Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

Why did Jiang Yan, in his previous life, pay less and less attention to K-pop after gaining a deeper understanding of it?

Because he saw through the fact that much of the data in K-pop was fabricated.

For example, music video views on YouTube have always been a major problem area.

As we all know, YouTube is a global video platform.

K-pop has always strived to showcase its global reach, so YouTube views are one of the metrics used in music show scoring.

In terms of percentages, Inkigayo is 30%, The Show is 20%, Champion Show is 10%, and Music Core is 10%.

MCD and Music Bank were not included in the percentage calculation separately.

To compete for first place on these music shows that have a significant weighting, your YouTube score can't be low.

So the practice of boosting YouTube views has actually existed for a long time.

In the past, no one could know exactly how much had been bet, so it was difficult to get concrete evidence.

It wasn't until YouTube launched its water purification service that KPOP's water injection data was clearly seen by the public for the first time.

Actually, before BigHit appeared, SM Entertainment was the first to upload content to YouTube.

But the most aggressive moves came from YG and Big Hit, which had become HYBE.

Of course, JYPE did a lot of it too.

However, Jiang Yan did not see any YouTube-related businesses on this list.

Then there are only two possibilities.

Firstly, Cube has not yet been involved in this gray-area business.

Secondly, they do not intend to provide Jiang Yan with this channel; it is only for their own group to use.

Jiang Yan prefers the second option.

During this period, smaller companies were more aggressive in purchasing water than larger companies.

In his previous life, he had seen a news report from South Korean broadcaster JTBC, which directly mentioned the manipulation of music streaming charts by major entertainment companies.

Those companies operating in the gray market have long provided services to small and medium-sized entertainment companies.

Even major companies were involved, as news reports at the time directly named YG's group IKON.

At that time, these gray market channels included platforms such as Melon, forums such as Naver, and video websites such as YouTube.

Of course, he didn't just use this point to support his speculation.

Another important reason is that he had already seen Bang Si-hyuk do something like this before he left BTS.

He personally witnessed the YouTube music video for "BOY IN LUV" jump from 4.5 million views on its first day to 10 million views in less than three months.

So what does a starting price of 450 million on the first day mean?

BIGBANG, who haven't made a comeback this year, only had 446 million views on the first day of the release of their upcoming song "Loser".

Even BTS during their obscurity had higher first-day viewership than BIGBANG at their peak?

Just think about it and you'll know how much of it is just fluff.

At the same time, it was precisely because of the song's YouTube performance that BTS came in third place on Inkigayo, the music show with the highest YouTube viewership.

This is also the first time since his debut that he has entered the top 3 of any music show.

At this moment, although he didn't have much hope, Jiang Yan still tentatively looked at Song Zhiying, the marketing manager, and asked, "Don't you offer YouTube promotion services?"

Song Zhiying was taken aback by his question, then nodded and said, "Yes, but I thought you didn't need it, so I didn't put it here."

South Korean solo artists generally focus more on music streaming platforms because most of their songs are not the kind of dance tracks that emphasize visuals and spend a lot of money on special effects.

Song Zhiying probably assumed he wouldn't specifically buy promotional services in this area, so she subconsciously followed her professional habit and didn't give it to him.

Then, a new form came to Jiang Yan, which naturally listed promotional business related to YouTube.

Unfortunately, it's only available through official channels, and as everyone knows, prices through official channels are definitely higher.

Although Jiang Yan was a little disappointed, he did not show it.

It's still necessary to invest some money in legitimate channels.

"Let's start with YouTube. I plan to use Non-skipable In Stream Ads and Bumper Ads for promotion. As for Melon..."

Jiang Yan, without changing his expression, began to formally explain his needs to Song Zhiying and the other marketing staff.

By the very end of the meeting, all promotional services had been confirmed, and the budget for purchasing these services had been finalized.

We will initially invest 50 yuan, and then, after observing the investment results on various platforms, we will make additional separate investments in the parts that perform well.

……

The meeting lasted for nearly an hour. Afterwards, Jiang Yan did not leave the company but returned to his studio on the third floor.

He hadn't forgotten what Park Jin-young had told him, and he would start drafting a new demo.

He didn't remember many of the songs from "SIXTEEN," only the ones from the final round: "Truth," "미쳤나봐 (Are You Crazy?)," and "다시해줘 (Once Again)."

Of these three songs, his favorite is "미쳤나봐 (Are you crazy?)".

So without much consideration, Jiang Yan chose this song.

For demos submitted to other companies, usually only one and a half minutes is needed.

Because the A&R departments of those entertainment companies are dealing with a large number of demos they receive, they basically only listen to the first section of each one, which is about a minute.

It took Jiang Yan about half an hour to complete the demo.

Then he opened his email and sent the demo directly to Park Jin-young, along with the musical style and the message he wanted to convey.

After sending the message, Jiang Yan turned off the device.

Then he took out his phone and sent a message to Park Jin-young on Kakao, basically saying that the demo had been sent.

After doing all this, Jiang Yan temporarily put the matter out of his mind.

Why do I say that?

He knew that once Park Jin-young took over, he would transfer his demo to the relevant A&R department.

It could be a primary school, a secondary school, or his own Studio J label.

After receiving it, the A&R department will not listen to it immediately, but will put it together with other demos received from other places.

Then we will have to wait until Park Jin-young announces that we no longer need to collect demos before we can proceed with the next steps.

This next step is called Monitoring Week.

During this listening week, everyone in the A&R department will digest these demos and select 20 to 30 candidates.

After the screening process, the results will be submitted to Park Jin-young for the final decision.

For example, Lim Na-yeon's "ABCD" was selected from more than 2000 demos.

The whole process will probably take about a month, or even longer.

So after releasing the demo, Jiang Yan simply stopped thinking about it.

Now he has more important things to consider, which is finding the water injection channel he wants.

We can't really count on Cube either; even if there were a channel, they probably wouldn't let him use it.

After all, the two parties have an equal working relationship, and he is not an artist under the other party's management.

As for Yuehua Entertainment, Jiang Yan decided not to discuss the issue of padding with Du Hua for the time being, since his relationship with Du Hua was not yet at the point where they could confide in each other.

It's impossible now, and it's impossible in the future.

After much thought, he decided to try contacting these channels himself first to see what was going on.

And why did he have to do this?

That's because he knows that if he wants to make a splash after his comeback in his current state, he'll need to resort to underhanded tactics.

He doesn't naively believe that he can become popular simply by copying some good songs.

I've seen too many examples of great songs that didn't become popular in my past life.

Moreover, he debuted as a solo artist after leaving the group and obtaining a green card, which put him at a disadvantage in South Korea from the start.

How can I win first place on a music show without using special methods? How can I get into the inner circle of the music charts?

Take it one step at a time? Are you kidding me?

There's nothing shameful about inflating one's reputation; once you become famous, great scholars will naturally defend you.