Peninsula: It’s just a dream, are you serious?

Chapter 492 I Accidentally Incurred Public Angry (Seeking Monthly Tickets at the Beginning of the Month!)

"Okay, I understand, thank you, Reporter Jin."

Two days later, in the morning, Chen Yan held his phone to his ear with one hand while pushing open the office door with the other.

"Okay, see you next time."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yan sat down in his office chair.

The call was from reporter Kim of the Seoul JoongAng Ilbo, about the interview I conducted a couple of days ago.

The edited and subtitled interview video was sent to Chen Yan yesterday afternoon, and there were no problems.

So the Seoul JoongAng Ilbo plans to release the video online at 9:00 AM today, simultaneously with the print edition.

Reporter Jin called Chen Yan to tell him about it, reminding him to check online, and also expressed his hope to interview Chen Yan again in the future.

I glanced at the time: 8:47, more than ten minutes before the video went live.

Chen Yan turned on his computer and, as usual, first checked the chart rankings of the songs "Something" and "Nonono" on Melon's official website.

The rankings of "Something" have not changed much, ranking 18th on the real-time chart, 9th on the daily chart, and 8th on the weekly chart.

However, "nonono" has risen in the rankings again, ranking 2nd on the real-time chart, 1st on the daily chart, and 1st on the weekly chart.

It's worth mentioning that "nonono" reached number one on last night's M! Countdown, just 14 days after its release.

Girl's Day's "Something" was nominated, meaning Apink essentially took the first place trophy from Girl's Day.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, tonight's "Music Bank" will once again feature these two groups competing for first place.

This phenomenon occurred last night and sparked considerable discussion online, even making it onto Naver's trending list.

Since both songs in these two groups were composed by Chen Yan, at first glance, there really is a sense of inheritance, like a younger sister taking over the trophy from her older sister.

This discussion has also sparked anticipation among netizens for Chen Yan's upcoming new work, f(x)'s "First Wisdom Tooth".

f(x) will officially return at the end of the month with Chen Yan's new work. Looking at it this way, the timing seems to fit together in a strange way.

Girl's Day is at the end of June, Apink is at the beginning of July, and f(x) is at the end of July, which is exactly one group after another.

Apink has now taken the number one trophy from Girl's Day, so when f(x) starts promoting their music, perhaps f(x) will take the number one trophy from Apink.

As soon as this statement appeared, many people immediately echoed and expressed their approval, looking forward to seeing that scene, which also raised their expectations for f(x)'s new song to a new level.

Some netizens even went to SM's official website to leave messages, asking if f(x) could make a comeback and release music soon, as they couldn't wait.

Some netizens have also put forward a conspiracy theory, saying that the consecutive comebacks of these three groups were deliberately arranged by Chen Yan to create the feeling that he dominates the music industry.

In response, Chen Yan stated that he would not take the blame, as the comeback dates for the groups were determined by each company itself, and had nothing to do with him.

After looking at Melon's music charts, Chen Yan then opened Naver and glanced at the trending charts.

The next second, his gaze suddenly sharpened.

The top trending topic immediately caught my eye: [SM Entertainment agrees to f(x)'s early comeback]

Coming to his senses, he immediately clicked on the entry to take a look.

The first item in the entry is an announcement released on SM's official website, which was published around 1 a.m. last night.

The announcement was very simple, saying that they had noticed everyone's eager anticipation for f(x)'s return and thanked everyone for their support of f(x), etc.

Finally, it was announced that after internal discussions within the company and communication with relevant television stations, it was decided to move f(x)'s comeback date forward to July 25th.

f(x) will give the stage debut of their new song "First Wisdom Tooth" on Mnet's "M! Countdown" on the night of July 25th as a way of thanking everyone for their support.

The original release date of July 29th for the music and album remains unchanged.

After reading the announcement, Chen Yan glanced at the comments section.

The comments section was filled with praise, with many saying that SM Entertainment was surprisingly humane this time, even going so far as to pamper its fans.

Chen Yan leaned back slightly in his chair, looked at the announcement released by SM Entertainment for a moment, and finally clicked his tongue.

"Tsk, SM really knows how to do things. The 25th is today, and the 19th is today, so it's exactly one week from now."

The sudden early release of f(x) appears to be SM Entertainment responding to public expectations by making the decision to bring forward f(x)'s comeback.

But upon closer examination, it's actually a marketing tactic.

The announcement concluded by stating that the release date for the music and album remains unchanged, still July 29th.

Imagine you hear a really nice song one day and want to add it to your playlist, but after searching the entire internet, you find that there's only a music video, no audio file.

If you want to listen to it, you can only do so by playing the music video, and even then, the song will stop playing if you accidentally turn off your phone screen.

At this point, you would naturally want the song to have an audio source so you can listen to it anytime, anywhere.

Of course, if most people don't know when the song will be available online, they will eventually get frustrated and stop listening to it.

But what if the song's distributor explicitly tells you when the song will be released?
And the timeframe is neither too long nor too short—it's just three days after you see the music video for this song.
You will most likely make a decisive purchase and download of the audio source within three days.

The three-day interval is designed to build your anticipation, encouraging you to download and listen to the song as soon as it's released.

That's the logic behind what SM is doing now.

f(x)'s stage debut on July 25th was essentially a music video, allowing the public to see and hear it first.

If you think it sounds good, you'll naturally want the song and album to be released as soon as possible, but the song and album will only be released three days later.

Three days is neither too long nor too short; it's enough to fully arouse your expectations without being too long, which would cause your expectations to drop and turn into impatience.

In this way, the final result will be a significant increase in both digital music sales and album sales for f(x)'s comeback.

After clearing his mind, Chen Yan, leaning back in his chair, couldn't help but click his tongue twice.

It has to be said that SM Entertainment truly lives up to its reputation as the leading entertainment company in Peninsula; they really pulled off this move skillfully.

Not only did they gain a reputation for being a fan-favorite, but they also capitalized on the trending topic and ultimately played a marketing game that generated anticipation.

There are certainly examples of artists performing on music show stages before the music videos and albums have been released.

However, this only applies to artists from the three major entertainment companies.

Because of the goodwill built up by their predecessors and the company's foundation, the popularity of artists from the three major companies is guaranteed to a certain extent.

Conversely, artists from smaller companies will never receive this treatment; if their music chart performance is poor, they won't even be allowed to perform on music shows.

This is why trainees in the Peninsula region are so eager to get into the top three entertainment companies. If they can successfully debut in one of the top three, it is equivalent to success in a certain sense.

After another moment of thought, Chen Yan sat up straight, picked up his phone, and dialed a number.

After a few beeps, the call connected, and a soft, cheerful voice answered: "Oppa~"

Upon hearing this voice, Chen Yan couldn't help but smile and said softly, "Taozi, are you practicing at the company?"

"Yes, I just arrived at the company and I'm stretching right now. I'll start practicing in a bit."

"Oh, I saw your company's announcement. Your comeback date has been moved up to July 25th." "Yes, we only found out from our manager when we got into the van just now."

The girl paused for a moment on the other end of the phone before continuing, "Oppa, we're all actually quite nervous."

The girl's voice clearly carried a hint of worry.

Chen Yan was taken aback: "What's there to be nervous about?"

"I'm nervous about our comeback results. Oppa, haven't you seen what people online are saying? They're saying we'll take the number one trophy from Apink because it's all Oppa's songs."

In the practice room of f(x) at SM Entertainment.

Peach sat cross-legged in front of the mirror wall, pouting slightly, her little hands constantly drawing small circles on the floor in front of her.

"But we're all worried about whether we can do it, oppa."

Their group is indeed quite popular now, firmly a top-tier girl group.

However, due to their musical style, the group's digital music sales and album sales have remained at a mediocre level, partly due to the limited resources allocated by the company, which has resulted in a relatively small number of number one hits for the group.

In the evaluation criteria, digital music sales and album sales are the two main factors that are weak points for them.

Chen Yan smiled upon hearing this: "Does our Peach think 'First Wisdom Tooth' isn't a good song?"

"of course not."

The girl immediately denied it, saying, "Wisdom Tooth is a great song. I think it's the best song our group has ever made since our debut."

Songs written by her own oppa are unconditionally number one in her eyes, and "First Wisdom Tooth" is indeed a very good song.

"That's great! The song is good, you have popularity, I have popularity, and with your company's promotion, there will definitely be no problem, so don't worry. You can talk to them about it too."

"Okay, I got it, oppa~"

Peach thought about it and agreed with a smile. She believed what oppa said unconditionally.

"Ah."

Chen Yan smiled as he heard the girl's soft, sweet voice.

When my eyes swept across the bottom of the computer screen, it was 9:08, already past 9 o'clock.

"By the way, Peach, the Seoul JoongAng Ilbo did an interview with me a couple of days ago. The interview video will be posted online at 9 a.m., and it should be up by now. Take a look when you have time and help me get more views!"

There was a second of silence on the other end of the phone, then Peach's angry voice came through: "Oppa~ Why did you only tell me now that it's so important!"

Chen Yan blinked, somewhat confused: "No, it's just an interview video, nothing important."

"oppa!"

Before she could finish speaking, the girl raised her voice a few decibels.

Chen Yan readily admitted his mistake: "I was wrong, I was wrong, I spoke too late."

"Hmph~ I'm not talking to oppa anymore, I'm going to watch videos."

"it is good."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yan looked at his phone and smiled helplessly.

He knew that what she had just said was a sign that the girl cared a lot about anything related to him.

I put down my phone, looked at the computer screen, moved the mouse, and opened the official website of the Seoul JoongAng Ilbo.

Sure enough, there was now an interview with him on the homepage, which included a photo of him being interviewed.

Moreover, it's located in the top left corner of the homepage, occupying nearly a quarter of the entire homepage, making it very eye-catching.

Clicking the image will redirect to a new page, which displays the interview video above and the interview transcript below.

Move the mouse and click the video play button.

Although Chen Yan is the person involved and had already seen it once before, it's now officially released, so it doesn't stop him from watching it again to contribute to his view count.

And I have to say, sitting in front of the computer and watching myself being interviewed on the screen is quite a novel feeling.

"Adu"

The phone then beeped with a message notification.

Chen Yan turned his gaze away from the computer screen and picked up his phone.

Park Jin-young tagged everyone in the company's management group, which consists of department heads and section chiefs from various departments within the company.

This guy asked everyone to inform their subordinates to watch Chen Yan's interview video and contribute to the number of views.

Seeing the people in the group reply that they had received the message, Chen Yan couldn't help but smile. He then sent a red envelope in the group to thank everyone for their support.

The group chat immediately erupted with a string of "Thank you, Director Chen!" messages.

Meanwhile, in the practice room, after hanging up the phone, Peach didn't immediately go online to watch the video. Instead, she opened Kakao and entered a group chat called "A Loving Family".

There are only four members in the group: Tai Xiyun and herself.

Well, the group is named "A Loving Family," but Chen Yan isn't in the group.

Peach's fingers rapidly tap the virtual keyboard: Unnies, remember to watch oppa's interview video when you have time, it's already been released online.

The message was sent out and there was a response in the group within two seconds.

Taeyeon: ?
Yoona: ?
Jessica: ?
Seeing the three question marks that popped up one after another, Peach couldn't help but smile.

So none of these three unnies knew? She was the first to find out.

hee hee~
Achoo, achoo, achoo

In the office, Chen Yan suddenly felt an itch in his nose and sneezed three times in a row.

"strangeness"

He rubbed his nose and muttered something.

"Adu"

As if in response to his question, the phone next to him rang with a message notification tone.

And exactly three tones, no more, no less.

Chen Yan picked up his phone, and after seeing who sent the message, he grinned.

Among Kakao's six pinned profile pictures, Tae-seo-yun's profile picture has popped up with new messages.

And the contents are exactly the same: a dripping blood kitchen knife.

Oops, it seems I've inadvertently angered everyone.

(End of this chapter)