Chapter 643: Confrontation, Bring It On

"Rest assured, we won't shortchange you."

Seeing that Dao Lang remained silent, the general manager, thinking he was still uneasy, handed him a cigarette: "You can continue selling the legitimate records over there; we won't interfere. As for other mainland cities and coastal cities, we will help you expand sales channels, but the premise is that we must sell first.

"Wait until March 25; on March 25, we will list your re-recorded legitimate album..."

More than two months, nearly three months, is enough time for them to eat up the most profitable period of the piracy bonus.

"You also don't need to worry about the record companies; they are all paper tigers now. They still have to rely on us to sell records in the end and dare not tear the skin off our faces.

"Besides, I think you should know Zhou Yi, right?"

Dao Lang, who had been silent, instantly raised his head upon hearing this name, his brows furrowing slightly: "Zhou Yi? What do you want to do?"

He is currently a rookie in the mainland music scene, with absolutely no connection to Zhou Yi.

"Of course, to help build your momentum."

The general managers exchanged smiles and said straightforwardly: "Only when you are famous can we profit. Zhou Yi is the singer with the best-selling albums in the country; you can't catch up with that, but radio charts and song charts are possible."

These domestic charts are basically "whoever feeds you is your mother"; the data can be bought—oh no, in record company terms, that's called "boosting."

Don't talk about Hong Kong and Taiwan not being authoritative; the trend of buying charts originated from Hong Kong and Taiwan and spread to the mainland.

"The aftereffect of your album's songs is huge; the growth rate is almost on par with Zhou Yi during the 'Jiangnan' period, and there is even hope to surpass him. Catching up with Zhou Yi during the 'Fairy Tale' period is also possible. Since that's the case, we can portray you as another challenger to Zhou Yi.

"Anyway, Zhou Yi is used to being challenged these years. If this news comes out, you won't get scolded; instead, you will gain higher attention, and many people will come to see what ability you have to dare to be this year's Zhou Yi challenger.

"At this time, as long as your strength is strong enough to keep up with the hype we blow up for you, you will gain more recognition..."

Thanks to the vigorous development of the Mandarin music scene in the early years of the 21st century, challenging the big boss Zhou Yi has actually become a story that audiences quite enjoy—

After all, Zhou Yi himself started this way.

In 2000, he burst onto the scene, becoming famous in one battle by defeating veteran singers like Richie Ren, Rene Liu, Wakin Chau, and the Four Heavenly Kings; Wang Lihong and Jay Chou, who challenged him, were also cut down under the horse.

In 2001, his opponents in the mainland, Hong Kong, and Macau became Xie Tingfeng, one of the two geniuses alongside him; in the broader Asian region and Taiwan, the opponents were F4, who were red-hot across half the sky thanks to 'Meteor Garden'; Jay Chou was the third in both places and was knocked down as a side effect.

In 2002, Zhou Yi's momentum was already established; the vanguard challenging him in the music scene became Du, known as the King of Common People. The God of War under the car held up the criticism with his solid song quality and popularity, accepted this overwhelming wealth, crushed the third-place Jay Chou, but unfortunately still stopped at second place for the year.

And in the just-passed 2003, Jay Chou, whose momentum was finally established, arrived with 'Sunny Day' and became the new round of Zhou Yi's challenger. The 'Ye Hui Mei' album was at the height of its prestige, even sending him to the Spring Festival Gala, but unfortunately, he was still second.

One extremely powerful challenger changing every year; this is the terrifying suppression power with which Zhou Yi has ruled the music scene these years—after all, only when the opponent is strong can your suppression power look awesome.

To quote a certain authoritative musician, it is that they were unfortunately born in Zhou Yi's era.

If there were no Zhou Yi, not to say all these people would be number one that year, at the very least they wouldn't have harvested nothing, not even a single annual championship.

And this year, this "born at the wrong time" challenger should be Dao Lang.

If they can successfully steal the base while Zhou Yi is busy with the Spring Festival Gala and the New Year with no time for promotion, that would be even more truly the most successful challenger—the other few all lost in a direct confrontation with Zhou Yi.

Hiss...

Dare not think, dare not think, dare not think...

Thinking this, the general manager at the head looked at Dao Lang with eyes that were exceptionally, somewhat fiery.

What if?

………………………………

"What 'what if'? Don't rush; just proceed with the original plan step by step for promotion. These two can't turn the sky upside down. Dao Lang is obviously exerting marketing force; his threat is greater. 'The Mouse Loves Rice' can be temporarily ignored; without marketing data, it can't rise for now."

Inside Alpha Company, Yang Junrong, who felt he could still sit firmly on the fishing platform, did not believe that 'The First Snow of 2002' and 'The Mouse Loves Rice' could threaten the company's only ace, Jay Chou.

And Chen Jiaying, who also believed these two could not produce a threat, was the same—she was Wang Fei's manager before, and now she is Chen Yixun's manager.

On the Zhou Bang of the Music风云榜，'Ten Years' still had around 800,000 converted data, while Dao Lang's 'The First Snow of 2002' after exerting marketing force converted to only around 600,000 index, so it only squeezed into the top seven.

800,000 against 600,000; the advantage is mine!

As for Watching Xiao Yaxuan, because she went to the US to start running offline events, after her focus shifted, her 'Compromise' and 'Backtrack' basically meant elimination.

However...

"What did you say? You met Utada Hikaru?"

On the 18th, after the second-to-last rehearsal for the Spring Festival Gala ended, Zhou Yi, returning to the Warner Building to chat on the phone with Watching Xiao Yaxuan, was stunned.

"Yes, she seems to be releasing an English album this year too; my EP seems to be going up against hers."

Watching Xiao Yaxuan was extremely excited: "Yesterday, when I ran the first offline event, I met her; we both ran the same event."

Zhou Yi was puzzled: "Going up against? Can EMI let you two conflict?"

"Nonsense, I am EMI China's ace, she is Japan's ace; both are aces, who fears whom?"

Watching Xiao Yaxuan, holding back a breath of anger, was obviously still not over the claim by Japanese media that she was "Zhou Yi's substitute whom he loved but could not get": "Besides, the US distribution company for her this time isn't EMI; it's under Universal, so there's no need to avoid same-company conflicts."

Oh, forgot that matter.

Zhou Yi slapped his forehead; recently busy with rehearsals and communicating with 'Today's Law' about the program's draft, he hadn't paid much attention to anything else.

"When are you coming to the US? I'll see if I have time to hang out with you then."

"Waiting for me, forget it; I'm going to the US after the New Year for serious business."

Zhou Yi chuckled lightly: "The Grammys moved up to February 8; basically after the New Year, rest at home for two days, then after recording the 'Today's Law' program, I should fly to the US."

"'Today's Law'? You're even on a legal program? Legal celebrity?"

"Get lost, hurry up and catch up on sleep."

Zhou Yi scolded playfully, and then hung up the phone.

Throwing away the paper and pen he used for writing drafts, Zhou Yi stretched his arms, preparing to clock off on the spot, and was just about to go find Sun Yanzi to ask if she wanted to go home together, but unexpectedly saw a group of people sitting around in her office, their expressions extremely solemn—

"What's wrong?"

Zhou Yi poked his head in, couldn't see clearly what happened, and thought something had happened to Sun Yanzi, but when he walked over quickly, he saw Sun Yanzi's new manager sitting seriously in front of a computer looking at some data charts, and Sun Yanzi, beside her, still had surprise on her face.

"Zhou Yi, a new one called the King of Western Songs came out recently; he's very fierce, come quickly."

Seeing the man arrive, Sun Yanzi immediately waved to him and pointed at the computer screen: "His Zhou Bang cumulative data has already beaten Jay Chou's 'Sunny Day'; according to this growth rate, he might surpass me and Chen Yixun tomorrow."

"What?"

In the capital, inside a hotel suite.

Because Zhou Jielun, who was temporarily staying here due to participating in the Spring Festival Gala, received a notification from his manager, a look of disbelief showed in his eyes: "I was defeated by a challenger again?"

Eh?

Why did I say "again"?