The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 546 Warner Love Story III (1)

September 2003, 9, was like the sky falling for all the members of Viking Records who had just celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Yao Qian, who is usually not very angry and has a good reputation in the circle, rarely loses his composure. In front of the reporters who heard the news, he accused the other party of being inappropriate.

"I don't know why they did this. I only know that what they did was extremely stupid. It was so stupid that I couldn't believe it. They have completely lost their bottom line as human beings!"

The album songs of the company's ace singer were leaked, which is undoubtedly fatal to the Chinese music scene, which is currently facing an increasingly harsh environment.

Even if someone is as popular as Elva Hsiao, she cannot resist the damage that free songs can cause to her album.

"I still don't know what happened, but it really hurt me."

Xiao Yaxuan, who spent the Mid-Autumn Festival at home with her mother and brother, was stunned when she woke up. She was also blocked by reporters on her way to the company. Facing the camera, the new popular queen who is known as a genius had a solemn expression.

"Elva, after what happened, will your new album "Fall in Love" still be released as scheduled?"

"I'm not sure about this yet. It depends on the company's arrangements."

Xiao Yaxuan, who was about to curse those idiots in her heart, could only smile perfunctorily and hurriedly walked into the Viking Building while being chased by a bunch of reporters.

"The situation is very serious now. We have to release Elva's new album ahead of schedule."

At the emergency meeting, Yao Qian rejected all objections and directly announced his decision.

After Xiao Yaxuan, who fully agreed with her mentor's decision, also expressed that she had no problem, Viking Records immediately took action - in addition to immediately announcing the early release of the new album "Fall in Love with Love", the legal department also went all out to find targets to attack -

Although this sounds abstract, why do we need to find targets to crack down on when pirated audio sources are already in circulation? But this is the actual situation.

Because there is really no way to verify who released the sound.

In this wildly growing Internet era, traditional pirates can no longer keep up with the times. In addition to the insiders of record companies, they will also cooperate with the new-age Internet pirate sharks...

"I don't know what those people are thinking. It's fine if they make money from piracy, but now they want to kill the entire market? Don't they know that if the legitimate record market dies, it will also be the end of pirated music for them?

"I give in. You really are totally disregarding everything for the sake of immediate benefits..."

On the phone, Xiao Yaxuan kept cursing, and her resentment towards the pirates was almost overwhelming.

Zhou Yi, who was trimming his fingernails, listened and hummed and cursed a few times.

"Why do you sound not surprised at all?"

"Nonsense, wasn't this expected a long time ago?"

Zhou Yi curled his lips in disdain: "It's just that you still have a strange mentality towards piracy, thinking that there is a moral code for piracy."

Many crazy people in later generations who like to belittle the mainland market, accuse the mainland market of rampant piracy and praise the Taiwanese music market often ignore a cruel reality - in an environment where sales of Chinese music are truly collapsing, the mainland market is actually the one that supports the overall market.

Going back to the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the majority of the market for legitimate records has always been the mainland market, which has quietly contributed to sales and has been criticized. Hong Kong and Taiwan plus a number of Southeast Asian countries alone can never break out of the so-called golden age;

Looking back, if the mainland market was not large enough to provide support, the singers in the Chinese music scene would have starved to death.

With 70,000 to 80,000 copies sold in Hong Kong, the album can take the top spot. With 100,000 copies sold in Taiwan, the album is enough to surpass Jay Chou and become the annual sales king. This is the reality.

What really started the collapse of the Chinese-language record market were the local pirates of all sizes in Taiwan - they broke the rules, sneaked in early, and even introduced the Internet, which directly started the era of great collapse.

It was also after this that mainland pirates began to follow suit and started to break the rules, until the giant officially entered the market - Baidu.

To be precise, it is the rapidly growing Baidu.

Pirated music directly helped Baidu gain extremely huge popularity and user base, and provided great support for its listing in the United States, creating a miracle of skyrocketing stock price after listing.

If the previous pirates only made the record giants run around in a hurry, then the efforts of Baidu Music Platform have completely penetrated their psychological defenses.

The world's seven largest record companies have rarely joined forces to sue Baidu for copyright infringement, but they have not been able to shake this giant of the first Internet era in the slightest, either at home or abroad.

During this period, Li Problem was truly on the rise. He continued to act as he pleased when facing foreign giants. At worst, he would just sue them.

"It's already leaked, so hurry up and promote it. The more sales you can make, the better. You're very popular now." With the attitude of "I'm already here", Zhou Yi still advised her to use the popularity of the pirated version to sell her sympathy, and in turn get promoted to boost her own name and maybe even gain a reputation as an anti-piracy pioneer.

Apart from anything else, her noble image has at least been improved immediately. If Yao Qian is able to perform well, the value of her endorsement can also be raised through this opportunity.

"Aren't you going to the US to promote your album at the end of the year? Start marketing your disappointment with piracy in advance, create an image of being heartbroken, and then go to the US to promote your album at the end of the year. When you get to the US, let Viking arrange a scene for you, and ask people to mention the Taiwan piracy incident when asking questions.

"Then you can strongly counterattack that piracy is not the reason for your career in the United States, and use the example of Madonna's audio leak to take advantage of her popularity. Then market in Taiwan that you still love your birthplace, and severely hurt the hearts of fans to purify it..."

Zhou Yi, who was in high spirits, spoke very clearly, leaving Xiao Yaxuan stunned.

For a singer, the most important thing is recognizability.

Competition in the United States is so fierce that it is difficult to be quickly remembered by a large audience without being unique - this statement does make sense.

Xiao Yaxuan took note of it silently and turned to hand it to teacher Yao Qian.

"Hmm? Who gave you this plan?"

"Oh, I went to Zhou Yi to complain, and he asked his agent to help me with some advice."

Xiao Yaxuan remained calm knowing that there was someone who could take the blame for everything around Zhou Yi.

She still wanted to maintain Zhou Yi's image in Yao Qian's eyes through this kind of marketing tactics. After all, Yao Qian was indeed half her father.

As we all know, in the eyes of fans, Zhou Yi is a white lotus that is untainted by the mud in the Chinese music scene - and his gold medal agent Qian Jiang is the marketing promoter hidden behind the scenes!

"Ah!"

Qian Jiang, who had returned to the capital early and was working, suddenly sneezed.

"Damn it, which bastard is cursing me in secret again?" Qian Jiang, who was arranging his daily schedule, rubbed his nose and muttered out of habit. Just as he was about to drink a sip of water, the phone suddenly rang.

"Hey?"

"Hello, Mr. Qian, I'm Yang Junrong from Alpha."

"Oh, Mr. Yang, hello."

"It's like this, Mr. Qian. Jie Lun will start a concert tour next year, and I was thinking of seeing if Zhou Yi has time. If possible, I would like to invite Zhou Yi to be a guest on behalf of Alpha."

"Next year? I'm not sure about that right now. Ayi will be very busy next year. He also has to deal with the Athens Olympics. When exactly will it be?"

"It has been tentatively decided that the tour will begin in October 04..."

After asking about the relevant schedule, Qian Jiang hung up the phone without saying anything final, and decisively called Zhou Yi who was still playing in Shangrao -

"That's fine with me. Just make your arrangements."

Warner has concerns, after all, Zhou Yi’s popularity is too high now, but he himself doesn’t care.

"Okay, I'll decide based on the situation then. When will you be back?"

"That's about it. Just these two days."

The school plot of the MV "Writing Poems for You" is just that short. If Ning Hao hadn't been a little demanding, it would have ended long ago.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi patted his face and continued to devote himself to the filming of the MV, acting out his youthful secret crush with Qin Lan in high school.

Two days later, the high school scenes were finished, and except for some crew members who needed to continue filming in Jiangxi, the rest of the crew returned to the imperial capital.

But on the way back, the cover of a new album in Qin Lan's hand caught Zhou Yi's attention——

"Warner Love Story III? There's actually a third one???"

(End of this chapter)