Chapter 164: Wahaha Prince

Strictly speaking, although Wang Lihong, born in 1976, is still very young, he is already a veteran of considerable seniority in the Chinese music scene.

He debuted at the end of 1995, and in 1999 won the Best Mandarin Male Singer and Best Album Producer awards at the 10th Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan with his album "Turn Around".

In terms of seniority, he can absolutely be considered Zhou Yi's senior, just like Yu Chengqing, but since his debut in 1995, his sales and annual song rankings have never reached the level of being massively popular.

Although after switching to Sony he received strong support, and last year he opened up his fame in the mainland with the adapted version of "Descendants of the Dragon" and the endorsement deal with Wahaha, in the eyes of Warner, which possesses Zhou Yi, Wang Lihong really doesn't even rank as a competitor in the music scene.

He is not even as threatening as Guang Liang, a singer under Rock Records.

Precisely because of this, the sudden explosion of "The Only One" caught Warner somewhat off guard.

Zhou Jianhui urgently convened a small meeting, bringing in Chen Zeshan, Zhou Yi, Qian Jiang, and others to discuss the situation—

"The marketing department gave this album a very high evaluation.

"Mainly because 'The Only One', a song with obvious blockbuster potential, was written and composed by Wang Lihong himself. It's really a ghost story; how could he actually write such a blockbuster? What kind of dog luck does Sony have? Don't tell me they really managed to raise Wang Lihong up."

Zhou Jianhui, holding Zhou Yi and Sun Yanzi as two trump cards, was somewhat unable to bear seeing Sony do well, and his words carried a bit of bad luck.

Whether an album becomes a blockbuster, the record company is often the most sensitive, after all, sometimes just one or two songs being popular doesn't mean the album will sell well.

Last year, Song Qingge, the Prince of Love Songs under Sony Music like Wang Lihong, Zhang Xinge, was the best example.

On the surface, he came on fiercely, but the album "Faith" sold terribly, even though the title track "Faith" became a hit.

But it is very clear that, judging from the feedback information currently collected by Warner, this "The Only One" is not an existence that is praised but doesn't sell.

Especially in the mainland.

"The Only One", which quickly became popular through Wahaha's promotion channels, exceeded everyone's expectations, even Zhou Yi.

It's just that others were surprised by the competitiveness "The Only One" showed in the mainland, while Zhou Yi was surprised that the song Wahaha used for promotion actually turned out to be "The Only One".

After he took away the song "It's You I Love" for his first album, Wang Lihong wrote another song called "My Favorite Is You" in this album.

Don't say, it's actually quite good to listen to.

"Ah Yi? What do you think?"

Seeing Zhou Yi remain silent, Zhou Jianhui, wanting to hear the opinion of this professional, spoke up to ask.

"No one in Taiwan should be able to surpass me in record sales this year, so there's no need to worry too much about sales there." Coming back to his senses, Zhou Yi glanced at his sales figure of over five hundred thousand copies.

Even if no one buys his "Jiangnan" in Taiwan starting today, no one will surpass him this year, not even Jay Chou.

This is determined by the environment and the market; the fact that he could sell this many is the result of having mined the marketing potential to its limit, and in this era, it is impossible for a second person to replicate.

But, in the mainland, it's different.

The album "The Only One" is the most critical one for Wang Lihong to become the Creative Guo Tianwang, achieving a double harvest in sales and popularity, firmly establishing his position in the mainland music market in one fell swoop.

He didn't know the specific sales figures of Wang Lihong's "The Only One" in the mainland, but what was certain was that the total annual sales of this album across Asia should have broken the one million mark.

Considering that the sales of Chinese albums in Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea are just for fun, whether they can even add up to three hundred thousand is a question.

Therefore, being able to achieve total sales of over one million despite not even making the top ten in annual sales in the Taiwan region, the contribution of the mainland market to the legitimate sales is self-evident.

This is literally snatching meat from his mouth.

"You are definitely the record sales champion in Taiwan this year; the key issue now is the mainland." Chen Zeshan, a marketing veteran, saw through Sony's trump card at a glance—

"That company called Wahaha has very strong promotion channels in the mainland."

No matter how good the quality of the song is, without company promotion in this era, it's a dead end.

Sony obviously understood this principle; since Wang Lihong released his album on September 1st, a full set of promotions came sweeping down from the sky.

As Wahaha's spokesperson, Wang Lihong's elegant Prince image playing the piano directly penetrated the hearts of the mainland public along with their advertisements—

Chinese-American, from a prestigious school, tall and handsome, Piano Prince.

The buffs in the mainland were practically stacked to the max.

On September 3rd, on the third day of release, "The Only One" broke into the top thirty of the Taiwan radio charts, while in the mainland it debuted at number twenty, kicking Zhou Yi's "Mermaid", which was guarding the top twenty door in the mainland charts, out, with a momentum second only to when Zhou Yi's new album was just released this year.

Many record companies in the mainland were shocked, shouting "Here comes another wolf"; Sony's promoted perfect Prince image combined with zero scandals made Wang Lihong, riding the heat of "The Only One", capture the hearts of a large number of women.

"Damn Sony, subtly pointing at whom, 'zero scandals'?"

On the afternoon of the 3rd, at Chen Hao's home.

Seeing the pile of highly similar newspapers on her coffee table, Zhou Yi's face turned black, and he couldn't help but mutter curses.

Chen Hao, who had just poured him a glass of water, smiled gently and continued the man's words: "Is there a possibility that Sony Records is really just promoting Wang Lihong's Prince Charming image?"

"I am also a victim of scandals."

Zhou Yi, who had finally finished his graduation EP amidst all the busyness, glanced at her sideways: "More than 99% of the women in those scandals, I haven't even touched, okay?"

"Yes, yes, yes, you, Great Official Zhou, don't have that much charm, you can only bewitch the remaining 1%."

Chen Hao perfunctorily sat on the carpet, and the moment she bent her right leg, she extended her left hand towards the man and said with a smile: "Give me the EP first, then I'll believe it."

Until Zhou Yi, having finished recording the EP, she immediately went to Zhou Yi to get a formal version; she was very fascinated by "Goodbye" in the previous demo version.

Zhou Yi pouted and handed her the "Graduation" EP with his name on the cover: "The 'Super Visit' program team asked you for an interview, what did they say?"

"Guess?"

"Guess if I guess?"

"I guess you won't guess."

Chen Hao happily accepted this fresh first EP, and the smile piled up between her eyebrows was exceptionally bright.

On September 5th, Wahaha's mainland channels began to exert further effort, cooperating with Wang Lihong's songs to promote his perfect image as a spokesperson to thousands of households in the mainland.

The singing of "The Only One" also began to gradually realize its potential for explosive popularity—

"Baby~

"You are my only one, both worlds are distorted

"Going back is so hard~"

Wang Lihong's high-pitched and melodious voice became another symbol for the young generation in the mainland music scene in early September, and because Wahaha's ground promotion was too fierce, Wang Lihong even earned a nickname—

Wahaha Prince.

From over 10,000 copies sold on the first day to 41,000 on the fourth and 54,000 on the fifth, the sales of Wang Lihong's album "The Only One" in the mainland have shown a remarkably encouraging upward trend.

On September 7, Zhou Yi's EP "Graduation" was officially placed on the shelves.

Since there was still one day left before the first-week sales could be calculated, Sony Music simply decided not to wait; to seize the spotlight, they directly announced to the public that the mainland six-day total sales of their artist Wang Lihong's album had already broken the 150,000 mark.

Although there was still a slight gap compared to Zhou Yi's second album "Jiangnan," which sold 130,000 copies on its first day, this achievement already made Wang Lihong the second-best performing male singer from the younger generation in Taiwan on the mainland, surpassed only by Zhou Yi.

As for the sales in Taiwan...

Sony Music simply pretended not to see it.

Zhou Yi's second album sold 180,000 copies on its first day in Taiwan; this result was too solid for anyone to challenge.

Wang Lihong might not even reach that number after selling for a year.

Precisely because of this, when asked during promotional activities whether he was confident about surpassing Zhou Yi, Wang Lihong shook his head and smiled: "I have known Zhou Yi since last year; his handling of musical concepts is truly excellent, and we have even exchanged ideas."

"His albums sell very well; I think no one will be able to surpass him this year."

(End of this chapter)