Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

Chapter 159 Head-to-head confrontation
"Oh? We allocated so many resources to the advertising order for Asahi at the beginning of the year. It shouldn't be the case..."

Asahi TV and S Company have a long-term strategic partnership, and Akimoto Manjiro was obviously a little surprised.

"They said that the broadcast of Yayoi Tsuki's new song was an order from the 'higher authorities' and cannot be changed..."

"NTV rejected our request to live broadcast on its schedule..."

"Fuji TV also disagrees with changing the broadcast schedule."

"N LIVE and P Live platforms agreed to live broadcast our new song release, but they said that according to the requirements of their superiors, they will broadcast the release of Yayoi Tsuki's new song in full screen on the website and APP homepage."

Before the representative had time to explain, several other publicity representatives came in one after another...

The TV stations and streaming platforms that usually have a good cooperative relationship with S and J companies uniformly rejected the "cooperation request" to use the "Tetsudo AK" combination to squeeze out Yayoi Tsuki, and the reason was uniformly "requirements from superiors."

"The superior authority... could it be the Ministry of Education?"

"No, even if it's Suho, there's no way that Company Be can ask the government to intervene in the release of a new song."

For Manjiro Akimoto, this was a situation he had never encountered in his decades of work.

After all, there are laws such as the "Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Law" and the "Anti-Monopoly Law" in place, and there is more than one major political party in the 11th district. Even large capital conglomerates can only use various tricks to monopolize in secret. It is impossible for the government to intervene in the commercial market in such a blatant manner.

"That's fine. If we can't suppress the broadcasting channels, we can just compete head-on on the 'hard power' of song quality and singer popularity."

"What do you think, my colleagues, in this regard?"

The battle-hardened Akimoto Manjiro quickly calmed down and put aside the problems that he couldn't figure out or solve.

"Ahem, everyone knows that Yayoi Tsuki's singing skills and voice are unique, so there's no need to elaborate. Let's talk about the song itself."

"Our music department's connections at Bethesda didn't get a demo of Yayoi Tsuki's new song. But it's said that the master tape of this song was not recorded at Bethesda, which further makes us suspect that it was a 'stock' recorded in advance."

"Just from the title of the song, "I Once Thought of Ending It All," it seems to be a sad and literary work, which is contrary to the market's recent preferences and is unlikely to be well received..."

"But one thing that needs to be noted is that the lyrics, composition and arrangement of this song are all 'down to earth'."

The head of J Club's music department intervened in the discussion with a serious look on his face.

"Descend to the earth?"

"That monster music producer that appeared from Bethesda this year?"

Hearing the name "Xia Fan", the representatives in the office couldn't help but look at each other...

After all, among the new songs released in the first quarter, the combined performance of new songs from the three companies S, J, and A is not as good as the two songs "Sakura" and "Red Lotus".

"This is normal. Bethesda obviously wants 'Xia Fan' and Yayoi Tsuki to join forces to enhance their market competitiveness."

"But they overlooked that the two songs in the first quarter of Xia Fan, although of good quality, were able to maintain a gap-level lead, thanks to the help of the 'easterly winds' such as the cherry blossom season and the Curse of the Blade movie."

"Moreover, even for a master-level music producer, the production capacity of producing 'hit songs' is limited. No matter how good you are, you are just a newcomer. No matter how good you are, you can't produce a hit song every month or so, right?"

Feeling an atmosphere of "uneasiness" spreading in the meeting room, the representative of S Company deliberately increased the volume to boost morale. "I don't know much about the producer Xiafan. But from a musician's perspective, the previous two works may have their own unique features, but the biggest threat to us is still Yayoi Tsuki's popularity and singing skills."

"Yayoi Tsuki's popularity was already high after the recent hearing loss rumors, and this time she is releasing a new song in the form of a live performance, so it is sure to attract a lot of attention."

"But our new song "Tetsudo AK" has been preheated for an extra month, and each member has a large number of fans with purchasing power, so there is a great chance that we will win in sales through direct competition."

Akimoto Manjiro looked confident of victory, which gave everyone confidence.

To be fair, the song "My Favorite Is You" was also produced by top musicians, but in order to accommodate the uneven singing skills of the girl group, the lyrics of up to 20 people, and the compromise of the subject matter to the market audience, the final product can only be regarded as mediocre and slightly artificial...

However, the 20 members of "Tiedao AK" were selected through precise analysis of big data without sacrificing the original core members of the team. Not only can they sing, dance, and rap, but they also have a large number of die-hard fans who "unconditionally double their purchases" behind them...

Yayoi Tsuki may be the new top star, but the combined popularity of the 20 members of "Tetsudo AK" is still slightly better.

The strongest point of idol economy is that even if the idols are selling golden feces, fans will still pay for it and support the "minimum sales volume".

"There are still 18 hours until the release of the new songs of both parties... Today's temporary meeting ends here. All representatives should implement it according to the plan."

"Let Company Be feel the little shock called 'idol'."

There was not much time to continue the long speech, so Akimoto Manjiro signaled for the meeting to be adjourned and asked the representatives to implement the plan as soon as possible.

……

Half an hour before Yayoi Tsuki’s new song release conference.

In the center of the warehouse of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, a temporary stage with dazzling lights has been built, and many staff members are busy preparing around it.

In the center of the stage, Xia Fan connected the Fusangshen electronic keyboard to the audio signal, and his fingers swept across the black and white keys, playing a light melody.

"A slug like you, are you sure you can complete the live accompaniment by yourself without arranging a band?"

Yayoi Tsuki, who had just finished putting on her makeup, walked over from the side.

She wore a black custom-made stage costume today, which perfectly set off her slender waist, towering breasts and snow-white long legs.

"I've already told you, who is the reason for the slug... It's no problem, the melody is all in my head, and as long as I use this electronic keyboard, I can't go wrong."

Compared with Yayoi Tsukishima, Xia Fan was wearing a simple black sportswear. As long as he stood outside the focus of the lights, he could perfectly create the "night walking" effect.

With his absolute mastery of the songs bestowed by the gods, and now with the protection of the [Standing Puppet], his playing skills have reached perfection while communicating with this Tsukumogami electronic keyboard.

"Besides, given the situation of these 'live audiences', it's not appropriate to invite a professional band over, right?"

Having said that, Xia Fan glanced below the stage.

In the shadowed area sat a row of listless people tied to benches.

These were the cursed ones that Section 24’s “emergency teams” from various parts of District had sent to Tokyo in the past hours.

(End of this chapter)