I became a music industry godfather by writing confidantes.

Chapter 033 166

10:25 a.m.

With a professional smile on her face, Qi Qiao knocked on Fang Lei's office door.

"Enter."

"Director Fang, are you busy?"

Fang Lei looked up and saw Qi Qiao. He closed the file in his hand and asked, "You came at this hour because of something online?"

Qi Qiao's smile was tinged with a hint of helplessness.

"Director Fang is joking. If Xiaoxiao had taken every rumor on the internet to heart, she would have been driven crazy by now. It's nothing for her to suffer a little grievance. Her title as a pop diva isn't based on being overly sensitive."

"Producer Yang is young and a bit impetuous, which we can understand."

"I'm here today purely from the company's perspective, and out of personal friendship, I want to give you a heads-up."

Qi Qiao cut to the chase: "The 'Painting Heart' project is an interlude in an S-level big-budget production, with the production company's marketing budget in the tens of millions. You know this better than I do."

Fang Lei nodded: "And then?"

"Xiaoxiao and I don't deny Yang's talent. The achievements of 'Flammable and Explosive' speak for themselves. But he is, after all, a new producer, and a bit idealistic, strictly adhering to audition rules. In the commercial music industry, being too idealistic will only lead to losses."

"Director Fang, let's be frank. What was the market response to Jiang Yan's first two singles? Dismal is an understatement."

"Director Fang, from a risk control perspective, isn't it too risky to put a marginal newcomer, who has been proven twice by the market to lack business acumen, on the helm of 'Painting Heart'?"

Qi Qiao spoke earnestly: "If 'Painting Heart' fails to make a splash in the market because of Jiang Yan, Producer Yang is still young and can learn from his experience and make a comeback. But what about the company?"

"What will the production company think? Will they think that Jinshi is using their big-budget production for newcomers to practice on? If we really damage Jinshi's reputation, can a college student who hasn't even graduated yet bear that responsibility?"

Fang Lei glanced at her, his expression remaining calm.

He said calmly, "Just say what you have to say."

Seeing that the time was right, Qi Qiao smiled somewhat embarrassedly and said in a consultative tone, "Director Fang, how about... the company intervenes? Let's replace Jiang Yan?"

Fang Lei glanced at Qi Qiao: "You want Xu Xiao to go?"

"A powerful alliance, isn't that how everyone does it in the music industry?"

"Even if we don't use Xiaoxiao to sing, it's fine. Didn't we have two candidates during the audition? We can just switch to one of them; at least it's safer. It's better than putting all our eggs in one basket with a high-risk newcomer. What do you think?"

Fang Lei leaned back and said, "Qi Qiao, as an artist manager, don't you think it's a bit inappropriate for you to bypass the producer and come directly to me to discuss how to operate a project?"

Qi Qiao's face stiffened, and she retorted, "I'm only thinking about the company. Besides, Xiaoxiao—"

"Take a look at this."

Fang Lei interrupted her directly, reaching out to place his hand on the edge of the computer monitor and turning the screen around.

"At 10 a.m., the charts were updated. Tao Cheng retained his champion title, no need for me to say more. But you may not have noticed that at the same time the charts were updated, the official music video for 'Flammable and Explosive' was also released online simultaneously."

Qi Qiao looked at the data curve on the screen representing the number of views and smiled somewhat reluctantly.

"The music video has received a very positive response," Fang Lei summarized. "Judging from this momentum, it's almost a certainty that 'Flammable and Explosive' will achieve a three-peat at number one."

Hearing Fang Lei's prediction, Qi Qiao fell silent.

In the entertainment industry, you can use a hundred different arguments to refute someone's point of view, but you can't refute solid data.

In the pop music industry, sales figures speak for themselves.

Fang Lei turned the monitor back: "Qi Qiao, it's normal for young people to have tempers. In the field of artistic creation, those without edges cannot create amazing works."

"The company certainly values ​​risk control, but it will not forget to respect the creative freedom of independent producers. The company cannot, and will never, allow unwarranted interference in the project of a contributor at this point in time."

Finally, he politely asked, "Do you understand what I mean?"

Qi Qiao was a smart person, so of course she understood.

But it was precisely this understanding that made her feel embarrassed.

She knew that this matter was probably over.

"I understand, Director Fang. It was my oversight." Qi Qiao stood up, struggling to keep her face from darkening. "You're busy, I'll head back now."

She had just stepped out of the office when her phone rang.

Upon closer inspection, it was found to be from Wang Shihui.

……

Meanwhile, the recording studio was filled with a joyful and peaceful atmosphere, even tinged with a sense of envy and sycophancy.

Since they're all people in the music industry, they naturally pay attention to the Chinese pop music charts.

The reason why the Golden Chart holds absolute authority in the industry, and why major music companies and singers are scrambling to reach the top, is because its core data is unbiased.

The basic data of the Golden List consists of three major modules: electronic downloads (including physical sales), streaming media views, and the number of short video background music licenses.

Aside from short videos, which are passively received and have historically lagged behind in terms of reach, thus having the lowest weight, downloads and streaming media require listeners to actually pay real money or subscribe to the platform.

In fan circles, paid commenters can boost comments and increase popularity, but investors are not foolish enough to spend real money to generate millions of paid downloads.

Even streaming media, which may seem easy to manipulate, has its own mechanism for removing low-quality data:

For the same account, a maximum of 10 valid plays of the same song per calendar day will be counted. Playbacks with less than 90% completion or with player volume below 10% will not be counted. Accounts with abnormal IP addresses will be directly removed from the data.

Therefore, every achievement on the gold list represents undisputed market appeal.

With the 10 o'clock ranking update, the latest data has also been revealed.

The cumulative digital downloads of "Flammable and Explosive" have exceeded 420 million, while its streaming data has skyrocketed to 2.6 million.

The group, well-versed in industry practices, reacted immediately upon seeing the data with the words: "Flammable and Explosive" is awesome, Tao Cheng and Yang Du are awesome.

Then, the calculator in my brain started frantically calculating how much real money that was.

With 420 million downloads, a 10% revenue share would amount to 88.2.

2.6 million streams, 10% revenue share, that's 78.

That's a whopping 166 million!

Old Li's expression changed when he looked at Yang Du, who was drinking milk tea.

As the chief recording engineer at Jinshi Music Recording Studio, Lao Li earns a monthly salary plus commission. He spends all year round in the studio, working day and night, and must be available to serve artists at any time. At most, his annual income is only around one million yuan.

This is already the ceiling of his career.

But what about this producer, Yang?

21 years old!

A third-year student who hasn't even received their bachelor's degree yet.

This song, "Flammable and Explosive," was produced step by step in this recording studio under Lao Li's personal supervision.

The earnings from one song, earned in half a month, are roughly equivalent to the total income he would make working hard all night for two years.

Furthermore, this is only the current revenue of the single "Flammable and Explosive," and long-tail revenue will continue to be generated in the future.

Even more frightening is that Yang Du still has a song called "Painting Heart" in his possession, which is the official theme song of the S-level blockbuster production "Life After Life: Falling Flowers".

With tens of millions of yuan in marketing and distribution funds from the production company backing it up, it would be hard for the film to perform poorly.

After Peng Liang handed Jiang Yan a glass of room temperature purified water, he immediately ran to Yang Du's side and fawned over him, being extremely attentive.

"Producer Yang, it's almost noon. What would you like to eat? Cantonese or Shandong cuisine? Let's have a proper celebration at noon!"

He knew perfectly well that, given the current momentum, once "Painting Heart" was released, this young producer Yang would be able to do whatever he wanted in the world of metal and stone.

At least before Yang Du suffered his first major setback, Jinshi Music would always give him face whenever he asked.

Jiang Yan, riding this wave, is expected to soar to great heights.