Chapter 610

"Output your mom! Doesn't Zhou Yi sing English songs abroad?! Doesn't he sell English albums?!"

"Exactly! The only Chinese song that made waves in the West, 'In the Name of the Father,' was even inspired by the Western classic film 'The Godfather'—so isn't that still Western stuff?"

Seeing the fanboys openly deleting opponents' nationalities online, many who had merely said a few words were instantly enraged and began cursing at Zhou Yi's idiotic behavior.

Completely illogical.

No one disputes your massive international achievements, but claiming this as 'exporting Chinese culture' is going too far.

The fanboys fighting back on this point directly slapped evidence in their faces—

"Spike's New Album May Have Surpassed 300,000 Copies?"

"Chinese Wave: Beyond Tang Renjie"

"Beware of Chinese Cultural Invasion"

"..."

All these reports came from American newspapers and magazines such as The New York Daily, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.

These are all top-selling American publications; for them to start reporting on Zhou Yi's English album means his latest Chinese album has truly taken off in the U. S.

"Wait, what's going on? Are Zhou Yi's fans in the U. S. that loyal? It's only been out how long? Last year, even with the momentum from 'In the Name of the Father,' his Chinese album sold barely more than this number over a full year!"

"Are they all Chinese people and international students buying it?"

"No, I've cracked it, guys—the surge is because this guy did a massive publicity stunt right before returning to China. Remember the Victoria's Secret show? The lingerie fashion show."

"During the red carpet segment, Zhou Yi directly shut down the BBC reporter and used it to promote his new Chinese album. The organizers didn't cut a single frame—they aired the whole thing as entertainment."

"..."

"???"

At the mention of the Victoria's Secret show, those who still had some memory temporarily dropped their arguments and united to demand details.

Did Zhou Yi strip naked and blast the female reporter on stage?

People who hadn't even seen this American show were jumping out of their skins with curiosity.

"More accurately, it was your footage on the red carpet publicly snatching the microphone away from the BBC reporter that went viral, and then you immediately launched a brainwashing, repetitive promotion of your album's release date, sparking curiosity and amusement among many Americans."

Warner Building, office.

After receiving the two-week data from the U. S. headquarters, Qian Jiang's expression turned slightly odd as he spoke: "They're very interested in your brazen mockery of the BBC reporter on the Victoria's Secret red carpet—after all, the BBC is a major media outlet, and most stars treat them with respect; that reporter is a well-known face."

Although insulting a media reporter seems overly arrogant for someone in entertainment, since it's the BBC—the same outlet that always mocks Zhou Yi—Americans didn't care much; most just saw it as entertainment.

Add to that the highly loyal fanbase Zhou Yi built through his repeated battles in the U. S. music scene, including many crystalline fans willing to buy his album, and a decent sales figure was practically guaranteed.

After all, many American youths eat up arrogance and talent—

The strong should win everything; they should humiliate the weak mercilessly!

So what if you buy an album?

Money can't buy my willingness!

If I really don't want to buy the album, I'll just buy a few Chinese songs on Apple Music—that still counts as support!

"Chinese culture already carries a touch of mystique among ordinary people in Europe and America; in the U. S., it's even more mystical. Combined with the massive attention from Victoria's Secret, his U. S. first-week sales hit 140,000 copies. When you factor in Apple Music single sales converted into album equivalents, it surpassed 210,000."

"In just two weeks, total sales exceeded 350,000 copies—only half a month has passed."

Qian Jiang couldn't help but get excited when talking about Apple Music, this major weapon.

Expensive albums aren't for everyone, but buying one or two cheap digital singles? Plenty of Zhou Yi fans happily shell out without blinking.

They don't even understand the lyrics—they just spend a tiny fraction of their pocket money to support their idol, letting him know just how much American fans support him, and begging him to come over for a concert.

Yes, after learning Zhou Yi was touring domestically in China, his American fans grew more desperate day by day, longing for him to come, cursing Warner daily for being useless.

"Even though singles earn less, they truly pile up sales—if you have loyal fans, you can sell singles endlessly."

Qian Jiang sighed deeply, finally seeing how Apple Music had boosted Zhou Yi's Chinese song sales in Europe and America: "If this model replaces traditional album distribution and becomes mainstream, won't it be easy to inflate numbers?"

He couldn't blame himself for being paranoid—this fact alone, that even Chinese songs could break through, had genuinely stunned him.

If he really wanted to inflate numbers, he could immediately arrange for Zhou Yi's Chinese songs to top Apple Music's sales chart—every penny spent on fake sales would eventually flow back into Warner's pockets; and since the incentive targets were already met, Apple would even pay them extra.

But considering the irreversible negative impact this would have on Zhou Yi, the idea vanished from Qian Jiang's mind after just a fleeting thought.

"This is how the digital music era works: winner takes all. Whether in the West or East, for top-tier popular singers, boosting sales will become incredibly easy."

Zhou Yi glanced over and shook his head with a grunt.

Disgusted by traffic → Hated traffic → Understood traffic → Became traffic.

Now he had reached the fourth stage even in Europe and America.

Jay Chou's album 'The Greatest Works' in 2022 topped the global album sales chart solely through sales in the Chinese-speaking region, crushing Taylor Swift's new album released the same year, thanks to the winner-takes-all advantage of traffic in the Chinese-speaking market.

"And guess what's your highest-selling Chinese single on Apple's official site?"

Qian Jiang smiled slyly, then couldn't wait to reveal the answer: "It's 'Blue and White Porcelain.'"

As the pinnacle of 'Chinese style,' 'Blue and White Porcelain' captivated Americans with its exotic melody, translated lyrics, MV visuals, and the theme of 'porcelain' intertwined with 'love.'

Especially the porcelain theme.

Chinese porcelain is famous—renowned throughout the entire Western world, including the U. S.

And 'Blue and White Porcelain' directly draws from porcelain; recently, more American youths visiting Tang Renjie's porcelain shops have appeared compared to before.

"Now this is real cultural export."

Zhou Yi laughed.

Though still insignificant compared to his English song sales, it was at least a breakthrough—Chinese songs finally making an impact in the English-speaking world.

"Most importantly, you're not just popular in the U. S. —you're equally huge in the U. K. Your English songs have penetrated their local communities almost as deeply as in the U. S."

Under Zhou Yi's bewildered gaze, Qian Jiang smiled and explained the reason—Arsenal Football Club.

Since opening their 2003 Premier League season on May 6 with a 6-1 victory, the team, under legendary manager Arsène Wenger, remained undefeated—now it's December, halfway through the season, and Arsenal still hasn't lost a single Premier League match.

The league has been raging on, and they've still not lost a single game.

Basically, every time Arsenal fans watch a match, they sing their own adapted songs to cheer for the team, fearing that if they stop even for a breath, the losing streak will begin. Coincidentally, as Arsenal's ambassador, Zhou Yi's songs, besides being used in annual advertisements, are also perfectly suited for adaptation into stadium chants to boost morale.

This was seized upon by the fans and even utilized by Arsenal's official publicity.

One could say that thanks to Arsenal's unbeaten run and the major news stories generated along the way, Zhou Yi's songs and popularity in Britain may not be known to every household, but at the very least, they are far from being ignored—a large portion of the community fanbase became Zhou Yi's fans just by listening to his songs.

In Europe, fans constitute the largest demographic group, and this group possesses considerable purchasing power.

"Sales in the UK reached 130,000 copies, which is simply beyond expectations."

Qian Jiang calculated the total sales, his tone growing increasingly excited: "Ah Yi, if your album leverages this global foundation, it is highly likely to break the record of over four million copies set by 'Qingbie' for a single Chinese album."

Although the eras are different and a forced comparison isn't fair, one cannot ignore that the current environment is a far more vicious era.

Moreover, the most important thing is that Zhou Yi's 'Gui Cang' includes a foreign sales portion that accounts for a huge proportion of the total.

The Japanese music scene, which has already become Zhou Yi's personal fiefdom, need not be discussed; in just two weeks, it easily surged to first place, racking up 450,000 copies in sales thanks to immense popularity; the South Korean market was much worse, but still reached 180,000 copies.

UK 130,000, France 70,000, Germany 80,000, Italy 90,000, Spain 70,000.

Calculating carefully, just the two-week sales from China, Japan, South Korea plus the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy totaled over 3.65 million copies.

Other places like Serbia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, and so on, scattered across the entire European world with hundreds or thousands here and tens of thousands there, pieced together amounted to over 80,000 copies.

Although none were very large individually, the sheer volume made up for it.

Then there were the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia; in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, the Mandarin album market, no matter how sluggish, could still explode with 30,000 to 50,000 copies in two weeks.

After data from all departments was consolidated, it had just crossed the threshold of 4 million copies.

If it had sold for just two more days, there would be no doubt it would break the sales record for a single Chinese album set by 'Qingbie'.

They say the Mandarin music scene has a new era every ten years, and from 'Qingbie' to 'Gui Cang', exactly ten years have passed...

Previously, some mainland media figures who were resentful of Zhou Yi, under the pressure of the traffic trend, were forced to pick up their pens and write insincere praises.

Especially those under Southern Media Group—

"The Curtain Falls on the Old Era, The New Era Begins!"

"The End of an Era"

"This Era is Called Zhou Yi"

Oh Heaven, do you still have eyes at all!

After returning to the mainland, not only was Xu Qingliang, who had received a court summons to prepare for trial, treated coldly internally by Southern Media Group, but he also widened his eyes in disbelief, shouting that there was no justice in the world.

Even Xinhua News Agency, which had brought back Yuan Li who was investigating and gathering evidence, unprecedentedly published an article elaborating on the sales records set by Chinese pop songs like 'Blue and White Porcelain' abroad—

"Blue and White Porcelain: The Overseas Appeal of Chinese Culture"

"Recently, the pop song 'Blue and White Porcelain', created and performed by our country's young singer Zhou Yi, has consecutively garnered extremely high discussion overseas, causing more foreigners to notice traditional Chinese porcelain culture..."

The article was not long, but the significance it represented was entirely different.

The moment this record-breaking result came out, most people's dissatisfaction and resentment were ultimately swallowed back into their own bellies.

Chinese albums are even being sold overseas; this is something that truly cannot be criticized for now.

He did it, and he actually did it.

"Holy crap! Zhou Yi is awesome!"

"Damn your grandfather! Overseas sales are almost half the total; is this the terror of Zhou Yi?"

"Domestic sales aren't enough, East Asian sales aren't enough, Southeast Asian sales aren't enough, but Zhou Yi has European and American sales to supplement..."

"It is truly no injustice that the God of Songs has been surpassed; how can anyone fight this? Fight with their heads!"

"Truly, a cycle every ten years, an era every ten years. Zhou Yi leads and opens the next decade-long prosperity of the music scene; no problem there."

"Prosperity? Except for Zhou Yi, who is in a league of his own, and a few other top-tier artists, the music scene has weakened to an unbelievable degree."

"This really cannot be blamed on Zhou Yi's arrogance; if I had his strength, I would be even more arrogant than him; I would walk sideways!"

(End of Chapter)