Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

After some discussion, a 4+2 contract was finally agreed upon for Chen Li.

A four-year full brokerage contract plus a two-year option to renew.

There are two types of song distribution ratios.

One option is that the company provides the lyrics and music, and Chen Li is responsible for singing. Chen Li gets 15% and the company gets 85%.

The second type is songs composed by Chen Li herself, with Chen Li receiving 40% and the company receiving 60%.

In addition, the company is responsible for the production, distribution, and promotion of the songs, as well as many contract details.

"Hehe, I've signed with a company! From now on, I'll be a singer with my own songs. I'll chat on YY tonight!" Chen Li was very happy, bouncing around a few times with the contract in her hand.

"You still use YY? Playing games and using voice chat?"

In 2011, YY had over 100 million users, capturing an astonishing 84.2% share of the domestic online voice group chat market, and also ventured into video live streaming.

In Zheng Nan's memory, YY in 2011 was even more vulgar and violent than Tieba.

If you click into any channel, you'll see cheats for all kinds of games, with CF (CrossFire) having the most cheats.

Various black market activities bordering on softcore pornography are emerging one after another.

"I don't play games. I listen to people sing on YY live streams," Chen Li explained. "Birds of a feather flock together. I like music, and I use YY to connect with fellow music lovers."

"What good singers can there be on YY?" Aya didn't have a good impression of the YY platform and subconsciously resisted it.

"I have a favorite online singer on YY, you two may not have heard of her, her name is Kabu..." Chen Li likes to recommend her favorite music or musicians to others.

"Wait a minute, who is it?" Zheng Nan suddenly interrupted.

"Kabu, do you know him?" Chen Li was taken aback. Why was the boss so surprised?

Zheng Nan doesn't know Kabu, but she is very familiar with Kabu Le_Zhou Sen. In terms of commercial value alone, even if Chen Li's future value increases tenfold, it still won't be as high as Zhou Sen's alone.

"A male singer?" Zheng Nan pressed.

"Kabu has never shown her face, but judging from her voice, she should be a female singer."

Do you have any audio recordings of this Kabu singing?

"I have a saved version of 'Orchid Finger' sung by Kabu on Channel 2080." Chen Li opened her phone and played the saved audio.

The recording and playback effects of mobile phones are generally not very good now, and the audio playback suffers from distortion and missing sounds. Zheng Nan still confirmed from the immature singing voice that this Kabu was the future Zhou Sen.

"It really is Zhou Sen. He's probably still studying in Ukraine right now. We should find a way to contact him first, and sign him as soon as he returns!"

Zheng Nan had a very good plan in mind: by securing Zhou Sen and Chen Li, Sennan Entertainment would definitely be able to get a piece of the music industry pie in the future.

"Hmm, her singing was just average, about the level of a female karaoke star," Aya commented.

Zheng Nan looked at Aya with pitying eyes, thinking to herself, "It's a good thing you're managing actors; if you were managing singers, you'd starve to death."

"Without any auto-tuning, it's already quite good that you can sing like this on YY. Moreover, Kabu has a lot of singing skills, and his low notes are particularly stable and powerful," Chen Li said, speaking up for Kabu.

"That's all for today. Chen Li will come to record the song tomorrow. Let's try to release 'The Song of Wonderful Abilities' as soon as possible." Zheng Nan glanced at the time. It was already past 2 PM. There wasn't enough time to find a recording studio to record the song today.

"I'll take the lyrics and music with me now. I'll practice them properly when I get back to school." Chen Li stood up.

"Can we find a safe place to practice singing? Don't let the songs be leaked." Aya, as the manager, is very security-conscious.

"I'll open a mini karaoke room next to the school to practice," Chen Li thought for a moment. Since the school wasn't an option, she figured she'd have to find a private karaoke room.

"You think highly of her? What if the song doesn't become a hit?" Aya asked a very practical question after Chen Li left.

The entertainment industry is an unreasonable circle.

Talented and skilled actors are not necessarily popular, but traffic stars who rely on hype and scandals can easily become famous.

A good song may not necessarily become a hit, but a brainless song might become an overnight sensation!

It is precisely because of these illogical yet real cases that metaphysics has a market in the entertainment industry.

Zheng Nan's plan for Chen Li is simple: release one or two singles online this year to test the waters; if the songs become popular, they will start making money by connecting with the ringtone business.

If it doesn't become popular, let Chen Li continue to hone her singing skills. Tomorrow, when the auditions for "The Voice of China" are held, we'll send it directly to Chen Li.

"If it doesn't become popular, I'll just write a few more songs for her," Zheng Nan replied casually.

"What's the point of showing off your talent?" Aya looked at Zheng Nan like she would a top student back in her school days.

The top student usually hangs out with her, but before the exam, she looked worried and said, "Oh no, I haven't studied at all," and "I played games all night yesterday."

When the results came out, the top student got first place, while she got forty-seven. She really wanted to beat the other student up!

"What did you say? I didn't hear you clearly?"

"Can you pay for my social insurance and housing fund too?" Aya, who has been working for several years, is well aware of the value of social insurance and housing fund.

"If you close your small studio and work full-time at my company, I'll pay your bills."

Zheng Nan thought to herself, "You're just a business partner to me. You think you can get away with my social security and housing fund benefits for free? No way!"

"Forget it, I still have several artists working with me." Aya, who was starting her first business, was reluctant to give up her small studio.

…………

The next day, Chen Li arrived, her eyes dark with excitement.

"Didn't you sleep at all last night?" Zheng Nan asked with concern.

"Hehe, I'm so excited, I can't sleep at all!"

Yesterday's experience felt like a dream to Chen Li; her mind was in a state of extreme excitement, and she dared not sleep, fearing that she would wake up to find it was all a dream.

"Will her condition affect the recording?" Zheng Nan asked Aya, who was standing next to her.

"There are sound engineers in the recording studio. If you don't sing well, they'll just fix the pitch." Aya shrugged indifferently. It's not like she was singing live.

In the past, when there was no way to auto-tune the vocals, singers needed to have real skill and ability, and they had to take great care to protect their voices.

With the advancement of technology, if a singer doesn't perform well during recording, there are sound engineers to help; if a live performance is poor, there are lip-syncing and backing vocals. Even mediocre singers have a chance to make it big.

The result of technological development is that bad money drives out good money—it's darkly ironic.

"I can sing well, don't worry!" Chen Li didn't want to be looked down upon by her boss and manager.

Arriving at the rented recording studio, Chen Li, who was recording a song for the first time, felt like a country bumpkin visiting the Grand View Garden, finding everything novel and fascinating.

"Record a version and see how it goes," Zheng Nan said to Chen Li through the microphone.

Singing is truly a profession that relies on talent.

Despite not sleeping all night, Chen Li's performance during the recording was still very stable.

The official live version of "The Song of Wonderful Abilities" was recorded in just one morning.

"What about the follow-up promotion? Buy traffic, manipulate rankings, and boost popularity?" Aya asked.

Buying traffic and manipulating app rankings are not new phenomena; they existed and were very common in 2011.

Because of the platform's promotion algorithm, new artists who release new songs almost always engage in varying degrees of paid advertising and data manipulation in order to be seen and heard.

"Buying more traffic costs money! Watch me!" Zheng Nan said, taking out her phone and posting a few Weibo posts.

My buddy wrote a song, everyone come listen!