Chapter 54: Koto's Transfer
"President, this is today's music magazine." The secretary went out and came back soon. What she was holding in her hand was a new issue of the music magazine. For the president of a music company, reading such magazines every day was necessary.
"Let it go." Nagato Daikokuya said casually.
After looking at two more documents, Zhang Hu suddenly picked up a magazine on top.
The president of a music company reads magazines like this: Firstly, he doesn't read the interviews with singers. Most people in this industry are liars who don't even bother to draft their lies, so nine out of ten things written in an interview are fake, and sometimes that one remaining thing is also fake, such as the singer's gender. What he usually flips through first is reports on which artist is releasing a new album next. Although nowadays this kind of information can be easily found online, back in 2000 most people could only find out about these things through print media.
Next, he paid close attention to what each music critic had to say this week, as well as their reactions to the songstress showdown between Kuraki Mai and Hamasaki Ayumi over the past few weeks.
This doesn't look good, and when you take a closer look, the mood of Being Corporation has deteriorated significantly. It's been discovered that the entire industry seems to be losing confidence in Being Corporation. At one time, Being Corporation was a prominent figure in Japan's music scene, but it didn't take long for things to change, especially after the emergence of Tetsuya Komuro. As a result, everyone flocked to him, leaving Being Corporation to decline day by day. The departure of Tsutomu Oda was particularly devastating, resulting in a significant loss of musical talent and a sharp decline in music production quality. To mitigate risks and due to the decline in soft power, Nagao Osamu made a difficult decision to invest in various industries in Osaka, especially real estate and IT. Although the profits from these ventures are not as lucrative as those from music, which is essentially a "cost-free" business, at least the income is stable.
Most musicians are insiders, so they naturally understand the recent actions of Being Corp. As a result, their evaluation of Zhang Yixing and Being has been declining. Anyway, your focus is no longer here, and everyone doesn't need to look up to you anymore, so it's natural that there will be some criticism.
"These bastards, when they needed you, they flattered you to the sky, now that they don't need you, each and every one of them is showing off their poisonous tongues." Zhang Fangdai was impatient but still endured and continued reading.
"Being's president, who is supposed to be a big shot, surprisingly made a mistake in scheduling the release of Mai Kuraki's single on June 7th, knowing that Ayumi Hamasaki was also releasing her single on the same day. As a result, Kuraki got crushed and her sales were far inferior to Hamasaki's. If before this, there was still some rivalry between Kuraki and Hamasaki, now it's hard for even Kuraki's fans to say they are equal. With a difference of 1 million in sales, saying that the two are on par would be an insult to everyone's intelligence!"
"For this diva war, I only have one evaluation: boring! For the decision of being, I also only have one evaluation: idiot! And for the future of Japanese popular music, I only have four words: Tetsuya Komuro! That's right, the future of Japanese music has nothing to do with being anymore. Nagao, you'd better just buy a house and be a landlord honestly."
Countless such remarks fill the entire magazine.
After reading another review, Nagisa finally calmed down a bit after taking several deep breaths and restrained himself from throwing anything nearby. He picked up the magazine again, but when he turned to the next page, his expression became even darker because it was clearly Yuno's review!
This old maid... is almost a professional scolder, unlike the previous ones who were slightly more restrained. At least they could be considered as music reviews. Ono Kōjin's music reviews are unreasonable and scolding. Generally, her articles are divided into two parts: 2,500 words of music review and the remaining 2,500 words are all scolding, with abusive language such as "bitch", "idiot", "moron" and "trash" filling up the high-end music magazine, causing people's blood pressure to soar.
"Hmm... just die already!" Cho Haein let out a deep breath, clearing the stagnant air in his chest, and gazed up at the sky with a feeling of autumn wind blowing gently over cold water.
Recently, the Japanese music scene has been quite a show, with the "Songstress War" and all that. It's got both hype and substance, so I'm sure people will still remember them in ten years or so. Although in terms of results, Being Inc. had to swallow the bitter pill of defeat. This outcome was definitely not what they wanted to see, but since it's a done deal, I'm sure others will have plenty to say about it too.
I was originally going to talk about these things this week, and I had even written several thousand words of draft. But in the end, those several thousand words of draft were thrown into the trash can by me. Very simple, because something more suitable for me to say appeared.
Our music critics, commenting on major events in the music industry is one of our jobs, but apart from that, we will also spare no effort to suppress singers who lack musicality and disrupt the market. More importantly, discovering new artists and recommending hidden gems in the music industry to everyone is also one of our jobs.
In the past, I usually played the role of a poisonous tongue, but this time, I want to dig out a lost treasure in the music scene for everyone.
"In my opinion, the crushing defeat in this week's Songstress War is nothing compared to the fact that they already have an even stronger newcomer in their hands. The Songstress War is a product of the times and also a product of the market, but what truly tests a company's foundation and strength are singers like this one."
Having read this far, Zhang Hu suddenly had a very bad premonition in his heart, and he wondered if the woman was saying...
Simple packaging, no gifts, being released on June 7 as the second single, it was put on the shelves in such a low-key manner.
Do you know how low-key this singer is? I couldn't even find any information about him online, no news or photos. The company doesn't seem to be doing anything either. It's one thing for a big star like Sakai Izumi not to do any promotion, but for someone new like this, if they don't do any promotion at all, there's a good chance they'll be forgotten in the corner.
But... perhaps God wouldn't allow such a great song to be forgotten in the dust either, and I'm very fortunate, probably chosen to recommend this song to everyone, so it won't be buried.
After saying so much, I haven't even mentioned the name yet. This singer's name is Zhou Xiao, and his single is called "Small Love". This is a... punk-style rock song, but this song doesn't have any of that "do not enter" vibe at all. The beautiful melody and just-right lyrics, as well as the catchy rhythm, are all so fitting. Maybe this song still has some distance to go before it reaches the level of Fukuyama Masaharu or Minami no Shokō, but even in today's popular rock scene, which is being completely dominated by electronic music and Goro Kishitani, this song undoubtedly has all the elements of a hit!
Kotone Ono continued to praise Zhou Xiao and this song, even remembering the coupling track "Secret Base", saying that having two such great songs on one single is a bit too luxurious.
Chang Hu put down the magazine with a mixture of disappointment and uncertainty, wondering if it was a good thing or a bad thing, even he himself wasn't quite sure.
The media people's noses are very sensitive, at this time, seeing such an article by Xiao Ye Liang, they probably have flocked to the CD store near the company to buy Zhou Xiao's CD, in that case, maybe 3,000 copies won't be enough, let's add some more...
Even if it's a long shot, you can't go against the market trend. Even if Zhou Xiao doesn't want to rely on himself and the company to get popular, on the surface he still needs to do his job perfectly, at least not make people think that he is suppressing the singer under him.
"Ringing...ringing...ringing..." Just as Zhang Daguo was about to call the CD manufacturer, the phone on his office desk suddenly rang.
"Uh? Who is it?"
