Chapter 42

Seeing Wen Xia raised an eyebrow: "Speak, what is it?"

"Which music platform did you license your songs to, and what is the typical market rate?"

"Is someone asking you for a license?"

Miss Luo Quan shook her head: "Not yet, but isn't that bound to happen sooner or later?"

"True. If we're talking about price, Tencent Music is naturally the best; for user volume, NetEase Cloud has more. I'm not too clear on the specific market rates because our company handles the operations for our songs. We only handle the singing, dancing, and touring; most of the money doesn't pass through our hands."

Miss Luo Quan thought for a moment and said: "I sold these three songs in Japan for over a million each. If I bring them to the domestic market, I should be able to get at least four or five million for them, right?"

Seeing Wen Xia smiled and said: "Actually, in the domestic market, you can only make the bulk of your money through exclusive licensing; there is no market for paid songs."

"Before, the company wasn't familiar with the domestic market. The first batch of songs didn't have exclusive rights, and we listed them on the three major music platforms as virtual albums. Guess what happened?"

"Flopped on the spot?"

Seeing Wen Xia nodded: "Pretty much. We weren't particularly popular domestically back then. Even our most popular album in South Korea only sold a little over two thousand copies after being listed domestically for a month. It didn't even earn back a fraction of the promotional costs, and the company almost gave up on the domestic market entirely."

"Later, we hired industry insiders from Huaxia, had Tencent Music buy the exclusive agency rights for the Huaxia region at a high price, and operated it with a model where ordinary users could listen to previews and VIP users could listen to the full versions. Not long after, our songs hit the Hot Songs chart. It's said that those few days saw the highest increase in Tencent Music VIP users for that entire year."

Miss Luo Quan suddenly realized: "So, it means I'm not popular enough yet, so I shouldn't expect the records to achieve much domestically, and I should just honestly sell the licensing rights?"

"You aren't a 'Little Fresh Meat.' Domestic young men aren't very willing to spend money on anything other than games. Many have to think for a long time just to spend a few yuan on a VIP membership. With your albums costing over a hundred yuan, I'm afraid that apart from wealthy die-hard fans, not many will be willing to buy them."

"Besides, who would be willing to spend money on something they can get for free?"

Miss Luo Quan sighed softly: "This environment is truly terrible."

"It's been better these past few years. At least people's awareness of copyright has been cultivated, and there's still some shame and resistance toward piracy and plagiarism. If this were over a decade ago, your songs would have been pirated everywhere before you even found a buyer domestically."

Miss Luo Quan smiled: "After all, traffic is king domestically now. How much money can you make selling records? The heat brought by online traffic is the main way stars make money."

"Once a person is popular, they have as many resources as they want for movies, TV shows, and variety programs. Their appearance fees are easily in the tens of millions, and it almost requires no technical skill. Even if you just post a picture, there will be brainless fans praising your acting skills; the survival environment couldn't be better."

Seeing Wen Xia looked at Miss Luo Quan in surprise: "You see things quite clearly. It took me a long time of researching data to figure these things out. Didn't you say you didn't understand the domestic entertainment industry?"

"Perhaps my insight is just quite sharp," Miss Luo Quan said with a laugh, brushing it off.

Of course, she didn't have any sharp insight, but she had lived through an era of nationwide hype. In that entertainment industry where traffic reigned supreme, the things that happened every day subverted the values of normal people.

A tycoon from her past life once said it well: "If you sit at the center of the wind, even a pig can fly!"

And in that kind of online environment, the "wind" that could make a pig fly was everywhere.

However, Miss Luo Quan hadn't sat in that wind yet, or rather, the wind wasn't strong enough to make her fly.

On one hand, she had absolutely no base in the country; before hitting the trending searches, her domestic popularity and fan count were zero. Even now, after hitting the trending searches so many times, her Weibo followers had only just reached five hundred thousand, which wasn't even half of her YouTube or Twitter count.

The good news was that her songs had become popular on TikTok, but unfortunately, the songs were popular while she wasn't; not many people knew her name, and instead, those who covered her songs harvested a massive amount of heat.

Jealous? That's not really the word for it. After all, her current work focus was in Japan, and she knew the principle that trying to do too much leads to poor results. Failing to distinguish between primary and secondary tasks is a major taboo for newcomers.

But then again, who doesn't like fame and money?

Miss Luo Quan never hid her desire for money. After all, she had been poor before, and she didn't want to experience the days of eating instant noodles every day for the rest of her life.

"Forget it, as an outsider, I'd better just do my own job well. I'll entrust the domestic platform matters to Sanmu to solve." Miss Luo Quan picked up her phone, about to send a text to Sanmu.

As if they shared a telepathic connection, Sanmu called Miss Luo Quan first.

"Sister Quan Shui-san, are you free today?" Sanmu's bright voice came through the phone.

"I am. I was just about to look for you; I didn't expect you to call me first."

"A website in the United States found us; they want to interview you and take a few sets of photos."

Sanmu's tone sounded somewhat excited. Miss Luo Quan was curious: "What website? Could it be Time?!"

But then she thought, Time is a magazine, and with her current achievements, she probably didn't have the qualifications to be in Time magazine. Perhaps when her new album comes out, she could make the Asian edition?

Sanmu explained: "It's not Time magazine, it's Tdler!"

"Oh~~~" Miss Luo Quan revealed a smile and then gave Seeing Wen Xia a meaningful look.

Most people might not know the name, but this website creates a list every year: the World's 100 Most Beautiful Faces. The list is divided into male and female categories, with a star's appearance, character, and influence as the criteria for entry, and then fans and judges vote to decide the ranking.

Because the editor-in-chief of the list in this life wasn't some controversial Korean-American, but a native-born American, they treated stars outside of the US fairly, and the favoritism toward their own stars wasn't particularly severe. Over the years, foreigners have occupied many of the "most beautiful faces" spots, so the list has high credibility and can be called the Nobel Prize of the beauty world.

Saying that might be overestimating the honor, but it also reflects its influence from the side.

Last year, every member of Seeing Wen Xia's group made this list, and Seeing Wen Xia, as the leader, achieved the best result for an Asian last year, which was 21st place, while the best result for an Asian-descendant was taken by Xingye Ying, who ranked 12th.

I have to say, Xingye Ying's American identity helped her a lot, but her popularity in the three East Asian countries is definitely top-tier, and her appearance goes without saying—she's the ideal type for countless Japanese men, the kind that kills across all ages!

What Miss Luo Quan didn't expect was that less than a month after her debut, this list would find her. If she could make the list, her fame would reach a new level.

And for some reason, Miss Luo Quan vaguely felt that the "wind" that could make her fly had already appeared.

However, she wasn't a pig.