Chinese entertainment, from radio love songs to superstars

Chapter 118, Making Money and Variety Shows
Compared to the modulated recorded works, the singer’s live concert is the most direct display of the musical works.

There are many classic concerts in the Chinese music scene.

For example, Deng Lijun's 1984 Billion Applause Concert. She was 30 years old and at the peak of her career. With her moving voice, bold style and outstanding stage performance, she brought the audience an auditory and visual feast. Many domestic and foreign radio stations including the British Television Company and reporters from the New York Times broadcast and reported the entire concert.

Another example is Beyond's 1991 Life Contact Concert. Many of Ka Kui's speeches in this concert were very moving. For example, after singing "Goodbye Ideal", he said to the audience: "Everyone feels very strange. Usually there are some special guests in concerts. We in Beyond don't have such a big face to invite special guests, but we are very happy to find a group of very special guests. Our special guests tonight are all the audience in the Hung Hom Sports Stadium!"

There was also Wang Jingfei's 1999 Budokan concert, with guests including Kimura Takuya, Sakai Noriko, Takenouchi Yutaka, Zhang Guorong, etc., and Dou Wei personally played drums for Faye Wong, and the couple sang "Don't break my heart". This was the end of an era, and the former glory and perfection are difficult to reproduce.

It can be said that a concert is a test for singers to face the audience directly.

And in this real experiment, on the journey to a scene with tens of thousands of people, there are ten thousand ways for the singer to perform.

Some brought their bands to sing, some brought their dance troupes to sing and dance, and some brought more than a dozen sets of clothes to look great on stage…

In short, everyone has their own tricks.

This time, Chen Yaochuan sought cooperation with a company that Xinsuo Records often cooperates with and that mainly organizes concerts.

When holding a concert, the organizer is usually responsible for planning, publicity, venue arrangement and other matters.

For singers, holding concerts is not a very profitable project.

Take popular singers or singers with more experience as an example. They can make more money from commercial performances than from concerts, and it is less tiring.

But why do many superstar singers prefer to hold concerts rather than do too many commercial performances?

Just like superstars like Zhang Guirong, Zhang Xueyou, Xu Xiaofeng, Anita Mui and so on, they have a special liking for holding concerts and have held hundreds of them in Hong Kong Coliseum alone.

The reason is actually very simple. Although holding a concert is relatively hard and the money earned is relatively little, compared to commercial performances that make money quickly, more and easier, it will be more beneficial to the long-term development of singers.

As for how much money can a concert make?
Then, how much will the organizer take? How much will the company take? How much will the singer get in the end?
There is no standard answer to this, after all, it varies from person to person.

Weather, stage, and ticket prices all influence the performance, and the audience atmosphere during a performance is always unpredictable.

Even if this show is packed, the next stop on the tour may be deserted.

Looking at the entire market, it is impossible to be sure which music style will suddenly come to the fore in this era.

It can be said that the only certainty about the concert is "uncertainty".

As for whether or not money can be made, the first thing to consider is definitely the influence of the singer. For example, for the superstars just mentioned, if they hold ten concerts, nine of them will make money, and the remaining one will not lose money.

In the original time and space, Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" concert tour will start in March 2023, with a total of 3 performances around the world, and will end in December 151, becoming the highest-grossing music tour in history and the first tour to exceed 2024 billion US dollars in revenue.

So, when it comes to making money, there is Taylor Swift, a successful example, and when it comes to not making money, there is Huang Guolun, a failed example.

In short, it depends on the singer’s own influence and appeal.

Back to the profit sharing.

Because big-name singers have a say in the market, most of them will choose to take a fixed singing fee, just like in film and television dramas, and receive a certain amount of money per performance. They follow the "guaranteed profit flow". Anyway, I get my money, and it's your business whether you make a profit or a loss. As for those small singers or out-of-date singers, they are more likely to take commissions, and follow the "shared flow". If we lose, we lose together, and if we make a profit, we make a profit together.

The final income is [ticket revenue + advertising revenue - various costs].

That is to say, after deducting about 30% of the venue and security fees, and about 30% of the organizer's fees, the singers and the company can finally get about 40%.

To put it bluntly, a singer whose concert is popular can make a lot of money for the organizer and scalpers even without any promotion. On the contrary, a singer whose ticket sales are poor will lose everything even if the organizer and the agency use all means.

"The style of each show varies so much. Since it's a themed tour, we need to set a style, and then make some differences in the opening, middle and end of each city."

Shen Lang read the plan and was not very satisfied.

"Then pick one of these 10 styles, and I'll talk to Mr. Chen about your request and ask them to make the changes."

Du Ting listened to Shen Lang on this. After talking about the concert, she continued, "Next, three variety shows have invited you to be a guest on one episode. One is Lu Yu You Yue on Phoenix TV in Hong Kong, one is Ke Fan Listening on Oriental TV in the mainland, and the other is Guess Guess Guess Guess on Formosa Province."

These are the most popular and classic variety shows of this era. After thinking for a while, Shen Lang asked, "Does the schedule match?"

Du Ting nodded and said, "That's right. Xiangjiang and Mo can finish recording the show and return to Yanjing on the same day, and Baodao Province has also coordinated the recording time. It will take at most two days."

Upon hearing this, Shen Lang said, "Since the schedule matches, then go ahead. As for the future, I won't accept variety shows for the time being."

Variety shows are a new thing, and they are also quite peculiar. People from all walks of life can participate, whether they have representative works or not, and they can even participate just because of a "hot meme".

If you want to become famous and expand your fame, you have to participate in variety shows. If you don't have a few variety shows, you'd be embarrassed to say that you are popular.

As for whether celebrities should appear on variety shows, everyone has their own opinions.

In the original time and space, after some artists became famous, they could not stop participating in various activities and variety shows, including fast-paced competitive variety shows, slow-paced slow variety shows, dating observation shows, dubbing programs for voice charm competition shows, and so on.

Supporters believe that artists will become more famous after appearing on these shows.

Those who do not support it believe that these programs will continue to consume the freshness and mystery of the artists.

Because, whether it is the script design or the real presentation, we can see all aspects of the artists from these programs, such as their world outlook, values, little habits and quirks in life.

However, celebrities themselves have a kind of "mystery". When more information and things are exposed, or even over-exposed, the public will have two completely different reactions to these.

One type still likes him, and the other type sees his flaws and cannot accept them, leading to quit being his fan.

In fact, there are only a handful of people who can truly gain fans through variety shows, or continue to gain fans. They will always fall from the peak, which is also the disadvantage of frequently appearing on variety shows.

However, you can't miss it at least once. In the era when the Internet was not yet popular, TV variety shows were one of the best ways to get exposure.

When it comes to variety shows, some ideas emerge in Shen Lang's mind, ideas about making money.

(End of this chapter)