The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 1299: Racing all the way

Tick, tick, the hour hand is moving, my heart is almost stopping beating, I am sitting quietly in front of the computer, my palms are sweating.

Blair Miller stared at the iTunes page, refreshing it every three seconds, feeling nervous and excited, his body shaking slightly uncontrollably.

On the computer desktop, a message came from the MSN chat group.

"Blair, tell me again why download data is so important. Aren't these MP3s not counted in the Billboard singles chart data?"

Blair glanced over and saw it was Karen.

It was obvious at first glance that Karen couldn't contain her excitement and was getting agitated again.

Blair was about to respond, but Gloria in the chat group took the lead.

“That’s called a digital sound source.”

"Karen, at the end of the day, we just need to trust Blair. She knows what we are doing."

Ever since their last blockade and demonstration at Sony Columbia headquarters, this group of friends have gathered together to form a loose fan organization, hoping to give Anson the most comprehensive and powerful support.

Blair, who won recognition for her calm and wise performance last time, took on the role of strategist, and Gloria was responsible for bringing them together.

Today, the same is true.

They gathered together early, waiting for "Another Light" to go online.

Blair tapped away at the keyboard.

"Because this is Anson's plan. He hopes to unify the chaotic digital music market through exclusive cooperation on singles and protect the rights of musicians."

"We need to give full support to let people see the appeal of Anson, and also let people realize that the cooperation between Anson and iTunes can bring about the effect of one plus one being greater than two, which will be helpful for subsequent development."

Although Blair could not explain in detail the intricate interests behind it, Blair believed in Anson. With Anson's intelligence, he could not be unaware of the impact of exclusive cooperation in releasing digital audio sources, and he could not just release a single. Everything had a deeper meaning.

So, all they need to do is to support Anson wholeheartedly.

"Ah, Blair, I still don't understand what you are talking about. Anyway, we should fully support Anson."

"Karen, we're going to download Another Light anyway, right? So it doesn't make any difference."

"That's right. By the way, I'm going to buy a special deluxe edition of the album later. Are you coming? I hope Warner Records can show their money-making spirit and take more photos of Anson. Here's my pocket money. They can take it all."

"Go! Why not? I've always wondered why there's no special edition of the album. Is it because we're not worthy of it? Now Warner Records has finally come to its senses. We can't miss it."

"I have a feeling that Anson's special deluxe edition album won't just be a money-making effort..."

"Time's up! Time's up!"

As soon as Blair saw the second hand in place, he immediately gave the signal.

At 8:00 Central Time, the iTunes page was officially refreshed——

The homepage was completely black, without a trace of light, and all buttons and columns disappeared.

When the mouse slides into the interface, a ray of dawn light up from the center, slowly blooming in a counterclockwise spiral, illuminating the entire page.

In the center, Anson's face is very close. He stretches out his right hand to touch the screen. His right hand seems to be breaking the screen and interacting with the screen.

The distinctive facial features, bright eyes and relaxed brows appeared before my eyes clearly, and I was caught off guard and a scream broke out of my throat.

ah! Ahhhh!
Subconsciously, he tried to stretch out his right hand, break the screen and shake hands with Anson.

When his right hand was about to touch the screen, he realized that this was "The Creation of Adam", the famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum. At this moment, they and Anson worked together to complete it. The wonderful touch made his heart beat wildly and almost explode.

But I didn't expect that in the picture, Anson's fingertips began to turn into powder, and his palms, arms, and face slowly flew away and disappeared in the light. Finally, it evolved into a line of lyrics:

"Yes, I do."

Right below, the words "Another Light" appear to be emerging from the water.

Right in the center is the download link.

My heart is pounding and my blood is boiling.

Even though Blair was mentally prepared and had high expectations, he was still amazed at this moment. It must be said that iTunes was very sincere this time and even created a welcome page specifically for the band August 31st.

Snapped.

Click to buy and download, the clear and moving string sounds flow from the speakers, and your heartstrings are plucked again. You can't help but close your eyes and immerse yourself in it.

"The purchase is complete, what's next?"

"Blair? Blair!"

"and then?"

Karen was a completely romantic person, there was no atmosphere at all, and the MSN message notification sounds came one after another, completely destroying everything. Blair opened his eyes helplessly.

"Let's go to the record store and buy a physical album."

Blair took a deep breath, grabbed her coat, and rushed out of the room impatiently.

Just as I reached the door, I went back, picked up my iPod, put in my earphones, clicked play, and rushed out with brisk steps, my mood soaring.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. It has spread throughout the entire North American continent.

There are even radio music programs that add gimmicks, click to download during the live broadcast, and send the new song of the August 31st band to the listeners as soon as possible -

Of course, this is Warner Records' promotional strategy.

"Listeners, the song 'Another Light' performed by August 31st at the Grammy Awards is now available online. We can finally enjoy this song again and see the difference between the studio version and the live version. This is an exciting moment. I hope that the music of August 31st can wake you up in the morning."

In the Internet age, there is often such an illusion:

Things happened, but it seemed as if they didn't happen, and there was no sense of reality.

Because everything is virtual and you can't really touch it.

This is how spending money works. Your salary is gone without you even noticing.

It's the same thing right now. When I click to download, something seems to happen but it also seems not to have happened. This is different from the feeling of buying a physical album.

However, everything was calm and peaceful, and then the thunder exploded.

boom!
iTunes official: The number of digital audio downloads of "Another Light" has officially exceeded 500,000!
Boom boom boom!
There was an uproar and the whole of North America was shocked.

Five hundred thousand, what does this mean?
In 2004, there was no authoritative statistics from an authoritative platform in the market, and there was no official authoritative figure for reference on the number of downloads of a song. In addition, piracy was rampant, making statistics even more difficult. However, there was a consensus in the industry that a song with over a million downloads would be considered a big hit, and this was a threshold that everyone was eager to cross.

The million downloads mentioned here refer to the total number of regular downloads through legal channels over a whole year.

However, now?

“Another Light” has only been online for less than four hours, but the number of downloads has exceeded 500,000?
Unbelievable! Shocking!

However, the number did not stop there, and it soared towards one million downloads at an astonishing speed. The shock and impact could not be stopped at all!
(End of this chapter)