Chapter 83 – Who is Mu Li’ang?
While Yang Yi took Xixi to visit the temple fair, the scandal between Mo Fei and Ju Jie quietly died down. After all, Ju Jie’s fame was too poor, Mo Fei was unwilling to cooperate, and several media was making speculation like dancing clowns, which result to it getting a lot less attention.
In addition, a relatively shocking thing happened in the entertainment circle not long ago!
With almost no pre-promotion, Hong Kong star Chen Yijie’s new album “Long Time No See”, which has been in production for two years, has been released! However, under such circumstances, the sales volume of “Long Time No See” in the first two days were astonishing, breaking through the one million digits.
It should be known that the market for Cantonese songs is limited and doesn’t have a huge audience like Mandarin. The Copyright Association has set the platinum standard for Cantonese records to 5 million!
Obviously, it was only a matter of time before “Long Time No See”, with its current momentum, get the honor of attaining platinum records.
Moreover, both the industry and Chen Yijie’s fans have the highest praise for this album. With its good reputation, it became popular, which naturally promoted the sales of this album!
Interestingly, although the album “Long Time No See” was full of Cantonese songs, the second main song of the same name is in Mandarin, so the entertainment industry in the Mandarin-speaking area has also paid attention to the news.
Soon, they found that the mandarin version of “Long Time No See” was surprisingly pleasant to listen to!
As a result, in the vast Mandarin market, the song also began to spread. Although many people can only pay to download it through the Internet, the popularity of this song has become a phenomenon!
“Who is Mu Li’ang?”
Many record companies and agencies responded quickly and set their sights on the songwriter of the two main songs with different language.
However, because the author’s information in the Copyright Association was set as private by the author, those who were interested all run into a wall.
Of course, Chen Yijie’s new record popularity wasn’t good for Mo Fei. Although she immediately bought the record to enjoy and learn, Mo Fei herself has to admit that the current attention she was getting has been affected, which was reflected in her album sales! (TN: Record here is the physical media aka CD)
Mo Fei didn’t actually care. Instead, she was very happy. She felt that the sales volume before was too fake. What she wanted was real result, even if the results were poor, and would make her dejected. But this make her feel more relieved than to deliberately hype and rely on scandal to cheat sales.
After the agreed time limit with Sister Ling was over, Mo Fei immediately asked Mo Xiaojuan to make an appointment with a familiar reporter to formally clarify to the public: “I, Mo Fei, am still single, and Ju Jie and I are just ordinary colleagues. In the previous circulated photos, because of the angle, we looked like were intimate, but this is not the case!”
This clarification was so cold, just like Mo Fei’s character.
Whether it can be recognized or not was hard to say, but after it was release, it didn’t attract too much attention. The loss of fans caused by the previous scandal was also very difficult to recover. And the sales volume of her album, which has erupted through the scandal, has eased again, and then declined…
Finally, Mo Fei’s last album sales week has passed, and while her album can still be sold, it now depends on the mood of store owners.
Record sales in this world are in some ways a bit like movie releases. The Copyright Association explicitly requires all sales channels to reserve the first few rows of shelves for records released within a month. Of course, whether it is sold well or not, and whether it is placed in a higher position, depends on each person’s ability!
To some extent, this protects the rights and interests of various creators, but it also makes the competition in the record market more intense. Unless it is the bosses who rely on affection to support them, otherwise the market factors tend to be the biggest determinant of their store’s survival.
Once this month has passed, without the support of the Copyright Association’s mandatory monthly listing, records that didn’t sell well are often removed, or left in the inconspicuous corner to be covered with dust… (TN: In short, if an album is not/low in the Copyright Association monthly ranking, the store owner may remove the record(CD) from their store)
Obviously, Mo Fei’s new album wasn’t excellent enough to be retained after a month… Especially in the very competitive entertainment industry in this world.
According to the feedback from the company’s marketing department, after the agreed time limit, Mo Fei’s album sales fell off a cliff from the next day, with a daily increase of only double digits… (TN: After the clarification)
For such a result, Mo Fei was hit not only by cynicism from the outside, but she also clearly felt the change of other people’s attitude towards her in the brokerage company.
There were less respect and admiration, and more alienation and contempt towards her.
Mo Xiaojuan felt this change of attitude more. She just went to the bathroom and rushed back angrily and said, “What kind of people are they? Snob! In the past, Sister Juan would call out sweetly, but now when we meet in the bathroom, she doesn’t even want to say hello. She rolls her eyes and speaks with sarcasm.”
Mo Xiaojuan didn’t want to tell Mo Fei what unpleasant words those people said, that Mo Fei was a thing of the past, and that Mo Fei occupied the company’s biggest resources and blocked the development of the young stars… These words were infuriating. Mo Xiaojuan didn’t want Mo Fei to hear them and be in a bad mood.
“Forget it, we’ll make a comeback with the next album!” Mo Fei put down the book in her hand and comforted her assistant cousin.
“In fact, other people’s criticism is not unreasonable. I was too anxious to make a comeback that I didn’t choose good songs.” Mo Fei self-criticized, “Next time, I will take my time, let Sister Ling collect songs for me, choose good songs, and then polish them over and over again. I believe I will be able to make an album that will satisfy my fans!”
Mo Xiaojuan sighed faintly and said, “Sister, what you said is simple, but how many years will this polishing take? Your contract with Sister Ling will almost expire at this time next year. Among other things, it’s hard to say whether Sister Ling is willing to sign a top contract with us.”
If it’s not a top contract, many aspects will be restricted in the future!
There were some things that Mo Xiaojuan didn’t say. She felt that the company will unlikely to continue to invest a lot of resources for Mo Fei to collect songs, and without good songs, no matter how long they polish, it will be in vain!
“What’s more, what should we do during this period? Shall we stop eating? Just practice singing in the recording studio?” Mo Xiaojuan said with a headache.
The entertainment industry is very cruel, and so are the economic treaties. Mo Fei makes money, and the brokerage company divides the money with them, but if she can’t make any money, the brokerage company won’t give them a penny to spend.
“Then I’ll tell Sister Ling that I’ll take on more commercial performances every month.” Mo Fei said reluctantly, but stubbornly.
“Ah, sister, why are you trying so hard?” Mo Xiaojuan couldn’t help voicing out.
Yeah, why?
Mo Fei certainly didn’t do it for money or fame. Otherwise she wouldn’t have retired for the sake of Xixi, or wouldn’t hesitate to offend the TV station to return to Jiangcheng for Xixi from Shanghai.
But she yearns for the stage and the feeling of singing for her fans on the stage of her concert!
She likes singing and doesn’t want to give up easily.
Yes! Can’t give up!
Mo Fei thought for a long time, and her faith became firm again. She said to Mo Xiaojuan, “Xiaojuan, it’s very late. Go back first. I’ll listen to a few more songs to find a feeling.”
Mo Xiaojuan didn’t move, she sat in her seat, staring blankly at the computer.
“What’s the matter? Xiaojuan?” Mo Fei, curious, walked over.
“Sister…” Mo Xiaojuan’s voice trembled with excitement. She pointed to the mailbox page and asked, “This, this name, Mu Li’ang, where have I seen it?”
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TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: Here.
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