HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 444 [444] Set a small goal: invest in Warner Music?
Never underestimate the power of a good song paired with a good movie.

The two complement each other, achieving a synergistic effect where 1+1 is greater than 2.

The song "I Believe" from the previous life perfectly matched the emotions expressed in the movie with its melody and mood, and spread to all parts of Asia as the movie became a hit.

Similarly, this song greatly extended the lifespan of the film.

Even if many people haven't seen the movie, they've heard this song on the streets and alleys, and then directly or indirectly learn some information about "My Sassy Girl".

Many years later, when I hear this song by chance, some classic scenes from the movie will immediately come to mind.

In a city like Hong Kong with a population of only a few million, a movie or a song can become popular and sweep across the entire city within a few days.

The combination of factors, including rumors, Fan Xiaopang, the "savage girlfriend," and Qi Yuan's prediction that the "savage girlfriend" would win, has once again brought Qi Yuan and the songs on his new album a great deal of attention.

The new day's music charts are as follows: "Blue and White Porcelain" is number one, "Meteor Shower" is number two, the English version of "I Believe" is number three, "Those Years" is number five, "Young and Promising" is number six, "Stubborn" is number seven, "I Believe" is number nine in the Chinese chart, and "Stubborn" is number ten.

Of the top ten, Qi Yuan occupied seven spots.

Outside the top ten, "Back to Back Hug" ranked eleventh, "Cultivating Love" ranked twelfth, "Special Person" ranked thirteenth, "Ordinary Road" ranked fourteenth, and "Blue Lotus" ranked fifteenth.

Looking at the pop music charts, Qi Yuan's name is the only one on them.

The same is true on the charts of Hong Kong's three major music radio stations, with Hong Kong Radio and AsiaFM being dominated by songs from Qi Yuan's new album.

Only Hong Kong Commercial Radio, which mainly broadcasts Cantonese pop songs, fared slightly better, but Kei Yuen still occupied nine of the top fifteen spots.

This is a radio station that mainly broadcasts Cantonese songs! Some elderly people in Hong Kong who listen to this station every day are confused. If they didn't know better, they would think it had switched to broadcasting Mandarin songs.

The extent of the fall of the Hong Kong music scene was no less severe than that of the Taiwan music scene!

What some of the older generation in the Hong Kong music scene found most unacceptable was that Qi Yuan completely conquered the Hong Kong music scene with Mandarin and English songs.

There was a time when Hong Kong's Cantonese songs were glorious, and extremely glorious.

More than 20 years ago, Hui Koon-kit released "Half a Catty, Eight Taels," marking the beginning of the golden age of Cantonese pop songs and the Hong Kong music scene.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, the Hong Kong and Taiwan music scenes were neck and neck. Although the Taiwanese music scene was more creative and innovative than the Hong Kong music scene, many songs in the Hong Kong music scene had melodies derived from Japanese songs.

However powerful and aggressive the Taiwanese music scene may be, in Hong Kong, no Taiwanese singer has ever dominated the charts with Mandarin songs.

As for the mainland music scene, it started too late and has always been at the bottom.

Qi Yuan, a singer who came from the mainland music scene, managed to conquer the Hong Kong music scene with his Mandarin songs.

Some old guys who were dissatisfied felt that Qi Yuan's victory was unfair! They thought he took advantage of the time and launched a sneak attack while the Hong Kong music scene was in decline.

In the Hong Kong music scene of the 80s and 90s, would Qi Yuan have been allowed to so brazenly and recklessly penetrate the market?
Do you really think that a group of Hong Kong superstar musicians, such as Huang Zhan, Lin Xi, Xu Guanjie, Tan Yonglin, Zhang Guorong, Mei Yanfang, Zhang Xueyou, etc., are just sitting around doing nothing?
Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs".

Today, it is an indisputable fact that the Hong Kong music scene has been completely overrun.

[The last bastion of the mainland has fallen; Hong Kong's music scene has been breached by Qi Yuan's iron hooves!]

[Twelve of the top fifteen songs on the pop music charts are by the same artist; this has never happened before.]

[Polaris unleashes its power! Feng Xiaogang's "Big Shot's Funeral" is completely overshadowed by "My Sassy Girl"!]

[Fan Binbin's commercial value has surged, potentially making her one of Asia's highest-paid actresses?]

...For the Hong Kong music scene and Hong Kong musicians, this day was the darkest moment.

For Qi Yuan, this was a day of great victory.

On the same day, Warner Music officially announced to music fans worldwide that Qi Yuan's debut English album, "23," had officially surpassed 20 million copies sold globally.

In addition to the Grammys, "23" has also been nominated for music awards in dozens of countries, including the BRIT Awards in the UK and the Juno Awards in Canada.

The Grammys and the BRIT Awards are undoubtedly the most prestigious, the Juno Awards are also quite good, but most of the rest are of average quality, and some are even just filler awards.

These things don't matter. As long as he can win more trophies, that's all that matters. Most of the awards don't require Qi Yuan to go and collect them in person; Warner will send someone to represent him.

Who can ever have too many trophies?

They can then release press releases boasting that an album has won dozens or even hundreds of awards in multiple countries around the world, instantly elevating their prestige.

This is also one of the advantages of being backed by a multinational corporation like Warner. As long as he can bring profits to Warner, Warner will arrange for someone to handle the rest.

If I were to work independently, coordinating and communicating with music award organizers in so many countries would be exhausting.

By the way, Qi Yuan remembers that in 04, Time Warner sold off the entire Warner Music Group to raise funds and alleviate its debt burden.

This marks Time Warner's complete exit from the record business.

Of course, Qi Yuan wouldn't be content to be just an employee forever. When the time comes, he could consider investing in Warner Music and becoming a shareholder, working for himself and earning money.

It's only the end of 01, there are still more than two years left, enough time for him to challenge for Warner's number one spot.

The current top band, Linkin Park, can't match his album release frequency.

If he becomes Warner's number one star, he will have the ability to generate his own revenue and create stars for the company. He will have much more money in his hands than he does now. Only a fool would refuse to let him sit at the shareholders' table.

Conversely, the new acquiring party would have to fawn over Qi Yuan.

If Qi Yuan becomes unhappy and chooses to leave Warner Music, Warner Music's value will decline.

The most valuable assets of a record company are its copyright library and the musicians who give it its reputation.

Fan Xiaopang came out of the bathroom wearing a bathrobe and looked at Qi Yuan, who was lost in thought, feeling puzzled.

"What are you thinking about?"

"It's nothing, I just made some money and I'm thinking of investing in a small record company to play around with in the future."

Qi Yuan looked up at Fan Xiaopang and spoke casually.

Fortunately, Fan Xiaopang didn't know that the record company Qi Yuan planned to invest in was called Warner Music, otherwise she would have been shocked.

You call one of the world's top five record companies, a behemoth worth more than $20 billion, a small record company?

Even just taking a 5% stake to play around with would require putting up a hundred million US dollars in cash.

Looking across the entire Chinese entertainment industry, how many people can pull out a hundred million US dollars in cash? Very few!
Very few film and entertainment companies can come up with this figure.

As for Qi Yuan, after four years of accumulation, he definitely has the ability and qualifications to enter the game.

(End of this chapter)