Chapter 49 The Recording Industry in the Digital Age
Chapter 49 The Recording Industry in the Digital Era
The rain was pouring down, and November in the mountain city seemed a bit unusual. The owner of the video store next to Taohua Road, Fatty Zhuang, was bored and playing with an antique gramophone, which he had just bought.
Offline physical stores are getting more and more difficult. This video store that has been open for more than ten years has gone from being very popular to being ignored now, which makes Fatty Zhuang feel the warmth of the world.
But fortunately, he has quite a fortune, owning more than a dozen houses and shops. Being a landlord is enough to maintain a decent life. Opening this shop is just a matter of boredom and finding something to do.
"Welcome, do you need anything?" As soon as Fatty Zhuang saw the guest, he immediately stopped what he was doing and said hello quickly.
The person who came was a girl in her mid-twenties, who looked like a college student who had just graduated.
"Boss, I want to give my boyfriend a birthday gift. He usually likes to use CD players to listen to music, so I want to give him a CD player. Do you have any recommendations?" the girl asked.
Yohoo! Listening to music with a CD player is quite retro! Since the advent of MP3 and the birth of smart phones and other smaller music players, CD players have gradually declined, and only a few enthusiasts still have CD players.
"I recommend this one, Philips EXP2386, which can be connected to headphones and played via Bluetooth. The effect is good, the size is compact, and it is easy to carry.
Or this is a fever-level CD player suitable for home use, the Dameiyin K301HIFI2.0 CD player, but the price is a bit expensive."
The girl hesitated for a while, but decided to buy it as a birthday gift: "This is the beautiful voice, wrap it up for me."
"Okay, do you want me to deliver the goods to your door?" Fatty Zhuang completed the order and was very happy.
"Can you still deliver it to your door? Great, you can just deliver it to this address the day after tomorrow." The girl wrote down an address.
"No problem. Here are the invoices and warranty documents. Please keep them. Also, here are the CDs for the test machine. They will be packaged and sent to you when the time comes." Fatty Zhuang took a few CDs from the shelf.
"Thank you, boss," the girl thanked her. She glanced at the shelves displaying CD records, and suddenly a CD was placed in the most conspicuous place on the shelf.
On the album cover, a boy wearing a baseball cap is lying on the grass, with the sun shining slantingly on his smooth face. There is a little flower-white cat next to his handsome face.
"Wow, is this?" The girl picked up the album in surprise. Sure enough, it was the singer she had been listening to recently. He had released a new album.
"Boss, how much does this album cost?" the girl asked.
Fatty Zhuang glanced at it and saw that no one was buying the newly purchased goods. Physical albums are just not selling well now.
"78 a piece, with a photobook of lyrics, and the first ten purchasers will have the opportunity to get an exclusive signed poster." Zhuang Fatty enthusiastically promoted.
"78? The online digital version is only 36!" The girl thought the price was a bit high.
Fatty Zhuang couldn't laugh or cry, and explained: "A physical album has recording costs, as well as various costs such as warehousing and transportation. 78 is already a very favorable price, and there are many peripheral products."
"So that's it. I don't know much about it. I'll buy two to support it." The girl decided to buy.
"Okay, I see you are someone who knows the goods." Fatty Zhuang helped the girl wrap up her things and continued: "I have already listened to this album. Except for "Lovely Woman" and "Lady", the others
All ten songs are quite good. I haven’t heard such a high-quality album in more than ten years. I won’t be disappointed.”
The girl put away the two albums, said thank you, and went out in the rain. Before she left, she heard the boss hum two sentences: "Love comes so fast, like a tornado. It cannot escape the storm circle and there is no time to escape..."
The girl put the two albums into her bag, opened the QQ Music APP on her mobile phone, clicked on the digital version of "Jay" to purchase, and then walked home while holding an umbrella and listening to the music. This feeling was so wonderful.
It's like overnight, "Jay" became popular. No, this album was already popular before.
But the previous fires were all kinds of controversies, plagiarism, perfunctory, not serious, and then public opinion reversed, etc., which are not positive public opinions.
But this time it is really popular, and it is popular because of its quality.
"What kind of magic album is this? Is this something I can listen to?"
"I'm a mom. There are twelve songs, each of which is excellent. The quality is amazing. I think the best one is "Heihei"."
"I like "Tornado", and "Xingqing" is also good."
"I like "Lovely Woman", Li Qin is so beautiful, I am her fan."
"Do you think Li Qin suddenly matches Li He well? Is there a double love between Li Qin and Li He?"
"No, Qinbao belongs to our fans, Li He and others go away."
"We Li He still look down on Li Qin. Li He belongs to the fans."
"What the hell is "Indian Old Turtle Dove"? The lyrics are so funny, and the singing is even weirder than "Lady"."
"No wonder, this is called acid jazz, it's very popular abroad, but I never thought that Chinese rap could be sung like this."
"A big boss once said that this is called melody rap. Even in Europe and the United States, it has just become popular. "The Clock in the Opposite Direction" YYDS."
"Actually, I think R&B is the essence of this album. The Chinese music scene finally has an R&B singer who can do it."
Netizens generally give Li Hyuk's first album high praise. Even songs with unique styles such as "Lady" and "Indian Old Turtle Dove" can be heard by discerning listeners, and the more they listen, the more they get hooked.
It has to be said that although the Chinese record market has been fully occupied by the European, American, Japanese and Korean music circles, it has also improved the audience's appreciation level. This is also the main reason why most Chinese singers who are just trying to make ends meet cannot survive. If they write badly and sing badly, who can do it?
Will I listen to your songs?
So the "Jay" album is very lucky. The audience has a high appreciation level and can appreciate the unique beauty of this album. It doesn't matter even if you can't appreciate "Lady", "It's Dark", "Lovely Woman", "Tornado",
"Love Is Very Simple", "End of the World", there is always one you like.
Because of the excellent quality of the album and the high praise from listeners, the album was recommended by Avatar. In addition, without the interruption of Douyin, the sales volume of the "Jay" album has been increasing steadily.
In the three days from November 20th to November 22nd, the digital album of "Jay" sold 770,000 copies.
What is the concept of this number? Xu Shangao and Xue Zhiqian both implement the strategy of free digital version, so there is no way to compare.
The new generation singer Hua Chenyu's album "The Gift of Cassidomo" released last year did not release a digital version of the album, but sold it through traditional physical albums. As a result, it barely sold 150,000 copies.
It stands to reason that Tianyu Company has exhausted its manpower and financial resources in production and promotion, and it can be considered that it has truly adapted to the beginning of the fan economy, maximizing the self-output of idols to attract fans.
desire to purchase.
Hua Chenyu's management company devoted all its efforts to this album and promoted it with various press releases. As a result, the sales volume of "Cassidomo's Gift", which was so huge, was even lower than that of Li Yuchun and Zhang Jie's albums.
Although the physical record industry is in a slump, the sales of this album are indeed unsatisfactory, and the management company that is losing money has no choice but to use performance tickets and commercial performances to make up for it.
In August last year, Hua Chenyu held two concerts in Wukesong and three more at Shanghai Grand Stage. At the same time, he launched an online simultaneous concert on Penguin Video. The number of people online reached 2.6 million, breaking the record for online concerts.
records of the meeting.
And this year, he became the first singer born in the 1990s to hold two concerts in a row at the National Stadium Phoenix Nest. After that, Hua Chenyu participated in many variety shows, including reality shows, music variety shows, etc.
Facts have proved that this decision is quite correct. The way contemporary singers create revenue has completely changed, and they can no longer sustain themselves by just releasing albums.
At the same time, with the formalization of online copyrights, digital copyrights have become possible. Although it is inevitable that there will be plagiarism singers such as Qishu and Zonghua, the income from digital copyrights has also become an important part of the income of singers and record companies.
plate.
The singer who took the lead in launching digital album sales in his previous life was Jay Chou. The digital album "Oh, Not Bad" sold 250,000 copies. As a pioneer of digital albums, this figure is already quite good.
Later, Jay Chou's "Bedtime Stories" album soared to 2.1 million copies, and the "Greatest Works" album reached nearly 6 million copies.
There is no Jay Chou in this world. The first person to release a digital album was Yuan Hua, who returned from Nanbang. In April, the "Snowflakes Piao Piao" EP was released in the form of a digital album.
Thanks to its huge fan base, the EP sold 2.4 million copies, and the single "You Are Beautiful" sold more than 30 million copies in June.
Compare this to Guns N' Roses' first EP "Secret Garden", which is owned by Fantasy Studio. From September to now, it has only sold no more than 600,000 copies. This is the gap caused by fan benefits.
However, in terms of professional reputation, "Secret Garden" is much higher than "Snowflakes", and it has also allowed the band to accumulate a group of loyal listeners.
Fan Noxuan hired a senior manager in the industry from Starlight Entertainment and asked her to lead the band. At the same time, she made plans to release another album within two years.
At the same time, the band needs to participate in various variety shows to make money. There is no way, just being a band really doesn't make money.
Starting a company is not a charity. Making money is the primary purpose. Zi Zixin and others understand this and will not object to commercial operations.