Chapter 51: Soft Heart

"This circle is just like that; the total amount of resources is right here.

"If you don't fight for them, how will you get your status? How will you make money? How will you have a say?

"If a star were truly as indifferent as a chrysanthemum, they wouldn't have entered the entertainment industry.

"Those who love acting can go to the theater circle; those who love singing will become concert singers who perform exclusively at various galas and celebrations.

"These all have dedicated training channels."

Seeing Zhou Yi silent and saying nothing, Qian Jiang thought he was afraid of Sun Nan, the current top star of the mainland, and hurriedly gave an example: "Sun Nan himself is an example. He was cultivated through this channel, so his singing skills are excellent.

"But he wanted to be famous and make big money, so he chose to leave and went to Xiangjiang. Only then, after Liu Huan gradually retired, did he snatch Liu Huan's position and become the top star.

"He can do the first day of the month; why can't you do the fifteenth? You surely haven't failed to learn the saying, 'Do kings and generals have a special breed?'"

Qian Jiang, who had mixed in Xiangjiang's entertainment industry during its golden age, was clearly full of aggression.

Coming to his senses, Zhou Yi listened to his own manager's rambling encouragement and couldn't help but grin: "Uncle Qian, you are overthinking it. I am not afraid of him; I just suddenly thought of something a moment ago.

"I have no objection to singing the theme song and ending theme of 'Young Bao Qingtian'; just notify me when the time comes, and that's ok."

Judging solely by the quality of the theme song and ending theme, these two songs, at their absolute best, would only be considered excellent works in the current mainland music scene, but they couldn't help but ride the wave of 'Young Bao' becoming an explosive hit.

The explosive ratings of 'My Fair Princess' directly propelled the band Power Station, who sang 'Dang', to fame; there is no reason why he, Zhou Yi, couldn't use the future explosion of 'Young Bao' to step on Sun Nan and rise in the mainland.

After all, the snatching of resources signifies a signal.

Why couldn't a single male singer in the mainland's future snatch Sun Nan's top star position? Wasn't it simply because they couldn't compete for resources?

If we truly discuss the popularity during peak times, Sha Baoliang, who sang 'Dark Fragrance' in the future, is certainly not inferior.

"Oh right, there is one more thing."

Seeing Zhou Yi, after the discussion was settled, about to pull Cheng Hao, who was obediently keeping his mouth shut and acting as a listener, out of the car, Qian Jiang hurriedly spoke up.

Zhou Yi, who had already half-risen, sat back down and looked at him in confusion: "What else is there? You didn't snatch Liu Huan's resources for me in one breath, did you?"

"... I would like to, but unfortunately, Liu Huan's status is currently beyond your reach to even pretend to be comparable, even though he is showing signs of gradually retiring to the second tier."

Qian Jiang, left speechless, squeezed out this sentence.

At Liu Huan's level, where he has already started walking the path of an artist, the conventional rankings of the music scene are useless to him.

"I just wanted to discuss with you whether we should add a few more days to this signing event?"

Qian Jiang, pulling out today's signing data from his suit pocket, said excitedly: "Today's signing data shows your album sold 2,835 copies, setting a record for single-day sales at a signing event in the Jingcheng region.

"If we add a few more days in every city, driven by the promotional effect, I think your album's mainland sales can eventually exceed the company's estimate; breaking through 850,000 copies in the short term and selling 1.2 million copies within its lifecycle is not impossible."

"That many?"

Hearing this number, Zhou Yi himself was a bit stunned; busy with signing events on a non-stop rotation these past few days, he really hadn't had the mind to pay attention to his album's mainland sales data.

This is official album sales data, right?

His album's release date in the mainland was also July 1st; the first week had just started charting, and the first-week sales, relying on the excellent song quality, surged to 110,000 copies. After the second week, word-of-mouth fermented, and sales began to skyrocket, with the two-week total heading straight for 400,000 copies.

But the beautiful momentum was about to end here—because two weeks had passed, and rampant piracy had emerged.

What Cheng Hao mentioned earlier about hearing 'Happy Worship' and 'Must Love' in every street and alley was the work of pirate merchants.

And as of August 23rd, the last time he checked the sales data, which was about two months, influenced by his achievement of sweeping the entire Baodao music scene and the marketing war, the total sales of the 'Zhou Yi' album in the mainland exceeded 720,000 copies, and Xiangjiang sales exceeded 100,000 copies.

Zhou Yi estimated that this was probably already the limit.

The impact of piracy was simply too great; even Warner had no way to deal with it, after all, blocking someone's path to wealth is tantamount to killing their whole family; pirate merchants would teach people a lesson.

As a result, Qian Jiang suddenly dropping a line that mainland sales alone could surge to 850,000 copies in the short term truly gave him a fright.

"You should thank your fellow townspeople. According to statistical data, the province contributing the largest share of official album sales is Gansheng. Especially after you swept the Baodao music scene and reached the top.

"Next are the Imperial Capital and Yuensheng."

Qian Jiang shrugged, gesturing for Zhou Yi to look at the data on the list: "I have to say, Gansheng indeed has many people. Especially during this period, many people from Gansheng went to big cities like Yuensheng and Shanghai to work, and a large portion of them had earned money.

"Their movement between various cities also promoted the spread of your album's reputation in wealthy provinces."

"..."

To be honest, putting aside everything else, Gansheng is indeed a populous province. There are many poor people, and there are many rich people.

As a person from Gansheng, Zhou Yi truly had to thank his fellow townspeople of this era, whose sense of local sentiment was still very strong.

Seeing that Gansheng ranked first on the data with only a "0.3%" advantage, Zhou Yi immediately made a decision—

"Add it! Add it all!

"Take a gamble, and the motorcycle becomes a sports car!"

For this album, he personally handled the lyrics, composition, singing, and album production, directly taking the highest profit-sharing ratio available to an artist.

This is all silver-white money.

The last afterglow of the record era; he must make a huge grab.

On August 25th, Zhou Yi, who had planned to rest, immediately started his nationwide fan signing tour.

With the support of Warner's promotional channels, the sales of the official 'Zhou Yi' album, which had been gradually declining under the impact of piracy, actually managed to recover, selling tens of thousands of copies more than the original expected sales.

Zhou Yi, excellent in both singing and dancing, sunny and handsome, directly created a whirlwind of his own during the mainland promotional period—

Li Yuan, the deputy editor-in-chief of 'Jingcheng Youth Daily' at the time, even published an article titled 'The Soft Heart in the Hearts of Young People' in the newspaper:

"'Happy Worship,' which resounds in every street and alley, fully conforms to the musical outlook of young people in the millennium: new, fashionable, and good to listen to.

"Zhou Yi, who brought a whirlwind to the Chinese music scene, accomplished the same thing as his music scene predecessor, Richie Ren.

"The status of 'Happy Worship' in the hearts of this current batch of young people is probably the same as the status of 'Soft Heart' was in the hearts of our generation back then.

"Even more so, now might not even be the time when 'Happy Worship' has its greatest influence. Only when the students and youth who listen to 'Happy Worship' in the future gradually enter society or become the backbone of society will Zhou Yi's influence reach its peak..."

'Daily New Express' even directly described Zhou Yi's dual explosion in the mainland market and the Baodao market as a symbol of music culture—

"In this summer, singer Zhou Yi from Gansheng in the mainland added a heavy and colorful stroke to the entire Chinese music scene with a musical style uniquely his own.

"He conquered the Baodao music scene, known as the holy land of the golden generation of the Chinese music scene;

"In the mainland, his first album had only been sold for two months, yet its sales had already exceeded the total annual sales of another famous mainland singer, Pu Shu, last year.

"Therefore, the author is more willing to refer to Zhou Yi as a symbol, a rising musical symbol in the mainland music scene.

"His emergence marks the vigorous development of new forces in our country's music scene..."

Hmm, the latter part of that statement is very official-sounding.

Zhou Yi, refreshed by the mentholated oil dripping on his face, finished reading the newspaper pages in hand, casually tossed them aside, and turned his attention to the documents on the coffee table.

Those were materials sent by the manager Qian Jiang.

In September, he, who had already reigned supreme on the major charts in the Treasure Island, faced a joint assault by three people—

Liang Jingru, the obscure artist from Rock Records, released her second solo album, Courage. With Rock's promotion, the title track Courage jumped to the top five in just one month and was now launching an assault on Zhou Yi's number one throne;

Guo Tianwang, under BMG, released the album A Man's Love. The title track Men Cry, It's Not a Crime also broke into the top ten, with both reputation and sales exploding.

The diva Li Wen, bringing her own international production team, released the new album True Lover YOU&ME. The fiery and unrestrained Latin-style song True Lover also arrived with great momentum, aiming straight for first place!