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

Chapter 165: Billions of Dollars in Royalties

"Well, Minister Yamazaki, I understand your good intentions."

Understanding the implicit meaning of Yamazaki Hiroshi's words, Xia Fan took a sip of tea and cleared his throat.

"I also like music creation and have no intention of giving up this industry. As for other part-time jobs..."

"Ahem, as you know, the key to creating something is to experience all kinds of life. My life experience is too shallow, and part-time work is a unique way to collect materials, which can help me better experience life and gain inspiration."

Being stared at by Yamazaki Hiroshi with eager eyes, Xia Fan found a "relatively reasonable" reason.

I can't tell the other party that I have no bottleneck in my creation and I go out to show myself in public just to earn more faith and money to save my life, right?

"It's good to experience life and draw inspiration, but I'm afraid that I will be too obsessed with 'drawing inspiration' like Master Kishimoto did before. After all, human sperm..."

"Ahem, I mean, my energy is limited. What if I waste my precious golden period of creation..."

Yamazaki Hiroshi picked up the teacup and chose his words carefully.

After all, when it comes to creative efficiency and quality, no one in the entire music department can compare to Xia Fan, and he has no right to accuse others of "wasting time on trivial things."

"Minister, we've reached the summit!"

"'I Once Thought of Ending It All' has surpassed 'Sakura' on the New Songs Chart, and it's only been online for less than 24 hours!"

The producer named Shi Jiurang rushed in, waving his thin arms and roaring.

"puff!!!"

Hiroshi Yamazaki, who was pretending to sip tea and thinking about how to PUA Xia Fan to concentrate on writing songs, suddenly spat out a big mouthful of tea back into the teacup.

"So, the producer from Down to Earth is here too! Congratulations, it's another hit song!"

"After the press conference last night, I fell asleep listening to the song 'I Once Thought of Ending It All'. When I woke up, my pillow was soaked with tears!"

"Also, you generously gave up the subsequent royalties, allowing this song to be spread more widely and encourage more people. This makes me see something more valuable in you than talent!"

Seeing Xia Fan in the office, Shi Jiurang held his hand tightly and praised him endlessly.

"Although it's Yayoi Tsuki's 'retirement work', the quality of the song is also excellent...but it's only been a day, and it's already topped the new song chart, it's a bit too exaggerated..."

Hiroshi Yamazaki, who was standing by, took out his mobile phone and stared with wide eyes at the number of paid downloads of "I Once Thought About Ending It All".

It is a normal phenomenon in the industry that new songs by new artists are instantly outsold by new songs by famous artists.

This is why all major companies tacitly put the "main song season" one month after the "new song season" in order to leave room for new artists and new songs to attract fans.

Now that the new song season has just passed, the new song chart is basically filled with songs that were entered into the "Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards". With top-tier artists such as the limited-time group "Tetsudo AK" and the peerless singer Yayoi Tsuki releasing songs one after another, it is only a matter of time before the new song chart is reshuffled.

But in less than 24 hours, it was a little bit "extraordinary".

"However, without royalties, what's the point of selling a song that's only one yen?" Thinking back to the song's price which was almost "free", he suddenly felt sad about missing out on hundreds of millions, and for a moment he didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

……

"If it was the normal price of 100 yen, even if the sales were one-tenth of that, it would still be..."

"No, stop, Xia Fan. It's just a few hundred million royalties. Once you figure out this number, you will definitely not be able to sleep tonight!"

Although he knew that Lesson 9 would consider giving him some "copyright compensation funds", after returning to the apartment from the music club, seeing the sales of "Once I Thought About Ending It All" growing without any sign of stopping, Xia Fan gradually began to understand Yamazaki Hiroshi's heartache.

Yesterday, Yayoi Tsuki sang "I Once Thought About Ending It All" live at a new song release conference. With the promotion of official forces and the support of omni-channel broadcasting, the ratings reached 85%, breaking the record of 81.4% set by the Red and White Songs Festival in the "golden age of television" in the s.

In an era when the economy has been in a downward spiral for decades, with class stratification, soaring prices, soaring unemployment and a serious aging population, this song depicts darkness without hesitation, yet conveys the commitment to light. With Yayoi Tsuki's heartfelt singing, it moved countless people in front of the screen to tears.

At the end of the press conference, Yayoi Tsuki frankly admitted the fact that she was "deaf" and announced that she would "suspend her music activities indefinitely", which was like sprinkling cold water drops into boiling oil.

The audience was extremely shocked, but also suddenly realized...

It was only by completely pouring her personal experience and true emotions from despair to hope into the song while being almost "inaudible" that Yayoi Tsuki was able to perform the song to such a perfect level.

After the song "I Once Thought About Ending It All" was released, it was made available for free non-commercial licensing, and was sold at almost free "one yen", which completely ignited public opinion.

Combined with Yayoi Tsuki's words at the press conference, "Even if I can't hear it anymore, I will sing this song to everyone in the end", people's evaluation of her has risen to another level again...

There was no pre-launch promotion, no hype, no high prices for profiteering...

Only open authorization, only one yen price, and only the hope that more people can be encouraged by this song...

Even though she is in the despair and darkness of "deafness", she just wants to pass on the power of hope to the listeners through this song before she leaves.

What a boundless love this is.

Driven by the emotion called "touching", the number of paid downloads of the song soared like a rocket, and many netizens even bought hundreds of copies to show their respect.

Hot words such as "I once thought about ending it all", "Yayoi Moon", and "We must see each other again" have been at the top of the popularity charts of major social media platforms.

As for the song itself, the music critic Keizo Horie, who is known for being stingy with his words, immediately gave a long music review titled "Living seriously is harder than dying, but even so, I still choose to live."

"A very moving song that captures the indomitable spirit of pop rock with a powerful melody. The lyrics lightly touch upon the trivialities of life that weigh on the heart, and depict the darkness of being gripped by despair, until the last bar, when the light of hope is lit."

"The singer Yayoi Tsuki's personal experience made her singing particularly touching and further sublimated the spirit of the song. From her overflowing emotions and unstable breath, I heard her determination to not give up on herself, her singing, and her fans. She did not look down on others, but stood in the mud of despair, beside the audience who were also struggling, and roared, 'Don't give up!'"

"Life that seems to be nothing happens hides sorrow and sadness, but even so, this world is still worth looking forward to, because I want to be with the one I love."

After Keizo Horie, a number of music critics also gave unconditional praise, allowing the music producer who continuously created excellent songs to "come down to earth" and once again enter people's attention.

(End of this chapter)