Chapter 179 – Crowdfunding Goes Online
Starting from the arrest of Wang Bin on the 17th to the short three days until the 20th, the domestic entertainment industry experienced a storm of baptism. Several star artists, that participated in the gathering of this senior, were picked out and some of them were even taken away by the police to assist in the investigation. Their reputation and future were completely ruined. (TN: Senior here is Wan Bin, in case anyone got confused)
For a time, people in the industry were in a state of panic, and even all kinds of publicity and hype stopped.
And on Inspur Blog, it simply a place with bad people running wild. All the Big V’s and Small V’s and speculators were stirring up troubles. Gossips and rumors were everywhere, resulting in many innocent artists to be attacked.
Although Beijing Satellite TV is not an artist star, it was also attacked.
In fact, the attack on Beijing TV was not too unjust, because as early as half a month ago, the officials revealed that big stars such as Wang Bin and Chen Fei’er had been invited to the National Day Party, and even made an exclusive interview for Wang Bin in a program.
Who would have thought that Wang Bin would take the wrong path!
And although the Official V of Beijing Satellite TV soon announced that they had canceled all cooperation with Wang Bin and replace his performance, the impact has already been made.
This was because the media revealed that Wang Bin’s drug abuse didn’t start in just a day or two. it started a long time ago.
As a local snake in Beijing, did Beijing Satellite TV really knew nothing about this? (TN: Local snake – powerful entity)
Knowing the situation and inviting Wang Bin to attend such an important party, isn’t this encouraging the bad atmosphere in the circle?
Some people even accused Beijing Satellite TV of kicking Wang Bin when he was down.
In fact, most of these questions and accusations were groundless, but this is the case on the Internet. Unreasonable people still need some reason to stir up trouble, let alone people deliberately stirring up trouble, and this made Beijing Satellite TV a little passive.
However, Beijing Satellite TV wasn’t a vegetarian either and soon launched a counterattack in terms of public opinion. (TN: Not a vegetarian – not to be trifled with)
First, their officials refuted those false rumors on their blog. Also, they advocated the self-discipline of stars in the entertainment industry.
At 8 pm on the 21st, when the storm caused by Wang Bin gradually began to calm down, the Official V of Beijing Satellite TV posted a teaser video on its Inspur Blog.[1]
The content of the video was very interesting. It was the rehearsal scene of the National Day Party in the T1 Studio on the afternoon of the 17th.
And the protagonist of the video was precisely Lu Chen!
The Official V showed two scenes from the rehearsal. The two scenes were Lu Chen singing each version of “I Love You China”. They also launched a prize voting campaign for all bloggers in the post.
The content of the vote was very simple – which of the two theme works with the same title do you prefer?
Finally, the Official V said that the audience’s choice will determine which of the version of the song Lu Chen will sing at the National Day party!
Anyone with a discerning eye knew that this blog post was definitely part of Beijing Satellite TV’s crisis public relations. The aim was to divert people’s attention from Wang Bin, or at least showed that he is not involved with Beijing TV anymore. (TN: Crisis PR – Relevant strategies and management activities in response to the crisis)
And this way of diverting attention is not offensive, and it is very interesting.
As a result, Lu Chen’s two works aroused the curiosity and attention of many people, and the number of clicks and comments rose rapidly.
At 8:24, Chen Fei’er forwarded the post and commented that she voted for the second song!
In addition to Chen Fei’er, there were a lot of people in the industry who forwarded the post and commented. With the help of the officials, the topic was quickly hyped. By 10 pm, the number of votes actually exceeded 200000+!
The most excited ones were Lu Chen’s fans.
In Lu Chen’s blog support group, Lu Family Army’s group V, the comment area has been blown up.
Fans who support Lu Chen have all praised the teaser video of Beijing Satellite TV.
“Lu Chen is very mighty!”
“Our family’s Little Chen is getting more and more powerful. Both songs are very good. I didn’t expect him to write theme works!”
“The first song doesn’t count as a theme song, does it? The pop element on it is obvious. I have nothing say on the second song. I’m convinced!”
“Chen Fei’er said that she liked the second song, and so did I.”
“Is Lu Chen going to replace Wang Bin? We must watch The National Day Party of Beijing Satellite!”
“Must watch + 1!”
“What is Beijing Satellite TV? Lu Chen will definitely go to CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the future!”
“Looking forward to that CCTV Spring Festival Gala.”
Compared with ordinary fans, the evaluation of many people in the industry was much more professional.
Chen Guodong, who once wrote the splendid blog article “Silent Majority” for Lu Chen’s “You Who Sat Next To Me”, praised in his blog: “Lu Chen’s achievements in original folk songs are already well known. I didn’t expect him to write such wonderful theme works. The rich melody music is really admirable.”
“Regarding the voting on Beijing Satellite TV. I’m embarrassed to say that even after thinking about it for a long time, I still haven’t made a choice.”
“If only from the characteristics of theme works, there is no doubt that the second song crushed the first one, but the first one combines theme and pop music very well and is full of bold and innovative spirit! “
He said: “I like both of Lu Chen’s works very much. If possible, I hope to be on the stage at the same time, but that is obviously impossible, so I did not choose from the two.”
Chen Guodong didn’t choose. However, the number of people voting for their preferred song on the blog was getting more and more.
The result was Lu Chen’s second “I Love You China” beat the first “I Love You China” by a wide margin of 72.89% to 27.11% within the specified voting time of 2 days.
And his creative talent and singing ability have been praised by the vast majority of people. Through this wave of publicity and hype of Beijing Satellite TV, the number of his blog fans has exceeded 6.5 million!
As a result, Lu Chen’s reputation inside and outside the circle has risen to another level!
Taking advantage of this trend, Lu Chen solemnly promoted the album crowdfunding plan, which has been delayed for more than half a month, on Inspur Blog.
Then simultaneously have the crowdfunding website go online!
Except for a few individuals, the word crowdfunding was a strange word to people all over the world, so Lu Chen specifically explained what crowdfunding model is in his blog post, along with a website address.
Clicking the website address will redirect the user to the crowdfunding website.
For Lu Chen’s fans, they may not care about what crowdfunding is, or the meaning of the word, nor do they want to know the meaning and market value of the crowdfunding model.
What really aroused the interest of fans was that Lu Chen was finally going to release CD records!
Although it is said that after entering the new century, the domestic and international recording industry has been declining year by year.
Up to now, online sales have become the focus of album releases. Even the judging standard for [Gold Records] and [Platinum Records] include the sales data of music websites, but the meaning of real records is still very different. (TN: Real records – physical records such as CD.)
It’s easy to release an online album or single, but it’s not easy to produce a CD record.
The first reason is production cost. CDs cost much higher than the no-cost audio data. Then the cost and difficulty of selling and distributing them are higher than that of websites. Except for big stars, it is difficult to earn back the cost.
There are many singers, in order to push their appeal, will launch CD records, but sales data are often very bleak. They are completely losing money. They are doing something beyond their own ability*. (TN: *Original Chinese idiom: to swell one’s face up by slapping it to look imposing.)
Many CD albums are half-sold and half-given away, or given back to fans as gifts, and some are smashed in their hands.
Therefore, although there are countless singers who dream of producing a CD record and achieve [Gold Records] or even [Platinum Records], only a few can really do it.
For entertainment agencies, unless they support an artist at any cost, they will never dig a big hole for themselves. This is especially true for agencies with tight cost controls.
But this market still exists!
Releasing CD records was a plan that Lu Chen had long thought about. He didn’t want to do something beyond his own ability and make a fool of himself, and spent hundreds of thousands just to push his appeal. So, the crowdfunding model was the best choice.
The success of online sales of his album “You Who Sat Next To Me” has also greatly boosted Lu Chen’s confidence.
His fundraising goal for this album is 500,000 yuan!
There are a total of four support options.
The first item: 1 yuan (10,000). There will be a raffle and one winner will be selected, the prize is a notebook computer. (TN: there are only 10,000 of this item) (The item might be a raffle ticket?)
The second item: 15 yuan (no limit). Supporters can get a genuine CD of “You Who Sat Next To Me”.
The third item: 100 yuan (1,000). Supporters can get a CD and commemorative poster signed by Lu Chen, 16GB USB, key chain, and a limited set of metal nameplates customized by Lu Family Army support team.
The fourth item: ¥188 (1,000). Supporters can get 2 CDs and commemorative posters signed by Lu Chen, 64GB USB, notepad, key chain, and a limited set of metal nameplate customized by Lu Family Army support team.
As it was the first crowdfunding, Lu Chen didn’t make the project too complicated, only four support options.
Frankly, he wasn’t sure about the album crowdfunding, and he didn’t know if he can succeed and achieve his pre-funding goal of 500,000, and then successfully release his first CD record.
However, the arrow has already been fitted on the string. Whether the online crowdfunding can be a hit depends on this first crowdfunding project. (TN: The arrow has been fitted to the string – there’s no turning back now.)
In order to achieve the best promotion effect, in addition to vigorously promoting it in the live broadcast room, post bar, and QQ group, Lu Chen also @ all the famous V accounts that he knew, such as Tan Hong, Chen Fei’er and so on.
Fortunately, Lu Chen’s fans were still very interested in the album crowdfunding project. After he officially launched the online crowdfunding, the number of visits to the site and member registrations has gradually increase, and are getting more and more.
Then the first supporter appeared. He chose the first item. The first support was 1 yuan!
1 yuan, this was the first sum of money received by the online crowdfunding.
Although it looked very pitiful, it indicated that a new business financing model has officially stepped on the Internet stage!
It started with an album.
No matter whether the final result is a success or a failure, Lu Chen has the feeling of making history.
___________
TN: I’m not sure if “official leak video” is the correct term here as a leak video usually comes from other sources, but since the leak video came from them, then it’s an official leak video? If anyone knows the proper term pls. write it in the comment section.[1]
Edit: I changed it to “teaser video”
TN: Teaser for the next chapter will be delayed. Edit: Teaser added.
TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: Here.
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