Unboxing, Director!

Chapter 142 This guy, no, this girl is going to be famous!
Three weeks ago, in New York, at midnight, on a radio program called "Midnight Love".

DJ Arthur is following the usual routine, starting today's show with a new song.

This was originally a very simple thing; he only needed to push a button up on the control panel.

The director has already prepared the songs to be played.

But today was a bit of an surprise.

After Arthur said, "Next, please enjoy 'You Are Here' by Lucana,"

As the button vibrates.

The intro to "You Are Beautiful" begins.

DJ Arthur immediately started nodding in agreement.

This song is pretty good!

But soon, as the song began, Arthur immediately stopped.

How come this is sung by a male singer?
Arthur didn't think much of it at the time.

North America has many extraordinary people.

So his first reaction was that this singer named Lukana was a special person.

A special person who sings so well, and whose songs are so good.

This guy, no, this girl is going to be famous!
And so, after "You" finished playing, Arthur began his commentary:
"Wow, this song is really great, right? The guitar intro is so catchy it's textbook perfect. Just three simple chords looping, yet it's instantly memorable. Lukana's voice is very distinctive, especially the line 'you are beautiful.' Listen carefully to the ending note—wow, the vulnerability hits right to the heart!"

His evaluation was, of course, all very positive.

People have paid for the song, so even if the song is bad, they should still say a few nice things. Besides, the song is really good. Judging from his standards, he can't find any fault with it.

But just as he was engrossed in it, the director outside the studio finally realized what was happening.

Then Arthur's anxious voice came through his earpiece: "Wrong, Arthur, wrong!"

Arthur spread his hands, looking puzzled, and mouthed silently: What's wrong?
"Wrong song, I made a mistake, it's not this one!"

"what?"

Arthur was speechless.

But the song had already finished playing, and even the comments had been given. Aaron could only bite the bullet and start making amends according to the procedure: "Okay, next please enjoy 'You Are Here' by Lucana."

This is clearly not the first time the radio station has encountered such a problem, so they have their own ways of dealing with it.

As for who is in charge, that's naturally a matter for the director.

Arthur silently prayed for director Allen, after all, this kind of accident was really serious, and could result in a lot of financial losses.

And director Allen was indeed very discouraged at this point.

How could they have played the wrong song?!

I really shouldn't have used marijuana last night!
It's also my boyfriend's fault. Why did he have to buy a song with such a similar name?
He shook his head, suppressed his complaints, and quickly began to think of a solution to keep his job.
After the long song ended, the next segment was the phone call segment.

Whether I can keep my job depends entirely on now.

If few of the callers notice, then it's not a big problem.

The "Midnight Love" segment already had a small audience.

Allen thought that maybe he could actually get away with it.

However, reality is cruel.

The operator reported that they had received at least 50 requests, the vast majority of which were for the first song to be played!

They didn't know the name, so they all referred to it as "the first song".

“Pick one that they specifically request to play ‘You Are Here’!” Allen decided immediately.

Soon, the first caller came in on the radio, and the person immediately asked, "Could you play 'You Are Here' again?"

Arthur did as he was told and started playing Lucana's song.

After the song finished playing, the operator reported again: "There are at least 100 requests now!"

"Are they all requesting that the first song be played?"

"Half of them are not."

Allen breathed a sigh of relief.

half.

so far so good.

But before he could catch his breath, the person on the other end added, "Half of these are complaints, saying that the requested song doesn't match the one playing."

Allen: "?!!"

That night, Midnight Love received a record number of requests and complaints in five years, and "you" was responsibly played at least ten times on the radio station.

The following day, news of the broadcasting mishap of "you" spread throughout the radio industry.

Even faster than that was the speed at which "You" spread among radio listeners.
Upon landing in Manhattan, Zhou Jianhui went directly to Warner's headquarters.

After rushing to the headquarters and meeting the new person in charge, Mike, Zhou Jianhui immediately asked the question that had been bothering him for nearly 20 hours: "Mike, what exactly happened?"

On September 29th, just two weeks ago, "you" was released in North America.

There weren't many resources allocated to them, and then the 9/11 attacks happened, plus there were no big names recommending them.

It can be said that the timing was unfavorable, the location was unfavorable, and the people were not in harmony.

As expected.

The first week of "you" was a dismal one.

In one week, only 535 copies of the single album were sold.

On radio request charts, it didn't even make it into the list of most requested songs, let alone the Billboard Hot 100.

Although Zhou Jianhui felt regretful about this and blamed Warner headquarters for not paying enough attention, he knew that blaming them was useless. He felt that such results were actually expected.

After all, it's normal for Chinese people writing English songs to not achieve much success. At the time, he was glad he hadn't publicized the matter in mainland China, otherwise he would have really lost face.

Then, just when everyone thought that "you" was going to flop,

Another week later, "You" actually topped the playlists of more than a dozen radio stations in North America!

The North American radio airplay charts are similar to those in the Chinese music scene.

The more videos a player watches, the higher their ranking.

Moreover, North America has an advantage in that it is not easy to fake.

So these results are truly solid.

What's even more shocking is that "You" actually reached number 99 on the North American Billboard Hot 100!
So you made the list?
This is making history for Chinese singers in the Western music scene?!
Isn't it said that getting on the billboard is quite difficult?
This is fucking illogical!

The first week was fine, but what happened in the second week? No, that's not quite right. Zhou Jianhui continued, "The first week it was practically dead, how come it suddenly became popular in the second week? Did some big shot recommend it?"

Mike laughed and explained, "Zhou, to tell you the truth, a week ago I had the same expression as you!"

Do you know why now?

"of course."

Mike led the person to his office, then took out a document and began to explain, "To be honest, this whole thing is quite dramatic."

Next, Zhou Jianhui deeply understood what it meant for "a good song to be flawed".

On October 5th, the "Midnight Love" radio station made a blunder, but because of this blunder, "you" came into the view of various radio stations and listeners in New York.

New York is a city with a huge population, and the quality of "You" is excellent, which greatly contributed to the popularity of "You".

As a result, in the second week, "you" topped the playlist on dozens of radio stations.

But it's not over yet.

Mike said, "It's going viral online now. On MP3.com, this song is already ranked fourth in terms of plays!"

As he spoke, Mike solemnly told Zhou Jianhui, "In just one week, it jumped from outside the top 200 to fourth place. Zhou, the power of this song is beyond everyone's imagination!"

Zhou Jianhui gasped, and asked cautiously, "What about sales figures?"

"Out of stock, but we've arranged for expedited production. It should be ready in three days!"

out of stock.

Such familiar words.

Lu Jiang frequently encounters this situation when he is publishing his albums in Asia.

I've actually encountered this in North America too?
However, considering that the first batch was only 20,000 tickets, Zhou Jianhui became more rational.

Perhaps the current popularity is just a coincidence?
He decided to wait another week.

A week later, "You" had already appeared on the playlists of 77 radio stations in North America, mostly ranking in the top five.

Sales also surged to 6 copies.

If it weren't for limited production capacity, it would probably be even better.

Warner headquarters has also prepared more resources, but whether they can continue to invest depends on whether "You" can remain on Billboard.

Whether or not it gets on the bulletin board makes a world of difference; the implications are completely different.

So today is the day the answer will be revealed.

Upon closer inspection, I didn't see "you" after the 80th position at first glance.

He was somewhat discouraged, but also somewhat unconvinced, so he looked online.

Then, the very next second, I saw "you" at position 58!
"58!"

Zhou Jianhui jumped up excitedly.

What does it mean that the number jumped from 99 to 58?
According to the ranking rules of the bulletin board, sales and views are calculated together.

However, due to production capacity issues, the current sales volume is only 6, far less than the number 80 single on the Billboard charts.

But it actually managed to reach 58!

This shows that the number of views and popularity of "you" far exceeded expectations!

"Congratulations!" Mike clapped and congratulated him.

Zhou Jianhui had no time to celebrate. He immediately said, "Mike, I need more resources!"

Now that you're already on the list, why not push harder and get an even higher ranking?
Mike, of course, would not refuse.

Making the list equals making money; who would turn down money?

As a result, the resources available to "you" saw a qualitative leap the following week.

In the fourth week of Billboard Hot 100, "You" jumped to number 39!
It's important to know that number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 is a watershed moment.

Those ranked 40th and below can only be described as good.

Those with 40 or more can already be described as "hot"!
So even Mike started to get restless.

He knew that jumping from 99 to 39 in two weeks wasn't the song's limit, but rather the company's limit in terms of resources.

That's all the resources they've given to "you," and the singer himself didn't even come.

I thought it would be good enough if we could just stay on the list, but now we've jumped up again!
What does this mean? It means that the power of this song far exceeds everyone's imagination!
If we were to allocate the same resources as top-tier singers, or even just second-tier singers, this song might have already broken into the top 20 in the third week or even the second week!
Zhou Jianhui was even more radical at this time.

He felt that since he had already made it onto the list and jumped up every week, his performance was quite outstanding.

Why not expand our gains further!
After all, we're already here, right?
"You" is a song written by a Chinese person. Perhaps Lu Jiang can only write one song like this in his lifetime, and perhaps I, Zhou Jianhui, can only encounter it once in my life.

Since it's a one-time event, the only one.

So why not strive for even greater honors and leave no regrets?
What is an even greater honor?
That would naturally be aiming for the Grammys!
The first round of voting for this year's Grammy nominations closes on November 19th, which is still more than two weeks away.

If there are enough resources, it can be done!
"Mike, I need resources, the more the better, including public relations for the Grammys!"

Zhou Jianhui's eyes turned completely red.
(End of this chapter)