Chapter 207: The Lowest Cost Single, The Highest Profit

As the first young male singer to achieve dazzling results in foreign music markets, especially the neighboring Japanese market, with an English single, Warner's press conference was, to be honest, quite dull.

It was basically just a repetition of official clichés and data, after all, it involved another country.

Therefore, when Zhou Yi suddenly blurted out such a sentence, the reporters below the stage first froze in unison, and then knowingly burst out laughing.

"May I ask Zhou Yi, do you know what the concept of nine hundred million girls is?"

"Of course."

"Then you—"

"I know a woman named Eight Hundred Million; adding another hundred million shouldn't be a problem."

"..."

What the hell is a woman named Eight Hundred Million!

Looking at the mischievous grin on that man on stage, although clearly knowing it was his joke, for some reason, it sounded... actually like it could be true?

Is this the mouth of a scumbag?

"Then Zhou Yi, may I ask, after successfully breaking into the Japanese market this time, will you consider releasing Japanese albums or Japanese songs in the future like Wang Fei?" Having finally caught Zhou Yi who couldn't slip away, the reporters forgot to laugh and raised their hands one after another to ask questions.

This press conference was specially held by Warner to bring this heavy news into the domestic market, and incidentally to drag Zhou Yi out to save face.

"Currently, I do not speak Japanese, nor do I understand Japanese pronunciation and singing techniques."

Dragged out by Zhou Jianhui to the press conference to respond to outside rumors and announce the release of the English single due to the explosive results of "The Lazy Song", Zhou Yi helplessly spread his hands: "So, as you should know, I am a bit of a perfectionist; my English is good because the English teacher at school and the Xinhua Bookstore made a great contribution."

"Then may I ask when this English single will be released domestically? Why didn't you release it domestically first? Is it because you feel English songs have no market in China?"

"No, my song is the soundtrack for Brother Jackie Chan's movie; the initial promotion must follow the movie's promotional steps. As for when it will be released domestically..."

Zhou Yi, sitting in his seat, turned aside and pointed his right thumb toward the advertising board behind him: "Today."

"New Song Release Conference for 'The Lazy Song'" two lines of large characters were exceptionally clear.

"Jackie Chan's 'Rush Hour 2' achieved major success in North America; do you think your English song can also achieve dazzling results in North America?"

"I—"

Just as Zhou Yi was about to agree, Qian Jiang, sitting beside him, interrupted first: "Our Warner headquarters attaches great importance to Ah Yi; we believe he will have excellent performance in the American market."

"..."

As a new song release conference prepared after the success in the Japanese market, the questions in this session were generally within Warner's control.

It not only shifted the blame for not releasing domestically first to the production company behind "Rush Hour 2", but also, under the guise of an official domestic release, announced "The Lazy Song"'s achievements in the Japanese music scene—

"The most authoritative Japanese Oricon Weekly Chart in the Japanese music scene, consecutive two-week number one, two-week single sales have exceeded three hundred thousand copies!"

"Second album 'Jiangnan' + EP album 'Graduation' + single 'The Lazy Song', Zhou Yi's personal official record sales have exceeded 2.7 million copies!"

Three bomb-level achievements directly added the final fire to the start of this hot October, and even his two albums and one EP in the domestic market showed signs of revival in official sales.

At the same time, it also made the scalps of the entire domestic industry go numb.

2.7 million copies, 2.7 million copies!

What the hell is this concept?!

Even if you transplant this number to Japan, where the record industry is extremely developed, a sales volume of 2.7 million copies is enough to rank among the top.

Moreover, the production cost of "The Lazy Song" was almost zero for Warner; just this point alone saved a sum of money, greatly increasing the profit margin.

"Lyrics, composition, and arrangement are all by Zhou Yi; Sun Yanzi was a guest and didn't charge; the venue was inside the Warner building, the dancers were Warner's own people, and even the filming only used one camera, one continuous shot..."

Many insiders from entertainment companies tapped their abacuses, and the more they calculated, the colder their hearts became.

What the hell kind of monster is this?

Isn't the profit margin of this song going to defy heaven???

The explosive sales volume in the Japanese market over two weeks was enough for every record company to calculate the future market prospects of this English single—a platinum single was a sure thing.

Not only has the Japanese market within the Asian scope not saturated, let alone the other several countries in East Asia, and Zhou Yi's home base, China.

If Zhou Yi acted like a donkey again and ran around promoting, he could even die selling over one million copies.

And this is only the Asian market.

English, as an international lingua franca, its universality worldwide is self-evident; combined with "Rush Hour 2" currently screening hotly worldwide, the two complement each other.

If this song can sell another one million copies worldwide, it would be a solid double platinum single.

A Chinese singer, an internationally standard double platinum single?

Even the peak Jacky Cheung could come and have a go.

In an instant, several major international record companies including Sony and Universal were shocked by the profits calculated by their market department actuaries, and their eyes turned red.

This time, their eyes were truly red.

A platinum single with extremely low cost, every record company's dream.

"Fuck! What kind of shit luck does Zhou Jianhui have! How can this even be possible?!"

Almost at the same time, the bosses of Rock, PolyGram, and other major record companies were cursing behind the scenes, their faces of envy and jealousy exposed completely in private.

Especially PolyGram.

PolyGram, recently troubled by funding issues, would have loved to tie Zhou Yi up and force him to sign with them, then pay the termination fee to Warner themselves.

Where is this the Crown Prince of Warner; this is clearly Warner's God of Wealth!

Zhou Jianhui himself squinted his eyes until they were almost a single slit from smiling.

After the press conference ended on October 10, he even pulled Zhou Yi's shoulder to talk heart-to-heart every few days; if not for the huge age difference, Zhou Yi even felt he might pull off some operation of burning yellow paper and beheading a chicken to become sworn brothers.

"Ah Yi, rest assured, at the American headquarters, I will stake all my reputation to fight for the greatest promotional support for you."

On the night of the 12th, Zhou Jianhui, having drunk quite a bit, with a ruddy face, patted Zhou Yi's shoulder and made a heavy promise: "If those white guys don't give money, I will sell my own family assets to find someone to push you out!"

With this visible power of the God of Wealth, Zhou Jianhui had no reason to let it go.

"No need, Mr. Zhou; if you sell your family assets, I'm afraid your wife and children will come to trouble me; it's better to just convert it to cash and give it to me directly, avoiding the middleman."

Zhou Yi shrugged with a smile, his face showing no trace of pride or self-satisfaction.

"I'm not joking with you, Zhou Yi. Really."

Zhou Jianhui's expression was utterly serious: "I'm not afraid of you laughing at me. Before last year, my position was very dangerous; I once reached the point of being dismissed.

"Signing you was the most correct decision I've ever made in my life, even more correct than signing Sun Yanzi!"

(End of this chapter)