Generation Z Artists

Chapter 334 Silently Bowing to Him

The negotiations have not yet yielded results, but Lemon has already inexplicably exploded.

The reason it is described as inexplicable is that Sony Music did not launch a large-scale promotional campaign at all.

What is the process for Ayumi Hamasaki to release a single?
Send the PV and materials to music programs, radio stations, and music magazines a month in advance;

Pre-event promotion included magazine interviews and live radio interviews;
Posters were put on display in advance at record stores and general retailers nationwide;

Play the trailer (chorus clip);
Public releases: music show appearances, variety shows, commercials, radio appearances, live events, mini-live performances...

But Fang Xinghe released a song without going through any formal procedures; it was officially announced and released directly without him even showing up.

It's not that Sony doesn't want to promote, it's that Fang Ge doesn't have the time, is too lazy to promote his songs, and doesn't want to appear on those ridiculous variety shows whose highest mission is to torment people.

The pinned post on the StarNet official fan cafe reads: "A song, a special gift for our Japanese fans."

The Japanese concubine went mad on the spot, screaming incoherently.

then……

A massive three-day explosion.

Sony Music only had time to prepare 200,000 copies. 198,000 were sold on the first day, and there was no stock at all on the second and third days. Fans who wanted to listen to the songs could only request them by listening to the radio.

So by the third day, the on-demand data had exploded.

There are more than 100 radio stations across Japan, including national and local stations, as well as dedicated music stations and general stations. The total time available for playing music is less than 1000 hours. Assuming an average song is 5 minutes long, this means that a maximum of 12000 songs can be played per day.

In reality, that much airtime can't be broadcast at all. The host's talk time, the audience's online interaction time, the fixed segment time, the commercial break time... all of these take up time.

As a result, lemon's total number of requests reached more than 8800 that day.

It's like having people glued to the radio at any time of day, frantically requesting "lemon".

Lemon wasn't featured on any terrestrial television music shows, but it was already being bombarded with advertisements in the streets and alleys.

Japanese media and the Japanese entertainment industry were collectively dumbfounded.

"Fang Xinghe can sing?"

Consort Ri: "Of course His Highness Fang Xinghe can sing!"

To be honest, the data for the first three days was entirely fabricated by Mantianxing.

The moment Ri Fei saw Fang Xinghe suddenly release a song, she was overjoyed.

"It's a gift specially for us! *cries out loud*"

Our love has been seen!

"Excessive emotion leads to the complete loss of language function."

"I don't know how many times Fang-sama's gentle personality has saved me, and today is another one."

"Is it a song? Really? Really, really? My teeth are about to break!"

"I bought the CD immediately! It's a divine song!"

"I couldn't stop crying, I felt like I was going to die with Fang Yang... No, please let me die alone, you deserve eternal life."

However, when they actually heard about Lemon but couldn't buy a physical copy, their anger erupted.

"Damn it! What is Sony doing?"

"How could they treat our Prince Fang Xinghe with such disrespect? This is absolutely unforgivable!"

"Cold start?!"

"Damn it, there's nothing here! I'm going crazy!"

"Does someone as gentle as Fang not deserve even the most basic advertising package? Am I crazy, or has the world gone mad?"

"Sony Records should all commit seppuku!"

Various venting voices filled every corner of the cafe; they couldn't believe it was Fang Xinghe's decision and would only point the finger at the record company.

How could our Fang Shen possibly have a problem?

His personality is seen as gentle by his fans, and it's always Biyang World that makes mistakes.

The benefits of being highly organized were fully demonstrated during the moment when the fans went wild.

At Kadokawa Tsuhiko's command, the staff immediately contacted the fan leaders, who guided the fans to quickly transform their anger into action.

"Sisters, let's not waste our time! If the company isn't doing anything, we'll do it!"

"So what if it's a cold start? Japan's Mantianxing can create miracles!"

"The time has come for us to defend Fang!"

"Go promote it! Go request songs! Go vote! Go buy records!"

"Let those arrogant bastards feel the fighting power of our Japanese All-Stars! Go fight!"

"The God has given us the best; now it's time to repay the God with the most fervent love!"

"Let's go, charge!"

Since there were really no other channels, Rifei only did two things—vote like crazy for music shows and watch every show that she could request songs.

As a result, on the third day after the song was released, radio stations across Japan were playing "Lemon" almost 24 hours a day.

Important radio stations like J-WAVE and FM802 broadcast countless live streams outside of their regular programming hours.

At the same time, lemon automatically entered all music shows.

TV Asahi, "MUSIC STATION".

It received perfect scores in audience voting and broadcast data, ranked fifth in sales on the Oricon chart, and second in overall data.

Fang Xinghe won the runner-up title in this round without even participating.

Then, at the end of the show, which was supposed to be a live performance by the top 5 singers, Fang Ge didn't even show up. Instead, the director played the music video once, resulting in an 87% complaint rate.

Regular viewers complained about the program: Why was a music video used as a perfunctory response?

The production team bowed and said: "We're sorry, we couldn't invite a singer."

Audience: You don't work hard enough! How can such a great song not be performed live?
Many stars also complained about the program: Why wasn't my brother invited to perform live?

The production crew continued bowing: "Sorry, your brother isn't coming."

Starry Sky: Damn it! It must be because they didn't come to pay their respects!

……

TBS Television, COUNT DOWN TV.

Because of its transparent rules and sales-oriented approach, lemon, which only has data from the O charts, only managed to achieve fifth place this week.

The show aired late Saturday night, and on Sunday, TBS Entertainment News produced an emergency special segment – ​​Attack of the Lemon – to predict the champion for the following week.

Fuji Television, "HEY!HEY!HEY! MUSIC CHAMP"

The main part of the program consisted of interviews and live performances, so Fang Xinghe had nothing to do with it. However, they did insert an interview with the head of Sony Music and temporarily listed lemon as the "most requested data hottest".

The host announced with great shock and seriousness: "Although the rest of the data is not quite enough, Fang Jun's Lemon has received an unprecedented explosive response from the data collected by the station. Next week will definitely be the week when Lemon dominates the charts!"

……

Many industry insiders have come to this conclusion: the reason is not the craze for Baby's Breath, but the conversion rate after the craze.

The album was purchased by Mantianxing, the on-demand streaming was arranged by Mantianxing, but the spontaneous playback in various shopping malls and stores offline, as well as the inquiry data from ordinary viewers, cannot be bought.

Fuji Terrace.

Station Director Yuchuan Lishi held a seminar with senior executives, presenting three days' worth of data.

"A total of 7312 calls were received, all inquiring about the specific situation with 'Lemon.' The situation is quite clear now. Let's discuss our next steps." "Yes, sir!"

The deputy director was the first to speak, giving a comprehensive report.

"The consultation data has completely surpassed that of Only One, reaching more than 230% of what it was at the time. Of course, one detail is that Only One was released after sufficient pre-release promotion, so the public was quite familiar with the situation, which may have led to a lack of enthusiasm for inquiries."

"Lemon" was a completely new song that had just launched, generating a lot of public curiosity, but since there was no way to learn about it, people started calling in droves.

Despite these reasons, "Lemon" is undeniably the fastest-rising and most uncontroversial song of the past decade, boasting a 99% positive listener feedback rate.

After a long and detailed explanation, here's the final summary:

"Lemon has all the qualities to become a phenomenal song. However, the audience's attention has not yet shifted to 'The Return of the Condor Heroes'. It is difficult to be sure when and by how much that attention will shift."

Therefore, if you want to safely avoid potential risks, you can wait a while longer and observe the fans' enthusiasm for the series.

"If we want to gain the greatest benefit, then we should immediately activate the highest level of response strategy and reach a consensus with Fang Xinghe as soon as possible..."

With two paths laid out before them, the meeting room quickly descended into debate.

Meanwhile, the other major TV stations were also arguing.

Broadcasting a Chinese martial arts drama, especially one starring Fang Xinghe, on terrestrial television carries relatively low commercial risk, but extremely high political risk.

This was not an easy decision to make.

Fang Xinghe wasn't in a hurry. He let them continue to consider while he arranged a small meeting.

No tickets are required; you can draw them directly from the sales code for "Xiangyang".

The event mainly consisted of three parts: first, each person received an autographed photo; second, the first live event for "Lemon" that was not open to the public; and third, the official fan cafe members followed each other.

The DVD of "Xiangyang" quickly sold 140 million copies, then 160 million. This expensive product made a whopping 36 billion yen off the Japanese box office.

The richest and most enthusiastic fan purchased over 11000 copies.

The most tragic thing is... she didn't get a spot at the meet-and-greet.

With a total sales volume of 160 million copies, only 500 slots are available for draws. Even if you buy 5 copies, you might not be able to win, while you only need to buy one.

Kadokawa Tsutohiko couldn't help but bring this up with Fang Xinghe, suggesting that he give that young lady a special invitation card, but Fang Xinghe firmly refused.

"Everything she did was not enough for me to open this back door."

Of course, this is the stated reason.

The actual reason is...

Don't spoil the child.

It would be very easy for the young lady to see Fang Xinghe. Fang has so many business events in Japan, and each one is attended by the children and families of the upper class. She could easily see him up close and might even have a chat with him.

However, Fang Xinghe never takes photos, signs autographs, or dine at business events or brand dinners.

Business only.
In addition, Fang Xinghe provides different services for autograph sessions, meet-and-greets, and fan events.

The autograph session consisted of signing autographs and a brief chat of about ten seconds.

Small meet-and-greets are more likely to have a high level of interaction.

Other fan events haven't been held yet, but they likely involve things like personal talks, performances, interactive games, and lucky draws.

Therefore, the only way to have a truly immersive and intense fan experience is to try your luck at offline fan events.

Since that young lady is looking for fan interaction rather than just seeing things, then she has to follow the rules. If she can't win with 11000 tickets, then she'll buy 20000 or even more next time.

This impulse won't be dispelled by bad luck; it will only intensify with sunk costs.

So why give her this kind of back door?

She has money, so let her spend it. The more she spends, the more enthusiastic she becomes, the more extravagant she gets.

Behind her were others who bought 9000 and 7000 tickets. If those who didn't win could get a special spot, who would be motivated to buy more?

The dog-like side coldly set the rules, and then the young lady, grumbling and cursing, bought a spot at the meet-and-greet from someone else.

It is said that it cost more than 30 million yen, which is close to 3000 US dollars.

This is the most expensive ticket, located in the first row. Tickets in the back rows are only worth 1000 million yen when resold.

So this tiny fan meeting was attended entirely by second-generation rich kids from the Japanese region and a few wealthy women.

Most of the ordinary people who were fans of the "Full Sky of Stars" (a term referring to celebrities) did not attend; they all reluctantly sold their tickets.

Even die-hard fans were no exception; only a few die-hard, ordinary fans resisted the temptation.

This is really not easy. The cheapest back-row ticket is equivalent to two years' income for a full-time employee of a Japanese company, not to mention queuing for tickets in advance. It can basically achieve financial freedom.

But on the day of the meet-and-greet, Brother Fang really put in his best effort.

From the moment a fan goes on stage until the entire process is over, a photographer records the entire event, which is then sent to the fan's temporary backend on the official fan cafe for download.

Each person had 30 seconds, and the entire process took nearly 5 hours. Fang Xinghe stood in the center of the small stage the whole time.

Close-up smiling photos, gentle conversations, and a light hug at the end of the day—these moments perfectly showcase the vibrancy of the characters.

There's no handshake; we don't have enough money.

Fang Xinghe himself is not averse to this kind of business activity; what he is averse to is the undervaluation of "Tian Shen Assets".

But that was enough. One by one, they cried. Nearly one-fifth of the fans collapsed on the spot, some with weak legs, some with hyperventilation, some with fainting, and so on.

Afterwards, these 500 lucky winners publicized their story extensively—

"If you haven't met Prince Fang Xinghe in person, you'll never know what the face of a god looks like."

This kind of topic has been around for a long time and is widely circulated in official forums in any country, but this time, the girls who fainted from a gentle hug provided too much strong evidence for this claim.

Meanwhile, a new legend has been added to the Japanese region—

"His Highness Fang Xinghe's live performances are heavenly; when he sings, you'll forget everything."

500 highly influential young female fans have further fueled the craze for lemon among fans in the Japanese community. In public areas outside the official fan cafe and on the 2ch forum, lemon is already regarded as a work of genius, a Japanese opera, the voice of God, and the most beautiful ritual.

Public opinion began to ferment.

No, a more accurate description is that public opinion began to explode.

It must be solemnly stated that Fang Xinghe has never faced a good public opinion environment in Japan, and it has become particularly unfavorable in the last two years.

Whether it's the Aoki Prize, the Akutagawa Prize, or even the Tokyo International Film Festival, Fang Xinghe's works have received virtually no awards in Japan.

South Korea's Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Awards gave "Young Love" a lot of nominations, but the Japanese cultural world almost completely ignored its achievements.

It's not that there aren't cultural leftists advocating for him; it's just that, with the honeymoon period between China and Japan effectively over, the opposition is indeed much stronger.

Fang Xinghe was so hated a couple of years ago, wasn't he?

Relying on his handsome face, on the poignant portrayal of the Japanese in "The Snow of the Night," and on his status as a sports superstar with his American father, he has consistently made rude and unkind remarks about Japan.

Therefore, after the new government came to power, pressure from all sides came upon him in a semi-public manner.

The celebrities who were purged were not just one or two, but a whole bunch.

The backlash from arrogance is perfectly reasonable.

However, this time, even the far-right Sankei Shimbun published a commentary that was difficult to interpret—

"The novel that best understands the Japanese was written by a Chinese person, the film that best understands the Japanese was also written by a Chinese person, and now, the song that best understands the Japanese is written by the same Chinese person!"

I felt extremely embarrassed and shocked.

If I had the chance to see Fang Xinghe in person, I'm afraid... I could only silently bow my head in respect.

(End of this chapter)