Chapter 71: As Long As You Can Take It Down

"Mainland's Zhou Yi, Taiwan's Wang Lihong, Xiangjiang's Xie Tingfeng: Three Creative Talents, Which One Do You Prefer?"

"Emperor Group Furious, Xie Tingfeng May Face His Strongest Rival!"

"Romantic Relationship Suspected to Change, Xie Tingfeng and Wang Fei's Relationship Shows Cracks!"

"Mainland's Top Guy Zhou Yi Arrives in Xiangjiang, Golden Lock Picks Him Up?!"

"Zhou Yi's Rumored Girlfriend Changes Again, Golden Lock Bravely Charges Into the Gossip Array?!"

"..."

On the first day after arriving in Xiangjiang, the first thing Zhou Yi learned was the exaggerated celebrity gossip news of the Xiangjiang entertainment industry.

Compared to this group, the paparazzi from the Mainland and Taiwan all have to stand aside.

Especially that one titled "Golden Lock Bravely Charges Into the Gossip Array," which made Zhou Yi look like an old man on a subway with a phone.

"What kind of magical train of thought is this? Bravely charging into the Gossip Array? Am I some kind of big villain?"

Casually tossing aside the newspapers bought by his agent Qian Jiang, Zhou Yi, wearing a pristine white bathrobe, yawned, accepted the coffee handed to him, and walked step by step toward the living room of the hotel suite.

"This is just Xiangjiang's paparazzi; get used to it."

Qian Jiang, who had brought his own breakfast to Zhou Yi's hotel room, chuckled and said indifferently, "This group is just like dog patches attached to celebrities; your identity as a top student from Peking University doesn't work on them."

"If you deliberately pay attention to them, it will only make them more excited."

"Besides, here in Xiangjiang, you are actually a character similar to a villain; don't forget who the most popular young person in Xiangjiang is right now."

Zhou Yi, having accepted the breakfast, sat on the sofa; hearing this, his gaze immediately fell on another weekly magazine written about Xie Tingfeng suspected of having a relationship change with Wang Fei: "No way, so petty?"

The press release denigrating Xie Tingfeng's height wasn't released by him; he never does such things.

Even if Wang Lihong said nothing, he could guess that Sony Music behind the scenes had a high probability of doing this.

"You are the first young singer from the Mainland who can completely suppress Xie Tingfeng in every aspect; of course, they are happy to hype up the confrontation between you, especially since you are of similar age."

"Moreover, you are currently the only young singer in the Chinese music circle who can sell the cover song rights to Koreans."

Qian Jiang laughed so hard his eyes almost squinted into a single slit, smiling like a Maitreya Buddha who had just struck it rich.

Although it was the first sale and the one-time payment wasn't considered too large, Zhou Yi had composition royalties.

The Koreans will definitely rewrite the lyrics when they buy it back; he won't receive the lyric royalties, but the composition royalties are still there.

This is at least a symbol of reputation, especially in the Hong Kong circle where covering songs is the trend.

Warner's current top female singer, Zheng Xiuwen, is a cover song specialist who specifically targets the Korean singer Lee Jung-hyun, milking that one sheep to death.

"In Zhou Jianhui's words, this is the first time he has earned royalties from Koreans. SM Company wanted to buy out the rights at a low price, but Zhou Jianhui personally stepped in and rejected it."

Qian Jiang happily notified Zhou Yi of the good news: "Especially after you swept five trophies in the Mainland at once, Zhou Jianhui's confidence grew even stronger."

"Either they buy Korean songs from the company, where you, as the composer, get composition royalties, or otherwise they pay a huge buyout fee."

Facing Warner, an old hand that often goes to the Korean music circle to buy cover rights for its top female singer Zheng Xiuwen, even if SM Company wanted to play tricks, they had nowhere to use them.

They wanted to take a detour to find Zhou Yi, but Zhou Yi finished winning awards in the Mainland and then rushed to Xiangjiang to attend the next award ceremony; the two sides couldn't even meet face to face.

"So, did the Korean side agree?"

Zhou Yi, chewing on pig intestine noodles, dipped a bit of soy sauce and asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hearing this, Qian Jiang became even more proud: "They agreed, but the market status has now changed. With your album becoming a huge hit in the Southeast Asian region, Zhou Jianhui contacted two other Korean companies that also wanted to buy your cover song rights, and even one Japanese company."

"These companies understand how popular the hiphop style is right now; they all want to buy your songs that have already been tested by the market and gilded with awards."

"Especially after you were selected for the Top Ten Chinese Golden Melodies in Xiangjiang."

"After all, the Xiangjiang music scene still has some influence in Japan and Korea; the lingering power of the former Four Heavenly Kings still remains."

"Didn't Zhou Jianhui plan to define your fame upon debut as 'Little Guo Fucheng' before? But because you became popular in the country too fast and too unreasonably, all the press releases about 'Little Guo Fucheng' were distributed to Japan and Korea."

"Borrowing Guo Fucheng's fame, although the language barrier existed, you have a face and height, the melody in the MV is pleasant to hear, and the dance is very rhythmic; you indeed opened a market gap in Japan and Korea."

"SM Company has no choice now and can only join the competition."

Speaking to this point, Qian Jiang's appetite also opened up with joy, and he fiercely ate three golden sand buns: "This is why I insisted before that you must go and sweep the awards."

"Regardless of whether it is dividing the pork, at least currently there is no award in the Mainland more famous than the Global Chinese Music Awards."

"It is the same here in Xiangjiang; the award ceremony model of the Global Chinese Music Awards is actually copied from the Top Ten Chinese Golden Melodies."

"But because the Xiangjiang music scene was popular across all of Asia during the Four Heavenly Kings era, the Top Ten Chinese Golden Melodies award was also gilded with a layer of gold paint due to the competition between them."

"Many fans of the Four Heavenly Kings in Japan and Korea compare awards with each other using this Top Ten Chinese Golden Melodies, especially Leon Lai."

"His level of popularity in Japan and Korea can be described as leading by an insurmountable gap, but unfortunately he is not a Warner artist. Guo Fucheng is relatively more popular in Japan."

When talking about Guo Fucheng and Leon Lai, Qian Jiang couldn't help but smack his lips a few times, feeling a bit regretful.

Warner was indeed withering away enough before; otherwise, it would have been great to sign Leon Lai, who had conflicts with his record company, long ago.

"It doesn't matter; as long as it sells. Although being able to go out is an honor, the domestic market is my basic foundation."

Regarding this, Zhou Yi was quite open-minded.

Earning money from foreigners is certainly very cool, but the domestic fan base is the key to his long-term popularity in the future.

In this special era of the millennium, being popular abroad truly means being popular only abroad. Before the internet era arrived, there was a considerable gap between the domestic music market and the world music market.

Taking steps too big easily leads to tearing one's balls.

Just look at Li Wen; how popular she was back then. After going out to explore, she thought she would return fully loaded and ascend to the ranks of artists, but she almost lost her entire domestic market.

Trying to pick up her Mandarin fan base again, she was knocked dizzy by the four big and three small singers who rose later, with sales and popularity declining time and time again.

Even though internationally she was the top tier among Chinese female singers, she was still effectively an out-of-date artist back in the country because her fan base had been completely carved up by other competitive domestic singers.

No matter how much her agency blew it sky high, how many awards she won, how good her English songs were, or how many sales she had, Li Wen's popularity in the domestic market just kept dropping.

In the end, she was nowhere to be found on both the popularity charts and the sales charts.

One can only say that Li Wen and her company overestimated the popularity and prestige of foreign songs in the domestic market; they spent all their time and effort running promotions and charting abroad, only to lose the domestic foundation they had struggled for years to build.

Zhou Yi would not do such a stupid thing; he still knows the difference between primary and secondary.

In this current era, the general public in the country does not have that many people or channels to listen to foreign songs.

Most people can at most hum a couple of lines along with the World Cup theme song or advertising jingle, and that is only because World Cup ad songs were broadcast via television commercials into the TV sets of thousands of households across the country.

The millennium was, after all, still an era where traditional media reigned supreme.

Qian Jiang, who had witnessed Li Wen's glory, could not help but nod, sighing over the decline in her popularity after her return to the country: "Li Wen is definitely not something you can emulate, but going abroad would indeed be beneficial for you personally; just make sure to distinguish between the primary and the secondary."

"For instance, there is currently a secondary opportunity placed before you; do you want to strive for it?"

Putting down his breakfast, Qian Jiang's eyes instantly became sharp; he took a folded newspaper from his suit pocket and spread it out before Zhou Yi—

"Box Office and Reviews Beat Chow Yun-fat! Jackie Chan's New Film Shoots in Xiangjiang, The First Person to Break into Hollywood!"

Looking at the huge title "Rush Hour 2" on the newspaper page, Zhou Yi, who had just taken a sip of coffee, raised an eyebrow: "Uncle Qian, what do you mean?"

"Jackie Chan's previous film, 'Rush Hour 1', was a huge success in Hollywood, with impressive global box office returns. This film also helped him enter the ranks of Hollywood A-list stars."

"In this 'Rush Hour 2', Jackie Chan not only received a salary of 15 million US dollars but also enjoyed a share of the global box office."

"Moreover, this box office sharing treatment is something the other black lead actor does not have; one can imagine how highly valued Jackie Chan is in this film."

Speaking to this point, Qian Jiang smiled slightly: "If I recall correctly, you had a decent conversation with Jackie Chan at the Rock Records celebration party before, right? You even exchanged contact information?"

Zhou Yi put down his coffee cup noncommittally: "You want me to compete for the soundtrack of this film?"

Qian Jiang nodded, then continued: "For a film, besides the film itself, music is also an important component. You got into Peking University; how is your English? I am not referring to the written English used for exams."

"At the level of being able to sleep with blonde foreign girls."

Zhou Yi's answer was easy to understand, and Qian Jiang's smile on his face grew even wider: "I do not need you to handle Jackie Chan, because he cannot interfere with the film soundtrack."

"But I need you to build a good relationship with him, because it is very likely the film company will ask several key crew members, including him, for their opinions on the film's score."

"And I, as your agent, have the duty to help you secure the qualification to sing the film soundtrack from the production side. Now, answer me: do you have the confidence to seize this opportunity?"

"Do you have the ability to compose English songs according to the requirements?"

"It will not affect your time in the country, nor will it affect your fan base, because the promotion run is being handled by Jackie Chan and the others."

Facing Qian Jiang, who was waiting for his answer, Zhou Yi's face also revealed a smile of certainty and confidence: "Of course, as long as you can secure it."