Chapter 300: Warner: Dad, I'm Kneeling Before You, Dad

"I don't understand, why? Why?? How did he do it?"

A month and a half of hard work was effortlessly "erased" by someone who had also just released a new album; Avril clutched her head, finding it hard to accept for the moment.

This was only one day ago, just one day ago.

European countries were one thing; this guy named Spike had indeed gotten hot thanks to the World Cup, but how was America so terrifying too?

As one of the most difficult charts to conquer in the world music scene, if a song breaks into the top thirty on the Billboard, it basically means the song has extremely strong dissemination power in the US and its surrounding areas.

If it breaks into the top twenty, it can basically be said to possess the ability to go global—

Breaking into the top ten, as long as one doesn't recklessly touch things one shouldn't, the money earned from copyrights and commercial performances can support a singer and their creative team living in luxury for a lifetime.

Avril had great confidence in her single; the reason she worked so hard running promotions was to break into the top ten as quickly as possible.

Over this month and more, as the single's results made a leapfrogging progress, both she and the company felt that this "Complicated" definitely had hope of entering the top ten of the Billboard Singles Chart, thereby boosting her album sales.

The result was that before she could even be happy for a few days, the ranking started to fall back???

"No need to rush, hold your own rhythm; Spike is strong but he only has two songs anyway, debuting on the chart only proves his current heat is high, likely due to marketing."

The manager, even more anxious than Avril, stepped out to stabilize morale—just two songs, nothing to fear! He sings his, we sing ours!

As long as our own promotion is in place, everything will get better!

On the Warner side, Qian Jiang, excited as if injected with adrenaline, found Zhou Yi, who was catching up on sleep, immediately after getting the data—

"Ah Yi! Ah Yi! You succeeded! You succeeded!!!"

Qian Jiang, who had never thought the artist he managed would one day carve out a space in the Western music scene with an English album, now felt so excited he could eat a whole cow in one bite.

Even though Zhou Yi's previous single results were explosive, before everything settled, he still didn't dare to open the champagne.

But now it was different.

"US region first-day sales 177,143 copies, UK first-day sales 239,418 copies, directly debuting at third on the UK Album Chart Zhou Bang!"

France over 30,000, Germany 27,000, Spain 16,000, Italy 16,000, plus Iceland, Greece, Denmark, Belgium, and other European countries each stacking a few thousand, a few thousand, a few hundred, a few hundred together.

Excluding the domestic market, just the European and US markets, "The Attitude Show" sold over 600,000 copies in one day.

Even if Zhou Yi's album stopped selling from today, just this sales figure would be enough for Warner (China) to brag about for a lifetime.

Moreover, this was only the first day after the album release!

Qian Jiang was rarely so excited his face turned red.

Nearly 700,000 copies in global sales in one day, directly crushing the actual total sum of all singers in the Chinese music scene who had ever released English albums combined!

"Only this much?"

Because he had participated in late-night radio promotions last night, Zhou Yi, who had dozed off a bit during the day Bai Tian, rubbed his eyes and subconsciously muttered a sentence after hearing Qian Jiang report the good news, completely baffling Qian Jiang.

Big brother—ah no, ancestor, do you know what you are saying, ancestor?!

"You call this 'only this much'?"

"Indeed a bit little."

Rubbing his face, Zhou Yi perked himself up: "I thought at least a million a day."

"Then when you become a global superstar, a million a day won't be a dream."

You sell well, whatever you say is right.

Speechless, Qian Jiang simply used the method of coaxing children, then immediately took the still-yawning Zhou Yi into the car and rushed with the accompanying Warner headquarters team to the radio stations and programs for today's promotion.

In the US, if one wants to chart and boost sales, radio promotion is an absolutely indispensable link.

Although Zhou Yi himself wasn't very fond of these radio programs.

"The parent company Time Warner's television stations still have many programs; you don't have to appear on all of them, but my suggestion is that such a good opportunity must be seized."

In the car heading to the radio programs, Qian Jiang introduced to Zhou Yi in detail the large number of promotional channels arranged for him.

Warner Records, which currently shows no signs of decline, is also weighty within Time Warner; the various resources excellent singers can get during their promotional periods are simply dripping with oil.

As long as the album is excellent, even if the single results aren't high, it doesn't matter; Warner Records' current pillar, Linkin Park, has already set an example for everyone.

This was negotiated by Zhou Jianhui personally using his connections, accompanying the Warner Records people to the Time Warner headquarters.

Thanks to Zhou Yi's past excellent performance, Time Warner waved its hand and directly arranged him like a donkey pulling a millstone; the first-day sales also proved Zhou Yi's strength, and he didn't let anyone down.

"Additionally, Zhou Jianhui's meaning is that you'll be busy for this half month; he is currently fighting for the cover of the US main edition of Time Magazine for you."

"If your results are explosive, that will be very useful for him to tear off a cover for you."

"US main edition?"

Zhou Yi raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise.

As one of the three major current affairs weeklies in the US, Time Magazine's influence in the US itself and even the world is unquestionable, with numerous subsidiary editions.

Asian editions, European editions, branches everywhere.

But the most influential and hardest to get on is the main edition of the US version.

The simplest point: the US main edition is distributed globally.

"Yes, your Chinese identity combined with your results is too unfamiliar to Americans; this is an advantage. They currently only know one Bruce Lee, one Jackie Chan, and at most half a Jet Li."

Qian Jiang nodded.

Zhou Yi, who had a psychological expectation for his short donkey-life career, didn't say much, but instead started burning the midnight oil too—

If the promotional programs allowed overlapping filming, he would have loved to take on ten or so programs a day, rotating through ten or so minutes on each program.

Facts proved that his burning the midnight oil was effective.

July 4th, in populous and wealthier places like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the real-time radio ranking of Zhou Yi's new album "The Attitude Show" almost doubled compared to two days ago.

"Baby" and "Yeah" were surging upward at a speed of a fault-line lead.

July 6th, after these two songs, the reputation of other songs in the album also began to spread, with data surging one after another fiercely:

In the second tier, "Because of You" first killed to the third position on various radio stations in Los Angeles;

"What Makes You Beautiful" and "Good Time" followed closely, breaking into the top five on radio charts in five US states respectively.

Three songs secured the second tier status within the album; "Good Time" even showed a trend of catching up to the two songs in the first tier. By July 7, all of them had broken into the top ten on radio charts across eighteen states!

"How Long" and "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" were the leaders of the third tier's growth.

This was actually a very abnormal situation.

Typically, if an album chooses to campaign on the charts, resource allocation must have a focus; this is also why the term "lead single" exists.

But now, when Zhou Yi's album first-week sales were released on July 8, inside the Warner Records internal meeting, a crowd stared at the sea of red, dazzling data, and from top to bottom, everyone stood stunned as if struck by lightning—their expressions were neither happy nor unhappy, standing out only as strange and awkward.

Dad! You are truly a living father!

Can you not be so extravagant with the next album?!

Damn it, Zhou Yi's single album has at least enough lead singles to supply five albums!

What kind of family does this?!

Watching Zhou Yi compete against himself on the radio charts of dozens of US states from time to time, the Warner board's hearts were dripping blood—

Money, that's all money!

That's all fragrant US dollars!

"Which Wang Ba approved Spike's album audit?! Didn't you know to advise him to hide a few songs for the next album?!"

"Mr. President, it was you; you glanced at it and gave approval, you probably didn't take it too seriously at the time."

"..."

The Warner Records CEO, as a professional manager, seeing the woman who teased him, wished to kick her out on the spot.

If she didn't bear the surname Warner.

While everyone at Warner Records was in pain yet happy, the Marketing Department officially announced Zhou Yi's "The Attitude Show" North American first-week sales—

1.063 million copies, breaking the record for first-week sales of an album by a foreign artist in the US!

July 9, 2002, Tuesday, chart update day.

After the first week's settlement, "The Attitude Show" swept to take first place on the Billboard 200 album chart, descending directly as the weekly chart champion one week after release in a posture that shocked the entire American music scene!

All eleven songs on the entire album entered the Billboard Hot 100 top fifty, with six songs entering the top thirty, becoming the first person in Billboard history to do so!

"I came here just to take first place."

On this day, the special episode of Zhou Yi on "The Conan Show" aired—

The man's confidently raised right index finger on the program became a deep-sea bomb detonating among music fans and media across the entire US!

PS: Mortal world!

One more chapter~

(End of this chapter)