Chapter 224 – A Big Hit
On November 5, Flying Stone Records’ girl group MSN officially released their debut album, “Not Yet Lovers.”
The album costs more than 10 million yuan to produce and promote. It was the most extravagant work of Flying Stone Records this year. Online sales were exclusively licensed to their partner QQ Music, and crowdfunding of CD and peripheral products was launched on the crowdfunding website.
The sales model of “Not Yet Lovers” could be said to be exactly the same as Lu Chen’s “You Who Sat Next To Me”, except that Flying Stone Records confidently advanced the crowdfunding project to synchronize with the online sales, and they had invested heavily in publicity.
“You Who Sat Next To Me” could be said to have created a new marketing model for music albums. Through this album, Lu Chen Studio not only earned an enviable Platinum Record certification, but also made a considerable profit.
In today’s pop music world, it was already very difficult to make money by selling albums alone. The hot sales and big sales of “You Who Sat Next To Me” were quite different. It should be known that Lu Chen didn’t spend much money on publicity.
The outside world’s profit evaluation of his album was at least 3 million+!
This made people very jealous, and at the same time, online crowdfunding has become popular in the eyes of many entertainment agencies. After “You Who Sat Next To Me”, there were not a few people who put their albums and peripherals on the crowdfunding website for pre-financing.
“Not Yet Lovers” was not the second album to be pre-funded on the crowdfunding website, but it has been a huge hit since the start of the project.
Some time ago, after the vigorous publicity of Flying Stone Records, the large-scale promotion of the music video of the title song, the three beautiful and moving young girls, and the song “Not Yet Lovers” that made people palpitate with excitement, this girl group quickly became popular in China and reached a large number of fans in advance.
So, at 7 p.m. on the 5th, when the album “Not Yet Lovers” went on sale on QQ Music, the number of purchases simply exploded, and the momentum was so crazy that even people in the circle was dumbfounded.
1000, 5000 ,10000…
It was well past midnight but the lights in the small conference room of Flying Stone Records were still brightly lit.
More than a dozen mid-level and high-level personnel from the company, including Music Director Lin Zhijie, the heads of the Public Relations Department, Brokerage Department, Marketing Department, and so on, gathered together, as well as Mu Xiaochu, Su Jiajia and Ning Tian were all present.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the large projection screen hanging on the wall.
When the time displayed by the computer jumped to zero and the number of sales on QQ Music website was fixed at 31,525, a long and warm applause broke out inside the conference room!
From 7 o’clock to 12 o’clock in the evening, in just five hours, the sales volume of “Not Yet Lovers” reached more than 30,000.
According to this growth momentum, there was no problem with the sales volume to exceed 50,000 on the first day. And if the reputation was excellent, the sales figures in the next two days were worth looking forward to. It wouldn’t be a surprise if it surpassed “You Who Sat Next To Me”.
Although it was impossible to break the record of the album’s first day sales, the big sales of “Not Yet Lovers” has become a foregone conclusion, and the heavy pressure in the hearts of all the people present has disappeared.
Everyone saw how much money Lu Chen’s “You Who Sat Next To Me” made. It was quite memorable in their hearts.
To be able to outsell this miraculous folk album in QQ Music, not only represents huge profits, but also real popularity influence.
Flying Stone has never expected to earn back its costs by selling albums. The key lied in MSN, this brand. Once established, it represented a huge source of money and a golden cash cow!
And the start was so perfect.
Lin Zhijie leaned his taut body comfortably into the soft chair with a happy smile on his face.
He made a gesture to his assistant not far away.
The latter raised the champagne that has long been sitting in an ice bucket.
Not many people knew how much pressure the music director of Flying Stone Records has been under recently, as he arguably bet his career and reputation on MSN, the star brand he established and led.
With the success of MSN, Lin Zhijie’s position in Flying Stone Records was now as stable as Mount Tai, and there was even a possibility to go further.
If MSN failed, the only result for Lin Zhijie was a gloomy retirement.
In this big bet, he has caught a royal flush, and it was worth celebrating!
The three girls, Mu Xiaochu, Su Jiajia and Ning Tian, hugged each other. They were smiling and all of them have red eyes.
During this period of time, they have also worked hard for this album.
The three girls were also well aware of how much resources and money the company has invested in them.
Now they could finally enjoy the joy of victory!
Pop ~.
A cork shot into the air with white foam, and the smell of champagne scattered in all direction.
Wine glasses were handed into everyone’s hands. The executives of Flying Stone Records chatted and laughed in a harmonious atmosphere.
Lin Zhijie didn’t become dizzy with the temporary victory. He took a sip of wine and said to his assistant, “Open the comments section and see what the fans think of this album!”
Sales data was of course extremely important, but evaluating its reputation was also indispensable. If the evaluation wasn’t high, it wasn’t unusual for sales to plunge later.
The assistant hurriedly held the wireless mouse and clicked on the comment section of the album “Not Yet Lovers”.
Even though the sale lasted only five hours, there were already as many as 20,000+ comments in the comment section.
The most eye-catching, however, was the album’s rating of 9.1.
It was absolutely a high rating!
The only people who were qualified to rate and comment on the album were the members that purchased the album, and their opinions were very important to MSN.
This high rating instantly swept away the last trace of uneasiness in Lin Zhijie’s heart!
“This album didn’t disappoint me. I give it 7 points and 1 point to each of the three girls, for a total score of 10!”
“It is really good to listen to, especially the title song. I’ll never get tired of listening to it!”
“I’ll never get tired of listening to it +1. This song “Not Yet Lover” alone is worth paying 8 yuan for a lossless sound quality version.”1
“I like MSN, I like “Not Yet Lovers”, and I also like “Where’s Love”!”
“What I like most is “He Still Doesn’t Understand”. It was so well written and it was also sang very well.”
“’Not Yet Lovers’, ‘Where’s Love’, and “He Still Doesn’t Understand’. These three are the only songs in this album that are good to listen to.”
When this comment was picked out by Lin Zhijie’s assistant, the two contracted songwriters of Flying Stone Records on the scene could not help but look a little embarrassed and a little ashamed.
“Not Yet Lovers”, “Where’s Love” and “He Still Doesn’t understand” were the three songs that Lu Chen specially wrote for MSN. As the title song, there was no need to say more about the song “Not Yet Lovers”, and the other two songs were also excellent works.
At the beginning of the production of this album, Flying Stone Records had a lot of internal opinions on Lin Zhijie’s insistence on inviting Lu Chen to write songs. The main objection was that Lu Chen’s price was too high. 300,000 yuan for a song was simply ripping people off.
In particular, the contracted songwriters of Flying Stone Records have the most complaints and disgust.
But Lu Chen showed his value with the song “Not Yet Lovers”, and suppressed all the opposition.
In the end, Lu Chen not only wrote three songs for MSN, but also joined the ranks of producer.
The amount paid to him alone was more than 1 million yuan!
Now it seemed that the money was well spent.
It wasn’t that the other songwriters’ song on this album was bad, but compared with Lu Chen’s songs, they were undoubtedly inferior. The quality was okay but it didn’t have the potential to become popular.
In this regard, the paying listeners have the highest right to judge.
“Have you noticed? All three songs were written by Lu Chen for MSN!”
“Yes, I saw it in the lyrics. The lyrics and music are all works by Lu Chen, worthy of being the prince of music!”
“Lu Chen + MSN, Perfect!”
“Flying Stone Records is so vicious. There is no single download, otherwise I could just buy these three songs.”
Seeing this comment, Lin Zhijie broke into laughter.
And many company executives looked at Lin Zhijie with admiration, because it was Lin Zhijie who decided to sell only the whole album and not in single retail. He had foresight!
Retail sales of a single could increase profits and allow some members, who are reluctant to spend more, to buy them. However, single sales would not be counted towards the Gold Record Certification. There were different opinions on which to choose.
Lin Zhijie’s decision undoubtedly ensured the sales of the whole album, and the reputation was so excellent that Platinum Record has been in the bag and it could compete for Best New Album of the Year or Best Girl Group!
For a rookie group, such a start really couldn’t be any better.
While being content, Lin Zhijie also felt regret.
Originally, he invited Lu Chen to come with him in the evening. Unfortunately, Lu Chen was too busy with his work and politely declined.
Another regret was that he didn’t ask Lu Chen to write two more songs, which would have been perfect!
There was no problem with the three songs “Not Yet Lovers”, “Where’s Love” and “He Still Doesn’t Understand” in the original soundtrack, but he thought it didn’t have enough momentum, and that it would have been better if there were five songs.
However, Lin Zhijie was soon amused by his own ideas. It should be known that at that time he was under great pressure for inviting Lu Chen to write three songs, and five songs couldn’t pass the company’s approval anyway.
But he could make up for the first regret.
He couldn’t wait to take out his cell phone, ready to dial the already familiar number.
But after thinking about it, Lin Zhijie called all three girls from MSN over.
He handed the cell phone to Mu Xiaochu and said, “Xiaochu, you should call Teacher Lu Chen now. First, report your results to Teacher Lu Chen. Then all three of you should thank Teacher Lu Chen!”
“Un!”
Without thinking too much, Mu Xiaochu happily took the cell phone and skillfully typed Lu Chen’s cell phone number.
It was Lu Chen’s private number, and it was set up to filter calls so only friends in his address book could get through.
Neither Su Jiajia nor Ning Tian were among them.
Including MSN’s agent, several senior officials of the company looked at Mu Xiaochu who was calling Lu Chen, and they all showed a knowing smile.
As everyone all knew, the relationship between Mu Xiaochu and Lu Chen was the best.
From this relationship, would MSN’s second, third… and later albums still be a problem in the future?