Chapter 161 – Come to Fight!
Lu Xi, Chen Xin, Li Feiyu, Chen Xiang and Li Mubai.
Lu Chen’s bright eyes slowly swept across the faces of all the people present.
One of them is Lu Chen’s relatives, some are friends, some are former colleagues, and some of them are originally his fans.
Because of fate, everyone is now sitting here together and has formed a small team.
No matter what career or job they used to do, everyone now is a young newcomer breaking into the entertainment world. They lacked sufficient experience and strength, and are full of confusion about the future.
What made Lu Chen confident was the unity of this team!
Now the studio was like a budding seedling, though still very fragile, but the roots and stems supporting the tender leaves were flexible and full of vitality. Even in the face of being rolled by boulders and the baptism of storms, there is still the strength to persist.
He was fearless.
“In fact, everyone thinks the problem is too serious.”
Lu Chen said with a smile, “We don’t need to beat anyone. As long as the album hits the shelves, it will be a success, and we don’t need to work hard to compete with others for the sales list. The key is to recover the production cost.”
“Our production cost is very low.”
The production cost of “You Who Sat Next To Me” was so low that most people in the industry can’t imagine it.
Generally speaking, the production cost of a complete album with qualified or even excellent quality ranges between hundreds of thousands to millions, and it is normal to exceed more than one million yuan. Adding in the publicity expenses, it can reach to 3 to 4 million yuan.
And the production cost of “You Who Sat Next To Me” is only 100,000 yuan!
All 10 songs were written by Lu Chen himself. He didn’t need to spend a cent to buy songs from others, which first saved at least a hundred thousand or even hundreds of thousands of expenses.
It is normal for a songwriter with a good reputation to ask tens of thousands of yuan for a song.
Secondly, in terms of composition, accompaniment and recording, Lu Chen didn’t choose a first-class production unit in the industry, such as Tianzhi Workshop, but choose the unknown Nirvana Studio.
This saved hundreds of thousands more!
According to Lin Zhijie, the music director of Flying Stone Records, the real value of the album produced by Nirvana Studio for Lu Chen should be worth between 200,000 and 300,000 yuan. He picked up a great bargain.
The production cost of 100,000 yuan is only equivalent to the price of an ordinary advertising space on QQ Music website for 10 days!
Adding the advertising fee, the total cost, excluding labor, was only 200,000!
According to the contract signed by Lu Chen Studio and QQ Music, “You Who Sat Next To Me” will be sold as a whole album and not in singles. The price for ordinary members is 10 yuan per piece and 20% discount for VIP members.
The share between Lu Chen Studio and QQ Music is 50-50, with each side taking half.
Even if the price is all in accordance with the VIP price, as long as 50,000 copies are sold, the cost can be recovered, and the excess is the net profit.
Such a profit margin is something that Cui Zhengzhi, Zou Bei or Ling Xiaoxiao could not catch up.
They’ve spent tens of millions of yuan on advertising for their albums, plus the production cost. They have to sell at least 400,000 to 500,000 copies to break even, which is a sales performance that would be impossible to achieve unless they cheat.
Of course, whether it is Cui Zhengzhi, or Zou Bei or Ling Xiaoxiao, the companies they have signed cannot expect to recover costs by selling albums online, but it will be mainly through the artists’ commercial performances, advertisements, periphery, and so on, that they could make a profit.
Therefore, the goals of the two sides were different from the beginning.
Lu Chen’s requirements were not high. He will be very satisfied as long as the cost is recovered, and the reputation of the album spread out. As long as his position and appeal in the circle increased, there are plenty of opportunities to make money.
So, Lu Chen didn’t need to compete with them, much less spend money to gamble with them.
(TN: In a sense, that he will not play the same game they’re playing, with all the money they throwing out, hoping they will win in the end.)
“We just have to do our own thing!”
Lu Chen said to everyone, “No matter how strong he is, what does it have to do with Cui Zhengzhi’s album being on the shelves on the same day? Our goal is 50,000 sales, and if we reach 50,000, we already won!”
“50,000 is a piece of cake…”
Li Mubai said dismissively: “There are more than 50,000 members in Lu Family Army, more than a million fans in the live broadcast, and there are still 5 million on Inspur blog!”
Lu Chen smiled and shook his head. Besides the die-hard fans on the Lu Family Army, it is completely unknown how many fans from the streaming site and Inspur blog can become paying customers, especially since the number of passer-by fans in Inspur are great.
His Inspur blog has more than 5 million followers. It has met the basic requirements of being a big V account, but majority of them are passers-by. Many of them were attracted in the last two blog battles, and were not really fans.
Expecting these passer-by fans to buy his songs would be too naive.
Of course, with the support of Lu Family Army’s die-hard fans, 50,000 of sales volume should be no problem.
Compared with the online sales on QQ Music, Lu Chen actually paid more attention to the record albums, which has more appeal.
Ring!
Just then, Lu Xi’s cellphone on her desk suddenly rang.
She picked it up and checked it, then turned on her computer: “Xiaomei said she had a message for us to see.”
Sister Chen Xiaomei worked as a receptionist in Lu Chen Studio. In her spare time, she also helped Lu Xi search and browse the news on the Internet, especially the gossip news and inside information in the entertainment industry.
She has now sent a video link to Lu Xi’s QQ.
“Cui Zhengzhi…”
Lu Xi clicked on the link and turned the computer screen around for everyone to see.
The source of the video is the Inspur Entertainment Channel. The content is an exclusive interview with Cui Zhengzhi by a Weibo reporter.
Inspur is one of the largest web portals in China. It has two major resources: Inspur Blog and Inspur Games. Therefore, Inspur Entertainment Channel has a great influence in the entertainment industry.
However, it is not easy to get an exclusive interview with Inspur, unless one has genuine materials, otherwise, one must be prepared to take out money, which is also an important part of publicity and hype.
On the 27-inch HD screen, Cui Zhengzhi was confidently talking to the microphone of the entertainment reporter.
The Inspur Entertainment reporter asked, “Mr. Cui Zhengzhi, I heard that your first solo album will be released soon, right?”
Cui Zhengzhi said with a smile, “Yes, it will be released on QQ Music on the 8th of this month. You are welcome to subscribe and buy.”
Cui Zhengzhi is 20 years old, 2 years younger than Lu Chen. He first worked as a trainee in South Korea’s KG Agency for 3 years, and then returned to China to make his official debut.
In the previous year, he participated in the “Super Male Voice” competition of Xiangnan Satellite. Cui Zhengzhi won second place. He is good at singing and dancing and has a strong Korean star temperament, so he is loved by many teenage boys and girls.
Inspur Entertainment reporter: “So what is the style of your album?”
Cui Zhengzhi replied without hesitation: “Passion and enthusiasm can make everyone’s heart beat faster. I wrote four of the ten songs myself. I believe it will not disappoint everyone!”
The Inspur Entertainment reporter said with a smile: “Everyone says that you are a very talented singer-songwriter, and as far as I know, Lu Chen, the winner of this year’s “Singing China”, will also release his debut album on QQ Music on the same day as yours. Do you feel any pressure?”
Hearing the Inspur Entertainment reporter’s obviously provocative question, everyone finally understood why Xiaomei sent this interview video to Lu Xi to see.
“No pressure!”
Cui Zhengzhi smiled confidently and said, “Lu Chen is a very good singer-songwriter, but I am better than him, and my album is better, so the winner will inevitably be me!”
“He’s crazy!”
Chen Xin couldn’t help saying, “He’s not putting Brother Chen in his eyes.”
Li Mubai clenched his fist: “This guy…”
Cui Zhengzhi was truly crazy, and it’s not that he was generally confident, but it was as if this was his personality.
But in the eyes of the fans, Cui Zhengzhi was sincere and not hypocritical, and what he said was not false.
But it would be a big mistake to think that he doesn’t have a thought-out plan.
This new artist who returned from South Korea knows how to look at the food under the pot, and he will act very modest when it is time to be modest. (TN: To look at the food under the pot (看锅下菜)– that’s what it says. I’m guessing this means to know who the opponent is and his capabilities.)
As for Lu Chen, it is obviously not the object of his modesty.
The Inspur Entertainment reporter obviously likes this topic very much, and further asks: “Why are you so sure? Several songs in Lu Chen’s album have good reviews.”
Cui Zhengzhi nodded and said: “The songs he wrote are good, but they are really out of date. They belong to the nostalgic style of the 80’s and 90’s, and I know what songs young people like me really like!”
“F*ck!”
When Li Feiyu heard this, his lungs was about to explode with rage: “He’s too shameless!”
Although what he said is right, he was actually directly stepping on Lu Chen’s feet. Anyone could hear the sarcasm in his words.
It would be okay if this was said to others in private, but saying this during a public interview is too disrespectful. Not to mention Li Feiyu, Li Mubai and the others, even Lu Chen knitted his brows.
Even clay figurines have three points of anger! (TN: Meaning even the most honest person will get angry if push too far.)
What kind of man would he be if he is still indifferent when he is trampled on his head?
Lu Chen is not a ninja turtle! (TN: Ninja Turtle, an internet slang, which means someone who endure the things that upset him.)
Chen Xiang said angrily, “I used to like him, but now I know he’s so repugnant!”
Lu Xi said with a sullen expression: “He is deliberately hyping the topic.”
After a period of study and research, this big sister has a basic understanding of all kinds of hype tricks in the entertainment industry. What Cui Zhengzhi and the Inspur Entertainment reporter were doing was a two-man act. She can see at a glance.
This kind of hype method is very carefully controlled.
But it was unbearable!
The key is that Cui Zhengzhi was not afraid to say that he has full assurance that he can beat Lu Chen in sales volume.
If too many of such promotion goes down, it could kill Lu Chen’s reputation.
The winner will not be condemned, and the fans will only praise!
Lu Chen suddenly smiled and said, “It’s seemed that not taking this seriously is out of the question, sister. Then let’s spend some money on internet hype. No, it’s publicity!”
Lu Chen didn’t want to spend too much money on the promotion of this album, but now he has changed his mind.
Lu Xi’s eyes lit up and said, “Do you have any good ideas?”
Lu Chen said, “Let me think about it first…”
His eyes were fixed on the high-spirited Cui Zhengzhi on the screen, and there was a little coldness in his eyes.
Since you want to fight, come and let’s have a good fight!
____________
TN: By the way, Inspur blog is like Weibo. (Thanks to the guys/gals at Foxaholic for this!)
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