Chapter 45: The MV of Cutting Corners
"Do you think this single... will sell?" Zhou Xiao asked the director quietly while preparing for their performance on stage with the band members.
"It's weird if it sells, you don't know, this kid is only 18, his mustache hasn't even grown yet and he wants to release a single on his own. This song, no promotion, no news, just filming a live MV in a small theater is enough, the lyrics and melody are all written by him and he still wants to make money from royalties. I listened to the master tape, the singing voice is only average, although the song itself is not bad, but with no promotion at all, if he really becomes famous, then I'll quit being a director and become a singer too!" This director surprisingly turned out to be a chatterbox, after the camera was turned on, it was a stream of complaints.
"I don't think it's necessarily so, if the song is really good, then maybe a good wine doesn't need to be afraid of being in a deep alley."
"Aren't you afraid of being in a deep alley? What kind of viewpoint is this? In today's world, publicity is the key. Don't look at those big-name singers who don't publicize or show their faces; it's mainly because they're already superstars. If they release a song without promoting it, the media will come and help promote it for them. But can this kid do that?"
"That director, why are you still coming to shoot an MV? And you even dragged me along."
"You think I want to? It's just because Sakai Izumi has spoken up. I can ignore others, but Sakai Izumi? No way! That's a real big shot! Don't be fooled by their usual silence and low profile, if you really offend them, they can crush us with just a finger."
"This kid doesn't even know where his luck came from, and yet he's got Sakai Izumi personally looking into it." the cameraman said.
"You don't know, do you? Let me tell you, the entertainment industry is far more sinister than you think. People call each other sister and brother in front of others, but who knows what they really call each other behind closed doors? Look at that young man with his rosy lips and white teeth, he's probably been raised by Sakai Izumi or something." The director said with a somewhat ominous tone.
"No way, I think Miss Quan is very innocent."
"Innocence? What innocence is there in this world? The idol group 'Little Cat' was innocent back then, right? A group of high school girls, what happened to them? They ended up smoking and drinking, dating staff from Fuji TV... what didn't they do? This entertainment industry, no matter how you want to be seen, the truth is always darker than you imagine!"
The MV shooting ended quickly that day, the reason is... although Zhou Xiao sang very high on stage, but offstage it was completely different. The audience mostly watched two songs that were supposed to be exciting with a calm attitude. In this state, the director of the MV had even more disdain for Zhou Xiao in his heart, and after hastily finishing the shooting, he just greeted Zhou Xiao before taking the entire crew back to the company, leaving Zhou Xiao alone to help the band clean up and leave the venue.
But the first time on stage singing didn't resonate with the audience at all, Zhou Xiao couldn't be happy about that, so when packing up, he looked a bit down.
"Are you worried about your performance just now?" asked the band's bassist.
"Hmm... it seems like the audience is completely uninterested."
"It's actually very normal."
"Huh?"
"It's very simple, songs also have their own audience, like our rock music, the main target is young people, while opera is mostly listened to by older people. And for that batch of audiences just now, although they can't be considered middle-aged or old in terms of age, most of them are working adults, even if they are young people, how many of them would like this kind of small theater crosstalk? These people may like it when the song becomes popular, but if it's just an ordinary song, I think they won't appreciate its excellence at all."
"This song of yours is really good, trust me, with just a little bit of luck, it could be a hit." The bassist patted Zhou Xiao on the back and said.
The MV recording is complete, the song recording is complete, and the CD pressing was also completed on the day of recording a single. The first batch of pressings was... 3,000 copies...
You haven't heard, there are only 3,000 copies, a CD with such a small budget, would the first batch be pressed for 100,000 copies? Don't dream, that's purely your fantasy. With these 3,000 CDs, if they can't be sold out, the record company won't give any money either. That means, no matter how many of these 3,000 CDs are sold, Zhou Xiao will only receive that much money, and it's not like he'll get paid for all 3,000 copies just because they were shipped.
These 3000 CDs will be distributed in quantities of 5 to 20 per store at the 453 CD shops in the Tokyo metropolitan area, note that it's the Tokyo metropolitan area and not just the city of Tokyo, which includes Tokyo Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture, a vast urban area where 27% of Japan's population lives.
Zhou Xiao did the last thing for this single, which is to make a CD cover for the single.
But, I ask you, does a CD that even skimped on the MV production need to splurge on its cover? Zhou Xiao didn't even hire an art director for "being", he simply found a computer, opened Photoshop and PS'd a vector graphic similar in style to "Little Love" which became the CD cover.
For half a month, Zhou Xiao had been busy with the single's affairs. Many of these things didn't actually need his involvement, but for some reason, probably due to bad luck or something else, the manager who was supposed to handle them hadn't shown up yet. With no other choice, 18-year-old Zhou Xiao had to take care of everything in detail by himself, running around a lot more than necessary before finally completing all the final preparations.
Finally on June 5th, 2000, two days ahead of schedule, Zhou Xiao finally got his first single.
Looking at his profile printed on the CD cover, Zhou Xiao felt a sense of emotion. For this CD, he had really run to the point where his intestines were almost coming out of his stomach, but in the end, his hard work paid off.
After opening the CD case, Zhou Xiao saw... a bare CD disc. No lyrics booklet, no beautifully printed picture album, no DVD attached to the disc, no live photos, no handshake tickets or general election votes. Such a simple CD package, even in 2000, even among singer-songwriters' CDs, it was almost extinct!
However, Zhou Xiao didn't show any sign of dislike. He carefully accepted the ten CDs that were given to him earlier. Perhaps others wouldn't care about them, but for him, these ten CDs were the most precious treasures he had brought with him from his journey through time!
"I'll give one to Spring Water Sister and another to Uncle Jing at the well, but I won't give any to others. It's a pity, though." Zhou Xiao thought to herself as she hugged her CD.
"Should I send a CD to Ogura Yuko? Hmm... forget it, I've been here for so long and still haven't found an opportunity to get to know her. If I suddenly go over there and give her a CD, I'll definitely be misunderstood. Besides, she probably won't care about a single from a singer whose name she's never even heard."
Zhou Xiao's CD was delivered to the CD store along with various other CDs released on the same day. This week, about twenty singers are releasing singles at the same time, including two of the most famous ones: Hamasaki Ayumi and Kuraki Mai from the same company as Zhou Xiao. Generally speaking, singers from the same company try to avoid releasing singles in the same week, but considering the gap between Zhou Xiao and Kuraki Mai now, would anyone care about this? Probably not even Kuraki Mai or her agent knew about it from the start.
Ayumi Hamasaki and Mai Kuraki's CDs are definitely the big sellers, while Zhou Xiao's CD is naturally placed in a remote corner, as if it was an extra item that was sent to various CD stores. The staff at the CD store also reacted casually when dealing with this completely unfamiliar new CD, simply throwing it aside. Some staff members would responsibly put the new CD in the new product area, but more service staff would pick up this seemingly ordinary CD and throw it into the most remote corner of the record store after a glance. No way, from their experience, this kind of CD is definitely a pure loss-making product. Every year, many such CDs come out, and the vast majority don't even sell one copy, and some even stay in the CD store for several years before being bought by second-hand stores as antiques!
This was the "prosperous scene" when Zhou Xiao's first CD was released. At that time, except for Zhou Xiao, no one could have imagined how many copies this CD would sell.
P.S., cherish the protagonist's miserable state now... later I thought about watching the abuse of the master but didn't see it...
