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

Chapter 785 The Divine Comedy Era Begins

“The market was bad, records weren’t selling well, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

"This is the dilemma that the Chinese music market, record companies and even singers have collectively faced in the past two years. Looking at the entire Chinese music scene, I am afraid that Zhou Yi is the only one who can earn high profits for the company by releasing Chinese records based on his popularity in the overseas market.

“Other singers, even those as strong as Sun Yanzi, Xiao Yaxuan, Jay Chou, Wang Lihong, and Tao Zhe, cannot do it.

"The market has already responded - Jay Chou and Sun Yanzi, the two strongest artists after Zhou Yi, have only achieved sales of 130 million copies of their new albums, which is close to the limit.

"Under such circumstances, Zhou Yi could have sat back and watched, but he did not do so. Instead, he tried every possible way to open up new revenue channels for the depressed Chinese music scene, even though he would be criticized by a large number of music critics.

“Yes, in my opinion, the points that Zhou Yi’s new album “Hush” was criticized by a large number of music critics were exactly what he intended.

"Through the report and speech he submitted at the Music Association Conference, it is not difficult to see that Zhou Yi did not indulge in the false prosperity of the music industry, but was aware of the weakness of the domestic record market early on. He wanted to inject new vitality into the music industry by opening up new market routes.

"So, he chose ringback tone, which extended the music consumption scene from traditional records and concerts to the mobile communications field, especially accurately covering the previously neglected third- and fourth-tier cities and rural users;

"The small-amount, high-frequency payment model has lowered the threshold for music consumption and broadened the music consumption scenarios, allowing a large number of users who originally relied on piracy to pay for music for the first time.

"As a result, the ringback tone market expanded rapidly and the potential of the sinking market was activated. It can be said that Zhou Yi has single-handedly created a new source of income for singers and companies in the Chinese music scene..."

In this article on heroes, it can almost be said that Zhou Yi is blown up into a great hero who sacrificed himself for the benefit of others, and the arguments given can also stand up to scrutiny -

Pang Long's "Two Butterflies" proved that this model is not only effective for famous singers like Zhou Yi;

The recent hit "Ten Thousand Reasons" further proves that this model does not require the involvement of Warner Music.

"Zhou Yi is using his influence to promote the popularity of ringback tones. Through the demonstration effect of hit songs such as "Love Transfer", "She Said", and "Hair Like Snow", he has proved to everyone the feasibility of digital music payment in China.

"This directly overturned the pessimistic expectations of the traditional record industry about rampant piracy. The convenience and social attributes of ringtones further strengthened users' respect for music copyrights, prompting more people to switch from free MP3 downloads and buying pirated tapes and CDs to legal payment..."

Of course, there is a price to pay for doing this.

So, the question is, what is the price Zhou Yi has to pay for doing this?

The answer is the imbalance in the proportions of song elements and genres within the album.

“Vulgar” is how many people in the industry comment on Zhou Yi’s album “Hush”. But, what I want to say is, if these people in the industry can only see the vulgarity of Zhou Yi’s album, then I can only feel sad for Zhou Yi——

“He tried his best to save the market and let more singers survive, but all he got in return was these people’s contempt.

"I'm not the worm in Zhou Yi's stomach, so I don't know what he would think, but if I were in his shoes, I'm afraid I would feel very disappointed..."

One word——

Those industry insiders, including music critics, who do not support Zhou Yi and who criticize him are a bunch of blood-sucking ungrateful people!

Justified and convincing.

"I said Zhou Yi would not lower the quality of his album for no reason. There are reasons for this."

"If it were me, I'd be really disappointed. Without the music market, wouldn't these music critics also be out of work? Eating the food served by Zhou Yi and still scolding him, how disgusting!"

"Among all Zhou Yi's songs, the worst one is "Love Song", but it's not as good as "Mouse Loves Rice", right? I don't know what the mentality is of those who keep criticizing him."

"Well, to be honest, the song 'Love Song' in this album is actually at the highest level in terms of musical creativity and sophistication..."

"I was indeed inspired by Zhou Yi to download the ringtone, but the problem is that I still feel uncomfortable with this ringtone, and I can't hear it myself. But my mother can hear it when she calls me, and she wants it too."

"Hurry up and improve, China Mobile and China Unicom!"

"..."

Thanks to Zhouyi's recognition of "no marketing" on the Internet, this article, which appeared on the four major portals at different times, spread rapidly in just a few hours with the convenience of the Internet, and also caused many Zhouyi fans to complain about the ringback tone.

Because this thing is just a ringtone used to show personalization and it cannot serve the role of an MP3 at all.

As long as the caller did not hang up the phone or answer the call, he would directly hear the chorus - or sing one or two sentences of the main song and then fast forward to the chorus.

This is very new to the vast audience in the sinking market, as it is no longer the same old "beep" busy tone, but for music lovers, it is just like that - because it can neither replace CD tapes nor MP3s.

However, this is also the core point of this article praising Zhou Yi - because this style of ringtones will not destroy the music market at all. Instead, it will promote the vast number of people in the sinking market to be exposed to first-line trendy music earlier, and subtly cultivate their ability to perceive music.

As long as there is only one person among 100, no, even one among 1000 ringtone recipients who switches to genuine records because he or she is tired of listening to only the chorus of the ringtone, this will be a high-quality new customer for the singer and even the record company.

Pang Long and Zheng Yuan, two previously unknown singers, were seen by the outside world as the first lucky ones to benefit from Zhou Yi's "open source benefits".

Especially Zheng Yuan——

Unlike Pang Long, he does not have Warner’s channels to help with promotion and publicity. He became famous entirely on his own.

The operators were also happy to see such a benchmark and directly used Zheng Yuan as a typical example for publicity. With more promotional resources, Zheng Yuan's song "Ten Thousand Reasons" became incredibly popular in the vast lower-tier markets.

Not to mention other people in the industry, even Warner itself can't understand it.

"No, can "Ten Thousand Reasons" compare to "Two Butterflies"?

Sun Yanzi’s mentors, the two Lees from Singapore, were overwhelmed by what they saw.

A new form of music revenue has emerged. As people closely related to the industry, even though Zhou Yi is there to answer their questions, they definitely have to study it carefully on their own.

There is also a gap between popular songs.

The melody arrangement of "Ten Thousand Reasons" is completely inferior to that of "Two Butterflies", but what ringtone trend can be comparable to that of "Two Butterflies"?
"Because more than 99% of ringtone audiences only hear the chorus, and the chorus is the most memorable part of the song "Ten Thousand Reasons."

Sitting in the conference room and sipping winter melon soup calmly, Zhou Yi smiled without showing his teeth and revealed the secret of the ringtone market - the chorus.

Don’t worry about the quality of the entire song, because the ringtone audience will never listen to your entire song.

"Assume that A calls B and B doesn't answer. Then A hears the ringtone song set by B, which only has the chorus. And "Ten Thousand Reasons" swept the ringtone charts with the pleasant chorus."

Zhou Yi gave a simple example.

Does this sound familiar?

Yes, this is actually the routine that led to the birth of a large number of Douyin hits after the advent of the mobile Internet era.

The biggest reason why Tik Tok's hit songs can go viral is that the creators use the chorus part of about 30 seconds to 1 minute to attract the ears of a large number of listeners in the sinking market - these listeners don't care about the quality of the entire song.

All they could hear was the song's most melodious chorus.

In this way, because of the preconceived notion, as long as one percent or even one thousandth of the listeners are converted to pay for the genuine version of the entire song, they are all high-quality customers.

In fact, since music copyright fees have already been implemented in the mobile Internet era, as long as a song has a popular chorus, many organizations and individuals will use it for commercial activities. And this requires payment.

The person who did the best in this regard was Xu Liang.

Yes, that’s right, it’s Xu Liang, who was once known as one of the three non-mainstream giants of Q music together with Xu Song and Wang Sulong.

Unlike Xu Song who follows the path of traditional music, Wang Sulong relies on variety shows to maintain his popularity——

Among the three non-mainstream giants, Xu Liang, who has the strongest composing talent but the weakest singing skills, chose to transform behind the scenes, and keenly grasped the commonalities between the mobile Internet era and the ringtone era, and created a batch of Douyin divine songs that are suitable for the times.

What Xu Liang adopted was the path left over from the ringback tone era, and he improved it, turning it into the code for reaping wealth in the sinking market in the mobile Internet era.

It’s just a pity that there are too many idiots who follow the trend and want to make quick money.

The reason why the reputation of Douyin's hit songs has been ruined is because too many idiots who want to follow the trend and make quick money completely ignore the cultivation and development of the music market. When the trend comes, they just copy and paste or act as tailors to quickly create hit songs and make a fortune;
Or you can just make a speed-changed version, DJ version, xx version, etc. on the popular song.

No matter how many hits Xu Liang creates, there is still a basic bottom line. The Douyin hits he creates at least guarantee the basic originality of the melody, which is beneficial for expanding the market and cultivating music audiences.

However, a group of musicians including Xu Liang and Hai Lai Amu who have been working hard to make money in the sinking market have not been able to stop the numerous idiots on the Internet who want to take shortcuts to make quick money. This has directly led to the title of Tik Tok Divine Song becoming a synonym that is even worse than the Ringtone Divine Song.

"Just the chorus? Wouldn't the future of the music industry become a mess?" Li Sisong frowned, seeing through the danger of this model at the first moment, and looked up at Zhou Yi.

He didn't believe that Zhou Yi couldn't see this obvious future.

“Yes, but as long as musicians have income to maintain their creations, the market environment will be forced to upgrade in the future as the audience’s musical taste improves.”

Zhou Yi nodded.

In fact, in Zhou Yi's opinion, if ringtones had not gradually declined after 07 due to the short-sightedness of the three major operators, and Internet music platforms such as Kugou that started out as piracy had not emerged and occupied the mainstream, the evolution of the domestic music market would not have been interrupted.

The fact that Sun Nan and Han Hong's "Beautiful Myth" generated over 100 million yuan in sales in the ringtone market is enough to show that mainstream singers can actually make huge profits in the ringtone market with good songs.

Unfortunately, the three major operators collectively behaved like fools and destroyed the golden goose of ringback tone, which was a positive cycle.

But Zhou Yi couldn’t say this now. After all, he alone couldn’t defeat the three major operators who would become furious soon.

If we honestly use our influence to operate QQ Music, which will be jointly launched with Tencent next year, and keep the paid music spark, we can do our part for the Internet music market which is about to reach its darkest moment in the future.

"Okay, I'll go to Hong Kong first, my flight is almost due."

Seeing that the music department headed by the two Lis were still thinking about it, Zhou Yi looked at the time, stood up, straightened his clothes, and said goodbye.

The auction of relics donated by James Wong will be held on the 22nd. Since he is in Hong Kong, he will definitely attend tomorrow.

After all, he had a unique copy of the commemorative special issue written by himself, "The song has ended but we have not dispersed, the rivers and seas will carry me through the rest of my life", which would be auctioned at the meeting. Many people who wanted to show their goodwill to him or communicate with him were eyeing this opportunity.

According to Cheng Hao's gossip, there are many investors who also want to get to know Zhou Yi.

....................................

"We have to touch it, we have to show it, this piece of meat is so delicious, we have to bite ourselves to death to own the copyright."

Guangzhou, Feilo Records, boss’ office.

The two online singers Yang Chenggang and Xiang Xiang felt quite pressured when they saw their boss Zhong Xiongbin with a frown on his face.

There's nothing we can do, the main thing is that they are in trouble.

As the creator of "Mouse Loves Rice", Yang Chenggang has been killing two birds with one stone since 2002, selling the song over and over again countless times, each time deceiving the other party that it was the first time he sold it.

Well, this isn't a big problem.

But no one expected that "Mouse Loves Rice" would become so popular.

Yang Chenggang was signed by Zhong Xiongbin as the creator at the first opportunity, and then he quickly launched his own version, intending to replace Wang Qiwen's popular version and claim it to be the orthodox one;
Xiang Xiang also released a cover of "Mouse Loves Rice" to gain popularity.

Then came the problem.

Since Yang Chenggang himself had forgotten how many people he had sold the song to, this led to constant controversy after the song became popular. Now it has come to the point of a lawsuit, and the lawsuit is very unfavorable to their Feile Records.

Now Zhong Xiongbin can only use his position and power to delay the lawsuit, and try to find the singer that Yang Chenggang sold the copyright to first, and then buy the copyright back from him. In this way, they will be the orthodox copyright owner.

Because legally speaking, the first copyright contract of Yangchenggang that truly has legal transfer effect is the first one. The subsequent ones are just killing two birds with one stone and are legally invalid.

The first thing Yang Chenggang does when he wakes up every day is to hit his brain, trying to remember immediately who was the first person to look for the copyright of his song.

They have now contacted three copyright holders, but judging from the contract dates, none of them is the first one.

"We can die even if we bite to death. As long as we are thick-skinned, we can continue to make money before the court makes a ruling."

Zhong Xiongbin turned his gaze towards the female singer Xiangxiang, and pulled out a pile of files and pushed them to her: "Record all these songs, and then release the ones that sound good. Zhou Yi eats meat, and we have to hurry up and drink soup as much as possible."

"Are these songs... copyrighted?" Xiangxiang asked another question based on Yang Chenggang's previous experience.

"Some have, some don't. Why do you care so much? Just sing it. Sing it first and talk about it later. If it becomes popular, the worst that can happen is that we have to file a lawsuit and lose some money. The money we earn is real money."

Zhong Xiongbin doesn't care about the so-called music market at all, he only cares about money.

If the sky falls, there is a tall man like Zhou Yi to hold it up. He is just a businessman.

"..."

Xiangxiang was silent. After taking the document, she opened the first piece of music she saw. The title of the song almost shocked her to death - "Pig Song".

Writing songs for pigs?

"Although this song has no copyright, it was written by a young man from a public institution in his spare time. It's insignificant. Even if it becomes popular in the future, he won't dare to claim it with a little coercion or inducement." Zhong Xiongbin took a glance and gave his evaluation.

Yang Chenggang, Xiangxiang: "..."

At the same time, in the capital, Taige Impression Records Company.

Wang Hu, the boss of Feile Records, who is currently entangled with the company, is also pushing his singers to seize the opportunity to make money from ringtones.

"'Perfume is Poisonous'? What's the name of this song?"

The female singer Hu Yangling was stunned.

Let’s take a look at the lyrics and music: Cheng Chao.

Don't know him at all.

Even more confused is the singer Shi Yan (stage name) from Wuhan Xingna Performing Arts Culture Studio.

The reason is simple: the company bought the copyright of "Mouse Loves Rice" from Yang Chenggang last June and released a DJ version of "Mouse Loves Rice". But now the court told him that the copyright is invalid...

Damn me!
Yang Chenggang, are you still a human being?!

This money is a scam?!
"Forget it, there's no point worrying about this now."

The manager also sighed: "Didn't you say you asked your friends to buy new songs? How is it going?"

Shi Yan nodded and said, "I bought it. Cheng Chao is my friend. He gave me a friendly price of 200 yuan."

As he spoke, Shi Yan took out the song he had bought for 200 yuan earlier - "Pray to Buddha".

"We don't have the production capabilities of a traditional record company, but fortunately Zhouyi has already paved a way for us. We just need to follow and learn. If things go well, your new album will be ready next year. If things go slowly, it should be ready by the beginning of 06."

If you lack mature distribution and production capabilities and don't want to work for a big company, then you can only hone your skills on your own.

At Guangzhou Hu Li Music Studio, a young creator named Wang Qiang also received a notice from his boss - to learn the ringback tone model and create songs suitable for the ringback tone market.

(End of this chapter)