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

Chapter 926 Qianjiang's Graduation

The Golden Melody Awards, in the public eye, had a honeymoon period with the I Ching.

At the 12th Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan in 2001, Zhou Yi, who was just starting out, received four out of six nominations, while Jay Chou, a fellow newcomer from Taiwan, received none.

This caused controversy in the Taiwanese music scene at the time, with some accusing the Golden Melody Awards of being influenced by politics and giving Zhou Yi so many awards.

Then, at the 13th Golden Melody Awards:

Zhou Yi received eleven nominations across five awards, and ultimately won three out of five trophies. Among the younger generation, only Jay Chou managed to snatch the Best Producer award from him.

14th Golden Melody Awards: Zhou Yi's "Lianshan" topped the charts.

They won all five awards: Best Lyricist, Best Composer, Best Arranger, Best Producer, and Best Album. They also won a Best Team Award and a Best Video, for a total of six awards. Wang Lihong, Jay Chou, and others went home empty-handed. Among the younger generation, Chen Yixun took home the Best Singer award.

Judging from the first three Golden Melody Awards Zhou Yi participated in since his debut, he is undoubtedly the Golden Melody Awards' favorite son. He won a total of 13 trophies in those three Golden Melody Awards, which is the most in history.

At the time, the Taiwanese music scene regarded Jay Chou and Wang Leehom as the only musicians who could rival Jay Chou at the Golden Melody Awards ceremony.

Then came the beginning of Zhou Yi's "fall from favor" at the Golden Melody Awards.

15th Golden Melody Awards —

Zhou Yi's "Guicang" only won two individual awards for Best Composition and Arrangement, based on the sensitive issue of commemorating and praising great figures, and the team award for Best Video for "Stop the War". That's it.

Wang Leehom won Best Producer for "Incredible", and Jay Chou won Best Album for "Ye Huimei".

Jay Chou and Wang Leehom, this pair of creative talents shrouded in the shadow of the Zhou Yi era, finally achieved their wish at this year's Golden Melody Awards, winning what they considered the most prestigious award. They have rightfully become the two stars under Sony capable of resisting the pressure from the Zhou Yi era.

Sony's twin stars have officially begun production.

In contrast, the I Ching is being targeted more and more frequently by the Golden Melody Awards.

At the 16th Golden Melody Awards, Zhou Yi received four individual nominations, plus Sun Yanzi's "Silk Road" for Best Arrangement, for a total of five nominations, but ultimately only won Best Lyricist.

This caused a huge uproar in public opinion at the time.

To date, Zhou Yi and his team have won a total of 17 Golden Melody Awards, but only the first three awards have truly been successful.

It's no wonder that so many people believed the rumors that Zhou Yi wanted to withdraw from the Golden Melody Awards.

Although Warner Music ultimately submitted Zhou Yi's application for the 17th Golden Melody Awards, the unexpected appearance of the godfather of Taiwanese folk music still hinted at something unusual.

What if?
Outsiders may not understand, but insiders certainly don't understand the Golden Melody Awards judging panel's quirks.
Therefore, after getting off the plane, Qian Jiang, having discussed the matter with Zhou Yi, didn't linger and hurriedly contacted Chen Zeshan, asking him to get in touch with people at Sony Japan to work together on the project.

The reason for contacting both Sony Music Japan and Sony Music, where Chen Zeshan works, is that they are not actually the same company; they just share the name "Sony Music".

This is why Qian Jiang previously said on the plane that Warner (Japan)'s resources could be used as leverage.

Sony Music Japan, abbreviated as SEMJ, is currently headquartered in Nogaki, Minato-ku, Tokyo. It is a Japanese music company directly under the Sony Group and is independent of the Sony Music Group (Global).
Sony Music Entertainment (Global) is headquartered in New York and is also directly under the Sony Group, but its various subsidiaries, including those in Greater China, are all under its name.

Literally, Sony Japan and Sony Music (Global) are on the same level. But in reality... those who know, know.

A very simple example:

Back in 02, Sony Music (Global) and its sponsor, Sony Group, were among the key figures who helped Zhou Yi reach the World Cup stage. Warner Music and Zhou Yi thus owed a favor to the corresponding person in charge, but this favor was something Sony Japan couldn't use—

As a multinational conglomerate, Sony Group naturally suffers from a variety of ailments.

Qianjiang approached Sony with sincerity to join the alliance, recognizing Sony's influence in the Asian market. As for Chen Zeshan—

We're all professional managers. Business competition is business competition, but we don't have to be mortal enemies and never speak to each other again.

It's all business.

Otherwise, why would there be all sorts of messy "rival company" musicians in the album production of major international record labels?

Even Sun Yanzi's mentors, the Li brothers, have written songs for artists from other companies.

Not to mention that Chen Zeshan himself is a job-hopping monster.

"Ayi will be writing the theme song for an Olympic tribute film called 'Stand Up.' However, he's quite busy with his schedule and might not be able to participate in the recording of this song."

Qian Jiang, who was an old acquaintance of Chen Zeshan, didn't mince words and went straight to the point, leaving the former, who was still trying to be polite, speechless.

What did he hear?
The theme song of an Olympic tribute film?

Chen Zeshan's breathing immediately became much heavier.

He doesn't value music itself that much; his biggest label is professional manager—he's very good at helping artists reach higher positions.

But is the Book of Changes willing to give up?

“Ah Yi took this task purely for charity, so the other party didn’t have any fixed requirements for him to sing. You know, Ah Yi also has to go to the United States to release an English album next…” Qian Jiang, who was calm and collected, didn’t say anything definitive, but Chen Zeshan already understood.

"what do you want?"

"I support Ayi winning the award."

Qian Jiang, setting down his coffee cup, spoke with unprecedented firmness: "All the awards."

"This is impossible."

Chen Zeshan directly rejected the idea: "It's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that in the history of the Golden Melody Awards, no one has ever won all the awards. This would damage the balance and their credibility. Do you think they would agree to that?"

Even when Luo Dayou excelled in innovation, humanism, social commentary, and musicality in the last century, he couldn't achieve this. To bow down to the Book of Changes would be far too frivolous, not to mention that his previous Chinese studies, like Luo Dayou's, were tainted by politics.

"The Golden Melody Awards have a compensation mechanism, which you and I both know."

Qian Jiang remained unmoved: "Could Power Station have won? Could Wu Sikai have won? They were completely undeserving when they won the award, which is why there was such a huge controversy. In the end, it's just the Golden Melody Awards' compensation mechanism."

"Even this year's Hu Defu, does his album really deserve to be nominated? It's either because his fame and status overshadow this album, or it's an album that's already outdated."

"If Jay Chou hadn't started getting too close to the mainland this year, would he have received no nominations at all?"
"Why is Nan Quan Mama nominated? Isn't this a compensation mechanism from the Golden Melody Awards for Jay Chou not being nominated? Otherwise, Nan Quan Mama wouldn't even have made it past the first-place round. I even suspect that the Golden Melody Awards will directly award Nan Quan Mama to compensate Jay Chou."

"And you know how many Golden Melody Awards A-Yi has lost in the past two years, even if I don't tell you."

“The Southern Fist group only won a small prize. The other groups won because they are getting older. If we don’t compensate them, there might not be a next competition.” Chen Zeshan paused, then frowned as he looked at the man in front of him, as if he had thought of something.

There won't be a next edition?
Is that rumor true?
Wasn't this a move by Warner Music to put pressure on the Golden Melody Awards?
"Is he really leaving?" Chen Zeshan asked incredulously.

What a joke.

What is Zhou Yi's current status in the music industry? Is he really leaving because of this trivial business matter?
Didn't Coca-Cola just sign a lifetime contract with Zhou Yi, the only one of its kind in the entire beverage industry?

In his view, Zhou Yi's withdrawal from mainland award ceremonies was merely a matter of voluntarily retiring after reaching a certain level of status to gain a good reputation. After all, mainland award ceremonies lack any real authority; with a so-called "god" overshadowing them, all participants in mainland ceremonies feel a lack of engagement.

Because they couldn't win the grand prize.

Why do we hold so many award ceremonies? Isn't it just to entertain ourselves?

Zhou Yi's continued participation in the Golden Melody Awards made Chen Zeshan feel that his guess was very accurate; it was all a show.

“In fact, Ayi wanted to leave last year.”

Qian Jiang sighed: "If I hadn't stopped him, he wouldn't have even registered for this year's Golden Melody Awards. Do you think his news of not renewing his contract was just to put pressure on the Golden Melody Awards? In fact, I can tell you very clearly that all his contract renewal work has been cancelled."

"Why?" Chen Zeshan couldn't understand.

"What do you think?"

Qian Jiang, looking up at a 45-degree angle, said with a melancholy tone: "After the I Ching trilogy, every time he published a special report, the number of people criticizing him domestically was more and the criticism was more intense than the number of people criticizing him abroad. He was tired of this endless noise."

"..."

“Ah Yi wasn’t originally going to come this year. I tricked him into coming by saying that he should give his fans a final farewell in Taiwan. I wanted to try to change his mindset and get him to stay in the music industry.”

"The Golden Melody Awards have done a lot to hurt him. The first two awards ceremonies clearly showed that they couldn't take a joke. You know A-Yi's personality. If they want to try to win A-Yi back, the Golden Melody Awards must make amends."

Qian Jiang's words were forceful and resounding, while Chen Zeshan's silence was deafening.

"With A-Yi around, the Chinese music market can at least maintain a false sense of prosperity. What if A-Yi leaves? Have you thought about this question? Have the Golden Melody Awards organizers thought about this question? In the Taiwan market now, selling 15 copies is considered a big hit. What does that mean?"
"If this continues, will we be able to reach the top of the sales charts with just 10 copies?"

Chen Zeshan felt he had been tricked—but he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Regardless, the market's top performance will still be supported by the I Ching, and that will not change.

Qianjiang's strategy is a blatant conspiracy—first, they throw out a very tempting pie as a bargaining chip, and then they launch a series of grand industry narratives.

A top singer can only use this combination of techniques once in their lifetime.

If Zhou Yi lies, his reputation in the industry will instantly crumble, and those who manipulated his schemes will be ridiculed—but if he doesn't lie…

Chen Zeshan narrowed his eyes and thought for three seconds: "Can you recommend Li Hong for the Olympic movie songs you mentioned?"

If Zhou Yi is really gone, then the vacant honorary position will need to be filled...

Qian Jiang laughed, and before he finished, he couldn't resist adding insult to injury: "I thought you were going to talk about Jielun."

“His agency contract isn’t with me, so I can’t make a decision.”

"Money is everything" is Chen Zeshan's motto as a professional manager.

(End of this chapter)