Chapter 124: The Second Album is All Aces, This is Crazy!
“You’re the first one to discover me”
“The more expressionless I am, the more heartbroken I feel inside”
“So when I tremble, unwilling to shed tears”
“You’ll hold me close to your chest with heartache”
“……”
Roommate: ???
The singing voice was like the class beauty whispering in their ears, and like the goddess of Beiti’s jade hand gently stroking their pectorals.
From the first line, it made them tingle.
When it reached the chorus, how could Wu Xiaotian’s roommates still sleep? They all looked in the direction of the singing.
At this moment, Wu Xiaotian had a Walkman clipped to his waist, hands on his hips, like a king guarding his spoils.
“Holy crap, Xiaotian, what song is that?”
“Could it be Zhang Liangying’s new album?”
“You sneaky bastard, did you go buy the album behind our backs?”
“Heh, I usually don’t argue with you when you call me Xiaotian, but now that you’re still calling me Xiaotian, I won’t accept it~”
Wu Xiaotian pressed the pause button, walked to the center of the dorm with his hands behind his back, pulled out a chair, and sat down, “Call me Tian Ge!”
“Oh my, my Tian Ge, hurry up and sing, you’re killing us with anticipation.”
“Exactly, you know we’re all Liangfen.”
“Hurry up, Tian Ge.”
Wu Xiaotian smugly pressed the play button.
“I want to go to the furthest place I can see”
“And chat about dreams with you, dancing with joy”
“……”
At this very moment.
Wu Xiaotian really wanted to accompany Zhang Liangying, but he was afraid his cow’s mooing wouldn’t fit the mood, “Moo moo…”
When the song finished, the five roommates had no trace of sleepiness left. They had already gathered around Wu Xiaotian.
“Tian Ge, play the next song!”
“That was awesome.”
“It still has to be Liangying, her songs are just perfect.”
“This one seems very inspirational! If all the other songs are like this, then how amazing must the first promoted title song, Wish, be? Shen Qing is incredible.”
“The furthest place I can see, that song title is great. I feel like Shen Qing wrote this song just for Wish!”
“The third song is called Lanting Preface!? Is it Chinese Style?”
“Wait a minute, let me speak first. Isn’t your Tian Ge handsome?” Wu Xiaotian still wanted to show off, he’d play Lanting Preface later…
But the five roommates immediately crushed his desire to show off.
The five rough guys directly pinned him down. The room leader snatched the Walkman from his waist, “Haha, trying to show off, now the initiative is with this room leader!”
As the music played~
The beautiful and ancient melody of the erhu filled the air, and in an instant, a full Chinese Style echoed through the dorm.
“Practicing calligraphy at Lanting, cursive script flows like clouds and water”
“The gate opens under the moon, your delicate steps are as meticulous as yours”
“Hurriedly, a thousand-year-old stele is easy to replicate, but your beauty is hard to replicate”
“……”
Wu Xiaotian stopped fussing.
He listened with his roommates, praising as they went.
The more they listened, the better it sounded.
But their brows furrowed deeper. A feeling of a wild boar being unable to eat fine grains suddenly appeared—the lyrics were beautiful, but they seemed incomprehensible~
But it felt incredibly well-written!
By the next song, they understood.
It was a love song, called Similar to Love, and the melody was super great!
“Recently, you and I have had the same feeling”
“It’s something similar to love”
“On the same day, we discover love, it’s approaching”
Wu Xiaotian: “Shen Qing is amazing at writing love songs! Holy crap, look at the next song, it’s the title song, Wish. The promotion has been so intense lately, I want to see what the fuss is about!!”
……
While they were listening to music,Rob CD battles were happening all over the country. Store owners who had already sold out the first wave were suddenly surprised to see another wave of people arriving.
“Boss, do you still have Zhang Liangying’s album? I’ll buy ten copies!”
“Sold out, sold out.”
“Restock, boss!”
“The distributors are out of stock too, you’ll have to wait a few days.”
“No, don’t you guys stock more? Zhang Liangying’s new album has such high popularity, and you…”
“Come on, boss, you be the one to do it then!”
This situation of insufficient stock wasn’t just happening at terminal retail stores; even Dangdang.com and the primary distributors in each province were caught off guard.
They thought that with the record market cooling down, even Jay Chou’s newly released album wasn’t selling as well as before, could Zhang Liangying escape this curse?
But the result was indeed a counter-trend rise.
When the bosses of the major distributors opened Zhang Liangying’s CDs and put them into their VCD players, they truly found the answer.
Every song was a guaranteed hit, how could sales not explode?
Crazy!
Truly crazy…
Shen Qing, did you take out all your inventory?
Are you not planning to live in the future?
……
The major media outlets also received the album in the first wave. At this moment, they had all finished listening to all the songs, and only two words could describe their feelings: Shock!
Not long after.
News reports appeared on major websites one after another.
Some newspaper editors, who had received CDs from Taihe Rye Music the night before, had already finished writing their articles and published them in the newspaper first thing this morning.
【Zhang Liangying’s Second Album is Full of Guaranteed Hits! A Masterpiece is Born!】
【The ten songs included in Wish, ordinary singers would never achieve in a lifetime, but Zhang Liangying sings ten at once. Shen Qing has spoiled her like a princess】
【Sales broke 600,000 on the first day of release, Wish is unstoppable and will set a new record for domestic album sales】
【Heavenly Queen—Zhang Liangying】
Many Liangfen woke up to see the overwhelming news and were stunned. They rushed to the record stores without even having breakfast.
But when they arrived, they found that even the album the boss had kept for himself had been bought at a high price.
At this very moment.
Many record store owners were playing the new songs on cassette tapes to attract more music enthusiasts.
……
Qingying Studio.
Zhang Liangying sat on the sofa in the reception room. The warm and bright sun of ten in the morning shone on her, but it couldn’t alleviate her nervous emotions.
It had been two hours since the album was released, what were the sales like?
The first battle report hadn’t arrived yet, and everyone in the studio was still unclear about the situation.
Zhang Lu and Chen Liang were non-stop calling distributors all over the country, but all the lines were busy, and none of them could get through.
Even the phone call to Dangdang.com couldn’t get through.
Zhang Lu hung up the phone and said with a frown, “Could it be that it’s selling too well? Causing the phone lines of distributors in all provinces to be jammed?”
Chen Liang nodded, “Most likely. Sister Ying’s album has the potential to explode in sales.”
Zhang Liangying took a sip of coffee and looked at Shen Qing by the window.
At this moment.
Shen Qing was making a Milk Oolong Latte, leisurely and unhurried.
He was indeed not worried about the album sales.
Because for those ten songs, Shen Qing had a 100% guarantee they would sell explosively!
Although the internet and piracy were already well-developed in the second half of 2006, the habit of buying CDs that people had cultivated for many years couldn’t be changed overnight.
If they didn’t sell well, there was no other reason than poor album quality. Ten songs pieced together, how could that work?
Consumers weren’t fools. If your product wasn’t good, of course, no one would buy it.
But the songs in Wish would make all potential consumers spend without hesitation!
If one song, The Brightest Star in the Night Sky, isn’t enough, then is Lanting Preface enough? If not, there’s still The furthest place I can see, Sweet, Next Sunrise, Singing on the Tree…
If that’s still not enough, then add Similar to Love, Partiality, Falling Leaves Return to Roots.
If even this can’t get the money out of your pocket, then we have to bring out the album’s ultimate guaranteed hit song, Wish.
Ten strategies working together, I don’t believe anyone can resist spending!
When Shen Qing finished making his coffee and took a sip, he smiled faintly, “For this album, my bottom line is 4 million copies, aiming for 4.5 million, and pushing hard for 5 million…”
Zhang Lu was stunned.
He walked over to Shen Qing, touched Shen Qing’s forehead, and mumbled, “You don’t have a fever, why are you talking nonsense?”
Zhang Liangying, Chen Liang, and the other staff members of Taihe Rye Music all stared blankly at Shen Qing.
This statement was no less shocking than Jack Ma saying: I’m not interested in money!
Who can sell 5 million copies? Do you think you’re the second Richie Jen? Uh… it seems like Sister Ying’s Wish isn’t much worse than Too Soft Heart, is it?
In 1996, Richie Jen’s Too Soft Heart sold 25 million copies across Asia, but this number included both genuine and pirated copies.
Calculating at a ratio of 1 genuine to 4 pirated copies, the genuine sales should be around 5 million copies.
This sales figure was unbeatable.
If this number could be surpassed, it would make him the number one person in Chinese music.
And it would be enough to explain one thing—an “Zhang Liangying fever” had swept across Asia.
But Shen Qing also knew that this was too difficult.
After all, the title song, Wish, was a main theme song, which might not be very popular in East Asia and South Asia.
But it didn’t matter, Mainland China was the foundation.
As long as it sold well domestically, Zhang Liangying would undoubtedly be among the top four in Chinese music album sales, with the top three being Richie Jen, Jacky Cheung, and Wang Jie.
As the clock struck eleven, a phone call suddenly came in. Zhang Lu answered it and shouted excitedly, “What? It exploded!? The sales exploded!”
