Chapter 538: I Love Telling the Truth

"Are you sure this will work?"

"I don't know, but at least we can try. At least, they are short on people right now."

The next day, because the matter involved the focus of the release and Watching Xiao Yaxuan couldn't make the final decision, she continued to play wildly for another day after yesterday before finally calling her teacher, Yao Qian, to explain the situation to him in general terms.

Yao Qian, who had always been on the traditional record label side, was somewhat hesitant about the prospects Zhou Yi had described—

If Zhou Yi hadn't already become the first person to eat the crab, he probably would have rejected this far-fetched idea immediately.

Isn't this just nonsense?

"Internet singer," this term, for many who came from the era of physical records, is nothing short of a derogatory word.

Most importantly, if Watching Xiao Yaxuan, a pure newcomer singer, directly entered the Apple Store, what would happen to physical sales?

Zhou Yi had no choice; after all, with global sales of over thirty million copies for "English Major," to put it a bit melodramatically, he was a man who stepped onto the ladder of divinity at the tail end of the record era, forcing countless physical record channels to hold their noses and stock his goods for the sake of profit—

Even if they cursed him fiercely behind his back.

You have to take the money when it's offered; otherwise, you're a damn fool.

But Watching Xiao Yaxuan didn't have that kind of confidence. If she dared to offend the major European and American physical channels by debuting directly as an internet singer, the distribution and sales of her physical albums would basically be a lost cause.

Unless her EP could explode so much that the physical channels would have to hold their noses and admit defeat again, rushing to stock physical copies to make a quick buck—just like Zhou Yi.

"My suggestion is that since the physical channels are already controlled by those people, we might as well bet on the emerging internet. After all, how much quality screen time and resources can Elva get alone and unassisted in the early stages in Europe and America? I'm afraid even EMI cannot guarantee that."

Taking the phone from Watching Xiao Yaxuan's hand, Zhou Yi comfortably crossed his legs and asked Yao Qian in return: "Moreover, Elva's personal image lacks unique recognition in the European and American music scene, which is full of all sorts of monsters and demons. Even her tone and sense of fashion, which she prides herself on, are not considered treasures over there.

"If we follow the traditional channel promotion methods, she will only be drowned in the vast sea of female singers releasing albums in the same period, unable to create much of a splash.

"Don't think I'm just raising the alarm for no reason. If you don't believe me, you can just wait and see what happens with Tao Zhe's, or even Utada Hikaru's, English albums in the US; anyway, the time is coming soon."

Since he had already pulled out the mega-hit songs, Zhou Yi was definitely aiming for maximum profit.

He became the king of physical sales first, then used his fame to expand into online channels—Watching Xiao Yaxuan would do the exact opposite: first become famous online, then use her online popularity to feed back into the offline world.

Commonly known as monetizing traffic.

The difference from domestic internet traffic monetization is that the Apple Music Store can not only give Watching Xiao Yaxuan huge traffic but also provide her with a large share of the money—domestic internet music is free, so that's not possible; singers can only use their fame to do offline gigs and accept endorsements.

"..."

Yao Qian on the other end of the line fell into silence; after a long while, he finally spoke again: "The problem is, if we go with the online channel you mentioned, compared to offline, Elva still has no advantage."

"That should be something for you to consider, Boss Yao."

Zhou Yi chuckled lightly: "Let me remind you, major record companies, including Warner, are still renegotiating with Apple right now.

"Because of my huge profits, they now see the potential for profit, but Apple has now become the party with the subtle advantage. I say 'subtle' because their advantage isn't that big, after all, those record companies still have a large number of singers under their rosters.

"At this moment, what if Apple pushes an Asian diva who has no fame in the US to stardom? I am an exception, but Elva is not an exception."

If they can push out one singer who had no fame in Europe and America before, then they can push out a second one.

And to give Apple confidence, for the three songs on Watching Xiao Yaxuan's EP, Zhou Yi handled one and a half—the half was because he didn't write the lyrics for the English version of "Sun Never Sets."

As for what specific favorable terms can be negotiated, that depends on how well Yao Qian can talk to Steve Jobs.

"... Let Elva come back to record the songs first."

After a long silence, Yao Qian spoke to give an instruction: "Her family matters have been resolved; her father won't come out and say all sorts of messy things for a while."

"I have the speaker on; she has already heard it."

"Hmm."

With a "beep," Yao Qian hung up the phone.

Zhou Yi, who was spinning the phone in his hand, looked up at the woman leaning against the sofa back and staring at him, shrugged, and handed the phone back to her: "You heard it too; you should go back to work, little genius."

"Damn, don't call me genius; that reminds me of Cai Yilin. Sony tried desperately to stick on marketing, calling her a genius, a talent, and so on; it's quite awkward."

Watching Xiao Yaxuan, who was almost having a stress reaction to the word "genius," rubbed her arm where goosebumps had risen with a hint of disdain: "Her new album, 'Look at My 72 Changes,' has also transformed; she's in the same track as me."

"The mouth is on other people's faces; you can't stop them."

Zhou Yi laughed out loud upon hearing the classic "talent" nickname.

After the release of the album "Look at My 72 Changes," Cai Yilin, who had returned to the public eye thanks to the three blockbuster hits "Look at My 72 Changes," "Say You Love Me," and "Knight Spirit," truly got on the fast track to nationwide fame.

She was also generally regarded by the Taiwanese media as another template for the "Double Zhou Confrontation."

Zhou Yi stood behind Sun Yanzi and Watching Xiao Yaxuan, while Jay Chou stood behind Cai Yilin, Li Wen, Chen Xiaochun, Wen Lan, and others, focusing on winning by quantity.

However, for the fans who had been eagerly awaiting Sun Yanzi's new album this year, they received a piece of news that left them bewildered—

"Sun Yanzi's new album this year, the lead single is actually not by Zhou Yi, nor by the Li Sisong and Li Weisong brothers?"

Domestic, Taiwan.

Since the album release date had been officially confirmed for August 20, Sun Yanzi had been active in various variety shows and radio programs across the two sides of the strait and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan these past few days, constantly promoting her new album.

Her appearance, having gained seven or eight pounds during the SARS period thanks to Cheng Hao, showed a very obvious change on camera, making her look much more energetic.

"Zhou Yi actually wrote for me too; for example, 'One is Like Summer, One is Like Autumn' tells the story of the friendship between Cheng Hao and me; 'Sha Po Lang,' besides the theme of love, is actually more of a metaphor; he hopes my unfinished musical journey can proceed smoothly under the imagery of Sha Po Lang..."

"I heard, just heard. Sun Yanzi, are you living with Zhou Yi? I see many reports outside writing all sorts of things about cohabitation and such."

At the recording site of the "Variety Big Brother" program, Sun Yanzi, who hadn't appeared in Taiwan for a long time due to the SARS period, was a bit unaccustomed to the scale of things here in Taiwan; facing the Lich King Zhang Fei, she kept smiling foolishly and scratching her head: "It should, not really cohabitation; we just live on floors above and below each other; that's all just reporters writing nonsense."

"Oh~~"

As Fei Yuqing's big brother, Zhang Fei's Lich King skills were naturally no joke; while feigning a look of sudden realization on his face, he didn't forget to clap his hands on the microphone: "So, you are above Wan Ren Mi, Zhou Yi is in the middle, right?"

The highly suggestive dirty joke caused the whole audience to burst into laughter; after a moment of stunned silence, Sun Yanzi, who understood immediately, turned her back somewhat shyly and covered her mouth with one hand to stop herself from laughing too loudly.

The famous singer, who was also one of the hosts of this program, Huang Pinyuan, timely played the role of the brake, rushing out and hitting Zhang Fei on the body several times: "Don't be like that; people like Yanzi are here on the show to promote her new album."

"Alright, alright, I know; you let go first."

Zhang Fei let out two sly "hehe" sounds, then leaned over to Sun Yanzi and pretended to whisper quietly: "I heard Zhou Yi has great waist strength; the newspapers all say he fought one against a hundred in Japan; is that true or false? I have a friend who is quite interested in his maintenance methods."

The tone was already lewd enough, and paired with that expression and those actions, Sun Yanzi raised her microphone several times wanting to speak but was teased until she laughed so hard she couldn't breathe—

"Hey, Brother Fei, is this friend you're talking about actually yourself?"

After struggling to suppress her emotions, Sun Yanzi deliberately pinched her voice to sound deeper and asked with a laugh.

"Alright, alright, alright, let's temporarily skip this topic and move to the next segment. Thank you."

As if struck in a sore spot, Zhang Fei immediately put away his sly, rat-like expression and began interviewing with a serious demeanor: "Then, Miss Sun Yanzi, may I ask what the name of the song you are about to bring us is?"

During the music performance segment, Sun Yanzi's posture became ladylike; holding the microphone with both hands, she bowed slightly to the audience below and replied: "It is called 'Encounter', the title track from my new album 'Unfinished'. I hope everyone will like it. Thank you."

When everyone on stage stepped back, leaving the main stage for Sun Yanzi, and the intro began to play, the fans in the venue immediately erupted into screams of wailing and howling.

Smiling and waving at them, Sun Yanzi opened her mouth to capture the very hearts of the audience—

"Hearing, winter, leaving, I woke up in some year, some month~

"I think, I wait, I expect, but the future cannot be arranged because of this~"

……………………………………

"Good, it sounds good!"

Japan, Fuji Television, on a certain variety show.

The stars and director of 'Dr. Koto's Clinic', along with the fans present, were clapping wildly, offering applause to the male and female singers who achieved success in both Chinese and Japanese versions of the duet.

Born in 1952, the 51-year-old Japanese national treasure singer Miyuki Nakajima, after finishing the last two lines of Chinese lyrics she had specially learned, bowed slightly to Zhou Yi, who was responsible for singing the Chinese parts during the duet of 'Ride on the Silver Dragon', to express her gratitude.

This song can be considered her comeback hit after the arrival of the new century, breaking into the top ten of the Oricon chart once again and reaching number one.

And this was all thanks to Zhou Yi.

"Sugoi! Zhou Yi Jun!"

"Zhou Yi Jun, I love you!"

"Sugoi!! Zhou Yi-sama!!!"

"……"

With expressions exaggerated to the extreme and praises shouted as if their throats were breaking, it was the first time Zhou Yi, who was experiencing Japanese variety show culture live, felt somewhat unaccustomed.

If not for the face of those millions of US dollars, he would absolutely never have appeared on such a variety show that he wasn't particularly fond of.

No choice; the production team simply offered too much.

Well-versed in the Chinese special psychological tactic of 'since we are already here', Fuji Television first invited Zhou Yi to Japan with a post-tax contract of 3 million US dollars to help promote the TV drama 'Dr. Koto's Clinic' and take promotional photos with Miyuki Nakajima;

Later, just as Zhou Yi was preparing to relax properly, they presented another post-tax contract of 4 million US dollars asking him to appear on an episode, euphemistically calling it: 'since we are already here.'

Although the lead actors of this variety show production team also appeared to ride the wave of popularity for promotion, Zhou Yi remained the main focus.

Zhou Yi originally had no intention of appearing, but Qian Jiang persuaded him, stating that he should at least appear on the show to clarify the messy 'substitute literature' rumors between him and Utada Hikaru.

The unhealthy trend of 'Zhou Yi, the good man's wife' could not be allowed to become established fact.

In the past, rumors spreading everywhere were called the romanticism of a talented scholar, but once it involved a married woman, the nature of the matter changed.

"Zhou Yi Jun, we all know you are a world-class Guo Tianwang, and Miyuki (Miyuki Nakajima) is also a Japanese national treasure singer with deep ties to the Chinese music scene. How do you feel about your collaboration this time?"

"It's great; Ms. Miyuki sang out another flavor of the song."

Zhou Yi, who turned the tables, made his comment and even received a thank you from Miyuki Nakajima in person: "Arigato, Zhou Yi-san."

In the audience, the older generation, who had always watched Miyuki Nakajima have her songs bought and covered by the Chinese music scene, felt somewhat bitter in their hearts.

Just a few years ago, this statement was made when the Chinese Guo Tianwang Richie Ren covered the old witch's song, and she commented on it.

How little time has passed, and the situation has reversed.

Under Zhou Yi's leadership, the leading musicians of the new generation of the Chinese music scene seem to rarely buy songs for covers anymore; especially the 'One Emperor and Three Guo Tianwang'—all of them write their own songs, producing and selling their own work.

Emperor: Zhou Yi;

Three Guo Tianwang: Tao Zhe, Zhou Jielun, Wang Lihong.

This is the classification of the Chinese music scene on Japanese programs, and also the first time a proper large-scale TV program explicitly defined Zhou Yi's nickname as the Emperor of Asian Pop Music, and even drew a hexagram ability chart for all four of them for comparison—

Even just looking at it, Zhou Yi would feel so embarrassed that his toes would dig out a three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment.

When it comes to being 'chuunibyou', it has to be the Japanese.

"Then, Zhou Yi Jun, we all know you have achieved great success in the Western music scene. What kind of results do you think Utada (Utada Hikaru) will achieve with her English album released in the US this time? We all know your relationship seems very unusual; can you predict it?"

"First, I need to clarify one point: I am not familiar with Miss Utada Hikaru; we have only met once so far, which was back at the World Music Awards. Those news reports were written wildly by paparazzi; my lawyer is already collecting materials and preparing to sue them..."

After first clarifying the so-called 'substitute literature', when Zhou Yi discussed the sales of Utada Hikaru's English album, he couldn't help but shake his head: "As for sales, to be honest, I do not think she will succeed in the US, because she obviously still does not know the switching point between Western and Asian pop music."

I love the truth, bro.

The host, and even the audience present, who had originally thought Zhou Yi would just say some pretty words to end this segment, suddenly perked up.

Damn, no wonder he's the Emperor! That mouth really dares to speak!

You have to know that Universal Music is currently building momentum for Utada Hikaru's US tour, with an attitude that the Asian Diva is bound to top the US charts.

The entire Japanese music scene was also looking forward to her with bated breath; Zhou Yi was the first person to dare to publicly express that he did not expect her to succeed...