, who had no desire for Zhou Yi and did not want to stand behind him, became the only person in the room who dared to show disdain to Zhou Yi. She glanced at the man who took off his armor and said, "What about you?"

"Get out of the way. You're nothing but a nobody when it comes to acting. Why are you pretending to be so high and mighty?" Zhou Yi took off his wig and sneered at the woman's remarks.

Liu Shishi, who didn't dare to intervene in the verbal battle between the two, could only enrich the expression on her face with a smile.

Lu Yi did not join in the fun, but instead praised Liu Shishi: "You are born to be an actor, Shishi, I can't believe you have never learned acting."

Whether it is the speed of getting into the state or the understanding of the plot and characters, he does not seem like a newcomer at all.

"No, no, this is all thanks to Sister Yuanyuan's good teaching."

Being praised like this, Liu Shishi felt somewhat shy and waved her hands repeatedly, but there was an idea in her heart that she couldn't get rid of -

Her original dream was to become a dance teacher after graduating from Beijing Dance Academy, but in October this year, she was first selected by the director of "Moon Shadow and Wind Lotus" to play a role, and now she was selected by Zhou Yi to be the female lead in his MV, which is a plot-oriented MV...

Am I really a genius?

Then...how about trying your hand in the entertainment industry?

As far as she knew, there were two female students in Zhou Yi's album last year who were obviously going to be popular. One of them, Yang Mi, was said to have gone to compete for "The Return of the Condor Heroes";

As for the other one named Tang Yan, thanks to her outstanding performance in "Blue and White Porcelain" and the Olympic Eight Minutes, she has been contacted by many large companies before she even graduated. She is truly a popular talent.

"The MV has been filmed. Will you be free tomorrow?"

"I'm busy. I have a meeting tomorrow that will last for three days."

"Meeting?"

Gao Yuanyuan was stunned: "What kind of meeting?"

Zhou Yi tugged at his shirt and spoke in a clear and precise voice: "The Sixth National Congress of the Chinese Musicians Association."

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

If you don’t know him, you might think he studied bel canto.

“…”

“…”

“…”

After a brief surprise, Gao Yuanyuan shook her head when she remembered that this man still had such a layer of skin on him.

After breaking through the restrictions and getting to know Zhou Yi, she found it hard to associate this man with those serious people in suits and ties who attended official meetings.

"This meeting will last for three days?"

"There are a lot of procedures and topics, I guess. Even I have prepared one."

Zhou Yi shrugged.

You have to know that the last time he was specially introduced to the Music Association, he was just an auditor.

This time, the topic he prepared was "The development prospects and potential of the domestic pop music market."

In addition to Warner singers including himself in the past, this time the "outsider" Pang Long is also included.

Warner singers have proven that there is a mainstream audience in the music industry that is willing to speak out actively, while Pang Long represents another market - a sinking market that no one has paid attention to yet.

Is Two Butterflies tacky?

Of course, it is a cliché love song that couldn't be more cliché, a leftover from the 1970s and 1980s in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But here lies the problem -

In fact, there is a huge sinking market in the mainland, and most of it is concentrated in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth tier cities. This market, which has no edge at first glance, has been passively accepting the music on the market, and no one cares.

Because of the different speeds of economic development, the music they receive often lags behind that of the mainstream music audience who are willing to speak out actively.

Some cities may have already started dancing to disco while listening to Hong Kong music in the 1990s, but in some cities, skating dates in the skating rink while listening to disco music were still popular until 2008.

They don’t understand categories or trends, they just think it’s catchy and a song, and that’s enough.

More than 90% of the huge audience of ringtones come from this sinking market that has never been valued by major record companies before. They used to listen to songs like "Two Butterflies", and they heard them relatively rarely. So when they hear it again this time, they naturally won't feel disgusted.

China is too big.

The unfinished market development of ringtones was later taken over by Internet music. However, the Big Three only developed the market of the younger generation. After Tik Tok matured, the middle-aged and elderly people in the sinking market who were not good at speaking found some singers they liked.

They are not good at using the Internet to voice their favorites, but they will vote with their hands and wallets. Among them, the most representative singer is that man——

Hailaiamu.

Ever since Hailai Amu stepped onto the stage as a singer, countless criticisms have been directed at him - his songs are unsophisticated, his singing style is greasy and artificial, and people wonder why I have never heard of this person.

All the unexpected and unprovoked malice he encountered on the singing stage came from those people in the current mainstream music audience who were willing to speak out actively.

The amazing thing is that the malicious intent of this group of people who accused Hailai Amu without any basis is exactly the same as the criticism against songs such as "Two Butterflies", "Autumn Will Not Come Back", "Pray to Buddha", "Ten Thousand Reasons" and "Can't Afford to Be Hurt" in the ringtone era.

In the view of Zhouyi, the nature of the two is actually the same.

Soon after, ringtone singers led by Pang Long encroached on the middle-aged and elderly people in the sinking market, just like Hailai Amu’s popularity among the middle-aged and elderly people in the sinking market after the advent of the mobile Internet era.

“Therefore, I think the prospects of the domestic pop music market are far from reaching their limit. We need to pay attention to the sinking market, and we cannot ignore the power of the masses…

"So, once they start to get beyond just one or two genres, they'll naturally start looking for other types of music..."

December 14, 2004, 10:30 am.

Sitting in the conference hall, Zhou Yi restrained his past unruly behavior, tucked his ID card in front of his chest, and expressed his opinions in front of a group of music association members - the ringtone market was a test that he put into practice.

You can't try to be elegant and musical right away; you have to proceed step by step and build up the market slowly.

After he finished his answer, the introducer smiled and applauded, showing great satisfaction with his performance.

On the 16th, the conference ended. Zhou Yi passed the vote with a high majority and officially became an advisor to the new five-year team of the Music Association. A group photo was taken.

On the 17th, Zhou Yi's speech on the development prospects of the music market was summarized and excerpted in relevant newspapers, and CCTV's related news program also made a summary report.

And as if in response to the topics raised by Zhou Yi at the conference, the popularity and fame of "Two Butterflies" began to soar under Warner's strong promotion.

Since its official release on the 13th, Warner has been working with unprecedented force to support the ringback tone, a killer weapon that has been rolled out to small villages and towns in the countryside.

The songs in the album "Two Butterflies" started to take off in a shocking way!

"Dear, fly slowly

"Be careful of the rose with thorns ahead~

"Honey, open your mouth.

"The fragrance of flowers in the wind will make you intoxicated~"