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

Chapter 946 The Man Who Hit the Billboard and Changed the Rules

The next day, Zhou Yi was woken up by a phone call from Qianjiang.

The moment I opened my eyes, the bright sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains was enough to tell me the time. Beside me, Sun Yanzi, who had been sleeping like a baby, was also awakened by the vibration of her phone on the bedside table. She drowsily pulled her eyelids open—

"Hey?"

"Ah Yi, news from the company: the bulletin board rules have been officially changed. It's unclear when the changes will be completed, but they're definitely targeting you."

"Oh, that? Ed briefly talked to me about it in the early hours of the morning."

With a languid air, Zhou Yi silently yawned: "Let them target their own interests, I'll just sell mine. The more obviously they target me, the greater the boost they'll give me."

Although Billboard's original intention in doing so was indeed to prevent his songs from dominating the charts, and they had even modified the entry rules once before, overall it can be said to be beneficial to Zhou Yi.

However, in the eyes of the vast number of passersby, the billboard is now playing dirty tricks and has deliberately placed itself on the opposite side of the I Ching.

The Book of Changes itself is not without foundation in the Western world—in other words, great Confucian scholars will be there to debate it for me.

Not to mention that fans are always unwilling to see their idols suffer losses.

And coincidentally, Zhou Yi's fan base, thanks to Warner Music's years of management and the added advantage of his championship win, is already among the top tier.

The formula of "beautiful, strong, tragic, and heartbreaking" is universally applicable; otherwise, how could the "beautiful, strong, tragic" characters in various films and television dramas be so popular?

"What happened? Have you run into some trouble?"

After Zhou Yi hung up the phone, Sun Yanzi, who had been huddled under the covers, poked half her head out and blinked at him: "Who's so crazy as to target you?"

Her time promoting her art in the US gave her a deeper understanding of the status of the I Ching in the Western world. If it were when she first arrived, it wouldn't have mattered, but now she's reached the top of the pop music scene, having easily defeated all her rivals.

People like Eminem have been beaten up more than once, so why are there still blind fools who want to provoke him?
"Theoretically speaking, it should be the official Billboard."

"what?"

Sun Yanzi opened her mouth wide in surprise: "Didn't they support you last year?"

Previously, the Billboard Hot 100 chart was primarily calculated based on physical single sales plus radio airplay, until Zhou Yi led the rise of digital music downloads, spearheaded by the Apple Music Store—

Seeing Zhou Yi's phenomenal success in this area, taking away huge incentives from Apple every year—no, every day—singers gradually entered the digital download market, thus driving the development of the entire industry.

This move solidified Zhouyi's unshakeable position in the paid music download market.

After all, his albums can be said to be masterpieces in every song, and you can just download them without thinking. The spread of digital music with the iPod has made Zhou Yi's status and influence even higher than before, and he has started his own paid music dynasty.

In response, in February 2005, Billboard officially changed the weighting of its Top 2 singles chart, including digital downloads for the first time, and seemingly increased this weighting to around 30%-40%.

Since Billboard does not release this data, the range of proportions can only be deduced by comparing various data points.

Regardless, the digital download has indeed been officially announced as entering the top 100 singles chart, that's a done deal.

This is another important factor contributing to the dominance of the I Ching in the rankings – in terms of digital downloads, no one in the world can currently match it.

Thanks to the effect he brought, the Apple Music Store has opened up markets in all regions of the world. Jobs was so happy that he wanted to bring money to Zhou Yi's house every day to encourage him to continue his efforts.

When the bulletin board changed its calculation weights last year, some people criticized them for kneeling down to curry favor with the I Ching and being the I Ching's dogs. Why are they being targeted again this year?
"Maybe they were really scared by the 16 songs on my album this year."

Zhou Yi, his fingertips tracing the woman's soft skin, embraced her: "Last year, it was an inevitable trend; the digital download market was too big, and they had to adapt to the changing times. This year, it's also an inevitable trend; if they don't change, their company's future will be affected..."

The changes in 05 were beneficial to him, but this year's changes are not.

That's pretty much it.

Billboard even had something to say: in their more than half a century of history, they've never seen a singer like Spike. No other company could compete with this in the rankings.

"Never mind, isn't this just targeting you?"

With a strong sense of immersion, Sun Yanzi couldn't help but smirk, pointing at the Billboard official account she had praised just minutes before: "These people are still so arrogant, they can't take a joke."

"What, are you standing up for me?"

"I call this 'speaking out against injustice when one sees it'."

"But I still have to thank them."

"Ok?"

Zhou Yi rubbed his chin against the woman's head a few times, feeling the friction of her hair, and laughed, "Wouldn't it be perfectly legitimate to use this as an excuse to rest in the future?"

"what?"

Sun Yanzi was truly bewildered: "Are you planning to withdraw from overseas as well?"

She had thought Zhou Yi had only retreated from the domestic music scene, since the Chinese music scene was indeed too small for him at the moment. Maintaining the energy to release one album every year—even if it was just something he did as a side project after working on his English album—was extremely tiring.

"Why not? You've worked so hard at such a young age, if you don't enjoy life now, when will you? In your next life?"

Zhou Yi smiled and said, "The albums I've released so far are enough for me to live off my savings for a lifetime, or even two lifetimes."

When the mobile internet era explodes, setting aside the internet companies that have invested in him, his copyright revenue management company will make a fortune just from managing the licensing of these old songs.

After you've had your fill of fun, pop up and show your face, release a single as a musical mini-movie to remind others of your existence, and then go back to lurking. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

By then, not only will a generation of young people in China have grown up listening to his songs, but an entire generation in the United States can also be said to have grown up listening to his songs. Even Michael Jackson's accumulated hit songs are not as impressive as his.

"That makes sense."

As one of Warner Music (China)'s two most famous lazy artists, Sun Yanzi put her arm around the man's waist, nuzzled her head against his chest, and wholeheartedly agreed with the statement: "But I think you are still one work away from retirement, one of your best works."

Zhou Yi asked curiously, "What work? Are you inspired to write a song for me again?" "Of course, it's about children. I want to have your children."

Sun Yanzi looked up, her expression no longer evasive, her eyes filled with emotion: "I like you, Zhou Yi."

Although she didn't know exactly when she fell in love with this man, the kite at home was still perfectly preserved and had not been damaged in any way.

Actually, I've always liked you.

"Besides, you know I've always liked you, right?"

Do I know?

Sun Yanzi's cheeks immediately puffed up, round, soft, and easy to poke.

Zhou Yi looked into her eyes, ran his fingers through her hair, and smiled like a fox: "Okay, I know."

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

Two days later.

When Qian Jiang, who had just been scolded by Ji Shengshan, knocked on Zhou Yi's hotel room door with a dark face, Zhou Yi, who opened the door, immediately shut him up: "I know Yan Zi is not able to move around easily, it's my fault. I'm sorry you got scolded, Lao Qian."

Qian Jiang: "..."

With a bellyful of words to say, Qian Jiang could only sigh helplessly when Zhou Yi clasped his hands together to shut him up: "Although, could you two please choose a time? Postponing Yan Zi's schedule by two days would be a loss."

“She’s not like you. The company paid her to get her on shows and rush her to different events. Ji Shengshan was almost going crazy when she found out she needed a break, you know that?”

A boss is a boss, and an employee is an employee.

Zhou Yi, as the owner of Warner Music, didn't care, but Ji Shengshan didn't hold shares; she was just a high-level employee managing Sun Yanzi's management team. She had just seen Sun Yanzi's North American career flourishing when her own boss suddenly intervened—

It's truly like a mute eating bitter melon—unable to express their suffering.

The Warner (US) agent team members, who were responsible for facilitating the deal, couldn't vent their anger on Zhou Yi, so they could only follow Ji Shengshan's example and complain to Qian Jiang from time to time, since he was Zhou Yi's agent.

Zhou Yi handed him a glass of water: "It's not a big problem."

"She doesn't have a big problem, but you have a big problem."

Qian Jiang, who had come prepared, pulled a document from his briefcase and pushed it in front of the man: "The bulletin board has officially announced that it will begin trial implementation of the revised rules next week. Take a look, it's practically all aimed at you..."

Zhou Yi, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, opened the folder. He quickly skimmed through the newly implemented trial regulations, most of which he recognized, except for one—

"Huh? Streaming media? YouTube music? Why did they include this?"

The Book of Changes was quite unexpected.

In 2006, the main streaming music services in the United States were provided by two major service providers: Yahoo! and AOL Music. The former belonged to Yahoo! and the latter belonged to Time Warner, and was a subsidiary formed after Warner acquired AOL.

Therefore, it's not surprising that Yahoo and AOL were included in the rating system, because even without him, Billboard would have made minor rule changes in 2007 to include streaming media in the rating system.

However, amidst this wave of paid downloads sparked by the I Ching, the current state of streaming music is not very optimistic.

Knowing the future, Zhou Yi naturally wouldn't let the opportunity of streaming media slip by. After confirming that Edgar Jr. had inadvertently acquired the fledgling YouTube, he approached him to plan a streaming music service.

The fact that the official music video for his new album can be streamed on YouTube is also thanks to YouTube Music, a product of the streaming music project.

"YouTube Music's influence has grown significantly. Thanks to your leadership, Warner artists and our partners are all advertising on it. Its influence has surpassed that of AOL Music, which is constantly embroiled in internal strife and relies solely on advertising revenue to stay afloat."

"In addition, the number of views for your 'One Day' music video on YouTube is frighteningly high, and its reach is too wide."

"So Billboard simply used this as an excuse to include Yahoo Music, AOL Music, and YouTube in its rating system, in order to change the underlying rules..."

In plain language: Watching the official music video online generates too many views and profits, which can be used as an excuse.

Qianjiang considers this an excuse because, according to internal company information, the combined weight of the evaluation systems of the three streaming music services in the overall evaluation does not exceed 5%, and may even be lower.

Physical sales, radio airplay, and digital downloads remain the three pillars of success.

"That's pretty ahead of its time."

He was amazed by the Book of Changes.

In his memory, YouTube music videos wouldn't be included in the evaluation system until early 2013, but he unexpectedly brought it forward. However, the proportion... is somewhat disrespectful to YouTube's current influence.

"Furthermore, the rules for removing the list are no longer even bothered with pretense—"

"Any song that stays on the charts for more than 40 weeks will be removed from the charts immediately if its ranking drops below 15th in a given week."

"At the same time, they also added a new return mechanism: once a holiday song becomes popular again, it can be allowed to return to the charts, just in case new songs can't beat it, so they put old holiday songs on the list to push it off..."

Qian Jiang became more and more excited as he spoke.

This ranking mechanism and the holiday song mechanism are practically non-existent.

Who has the most songs that have been on the charts for over 40 weeks?

Is it the Book of Changes, the Book of Changes, or the damn Book of Changes?

This rule is clearly designed to eliminate those chart-topping hits from Zhou Yi. Songs that have been on the charts for more than 40 weeks will be immediately removed from the charts if their ranking drops below 15 in a given week, even if they only rank 16th.

As compensation, the newly introduced streaming mechanism has a weight of less than 5%...

When Zhou Yi saw these new regulations, his mind quickly pinpointed that woman's "Three Thousand Ways to Kill You"—

Holy shit! There's a cow!
(End of this chapter)